Dine and Dash or Nah?
Sir, Your Card Declined
So this past weekend was one of my best friends’ birthday. Since our travel plans were cancelled I decided to plan a surprise party for her here in my hometown. She’s always said how she’s never explored my city and the summer months is the best time to visit so I figured its the perfect setup. Plus things are a bit more open here than they are back home where we both live so at least we can have a drink on a rooftop at the bare minimum. Cause still Da Rona.
A few of our other friends flew in for the occasion and the surprise was a success! I booked rooms at a luxury hotel downtown so we can really enjoy ourselves for the whole weekend. It’s our first day at the hotel so we got up and went to breakfast as a group. I had some work to do so after breakfast so I went back to the hotel and left them at the restaurant. During their travels back to the hotel my friend, the birthday girl, met a guy in the hotel elevator and they exchanged numbers. Later that night he invites us out to have drinks but we were having our own turn up at the hotel so we declined his offer.
The following day he offered to take the group to dinner. Now, this was a girls trip and it was 5 of us total. He had been texting her all day and was clearly trying to impress her by inviting all of us out to dinner. He said he was bringing some guy friends along so it was going to be about 8 people total. He made reservations for the group at Gibson’s, a premium steakhouse, and we met him at the spot around 8 p.m.
Upon arrival at the restaurant, things got off to an interesting start. First, we had to wait for what seemed to be 40 days and 40 nights to be seated because we were waiting for his friends to show up. During the wait, we all engaged in a bit of small talk. The usual where are you from, what do you do, etc. I honestly still couldn’t tell you what this gentleman did for a living, but he made sure we were all aware that he was an entrepreneur of some sort, bi-coastal living between Chicago and Miami, all while having his shirt nicely tucked to show he’s prized LV belt buckle. Classic J.A.N. fashions.
Finally, the 6 of us were seated. However, none of his friends had yet to arrive 🙄. It’s been at least an hour and they've been “parking” the whole time. Nonetheless, drinks are flowing and conversation is being had. Mr. Bi-Coastal seems to be normal thus far. He told us he was a gambling man, so while discussing plans for what to do after dinner, he suggests we hit the casino. Now I nor my friends are gambling gals, but it’s a bday turnup, so why not!
His friends never showed up but Mr. Bi-Coastal is turning out to be somewhat entertaining now. As the dinner conversation continues we’ve all had about 2 drinks each, appetizers for the table, and steak or seafood entrees, so needless to say we were running up a check. Just before the bill comes out, Mr. Bi-Coastal excuses himself to have a smoke break. When he returned to the table the check was delivered.
He takes the check and doesn’t bat an eye, so cool he’s got it covered! Besides, he invited us here as a group so it’s only right he cover the check. He hands the waitress his card and I put on my mask thinking we’re about to leave as soon as she returns. However, minutes later the waitress returns with that dreadful I hate to be the bearer of bad news look and says “Sir your card declined”. Not wanting to embarrass him we all act like we didn’t hear him as he says he’s not sure why and talks to the waitress. Things begin to get awkward as he starts saying he’s calling an Uber so we can all go to the casino which is about an hour away, but yet the check still hasn’t been paid.
My friends and I are all sitting there trying to figure out what’s going on with all the back and forth and then he says he’ll be right back. Confused by what was happening all we can think is did this man just dine and dash on us and skrt skrt out in the Uber he was ordering?!?! 🚗💨 Lordt, say it ain’t so Jesus! We sat there for a minute and waited for him to return. In a slight panic the birthday girl decided to take matters into her own hands and pay the bill. At that exact moment, like a phoenix rising from the ashes here comes Mr. Bi-Coastal with cash. Lordt, the anxiety of this whole situation was just too much!
He pays the bill, then says the Uber is here. We tell him we want to go to the hotel first to freshen up because at this point none of us can risk the chance of going to the casino and hour away and having to play MacGyver to get out of there at midnight. Once we arrived at our hotel we hopped out of the Uber expeditiously and booked it back to our room as we said sorry to that man. The next day he continued to call the birthday girl trying to make more plans with us as if he didn’t just give us all a minor anxiety attack the night before.
Bless his heart, I guess to him that was just another day in the life of a J.A.N.
-Sincerely, Sis