information.
That information was painful.
But learning it before marriage may have been preferable to discovering the same dynamic after legal, financial, and family responsibilities became more deeply intertwined.
The evening therefore contained an unexpected irony.
Her boyfriend created the test because he wanted information about whether she was suitable for marriage.
She ended the night with information about whether his approach to marriage was suitable for her.
Both people learned something.
Just not what he expected.
The lesson was not that couples should never split Valentine’s Day dinners.
They absolutely can.
The lesson was that the split needs to be understood.
A $20 meal and a $380 dinner may also create very different financial expectations.
People have different incomes and different ideas about what counts as an affordable evening.
One person should not assume that another person will comfortably spend hundreds of dollars simply because the occasion is romantic.
