“What, it's not enough? Here, take another one. Just disappear from my sight.”
She was too furious to believe I had spent less than thirty dollars.
She threw the card statements in my face and shouted, “Cut the crap! Are you saying the bank statements are wrong? Just look at all the stuff you bought! I've never seen a man so fake, so shameless, such a damn freeloader!”
The long receipt floated to the floor. I didn’t even bother glancing at it.
But one of my overly curious coworkers picked it up and gasped after reading it, staring at me in disbelief.
“Gabriel, your spending habits are next-level—you’re like a walking money shredder!”
They all started passing the statement around, reading aloud the list of charges: luxury boutiques, high-end jewelry stores, five-star hotels...
In just three days, the entire five hundred thousand dollars limit had been spent across over a dozen purchases.
I snatched the statement back, gave it a quick look, and pointed to the only two charges that were mine—the two modest takeout meals.
“These two are the only ones I swiped the card for. The rest wasn't mine.”
Phoebe laughed in disbelief, like I’d just told the world’s best joke. Her eyes were full of scorn.
“Gabriel, I can’t believe this is who you really are. The card was in your hand. The signatures are yours. And now you’re telling me it wasn’t you? What, you think I spent that money?”
“I’m a CEO. I can drop five hundred thousand without blinking—I don’t need to scam a penny out of you!” she seethed.
That was exactly what I wanted to ask her.
So I asked it back.
She laughed angrily, then turned to our stunned coworkers and practically shouted, "I didn’t want to air our dirty laundry, but some people really don’t know how to be ashamed. Fine—let’s have everyone be the judge!”
“You all know that Gabriel and I were engaged through a family arrangement made by our grandparents. After he graduated, I honored that promise and threw him a grand engagement party. I even gave him a credit card to use freely, to show my love for him. At first, he refused to touch it, even made me beg him to spend my money. And the result...”
Phoebe shook the stack of receipts in her hand, her voice was as cold as ice.
“Everyone, take a good look—he maxed out five hundred thousand dollars in just three days, and it was all spent on luxury goods!”
“Even if I had mountains of gold, he’d burn through it all at this rate!”