My birthday was yesterday, and my husband invited his best friend, Matt, and his best friend’s pregnant girlfriend, Jane, to a barbecue. They live two homes down from us. It was just us, our three children, and them (with their three children).
I spent around $90 on hamburgers and hotdogs. Matt also arrived with two pounds of meat for hamburgers. While the males were cooking, I went swimming with all of the kids in our pond. Jane was on her phone as she sat beside the boys.
Around 5:30 the guys called the kids over for food. My middle child (9) and I weren’t hungry yet, so we kept swimming. We spent a good 40+ extra minutes in the water on our tubes. I wasn’t paying any attention to anything that was going on near the grill.
Around 6:15, my husband said that he was going to make a store run, so I told my son that we should probably go eat now. My husband and Matt were gone by the time we got up to the grill, and so was Jane. Well, when we got up to the grill, the food was gone — all of it.
I contacted my husband and asked where all of the food was, and he replied it should be on the grill. I told him everything was gone. There was a long silence before he replied, “Jane asked if she could take some for leftovers, but I didn’t think she would take all of it.” He then informed me that there were at least 8 burgers and 10 hotdogs left, as well as macaroni salad, when he went for the store 10 minutes ago.
I told him to call Matt and see where all the food was. He did. He then called me back and said that Matt claimed Jane only took “a few” and that they had already been eaten. But my oldest son (13) straight up told me that he saw Jane walk off our property carrying the entire dish (one of those extra large tin foil BBQ dishes).
Anyway, I was upset at this point. Neither I nor my son had consumed anything. My husband was similarly furious, but instead of making a big deal, he simply grabbed something from the shop for my son and me. I didn’t blame him (he and Matt work together, so that’s how it is).
Anyway, much to my amazement, Jane and her kids returned almost 45 minutes later and begged for piece of my cake. I informed Jane that her children could, but she could not. She questioned why, and I responded, “I’m pretty sure you’ve eaten plenty, considering you took off with my entire BBQ dinner before my son and I could eat anything.”
She tried to argue that my husband told her she could have it, that “half of it was hers” (since they brought 2 lbs of hamburger meat), and that she “didn’t realize” my child and I hadn’t eaten (she was by the grill the entire time). I simply shrugged my shoulders and walked away. She told her children, “Let’s go,” and they went without cake. At this point, I suspected I’d been a jerk. Nobody has said anything since, but I know there is tension.
