“He asked me to give you this.”
She handed me a folded piece of paper.
My hands started shaking before I even opened it.
The first sentence made my stomach drop.
He had brought an engagement ring.
He had planned to propose that night.
But there was something else.
The bill had been a test.
According to his note, he wanted to know what kind of wife I would be.
He deliberately asked me to split dinner because he wanted to see how I reacted when money entered the conversation.
My hesitation, he wrote, had given him his answer.
He said he wanted a partner who would immediately offer to share financial responsibility rather than expect him to provide simply because he was the man.
And because I had questioned splitting one Valentine’s dinner, he had decided not only against proposing but against continuing our relationship.
Seven years ended in a note handed to me by a stranger.
