When My Boyfriend Learned My Allowance Was Ten Grand, He Lost It

It was the first time I was throwing my boyfriend a birthday celebration, and I wanted everything perfect, so I'd booked a premium facial and a manicure.

I snapped a quick photo of my nails, posted it, and was just about to pay when Ezra Fox called.

You got a manicure? That must've cost a fortune.

I assumed he was admiring how pretty it looked. All the exhaustion from days of military training melted away, and I felt lighter than I had in ages.

"It wasn't that much, just a thousand. And I got you a gift too"

I hadn't even finished before his voice shot up, cutting me off.

"A thousand?! Unbelievable. You blew half my monthly allowance on some stupid nails? Are you insane?!"

"I only get two thousand a month, and you're already throwing money around at the start of the month. How are we supposed to get through the rest of it?"

"Transfer that money back to me right now!"

For a second I just went blank.

I spent my own money. How did that become his allowance?

His two thousand a month had nothing to do with my ten thousand a month.

"That's a thousand dollars, not ten, not a hundred. Something this big, and you just went and did some stupid nails without saying a word to me first?"

Ezra's voice grated in my ear, shrill and sharp.

"None of us regular students burn cash like you do. Can you stop wasting my parents' hard-earned money like this?"

I froze on the spot, half convinced I'd picked up the wrong call.

I looked at my screen and confirmed it: the man losing his mind was in fact Ezra, the gentle, attentive boyfriend I'd only just started dating.

I hurried to explain.

"It wasn't only the manicure, it came with a full facial treatment. It's actually great value, not expensive at all."

I should have kept my mouth shut. The moment I said it, Ezra's temper flared even higher, his breathing gone heavy.

"You spent half my allowance on a manicure and you're still telling me it's not expensive?!"

"Millie, have you lost your mind? Do you have any respect at all for me, your boyfriend?"

"You know today's my birthday. You did this to get under my skin on purpose, didn't you?"

I frowned, my head full of question marks.

Slandering me wasn't enough, now he was piling on the guilt trip too?

I forced myself to stay patient.

"I spent my own money. That's got nothing to do with you, does it? How is it your allowance?"

Ezra's voice climbed again.

"How is it nothing to do with me!"

"Rushing to blow all your cash right at the start of the month, isn't that just so you can sponge off my allowance for the rest of it?"

The corner of my mouth twitched.

Had something crawled inside Ezra's head? What kind of insane logic was this?

"Relax. I, Millie Pruitt, promise you I won't spend a single cent of yours. Satisfied?"

And I hung up on him.

Back during military training, my blood sugar had crashed. My vision went black and I was falling straight backward.

Ezra was the one who reacted first and caught me, the only reason I didn't hurt myself.

After that, he treated me like something precious that needed protecting.

Every day he had candy in his pockets, fetched my water, got my meals, picked up my packages.

When training ended, he confessed to me in front of everyone.

After a month together, with how thoughtful he was and how good he looked, I had no reason to say no.

But I honestly never imagined he'd react this violently to me spending my own money to treat myself.

A boyfriend with values this warped wasn't worth keeping.

I called my roommate.

"Arlene, cancel Ezra's birthday party. Take down the decorations. You guys go ahead and eat the dinner I reserved. Sorry for the trouble."

After hanging up, I stopped by to return the sneakers I'd just bought Ezra, the three-hundred-dollar pair.

By the time all that was done and I got back to campus, there was Ezra standing at the front gate, face like a storm cloud, brows knotted tight, expression dark enough to scare you.

He grabbed my wrist hard, glaring at my nails, grinding out each word.

"Millie, is your money burning a hole in your pocket or what?"

"A thousand dollars! My mom works a whole week at the factory to make that much, and you just torched it? You have no idea how to live within your means!"

I pulled my hand back, my voice flat.

"Ezra, I'll say it one more time. I spend my own money. It has nothing to do with you."

His tone turned mocking.

"You? A family that wouldn't even spring for a bottle of something to drink when you nearly fainted in training, how much allowance could they possibly give you?"

"Fifteen hundred a month, tops? And you spend a thousand on nails and suddenly you're above everyone? Could you be any more shallow?"

"Let me tell you, don't go blowing all your allowance and then coming to sponge off mine!"

Looking at how smug he was, I ran out of patience.

I pulled up my mother's transfer record for the month and held it out.

"I get ten thousand a month. Why would I sponge off your two grand?"

Ezra's pupils blew wide, his whole face stunned.

"You, you get ten thousand a month?"

My dad runs a publicly listed company. Ten thousand a month is just my basic spending.

The moment I confirmed it, Ezra dropped the act, and his whole tone shifted like he had ground back under his feet.

He pulled me over to the athletic field for a walk and started in on me, all heartfelt concern.

"Millie, if your family has that kind of money, why didn't you tell me sooner? It's not that I don't want you to spend it. You're just so naive."

"Ten thousand a month is a lot of money. A girl like you could never hold on to it. You'll get taken advantage of, easy."

I couldn't help laughing, and I played along. "So what should I do?"

Ezra's eyes went hot and eager.

"From now on, I'll manage your money for you! I'm your boyfriend. I'd never take advantage of you."

"I'll save it, plan your spending. Let's say a thousand a month for you, and the rest we set aside for emergencies, for us."

He'd only just found out I had money, and already he couldn't wait to get his hands on my assets. You could practically hear him doing the math.

I turned him down flat.

"No need. I can plan and manage my own money just fine."

Ezra's face went dark in an instant, his tone turning snide.

"Millie, is it that you don't trust me?"

"We're together. Isn't your money mine too? Why draw such a hard line?"

My money had nothing to do with him, not a cent of it. When did it become his money?

Eighteen years on this earth, and it was the first time I'd ever heard logic that twisted.

"Ezra, we're not right for each other. Let's break up."

Ezra stiffened, the color draining from his face, and he scrambled to backpedal.

"Millie, I'm sorry. I got carried away just now, spoke without thinking. Don't take it to heart."

He made himself small, forcing his way back into the gentle version of himself, and swore up and down.

"I will never interfere with your spending again. Your money is yours to decide. Please don't break up with me, okay?"

Just as I was about to refuse, my roommate Arlene Simmons spotted me and came running over, all excited.

"Millie, I couldn't get through to you, I was about to head to the dorm to find you."

"The birthday setup's all done. Two whole tables of the fanciest seafood dinner, and you're not there, so none of us dare touch it."

Ezra latched onto the key detail at once and turned to me, delighted.

"Millie, you threw me a birthday party? Why didn't you say so?"

"I knew it. That was just you talking in anger. You can't bring yourself to break up with me."

He cupped my hand in his, his eyes lighting up.

"Come on, come on, let's go right now. Where is it? I'll get the guys."

Two days ago I'd already booked the biggest music bar and grill near campus.

I pulled my hand out of his and said, evenly, "Ezra, consider this party my thank-you for looking after me back then. After today, don't come find me again."

"Babe, it's my birthday. Quit saying things you don't mean, okay?"

And with that Ezra, cool as anything, pulled out his phone and started calling his friends around.

At the party, he bragged to everyone, every other sentence out of his mouth,

"Millie insisted on throwing me this party. As long as she's happy, it doesn't matter how much she spends."

"My money's hers. She can spend it however she likes."

"See that? Her manicure cost a thousand bucks, and I think it was worth every penny. Want me to have Millie send that salon to your girlfriend?"

The classmates whooped and egged us on, hollering for me to kiss Ezra as a birthday blessing.

The room was buzzing, loud and giddy.

Ezra ate it up, floating on it, gazing at me with a face full of bliss.

I didn't have the patience to keep up the act. I picked up the mic off the table and said, plainly, in front of everyone,

"Everybody settle down. Ezra and I already broke up."

The cheering cut off all at once, and the room went dead silent.

Everyone traded glances, all of them itching for a show.

The smile froze on Ezra's face, and he flushed red with embarrassment.

He grabbed my arm and hurried me toward the door, explaining to the crowd:

"Don't get the wrong idea, everyone. I scolded her a little earlier, she's upset, throwing a fit at me on purpose."

"You all keep the party going. I'll just smooth things over with her."

Ezra dragged me to an empty corner, his brows knotted tight.

"Millie! Can't you show some sense? Do you really have to make me lose face out there?"

I pulled my arm back, my voice even.

"I'm just telling everyone the truth."

I didn't look at the baffled expression on his face again. I turned and walked away.

He kept quiet through the weekend, then Monday morning a message came in:

"Grabbed you a breakfast sandwich and some orange juice for morning class. It's been two days, my baby should be over it by now, right?"

He still thought I'd only brought up the breakup because I was angry, that I hadn't really meant it.

I blocked him on the spot.

In class he still shamelessly shoved Arlene aside to sit next to me, all smiles as he pushed the breakfast at me.

I'd assumed a few days of the cold shoulder would wear down his pride and he'd accept that we were done.

But he acted like nothing had happened, clinging to me every single day.

I'd order a bubble tea for twenty-some dollars, buy snacks for a few tens, order a new hoodie online,

and he'd grill me on the price of each one, then nag on and on about me throwing money away.

The most absurd part was that he started sponging off everything I had, like it was his right.

We used to split the bill when we ate. Now he decided I should treat, dressing it up as:

"You get such a big allowance, what's wrong with buying your boyfriend a meal?"

He had me stuck ordering takeout in my dorm every time.

On the fourth night after evening study, he called from a roommate's phone and told me to transfer him three thousand dollars.

I hesitated for a beat and didn't refuse outright. I pressed record and asked, playing puzzled, what he needed the money for.

He said it like it was nothing:

"My computer's too laggy, it's messing with my gaming. I want to buy a new gaming laptop, three thousand. Just transfer it to me."

I turned him down flat:

"Why should I pay for something you're buying? Forget the fact that we've already broken up, even if we hadn't, I'm under no obligation to foot your bills!"

Rejected one time too many, Ezra flew into a temper.

"Millie, are you serious? Between us we've got over ten thousand a month in allowance. What's the big deal about putting three thousand toward a gaming laptop for your boyfriend?"

"You'll drop a thousand on a set of nails without blinking, but spending a little on me is too much? Do you have any conscience at all?"

His roommates' voices came through in the background:

"Millie, Ezra handed his whole ten-thousand allowance over to you, and all you care about is treating yourself? You shouldn't be so selfish."

"Right, we've all seen how he treats you. Good men like him are hard to come by. Don't be ungrateful."

Ezra handed his ten-thousand allowance over to me?

My whole sense of reality took another hit.

"Ezra, are you sick? When did you ever give me an allowance? You"

Before I could finish, he launched right back into the act:

"Fine, fine. I get it, you suddenly came into all that money and you can't bear to let it go."

"Here's what we'll do. Count it as a loan from you. I'll pay you back next month when I get my allowance, and you can still manage the money, okay?"

My dad always said not to argue with a fool. It costs him nothing, and you're the only one who ends up mad.

Ezra was showing me the full diversity of the species. I couldn't be bothered to spar with him.

"No loan!"

Ezra went into a rage.

"Fine, Millie, you're really something!"

"It's just a little money. Don't you come crying about it later."

Then, not long after, Arlene let out a shout:

"Millie, check the campus forum, quick. Someone posted that there's a girl in the business school who's a vain, materialistic drama queen, that she conned her boyfriend out of his ten-thousand allowance while they were dating."

"Blowing it all in secret behind his back, getting thousand-dollar manicures for herself while she couldn't care less whether he lives or dies. Rotten character."

No name was given, but the major, the year, the details, every line of it pointed at me.

Ezra really was impressive. In a few sentences he'd cast himself as the devoted victim and smeared me into a gold-digging leech.

Within the hour, plenty of trash-talk showed up on social feeds and the campus anonymous board.

The comments were nothing but people cursing me out.

"Blowing her boyfriend's money while she won't part with a cent for him, how low can you get."

"I've seen this gold-digger around. Carries herself like some heiress, turns out she's a bloodsucking leech."

"Such a kind, generous guy, looked after her all through training season, and he ends up stuck with a gold-digger like that. Bad luck, man. Run, run fast before she drains you dry."

Arlene was frantic, spinning in circles.

"It has to be that scumbag Ezra who posted it, twisting everything, turning it back on you. So sickening, so vicious!"

"Millie, the tide's really turning against you. Clear your name, quick, and get Ezra socially ruined across the whole school!"

I really thought patience and giving him the silent treatment would make Ezra back off.

I didn't count on how vicious he was, or how small-minded, pettier than the eye of a needle. He actually went and turned my classmates loose on me online.

The most sickening part was how he blew up that thousand-dollar manicure, spinning it, piling on lie after lie.

Said I'd rather waste a thousand dollars on useless nails than spare a few hundred to buy him meals.

Said if he didn't have a little savings of his own, he'd have starved to death by now.

The noise kept spreading, and before long someone dug up my dorm number.

People threw trash at the door. People stood outside pointing at me and cursing at the top of their lungs.

Even my academic advisor called, and she told me straight out that because of all this bad publicity,

both my honors application and my student leadership application had been rejected.

There was pressure in her voice as she pushed me to settle it privately.

"It's just a little couples' spat, no need to drag the whole school into it. Go sort it out with Ezra quietly and put the noise to rest."

"If you don't handle it well, you could be looking at disciplinary action from the school."

I took a deep breath and asked,

"What kind of disciplinary action, roughly?"

She answered,

"If this spreads onto the internet and hurts the school's reputation, the likely outcome is a major disciplinary mark and expulsion."

"I've already talked to Ezra. He never meant for it to blow up. It just depends on whether you're willing to give a little ground."

Every word, every line, pushing me, the victim, to back down and admit fault.

But it's still an open question who ends up written up and expelled.

I gave a flat "Mm" and hung up.

I took Ezra off my blocked list. He thought I'd caved, and fired off a smug sticker first thing.

I went straight to the point.

"Delete the posts."

Like he'd known all along I'd ask, he shot back instantly.

"I can delete them. But from now on you hand over your ten thousand a month for me to manage, and you do as I say in everything. Then I'll let the whole thing go."

I warned him, cold.

"Don't push your luck. Slander and defamation carry legal consequences."

"I'm giving you one last chance. Delete the posts and apologize to me publicly, right now. Otherwise, you'll regret it."

He didn't care at all.

"Regret what? Am I not telling the truth? You've always been selfish and cold-blooded, sitting on your stinking pile of money and treating me, your boyfriend, like I don't exist."

"You want me to delete them, you do it my way."

He was sure I cared about my reputation. He was sure that if the pressure got heavy enough, I'd cave.

I'd bow my head, admit fault, soften on my own, spend my money on him like a good girl, and feed his greed.

Too bad. He'd figured me wrong.

Since he refused to see reason, then fine. Time for the hunt.