Dating Disasters·
SHARED PLATE, BROKEN BOUNDARIES
When the girlfriend endlessly shares her meals, a friend with poor self-control consumes most of her food, prompting a tense confrontation over who pays.
Was he fair to call it out, or too harsh?
Be one of the first to vote.
Brian ate most of his girlfriend's dinner, then she had to stop for fast food on the way home because she was still hungry.
That was the moment the poster says the night went sideways. The couple had gone out to eat with friends, and the girlfriend did what she always does: she offered her food around the table. According to the poster, "it's just how she was raised, to always make sure everyone else at the table is taken care of before she eats anything."
The poster has tried to stop that habit before. Multiple times, he told her it was sweet but unnecessary. Everyone had ordered their own meals, he said, and nobody would judge her for not handing out bites of her dinner. But she kept doing it anyway, with foods that are especially awkward to share. Burgers. Pasta. Soup. Anything that turns into a fork-stabbing, bite-taking mess once other people start "helping themselves."
The poster was especially uneasy about one friend in the group, Brian. He described Brian as "a really great guy and a reliable friend, he just has a troublesome relationship with food." In practice, that meant Brian had little self-control around shared dishes. He reportedly ate most of the appetizers whenever the table ordered them, and he was often broke. The poster said he knew exactly what would happen if Brian was given an open invitation to the girlfriend's plate.
On the night in question, that's exactly what happened. The girlfriend again offered her meal to everyone, including Brian. The poster nudged her, but she shrugged it off. Brian dug in and ended up eating most of her food, along with his own plate.
By the ride home, the girlfriend was asking to stop for fast food because she hadn't gotten enough to eat. That was when the poster snapped back. He told her she should've just eaten the food she ordered instead of offering it to the table, and that she shouldn't have been surprised by Brian's behavior. He said, "she should've just eaten the food she ordered instead of offering it to the table," and added, "this is exactly why I warned her."
He still stopped and got her something to eat, but he also complained about footing the bill for Brian's meal. "I don't enjoy paying for Brian's meal, since he basically ate all of hers," he said.
Now the girlfriend is upset, and the poster says neither of them has apologized. "She hasn't called me an asshole," he wrote, "but she's making me feel like one."