I still remember the moment I almost said no.<\/p>\n
My brother had been talking about him for weeks\u2014this \u201cperfect guy\u201d from his pickleball group. Andy, he called him. Polite. Charming. Stable job. The kind of man who apparently still opened doors and said \u201cplease\u201d like it was a personality trait.<\/p>\n
I wasn\u2019t convinced.<\/p>\n
Every time Marcus brought him up, I had the same response:<\/p>\n
\u201cLet me guess\u2026 he\u2019s also \u2018different\u2019 from the last disaster you set me up with?\u201d<\/p>\n
But Marcus just smiled. \u201cThis one is actually different.\u201d<\/p>\n
That should\u2019ve been my first warning.<\/p>\n
Still, I agreed to one date. One. Just to prove Marcus wrong.<\/p>\n
And I hate to admit it\u2026 the first part of the evening almost made me regret my skepticism.<\/p>\n
Andy showed up with flowers. Not roses\u2014wildflowers wrapped in brown paper. He said he didn\u2019t know what I liked, so he chose something \u201chonest.\u201d<\/p>\n
I laughed. That was\u2026 unexpectedly thoughtful.<\/p>\n
Dinner was even better. He listened. He asked questions. He didn\u2019t interrupt. He didn\u2019t talk about himself every five seconds like most men I\u2019d met.<\/p>\n
For a brief moment, I thought: Okay. Maybe Marcus was right.<\/em><\/p>\n Then came the ride home.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll drive you,\u201d he said immediately when the check arrived.<\/p>\n \u201cI usually take an Uber,\u201d I told him.<\/p>\n He tilted his head like I\u2019d just spoken a foreign language. \u201cA gentleman drives you home.\u201d<\/p>\n Something in my stomach tightened.<\/p>\n I should have listened to it.<\/p>\n But I didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n Against my better judgment, I agreed.<\/p>\n The ride was quiet. Too quiet. He drove carefully, almost performatively so. Like he was being watched.<\/p>\n When we reached my place, he didn\u2019t leave.<\/p>\n He waited.<\/p>\n Watched me walk inside.<\/p>\n Even waved when I turned on the porch light.<\/p>\n And I remember thinking, Maybe I was wrong about him.<\/em><\/p>\n I went to bed that night feeling something I hadn\u2019t felt in a long time.<\/p>\n Safe.<\/p>\n Or at least, I thought I was.<\/p>\n The next morning, my phone buzzed at 7:13 a.m.<\/p>\n A notification.<\/p>\n PayPal request.<\/p>\n From Andy.<\/p>\n At first, I laughed. I thought it was a joke.<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t.<\/p>\n I opened it.<\/p>\n And there it was.<\/p>\n Gas: $4.75<\/strong> Total: $37.25<\/strong><\/p>\n I just stared at it.<\/p>\n Once.<\/p>\n Twice.<\/p>\n Then I actually said out loud: This wasn\u2019t a scam. It was intentional. Carefully calculated.<\/p>\n A man who had opened doors for me, held chairs, bought flowers\u2026 had just invoiced me for the privilege of existing in his passenger seat.<\/p>\n I didn\u2019t cry.<\/p>\n I laughed.<\/p>\n Because sometimes the universe doesn\u2019t send red flags\u2014it sends full-blown billboards.<\/p>\n So I did what any rational person would do.<\/p>\n I sent him $50.<\/p>\n With a note: Then I blocked him.<\/p>\n I thought that was the end of it.<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t.<\/p>\n Marcus called me an hour later.<\/p>\n \u201cPlease tell me you didn\u2019t go out with him.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOh, I did,\u201d I said. \u201cAnd you\u2019ll never guess what your \u2018perfect guy\u2019 sent me.\u201d<\/p>\n Silence.<\/p>\n Then laughter. Confused, disbelieving laughter.<\/p>\n By the end of the day, screenshots were circulating through his pickleball group.<\/p>\n By the end of the week, I found out I wasn\u2019t the first.<\/p>\n There were others.<\/p>\n Different women. Same invoice.<\/p>\n Same pattern.<\/p>\n Same audacity.<\/p>\n And that\u2019s when I realized the real lesson wasn\u2019t about dating.<\/p>\n It was about people who perform kindness like it\u2019s a contract\u2014then try to invoice you when you don\u2019t read the fine print.<\/p>\n I still date.<\/p>\n I still get set up.<\/p>\n I still listen politely when someone says, \u201cTrust me, he\u2019s different.\u201d<\/p>\n But now I have one rule I never break:<\/p>\n If someone has to charge you for being decent<\/em>\u2026 they were never decent to begin with.<\/p>\n And I always take my own ride home.<\/p>\n No exceptions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I still remember the moment I almost said no. My brother had been talking about him for weeks\u2014this \u201cperfect guy\u201d from his pickleball group. Andy, he called him. Polite. Charming. Stable job. The kind of man who apparently still opened doors and said \u201cplease\u201d like it was a personality trait. I wasn\u2019t convinced. Every time …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10137,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildwondertube.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildwondertube.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildwondertube.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildwondertube.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildwondertube.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10136"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wildwondertube.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10136\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10144,"href":"https:\/\/wildwondertube.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10136\/revisions\/10144"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildwondertube.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildwondertube.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildwondertube.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildwondertube.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Car wear and depreciation: $3.50<\/strong>
Parking: $20<\/strong>
\u201cCleaning fee (seat use)\u201d : $9<\/strong><\/p>\n
\u201cWhat the hell?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTip included. For emotional damage.\u201d<\/p>\n