Deciding who’s going to pick up the check can mar an otherwise nice night with the stain of awkwardness. In our current era, in the world of dating, there is no standard rule for who pays. One one hand, that’s a good thing. People can go into dates without expectations, and avoid the potential power imbalance of one person paying if they so choose. Hard and fast rules also often exclude people who fall outside the margins, and generally make the world a less inviting place to be. 

On the other hand, this lack of rules leaves room for ambiguity, and where there’s ambiguity, there can be hurt feelings. Like in the case of this recent Reddit story which saw a friendship and a relationship irreparably harmed by one woman’s commitment to her idea of normal. It goes to show that you gotta go with the flow. Read on to see just how it unfolded.