Dinnertime!!

For years whenever we'd visit each other and go out to dinner Brothatime!! would pay - he had a riff about me slowly pulling out the same dusty $20 attached by rubber band to my pocket before he'd wave me off, "I got it." Now that I work for a living have more money than a normal person can wrap his or her head around, I like to be Mr. Big Man and grab the bill when it comes.

Coupla weeks ago he, Mrs. Brothatime!!, Paddy Mac and Sistatime! and I were all back in our hometown having dinner; when the bill came I reached over to pick up the bill, ready to do my "don't insult me, put your money away!" routine while refusing to disclose the total - but while doing so, Sistatime! got a look at the number.

"OH MY GOD!!!!" she starts blaring, "$50???!?!?!?" I smile smugly, ready to breathe in the fumes re: how expensive the meal was as well as how casually and without worry I picked up such a hefty bill.

"$50??!?" she keeps going, "that's IT?? $50, for dinner? for everybody? Ohmygod, that's so cheap! That's NOTHING!! Wow!! That's NOTHING!!"

Sigh. I can't win.