My Date Paid for Dinner — But What Happened After Left Me Speechless
It all started when my best friend Mia decided she had to set me up with her boyfriend’s friend, Eric. I resisted for weeks — blind dates just weren’t my thing. But Mia was relentless, so to quiet her down, I finally agreed.
She promised Eric was a gentleman — polite, romantic, and a total sweetheart. To my surprise, she wasn’t exaggerating.
He arrived early, dressed neatly, carrying a bouquet of roses. He opened doors, pulled out my chair, and even gifted me a small engraved keychain “as a keepsake.” Throughout dinner, he was charming and attentive, asking thoughtful questions and making me laugh.
By the end of the night, I thought maybe — just maybe — Mia had been right.
But that feeling didn’t last long.
The Invoice
The next morning, I woke up to an email from Eric. At first, I thought it was a sweet follow-up message. Instead, it was an invoice.
Yes — an actual, itemized bill for our date.
He’d listed the cost of dinner, assigning “values” to everything he’d given me. There was a request for a “hug” in exchange for the flowers, a demand for another date as repayment for the keychain, and even a section titled “emotional labor,” complete with a note suggesting I owed him more affection.
It ended with a line that made my stomach turn:
“Failure to comply may result in Chris hearing about it.”
Chris, of course, was Mia’s boyfriend — the friend who’d introduced us.
The Perfect Response
Shocked and disgusted, I immediately forwarded the email to Mia. She was horrified and told me to block him right away.
But she didn’t stop there.
Mia showed the message to Chris, who decided Eric needed a taste of his own medicine. A few hours later, he sent Eric an invoice of his own — a fake one — from a “company” called Karma & Co.
It listed “services rendered” like:
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Public humiliation — $0.00 (free bonus)
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Emotional disturbance — billed by the hour
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“Forcing a woman to sit across from someone wildly out of her league” — priceless
Mia and I couldn’t stop laughing.
The Aftermath
Eric, apparently, didn’t share our sense of humor. He fired off a series of angry texts, claiming we’d misunderstood his “symbolic gesture” and that he was “just joking.”
I didn’t bother replying — just sent him a single 👍 emoji and blocked his number.
That was the last I ever heard from him.
The Lesson
Now, whenever someone asks about my worst date, I tell this story. It’s funny in hindsight, but also revealing.
Because no matter how charming someone seems at first, true kindness doesn’t come with strings attached — and self-respect is never something you owe anyone back.