The roses. The perfect dinner. The way Eric insisted on paying with a smile – it all felt like the beginning of something real. That fantasy shattered the next morning when my phone buzzed with an unexpected document: a line-by-line accounting of our date’s expenses, complete with implied expectations for repayment. Suddenly, his generosity felt less like kindness and more like an investment.
My friend’s boyfriend turned the tables brilliantly, sending Eric an invoice for my time and attention. The heated response proved this wasn’t about traditional values, but transactional thinking. I blocked his number but kept the keychain – not as a sweet memento, but as a reminder that some people don’t give gifts, they extend loans in disguise.
