I took my girlfriend to a fancy dinner for our anniversary.

to pay staff compensation” and that if I didn’t come back by five o’clock with the money, they would ban me, post my name in their internal system, and “handle it legally.”

At first, I thought it was a joke.

My girlfriend, Ava, was sitting at my kitchen table in one of my hoodies, stirring coffee she had stopped drinking the moment my phone went on speaker.continue reading …