{"id":12860,"date":"2026-04-09T18:10:19","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T18:10:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/readinstory.com\/?p=12860"},"modified":"2026-04-09T18:10:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T18:10:19","slug":"one-unforgettable-night-started-as-the-perfect-date-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/readinstory.com\/?p=12860","title":{"rendered":"The night started perfect\u2014but ended as a story for the ages."},"content":{"rendered":"
\u00a0That was until the next morning when I saw that he\u2019d sent me a <\/span>Venmo request<\/strong>.<\/span><\/div>\n
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For $86.42.<\/p>\n

I stared at my phone, waiting for the punchline. Maybe it was a joke? Maybe he\u2019d sent it to the wrong person?<\/p>\n

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Then another message came through.<\/p>\n

\u201cHad a great time last night. I believe in fairness. I covered dinner, so you can just reimburse your half. Looking forward to date #2.\u201d<\/p>\n

My stomach dropped.<\/p>\n

This was the same man who dramatically slid his card across the table and said,\u00a0\u201cA man pays on the first date.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0The same man who refused to let me touch my wallet. The same man who made a whole speech about chivalry.<\/p>\n

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Now he wanted itemized reimbursement.<\/p>\n

I opened the request details. He had split everything exactly down the middle \u2014 appetizer, entrees, tax, tip. Even the dessert he insisted we share.<\/p>\n

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I typed, deleted, retyped.<\/p>\n

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Finally, I replied:
\u201cI offered to pay my half last night. You said no.\u201d<\/p>\n

Three dots appeared.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, I didn\u2019t want to embarrass you in public. But relationships should be equal.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Embarrass me?<\/p>\n

I felt the roses on my kitchen counter suddenly look ridiculous. Like props from a performance.<\/p>\n

I thought about sending the money just to avoid the awkwardness. But something about the whole thing felt\u2026 transactional. Like the flowers, the door-opening, the chair-pulling \u2014 all of it was part of some script.<\/p>\n

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So instead, I declined the request.<\/p>\n

And I sent one last message.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI agree. Relationships should be equal. Next time, let\u2019s just split the check at the table.\u201d<\/p>\n

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A minute later, he unsent the Venmo request.<\/p>\n

Then came a final text.<\/p>\n

\u201cWow. Didn\u2019t realize you were this kind of woman.\u201d<\/p>\n

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I smiled at my screen.<\/p>\n

And just like that, the best first date ever officially became the funniest first date story I\u2019ve ever had.<\/p>\n

The roses?
I gave them to my neighbor.<\/p>\n

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She said they were beautiful.<\/p>\n

I said, \u201cThey were.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0That was until the next morning when I saw that he\u2019d sent me a Venmo request. For $86.42. I stared at my phone, waiting for the punchline. Maybe it was … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12858,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,22,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-family","category-inspiration","category-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/readinstory.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/readinstory.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/readinstory.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/readinstory.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/readinstory.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12860"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/readinstory.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12860\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12861,"href":"https:\/\/readinstory.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12860\/revisions\/12861"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/readinstory.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/readinstory.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/readinstory.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/readinstory.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}