When my best friend Mia set me up on a blind date, I didn’t know what to expect.
To my surprise, Eric arrived with roses and a small gift—a keychain with my initial. He was charming, attentive, easy to talk to. When the bill came, I offered to split it, but he insisted on paying.
I went home smiling, thinking it had gone really well.
The next morning, I woke up to a message from him. I expected something sweet.
Instead, it was an “invoice.”
He’d listed the bouquet, the gift, even opening the car door as “services,” plus joke charges for compliments and a guaranteed second date. It was probably meant to be funny, but some of it felt… a little too real.
I sent it to Mia. She was stunned.
Her boyfriend, Chris—who knew Eric—decided to play along and sent one back, charging him for “introducing you to someone great” and “assuming kindness had conditions.”
Suddenly Eric wasn’t joking anymore.
I just replied with a thumbs-up and let the whole thing fade.
Later, Mia called, half apologizing, half laughing. She said it would be a story we’d tell forever.
I kept the keychain—not as a romantic memory, but as a souvenir from one of the strangest dates of my life.
I guess I learned something: generosity shouldn’t come with a receipt.
