But inside, I felt uncomfortable.

It wasn’t because her family was there. I liked meeting her family. I wanted to have a good relationship with them.

The problem was that this was supposed to be a date.

A simple dinner between me and my girlfriend had suddenly turned into a family gathering — and nobody had asked me.

Still, I decided not to ruin the evening.

We sat down, ordered food, and started talking. At first, things went well. Her parents asked me questions about my job and my plans for the future. Her brother joked around. Emma seemed happy.

But as the night continued, I started noticing something.

Nobody mentioned splitting the bill.

Not once.

I assumed maybe they were just waiting until the end. Maybe Emma would handle it. Maybe her family planned to contribute.

I didn’t want to assume the worst.

Then the waiter came with the check.

He placed it on the table.

I picked it up.

The total was $400.

I stared at the number for a few seconds.

Four hundred dollars.

That was a lot more than I expected for what I thought was going to be a simple dinner.

I looked around the table.

Everyone was still talking.

Nobody reacted.

Then Emma looked at me and smiled.

“You’ve got this, right?”

I thought she was joking.

I laughed a little.

“Wait… what?”