I've been DUPED

This weekend Dan and I went to Michigan to hang out with his family and spend some time away from the city. It was relaxing. I ate like a queen, slept in a ginormous bed with sheets that felt like silk but were actually just a super high thread count cotton, and drank vodka distilled from grapes that grow in Dan's hometown. Are you smiling at my weekend so far? Because I am.

We left Michigan on Sunday to drive to my tiny hometown 1.5 hours south of Chicago for one cousin's grad party which also doubled as a birthday party for another cousin. My grandparents were going to be there, so we had to go since I only see them about two times a year and they are a RIOT. My grandpa is a real live cowboy and there aren't that many of them left, so to hear him tell stories and see him in his always pristine cowboy hat and boots is fantastic. My grandma on the other hand has started eating gluten free and thinks that everyone else has a gluten problem and should do the same. She's also the nicest lady I've ever met and makes you feel like you just won the national spelling bee every time you say something.

My grandma: I heard you have an ad coming out?
Me: Yeah it will be in a few women's magazines this summer. I'll send it to you when it's out.
My grandma: Oh you're so smart! I always knew you'd be famous!

Famous? Not quite...but I'll take the confidence booster grams.

What does this have to do with me being duped? Nothing and everything. You see, since Dan was doing all the driving so that we could both cram our family time into one long weekend, I offered to fill up his tank. Not his LOVE TANK, as Vicki from the Real Housewives of O.C. calls it, just his regular old gas tank. It cost me around $55, which is actually way more than it would have cost me to fill up his love tank, but I'm one of those, "money can buy you love" people. (I'm kidding)

On the way back from Michigan, we stopped at Meijer, which, if you've never been to one, is like Wal-Mart, minus the bad press, plus the brand names. It's like a Super Target, but family-owned and a little less fashionable, although I did get some Asics running shoes there once. Besides running shoes, and the occasional Michigan State t-shirt, they also sell video games. Dan decided to buy a new one called "Red Dead Redemption." It's basically a "run around and shoot things" game, but you're a cowboy. I already knew about the game and actually almost bought it for him for our anniversary, but didn't because I'd have to pre-order and blah blah too much work.

Flash forward to today. Dan is getting ready to pop in his new video game and I'm just chilling on the couch, deciding what I'll wear for our friends bbq, when, out of nowhere Dan says, "Why don't we say that YOU bought me the game and that I bought myself the gas?"

Me: What? Why?
Dan: Because you were going to buy it for me anyway. And it was actually $5 more than the gas, so it's like you spent $5 more on me!
Me: Um...okay
Dan: Plus this is something fun, and gas is just gas. I would have bought that for myself anyway.
Me: Okay! I bought you the game, and you bought the gas.

I thought it was weird for him to bring that up, but it sounded like a good deal, and I never pass up the opportunity to look like the best girlfriend ever, so I took it.

It wasn't until FOURS HOURS LATER that I figured out what Dan knew all along; If I bought him the game, I can't justify yelling at him for spending all of his time playing it. And that's when I realized that Dan played me, and he's a lot better at it than he is at the game I BOUGHT HIM.