23. He Broke Me
6 months after my boyfriend and I had broken up, he sent me an itemized bill for about $800 of the costs he incurred while we were on a trip together a year before we broke up. It was everything from a couple of hundred dollars for a flight to $16 for a bus ticket. He had put it on his credit card at the time of the trip and I must have asked him 100+ times how much I owed him – to which he answered “don’t worry about it.” Fast forward to a year later and he sent me the bill (coincidentally that is now his nickname). I was a student at the time with a huge amount of student loans and he was making a very healthy six-figure living. I never wanted to evade the cost of the trip – I have always paid my own way, and never wanted to take advantage of anyone. It was just getting tiring asking him how much I owed him when he refused to tell me.
What set me off was the timing of the bill. He knew my financial situation and decided to send it at that point anyway. I scrounged up the funds and sent him the money with the following note:
“I want only to remember the awesome parts of our relationship with the door open for all possibilities, but now I’m finding that sort of difficult. I understand that this is money I owe you, and I’m happy to repay it…but you had countless opportunities to solicit the funds (especially when I prompted you for the number so I could write you a check). The post-breakup timing of this itemized bill email seems petty and lacks class – especially for someone in your financial position. The check is in the mail.”
Oh, and by the way, the reason I broke up with him (among others) is that he cheated on me
