Helped my [30M] friend [30M] move for 6 hours. He took us to an expensive restaurant and hinted that we split the $130 bill. I thought he was treating us out.

Brian just sold a business and made a decent chunk. Last week a friend (Tom) and I spent 6 hours helping Brian move out of his apartment. At some point in the move Brian mentioned we were going to grab dinner afterward, which I assumed meant he was treating us out.

Brian recommended an upscale restaurant and suggested some items, which sounded good to us. All told, the bill was ~$130. He looked at it and showed us the receipt, hinting that he wanted to split the bill. (I get the feeling that he was going to treat us out, but then saw the damage and skimped out)

We split the bill but to be honest, if I had known that we were going to do that I would have suggested a cheaper place. I assumed the common courtesy for helping friends move is treating them to some food/drinks, so I found it a little weird that Tom and I end up spending $50 each for the dinner.

Tom and I did end up taking some of Brian's stuff that he didn't want to move. Maybe that's why Brian felt fine with that?

My question is: How do I politely figure out if Brian meant to treat us out beforehand? I didn't want to put him on the spot when the bill came out, and I didn't want to assume that he was paying. (We're all from the same western culture, so this wasn't a cultural misunderstanding).

TLDR: Helped a friend move for 6 hours. He took us to an upscale restaurant. I assumed he was treating us out, but we ended up splitting a pretty hefty bill ($50 each). How do I ask if we're being treated before we end up with the bill?

Submitted December 04, 2019 at 10:26PM by chocoshark https://ift.tt/365orCu