And apparently one answer was enough to determine the future of our entire relationship.
That realization changed the way I viewed what happened.
For a long time, I thought I had lost a proposal because I responded incorrectly to a restaurant bill.
Eventually, I understood that the real problem had nothing to do with dinner.
It was communication.
Long-term relationships inevitably involve money.
There are mortgages, rent payments, groceries, childcare, medical bills, vacations, emergencies and countless decisions about who pays for what.
Couples do not need to agree automatically on every financial issue.
But they do need to be able to discuss those issues honestly.
Hidden tests accomplish the opposite.
One person knows the rules.
The other does not even know a game is being played.
That night, my boyfriend believed he was learning something important about me.
But without realizing it, he showed me something important about himself too.
