Meal Drama over £2

[Nightlightonplease2025]

My cousin invited myself and two other women out for a 'taster meal session.' I accepted right away. Another declined and the other woman my good friend stated she would come along. Today was the day of the meal and my friend came with her 18 year old daughter. We all sat together in a group of 4. When asked by the waitress regarding still and sparkling water, my cousin stated still. The waitress came back and poured the water into all 4 glasses. At some point during the meal my cousin went to drink some water and she noticed a lipstick stain, it seems my friend had drank from her glass and her own by mistake, it didn't seem like much, it seemed like only a few sips from the glasses as the majority of water was still in the glasses. My cousin asked for a new glass and my friend started to drink out of her own personal water bottle and didn't drink again from the glasses. My friends daughter also drank the still water.

My cousin asked for more water and I drew her attention to the fact she said still at first and did she mean it, she stated no and said she had meant tap. The waitress came back with more water and started to pour it into the glasses, my friend stopped her stating she didn't drink tap water. We continued on with the meal and had a great meal, ordering drinks etc. I believe my cousin asked for the bill and then my friend and daughter said they needed to go to the bathroom. The bill came before they left to the bathroom. The waiter stood waiting and my cousin asked if he could come back later, we did also mention the two other guests were in the toilet as he thought they had left for some reason. I added my bill up and my cousin added her bill up and I asked about the water as I noticed she had attributed a quarter of it. She stated everyone drank from it. I said okay and added a quarter onto my bill. The waiter came back and asked if we were paying now, I think it had been around six minutes since he had been at our table. My cousin paid and then asked are you paying and the waiter came over to me and asked how much I was paying, so I told him my portion and paid.

My friend and her daughter came back and sat down. As she was looking at the bill I tried to explain it to her twice and she looked annoyed and said yes yes, I know. As a discount on the bill had not been clear, I had wanted to explain it. I couldn't even explain to her that the water had been split 4 ways. She called the waiter over to pay and I asked her how much she was paying and she stated £94 and I stated the balance was £96. She looked visibly upset and said why was she paying for the water and if she was it was suppose to be split 3 ways not 4. To tell you the truth I couldn't really understand this argument. So I said her daughter was 18 and should be included in any split. Anyways she paid but was not happy. About 5 minutes after she left I got a text saying she was annoyed and other things, and that annoyed me. My cousin said I will pay her the two pounds give me her account details, but I didn't as I thought that might upset her more, so I texted her saying my cousin would pay, could she pass on her details.

So who is being unreasonable? My cousin or friend? To be fair its such a stupid fight and over £2. It boggles the mind.

I think my cousin should have paid for the water, but we shouldn't have drank any if we weren't prepared to pay towards it, regardless, if the waitress poured us a glass or not.

Also my friend believes we were a bit rude to pay without her and my cousin feels she was a bit rude to go to the bathroom before settling her bill as the bill came before she left, and she wasn't bursting to use it, she was just going to have a try because she had a long journey afterwards. My cousin thinks she could have tried after the meal, as we could have all sat and discussed the bill then.

Of course her dd is an adult. Bill should be split by four. Unless one if you ordered alcoholic drinks then those should be paid separately.
rReally cannot understand being this petty.

I have read the OP four times. Each time it makes even less sense (I think I got too hung up on the inclusion of the information that someone who was invited didn't go and as such couldn't have been involved, wasn't involved, and bore not relevance to the "drama". Also with the word "drama" in the title I could tell it was going to be full-on).

The only thing I can decifer is that someone is quibbling about £2 on a meal that cost almost £100 (which in itself is on another level altogether) so on that point alone I think the person refusing to pay it is being an arse, however, if the vibe I'm getting from that first post is anything to go by, I think they all deserve each other.

This. Although, you should all be paying if you drank it and nobody asked for tap water

It's threads like these which are classic mn though. Yes there are more important things going on in the world but still £2 is £2😅

What a performance 🙄
I bet the poor waiter was glad when you left.
I can just imagine his face stood their watching and listening to you all quibbling over £2
Then to add insult to injury, you never left a tip.

I agree imagine acting like this then no tip. I’d be mortified.

What nonsensical crap..

Borring

This. What AM I reading here?!

But it's the extra details which make this post so special -another person declined invite, lipstick on the glasses...

If they want to quibble over a couple of bucks, let them. I don't know why you'd volunteer to get into the middle of this nonsense.

However, your friend sounds like the problem to me, if I understood your posts correctly.

First, she brought along her uninvited grown daughter without asking, first of all. An 18-year-old definitely changes the dynamic of the get together. I think that was rude.

Second, she tried to make everyone else to pay for her daughter. There's no justification for that. That indicates strongly to me that she wants something for nothing and would make me not trust her motives on the silly little water issue either. Anyway, when it's her paying, that's different. Then a mere couple of dollars is a big deal.

Third, she took her time in the bathroom, putting everyone else in an awkward position, taking her coat etc. and causing the waiter to think she'd left, too. Considering her trying to make everyone else pay 1/3 instead of 1/4 and being upset over the small amount for water, I wouldn't doubt if she was hoping the you and your cousin would pay the whole bill while she was in there. Then she had the nerve to complain that everyone should have waited for her rather than apologizing for her untimely disappearing act.

Fourth, after doing the other three annoying things above, she had the nerve to text you on the way home. Not to apologize, but to complain some more.

I wouldn't say anything to her. I just wouldn't invite her next time. She sounds quite annoying.

Also, like another poster stated, I'm from the US and we'd just ask for separate checks in the first place. Is that not a thing there?

90% of what you've said is irrelevant

your friend and her dd drunk some of the water, so, yes, they should have paid half. For the sake of £2, even if she hadn't drunk any, I wouldn't have quibbled.
tbh it's embarrassing of her to have drunk from her own water bottle! If she didn't want to drink the table water then she should have ordered her your own drink, you can't go to a nice restaurant and keep taking swigs out of a water bottle hidden in your handbag, ffs!

I don't think it was rude of you to pay before she came back, as other than the quibble over water it seems like you just paid for what you had, so not as if you stiffed her with anything - but I also think your cousin is rude and weird for monitoring your friend's toilet habits, and to think the bill would need an extended amount of discussion.

basically out of the 4 of you the 18 year old dd seems the most normal, and the only one who doesn't seem to be completely overthinking what should be a very straightforward interaction, although no idea why she wanted to come out for food with her mums friend and a random cousin of mum's friend in the first place!

This in spades.

It’s incredible that you’re happy to arrange a meal in a £40 per head restaurant (that’s fine) but then quibble over the cost sharing of water and £2. You all want to add up precisely what you each had with the waiter hanging around and are too mean to leave a tip.

Then to cap it all there’s arguments via text over the cost of the water and how that element was split between you. You all don’t sound old or wise enough to eat out frankly.

Perhaps a happy meal at McDonalds would be a more appropriate option going forward.

huh? I'm even more confused
why would the success or not of your friend's attempted wee have any impact on the anxiety of the waiter?

if she needed to try so hard to pee maybe she should have drunk more of the water...

There's a lot of superfluous info in this post! I think I followed it, though.
And it really does seem like a storm in a tea cup!

It was a glass of water, not a cup of tea. As you will have noticed from the OP, the devil is in the detail.

You're all unreasonable for creating this much drama over two poxy quid when you can all clearly afford it, and for not tipping.

Genuinely, no-one cares!
It’s a huge fuss about absolutely nothing.

If it’s caused a row, tell them they’re being ridiculous and ruining a nice occasion over some water and £2!

I don't know how a five quid bottle of water divided between 4 people ends up being two quid each.
But anyway, I think your friend was cheeky to have brought her own personal water bottle with her and start drinking from that in the restaurant. That's just not on. I think she's tight and so is your cousin.

this can’t be about £2 for water, one or both is angry about something else, is my guess.

You are all unreasonable and massive stingers for even engaging in a conversation over £2! I can't imagine it ever even being brought up in my friendship group, it would be paid by whoever and forgotten about. I would have been embarrassed for you all if I were the waiter. £40 per head is still cheap in today's climate; if you have to quibble over £2, I'm sorry but you can't afford to eat out and should stay at home.

That’s a great system.

They both sound very hard work on so many levels. And you sound quite overbearing when they came back from the loo.

There’s a lot of weird behaviour coming from the friend.

Any chance she thought you’d both cover the bill while she was in the toilets?

Please Google how to correctly use the word ‘myself’.