When Mia insisted on setting up her best friend on a blind date with her boyfriend’s friend, the narrator reluctantly agreed just to stop her constant persuasion. Though skeptical about blind dates, she was told Eric was courteous, romantic, and thoughtful. Surprisingly, he lived up to that reputation — arriving early, bringing roses, opening doors, and even gifting a small engraved keychain. Over dinner, he seemed genuinely kind and attentive, leaving her cautiously optimistic that maybe good men still existed.

That optimism vanished the next morning when she found an email from Eric — an itemized invoice for their date. The message listed the dinner cost, a request for a hug in exchange for the flowers, repayment through another date for the keychain, and a demand for more affection as “emotional labor.” The note ended with a thinly veiled threat: “Failure to comply may result in Chris hearing about it.”

Disturbed, she immediately sent the email to Mia, who was horrified and told her to block him immediately. But Mia didn’t stop there — she told her boyfriend Chris, who decided to respond in the best way possible: by sending Eric a mock invoice from “Karma & Co.” This fake bill included humorous but pointed “charges” such as public embarrassment, emotional disturbance, and the crime of “forcing a woman to sit across from someone wildly out of her league.”

Eric didn’t take it well. He sent a flurry of texts accusing them of lacking humor and misunderstanding his “symbolic” gesture. The narrator calmly responded with a single thumbs-up emoji and blocked him everywhere.

The story quickly became her go-to example of a disastrous date — both absurd and revealing.

In the end, she reflects that true kindness never comes with conditions, and self-respect is never something to refund.