“For my birthday, I booked dinner for nine of us at a vegan restaurant I’d been wanting to try. I wanted one night where I didn’t have to apologize for my food choices. The meal was great — until the bill came: $480.
Then someone joked, ‘Since you picked the vegan place, you’re paying, right?’ The others laughed. I didn’t. I said, ‘So next time we go to a steakhouse, you’re all covering it?’ Silence.
I paid for my $28 curry and left early, trying not to cry in the car. The next day, two of them texted saying I’d ‘overreacted.’ A few others haven’t spoken to me since.
It still hurts, but I guess my birthday showed me something I never expected — who was there to celebrate me, and who just came for the free meal.
