He Showed Up With Roses, Not Grocery Store Bunches

He Showed Up With Roses, Not Grocery Store Bunches

Dinner was perfect. He was charming, opening doors and pulling out my chair. When the check came, I reached for my wallet—big mistake. “Absolutely not,” he said, sliding his card down. “A man pays on the first date.” The next morning, I saw he’d sent a Venmo request for half the bill. At first, I thought it was a joke, but there was no emoji, no playful message. Just a cold request for $42.50.After texting my friend, she couldn’t stop laughing. “The same guy who said ‘A man pays on the first date’?” she wheezed. I responded, asking if it was a mistake. He insisted it wasn’t. He thought splitting was fair. I had to laugh. I messaged him back: “Don’t act like some old-school gentleman, then send a charge request. That’s weird. ”He left me on read. A week later, I noticed he had deleted the request and sent me $42.50 with a message: “You’re right. That was weird. My bad. ”And just like that, I felt better about humanity. Sometimes, calling people out leads to growth—and in this case, $42.50 back