{"id":10926,"date":"2026-04-14T00:22:34","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T00:22:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/storyreadin.com\/?p=10926"},"modified":"2026-04-14T00:22:40","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T00:22:40","slug":"my-date-insisted-on-driving-me-i-wish-i-had-said-no-%f0%9f%98%b3-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/storyreadin.com\/?p=10926","title":{"rendered":"My Date Insisted on Driving Me\u2026 I Wish I Had Said No \ud83d\ude33"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/header>\n

My Date Insisted on Driving Me\u2026 I Wish I Had Said No \ud83d\ude33<\/h1>\n
\n

You know that moment when your brother swears he\u2019s found \u201cthe perfect guy\u201d for you? That\u2019s exactly how this dating disaster began.<\/p>\n

My brother Marcus had been hyping up Andy from his Saturday pickleball group for weeks.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s not like the others,\u201d Marcus said, smirking while refilling his protein shake in my kitchen. \u201cPolite, smart, good job, and still single\u2014for some reason.\u201d<\/p>\n

I rolled my eyes so hard it hurt. \u201cThat\u2019s what you said about Kevin, the vintage spoon collector.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAndy\u2019s different,\u201d Marcus insisted, his voice half-teasing, half-hopeful. Something in his tone finally wore me down.<\/p>\n

I was tired of being the single sister at every family dinner, so I gave in. \u201cFine. One date.\u201d<\/p>\n

Famous last words.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

The following Saturday, I stood in front of my mirror adjusting my dress for the fifth time. At exactly 7 p.m., the doorbell rang. There was Andy, tall and genuinely cute, holding a small bouquet of wildflowers wrapped in brown paper.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t know your favorites,\u201d he said with an earnest smile, \u201cbut these looked pretty.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re perfect. Thank you.\u201d I smiled back.<\/p>\n

He waited patiently while I put the flowers in water\u2014no phone-checking, no impatient sighs. Then he opened the car door for me like a true gentleman.<\/p>\n

Dinner was surprisingly great. He held doors, pulled out my chair, and actually listened when I talked about my graphic design job. \u201cI admire people who do what they love,\u201d he said. \u201cNot everyone has the guts.\u201d<\/p>\n

I started to relax. For once, maybe this guy was the real deal.<\/p>\n

When the check arrived, I reached for my phone to order an Uber. I have a strict rule: no rides home on first dates. It keeps things safe and avoids awkward front-door moments.<\/p>\n

But Andy laughed gently. \u201cNo way. A gentleman drives his date home and makes sure she gets inside safely.\u201d<\/p>\n

He looked so sincere, and that charming smile was back. Against my better judgment, I caved.<\/p>\n

He opened the car door again, drove me straight home without touching his phone once, and waited until I was safely inside. From my living room window, I waved. He waved back and drove off.<\/p>\n

I went to bed feeling something rare\u2014safe and maybe even a little lucky. I thought I might have finally met one of the good ones.<\/p>\n

The next morning at 7:13 a.m., my phone buzzed with a PayPal notification. At first I thought it was spam. Then I saw Andy\u2019s name.<\/p>\n

He had sent me a bill.<\/p>\n

Gas from restaurant to my place: $4.75 Car depreciation: $3.50 Parking: $20 Cleaning fee for \u201cpuddle splash marks\u201d: $9 Total: $37.25<\/p>\n

I stared at the screen, frozen. Then I burst out laughing so hard I nearly spilled my coffee.<\/p>\n

This man\u2014who had played the perfect gentleman just hours earlier\u2014had itemized the cost of basic decency and actually sent me an invoice.<\/p>\n

I sent him $50 with a note: \u201c$13 tip for opening my door. Cheers.\u201d Then I blocked his number.<\/p>\n

But I wasn\u2019t done. I immediately texted my brother the screenshots: \u201cTruly a mystery why he\u2019s still single.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marcus called me around noon, his voice full of shock and amusement. \u201cSarah, I\u2019m so sorry. I had no idea.\u201d<\/p>\n

He told me the rest: Andy had shown up at pickleball that morning bragging about our \u201crom-com\u201d date. When Marcus showed the group the invoice screenshots, everyone went silent. Then Andy muttered, \u201cChivalry doesn\u2019t pay for itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

The guys voted him out of the group on the spot.<\/p>\n

I spent the rest of the morning on my couch, laughing until my sides hurt every time I thought about it.<\/p>\n

Then last weekend, while scrolling TikTok, I choked on my coffee.<\/p>\n

There it was\u2014a video from another girl sharing screenshots of an almost identical \u201citemized date invoice\u201d from a guy named Andy. Gas, depreciation, parking, cleaning fee\u2014the whole ridiculous list. Slightly different amounts, but the same entitled vibe.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis guy thinks he\u2019s Uber with dinner service,\u201d she said in the video.<\/p>\n

The comments were savage: \u201cLadies, beware of Andy\u2019s Taxi & Misogyny Service.\u201d \u201cAt least he\u2019s transparent\u2026 about being cheap.\u201d<\/p>\n

It turned out this wasn\u2019t a one-off weird moment. It was Andy\u2019s actual dating strategy.<\/p>\n

I laughed even harder. Lesson learned: always trust your gut, never break your no-ride-home rule on a first date, and never let your brother set you up again without a full background check.<\/p>\n

Now every time someone says they know \u201cthe perfect guy,\u201d I just smile and remember Andy\u2019s invoice. At least I got a great story\u2014and $12.75 profit\u2014out of it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My Date Insisted on Driving Me\u2026 I Wish I Had Said No \ud83d\ude33 You know that moment when your brother swears he\u2019s found \u201cthe perfect guy\u201d for you? That\u2019s exactly … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10923,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-real-life-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/storyreadin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/storyreadin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/storyreadin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storyreadin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storyreadin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10926"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/storyreadin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10926\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10930,"href":"https:\/\/storyreadin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10926\/revisions\/10930"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storyreadin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/storyreadin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storyreadin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storyreadin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}