My Sister-in-Law Ordered A $380 Lobster Dinner On My Birthday — Then Slid The Bill To Me.

Part 2

I told the waiter we needed separate checks.

I asked for one check for me and my husband, and another for everyone else.

Brenda’s practiced smile instantly vanished from her face.

She asked me what I was talking about.

I told her I wasn’t joking.

The waiter looked extremely uncomfortable, but he nodded slowly and walked away toward the register.

Brenda whipped her head toward my husband, her eyes flashing with sudden panic.

She asked him if he was really going to let me do this on my birthday.

Craig took a deep breath and reminded her of the group text he sent earlier in the week.

He reminded her that he had told everyone before dinner to handle their own tabs.

She scoffed loudly and claimed she didn’t think he was serious.

Craig stared right back at her and said he was absolutely serious.

She looked at me and stated bluntly that she didn’t have three hundred and eighty dollars.

She said it like it was somehow my responsibility to anticipate her budget.

She acted like ordering nearly four hundred dollars worth of food without the ability to pay was just a quirky personality trait.

My mother-in-law Patricia finally stepped into the fray.

She quietly told Brenda to just pay for what she had ordered.

Brenda crossed her arms and whined that she couldn’t afford that right now.

She claimed she thought someone else was covering the entire dinner.

Patricia reminded her that her brother only offered to cover himself and me.

She pointed out that nobody forced Brenda to order a two-hundred-and-ten-dollar bottle of wine.

Brenda’s face went bright red as the reality of the situation set in.

She looked frantically around the table, desperately searching for someone to rescue her.

Tyler suddenly found the intricate pattern on his napkin to be incredibly fascinating.

Heather just kept her eyes glued to her empty plate.

Then my father-in-law Dan sighed heavily and pulled out his leather wallet.

He pulled out a silver credit card and offered to cover it this time.

I slammed my hand down on the table and loudly said no.

Every single person at the table jumped and looked at me.

I pointed out that someone covers for her every single time we go out to eat.

I told them that was exactly why she kept getting away with it.

I reminded them that she ordered nearly four hundred dollars of food she couldn’t pay for at my birthday dinner without even wishing me a happy birthday.

Dan slowly lowered his hand and slid his card back into his wallet.

Brenda stood up abruptly, her chair scraping loudly against the tile floor.

She told me this was humiliating.

I looked her dead in the eyes and told her she had humiliated herself.

I reminded her that nobody forced her to order lobster when she was broke.

She grabbed her new designer bag and stormed toward the front doors.

I watched through the massive front window as she stood outside on the sidewalk, furiously tapping on her phone for ten minutes.

Then she walked back inside, pulled out a credit card she apparently had on her the entire time, and paid her own bill.

She left without saying another word to any of us.

Dinner was incredibly quiet after she disappeared into the night.

Patricia reached under the table and gently squeezed my hand.

She whispered that someone should have done that a long time ago.

She told me Brenda had the money the entire time, but she just never planned on using it.

Would you have let her father pay to keep the peace, or did she finally deserve to face the consequences of her own expensive tastes?