{"id":57,"date":"2026-04-03T07:29:45","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T07:29:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/readstorynews.com\/?p=57"},"modified":"2026-04-03T07:29:45","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T07:29:45","slug":"was-it-romance-or-a-transaction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/readstorynews.com\/?p=57","title":{"rendered":"Was it romance\u2026 or a transaction?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

That was until the next morning when I saw that he\u2019d sent me a Venmo request.
\nFor $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?
\nThen 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, \u201cA man pays on the first date.\u201d The same man who refused to let me touch my wallet. The same man who made a whole speech about chivalry.
\nNow 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

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

Finally, I replied:
\n\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
\nEmbarrass 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.
\nSo instead, I declined the request.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cI agree. Relationships should be equal. Next time, let\u2019s just split the check at the table.\u201d
\nA 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
\nI 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?
\nI gave them to my neighbor.
\nShe said they were beautiful.<\/p>\n

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

That 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":59,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/readstorynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/readstorynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/readstorynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/readstorynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/readstorynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=57"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/readstorynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60,"href":"https:\/\/readstorynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57\/revisions\/60"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/readstorynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/59"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/readstorynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=57"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/readstorynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=57"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/readstorynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=57"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}