Name-Dropping the Ball

Story Sent in by Richard:

I took Anne out to a nice restaurant for dinner. I didn't say ahead of time that I was going to pay for the meal, but I had planned on it. Evidently, Anne had guessed that and ordered practically the most expensive things on the menu, including two pricey drinks and dessert.

The bill was astronomical, and Anne didn't offer to help me pay. That didn't stop me from saying, "I can take care of most of this. Do you want to help me out?"

She said, "Hmm? Oh. No."

I said, "I think it would be nice. The bill is $100. For just the two of us. That's kind of insane."

She asked, "Do you know who my mother is?"

Anne's last name was Fletcher so I replied, "Mrs. Fletcher?"

"Mrs. Delia M. Fletcher!"

I said, "Mrs. Delia M. Fletcher should've raised her daughter better."

Anne opened her mouth so wide at that, I'm surprised she didn't catch any bugs. She said, "Then I'm definitely not helping you, now."

Like she was going to, to begin with. I paid for the meal and bid her a hasty goodnight.

The next day, I found her mother's email address and I wrote Mrs. Fletcher a short, polite message, explaining the situation. I didn't expect anything, much less a response. I just thought she ought to know about her daughter's behavior.

To my surprise, Mrs. Fletcher wrote me back, apologizing profusely and mentioning that she'd speak to her daughter about the incident. I never heard from Anne again. To this day, I still have no idea why Anne invoked her mother's name on our date, nor why she was apparently so important as to have done so.