MY DATE STOLE HER DINNER!

When you’ve been single as long as I have, you wind up spending a lot of money on women that you go out with once and then never see again.
Recently I decided I was tired of spending so much money on women who would pass in and out of my life so quickly. I met a new girl at a bar last week, and instead of inviting her out for dinner, I decided I would invite her out for drinks – thus, saving myself the cost of a meal.
I ate dinner at home before our date, and I made sure I mentioned that fact to my date beforehand. My date (we’ll call her Kelly) was busy moving that day, and, as it turned out, had not had time to eat dinner.
We had arranged to meet at a local restaurant/bar. Kelly invited several of her friends to join us. Kelly was hungry, so she ordered herself a dinner. Everybody else at the table had already eaten, so the rest of us just had drinks. (Kelly did offer us all the opportunity to nibble off her plate, but we mostly passed.)
After she finished her dinner, Kelly decided it would be fun to head over to another part of the bar where there was a woman doing tarot card readings. Just like that, everybody at the table got up and went over to the other side of the club. Kelly still had not paid for her dinner.
One by one, every member of the group had their fortune told by the tarot card lady. Everyone, that is, except for me, since I don’t believe in any of that mystical mumbo jumbo.
An hour or so later, it was time to go. It was a weeknight, and most of the group had to be up early for work the next day. As we walked out the door, I was stunned that Kelly had made no effort to pay for her dinner.
I asked Kelly, “Don’t we need to take care of our tab?” (And by that I meant, “Don’t YOU need to take care of YOUR tab?” Kelly thought about it for half a second and replied, “I think my other friend already took care of it.”
As we headed out the exit, I looked for our waitress, but at that moment, she was nowhere in sight. I knew that Kelly’s friend had not paid the tab, and I think deep down inside, Kelly probably knew it, too.
But with our waitress nowhere to be found, there was no way to confirm it at that exact moment. And so we all left the restaurant.
All I could think about was how that waitress was probably going to have to pay for Kelly’s dinner. Most restaurants make the server pay the tab for any customers who walk out.
I saw no reason why I should have to pay for Kelly’s dinner. After all, I had invited her out for drinks, not dinner. Hell, she had a good job and she could afford to buy her own meal.
But Kelly did not seem too worried about paying her tab. She drove off without giving it a second thought. I never saw Kelly again after that night. She probably thought I was a cheap-ass for not buying her dinner, but I didn’t care. I just wanted there to be one night where I didn’t have to buy a dinner for some girl I was never going to see again.
In the end, nobody wound up paying for Kelly’s dinner, except maybe the waitress.
I bet the tarot card lady never saw that one coming!