The most embarrassing thing happened at a group dinner last night.
By @daniagain · Social
A friend's new date held up our table for ten minutes itemizing extra chili oil charges on a shared birthday dinner bill. Two people tried to just pay the tab to end the awkwardness, but she insisted everyone pay their exact pennies.
The full story
The most embarrassing thing happened at a group dinner last night and I literally still haven't recovered. We had like ten people out at this ramen place near campus for our friend's birthday. My buddy brought this girl he started talking to like two weeks ago, so nobody really knows her yet. When the check comes, the server drops one itemized receipt on the table and says they can split across cards, but only up to four cards total. Immediately, this girl grabs the receipt, pulls out her phone calculator, and starts doing full forensic accounting. She spends ten straight minutes interrogating everyone across the table about who ordered extra chili oil and who took a bite of the shared gyoza. Mind you, each bowl was basically fifteen bucks anyway. She makes a massive scene telling the group that since she only drank tap water and had an appetizer, her exact pre-tax portion is $11.40. Everyone is just sitting there in mortified silence while the waiter is standing three feet away holding the card machine. My buddy looked like he wanted to crawl underneath the floorboards. To kill the awkwardness, two of us just threw our credit cards down to pay the entire remaining balance and told everyone to just Venmo whatever later, but she refused to even let that slide. She literally stopped my friend mid-swipe to insist she cash-app him the exact cents so she wasn't 'subsidizing' someone's pork belly. Now our main group chat is split in half. Half the guys think she was wildly rude and socially tone-deaf for turning a casual birthday into an audit, while her and my buddy claim it’s toxic to expect college students on a budget to pay a single penny over what they consumed. I get being broke, but the secondhand embarrassment took years off my life.
How people voted
- Totally Cooked — 37% (10 votes)
- It’s Complicated — 41% (11 votes)
- You’re Fine — 22% (6 votes)
Readers are split: “It’s Complicated” leads with 41% — 27 votes and 5 comments so far.
What people are saying
@cantmakethisup — She is projecting severe financial anxiety onto total strangers and it completely derailed the dynamic.
@maraliterally — If you cannot afford to split a bowl of noodles fairly with your friends, you eat a sandwich at home before you go out.
@owenagain — love that she saved forty cents and lost every social invitation forever
@avahm — Oh honey, you and your friend did the right thing by trying to cover it, don't let it ruin your weekend!
@gabefr — Next time you guys order takeout to his place, make sure you bill her three cents for using a paper napkin.
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