2: 2
Tonight's dinner had shown me a whole other side of Lambert.
I pushed down my anger and asked him on purpose,
"So how do you want me to prove it?"
When I didn't blow up right away, Lambert took it as acceptance of his theory.
He visibly relaxed, even looked a little pleased.
"It's actually easy to work out."
He pulled out his phone and opened the calculator.
"I get twenty-one hundred, and I put in seven-fifty a month."
"You get nine thousand, more than four times what I make."
He punched in a quick string of numbers and turned the result toward me.
"Proportionally, you should be putting in three thousand two hundred fourteen a month."
"But we're a couple, so I won't count it that closely with you."
Lambert waved a generous hand.
"Forget the change."
"From now on you put three thousand two hundred in the account, I keep putting in seven-fifty, and that's fair."
I almost laughed from sheer anger.
So he was letting fourteen dollars slide, and I was supposed to thank him for going easy on me.
A few girls at the next table were already laughing openly.
"You can hear that abacus clicking all the way to Charleston."
"First time I've seen someone this particular about being a kept man."
"Splitting it by allowance ratio. Why not split the portion sizes too?"
Lambert glared at them, humiliated and furious.
"Aren't you girls always shouting about equal rights?"
"Now that it's your turn to spend more, suddenly it's a double standard?"
As he spoke, he slammed the tongs down on the edge of the grill.
Grease spattered onto my sleeve.
I pulled out a napkin and slowly wiped it clean.
When I stayed quiet, Lambert thought he'd won me over.
"Ada, I know you've never had it hard, so money doesn't mean much to you."
"But I'm willing to teach you."
"On this Charleston trip, a regular guesthouse would be too rough, so let's swap the hotel for a room with a river view."
"You got a thirty-six-hundred holiday gift, so the price difference on the hotel comes out of that."
"Once we're married, I'll handle the earning and you'll handle managing the money at home."
"Getting you to take it on early is for your own good too."
I raised my head and looked at him calmly.
"Lambert, do you think that because I'm not talking, I'm agreeing?"
He blinked.
"You're not?"
"Of course not."
I picked up my bag and stood.
"Take the trip by yourself."
"The money in the joint account, I'll check it carefully and send your share back the way it came."
"As for the two of us, this is where it ends."
Lambert's face went dark in an instant.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"We're done."
Like it had never crossed his mind that I'd break up over this, he shot up from his seat.
"Fine, we're done!"
"But two people ate this barbecue tonight, so you're paying the bill."
The girls at the next table rolled their eyes.
Lambert couldn't keep his face steady, so he lowered his voice.
"Ada, do you really have to make this so ugly?"
"You know I've got almost nothing left this month from all the saving I've been doing."
I glanced at the bill on the table.
Three hundred sixty in total.
I opened my payment code and paid only the ninety-two for what I'd eaten.
"The beef and drink I ordered, ninety-two."
"The rest is your couple's combo, the seafood platter, and the beer."
"Whoever ate it pays for it. Isn't that fairness, your favorite thing?"
With that, I walked out of the barbecue place without looking back.
Once I was outside, I opened the joint account right away.
There was seven thousand five hundred in it.
We'd been paying in for five straight months, three thousand seven hundred fifty each.
I transferred Lambert's share back to him and wrote clearly in the note,
【Harvest festival trip fund, settled.】
Lambert didn't accept it.
He sent a message,
【Couples fight, it's normal. Don't try to scare me with a breakup.】
I put my phone straight on silent.
