about couples splitting restaurant bills. Many couples divide expenses equally, alternate who pays, contribute according to income, or use shared accounts. None of those systems is automatically better than another. What matters is that both people understand the arrangement.
That understanding was missing here.
He had selected an expensive restaurant without asking whether she wanted to spend nearly $200 on dinner. He had framed the evening as a romantic surprise he had organized. Only after the food had been ordered and eaten did he reveal that she was expected to pay half.
She told him she was not comfortable doing that.
From her perspective, the issue was not that a woman should never pay for dinner or that a man must always cover Valentine’s Day. The problem was that one person had made a significant spending decision on behalf of the other without discussing it beforehand.
