Friendship Fallouts·
THE WAITING TABLE
An on-time host sits alone as friends fail to arrive, weighing courtesy against time spent waiting and whether leaving early is justified.
Was leaving after thirty minutes fair or rude?
Be one of the first to vote.
They had already been waiting half an hour when the friends finally asked, "Where are you?"
Earlier in the week, the poster had made dinner plans with a couple of friends for last weekend. Everyone agreed on a time and place, and the poster showed up right on time, expecting the others to arrive soon after.
Ten minutes passed. The poster sent a message in the group chat to check whether they were close.
One friend replied with the short, promising answer: "on the way."
So the poster waited.
Another 15 to 20 minutes went by, and still nobody had shown up. By then, the restaurant was busy, tables were filling up, and the poster was sitting there alone, taking up a spot without even having ordered. After about 30 minutes total, they decided they didn't want to keep holding a table hostage. Instead of staying and staring at the door, the poster ordered food to go and left.
That's when the messages started.
After the poster had already gone, the friends texted asking where they were. The poster replied that they had already eaten because they had been waiting around 30 minutes and didn't want to keep sitting there.
The response from one friend was immediate: they "should've waited a little longer since they were almost there," and it was "kind of rude to leave."
Now the poster is left wondering whether leaving after half an hour was actually out of line, or whether showing up on time and not staying indefinitely was fair game.
The timeline is simple: plans were made earlier in the week, the poster arrived when they were supposed to, one check-in got the answer "on the way," and then the wait stretched on until the poster gave up, ordered takeout, and walked out. The friends were still not there when the poster left.