When my brother set me up with Andy, I didn\u2019t expect sparks\u2014but I didn\u2019t expect an invoice either. He showed up with flowers, opened the car door, and played the part of a gentleman so well I almost believed it. Over dinner, he was attentive, funny, even charming. I broke my usual rule and let him drive me home. It felt like a promising first date\u2026 until the next morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At 7 a.m., my phone lit up with a PayPal request: $37.25 for our \u201cevening out.\u201d He\u2019d itemized gas, parking, and\u2014my personal favorite\u2014\u201cpuddle splash marks\u201d on his car. I actually laughed. This man had charged me for the cost of pretending to be decent. So I sent him $50 with a note: \u201c$13 tip for opening the door. Cheers.\u201d Then I blocked him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I told my brother, he was horrified\u2014and furious. Especially after Andy tried spinning the date into a flex at his pickleball group. Turns out, this wasn\u2019t a one-time stunt. A week later, I came across a TikTok from another woman who\u2019d gotten the same absurd invoice. Watching the comments drag him was the closure I didn\u2019t know I needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sure, I\u2019m still single\u2014but I\u2019m also smarter. I\u2019ll happily pay for my own dinner, but I won\u2019t reward a man who expects reimbursement for manners. From now on, I take my own ride, trust my gut, and keep the tips for waiters\u2014not wannabe gentlemen with Venmo apps.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When my brother set me up with Andy, I didn\u2019t expect sparks\u2014but I didn\u2019t expect an invoice either. He showed up with flowers, opened the car door,… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6925,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"views":610,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6924"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6924\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6926,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6924\/revisions\/6926"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}