When my best friend Mia set me up with her boyfriend\u2019s friend Eric, she promised he was a total gentleman. On our first date, he proved her right\u2014roses, a thoughtful engraved keychain, charming conversation, and unwavering attentiveness. Dinner was perfect, and when the bill came, he insisted on paying with a firm, almost old-fashioned finality. I went home thinking I\u2019d just had one of the best dates of my life.<\/p>\n
The next morning, I woke up to a message from Eric\u2014not a sweet follow-up, but a professionally formatted invoice titled Date Night Invoice \u2013 Amount Due: 1 Outstanding Balance. It listed \u201ccharges\u201d for his gentlemanly acts: a hug for the flowers, a coffee date for the gift, holding hands for pulling out my chair, and, for covering dinner, a guaranteed second date. At the bottom, in bold, it read: Payment expected in full. No refunds. Failure to comply may result in Chris hearing about it. My jaw hit the floor.<\/p>\n
I sent it to Mia, who immediately showed her boyfriend Chris. Outraged and amused, Chris made a parody invoice in return\u2014charging Eric for \u201cintroducing you to a gorgeous woman\u201d (payment: a permanent block) and \u201cnot exposing you to the internet\u201d (payment: eternal gratitude). We sent it to Eric, who responded with a flurry of indignant messages about how he was just \u201csetting realistic expectations.\u201d I replied with a single thumbs-up and blocked him.<\/p>\n
Later, Mia apologized, but I couldn\u2019t stop laughing. We\u2019d all gotten a story we\u2019d tell for years\u2014and a personal dating rule I\u2019d never forget: if a man insists on paying the bill, make sure it\u2019s not because he plans to send you an invoice. As for the keychain? I kept it. Not as a token of romance, but as the funniest souvenir from the weirdest date I\u2019ve ever had.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When my best friend Mia set me up with her boyfriend\u2019s friend Eric, she promised he was a total gentleman. On our first date, he proved her… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44117,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n