THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO ONLINE DATING: Tips, tricks, and manipulations to navigate the pains and pitfalls

I looked at her and then looked at the dinner bill. She looked me straight in the eyes and smiled.

Again, I looked at her and then looked at the bill.

Still, no response.

At that moment I imagined picking up the bill and slapping her across the face with it as hard as I could.

It definitely wasn’t my best moment, but it wasn’t hers either.

Apparently, as I found out later, I had fallen into a trap known as “the meal plan.” The meal plan, if you’re not familiar with it, is when women go on dates with men just to get a free meal. It was obviously quite popular with attractive college girls, a classification she definitely fell into.

When I first heard about the “meal plan,” I did a mental rewind as I scrolled back through all the dates I had gone on until that point: all 37 dates to be exact.

Of course at first I was outraged. How could women take advantage of me like this? Especially since I was being so vulnerable by putting myself out there to ask them out in the first place.

As I matured in my online dating, however, I realized that this was actually a reaction for what men do to women.