So I went on a date last night and I need to know if I am the jerk, because truly, I've never experienced anything like this in my life before and don’t know if i overreacted or what. 

I’m 23f and met this girl on hinge about a week ago. Cute girl. Let's call her “lady”.  I've been taking hinge a little bit more seriously, so I have my nonnegotiable on there have their own apartment or a house, can't have kids, pretty simple. I've been on a few dates and they were duds, so i had my hopes up for this one.

“Lady” actually ended up matching with me and sending me the first message. Her message said  “I checked all your boxes.” At first I forgot what was on my profile, so I asked her, and she said “I don't have kids. I have my own place too.” And like, yes. Finally. The fact that she matched with me and sent the first message was amazing. And we started talking from there for about a week, casual stuff like hobbies, common interests, etc. Conversation was fine, nothing was off, vibes were good. So she asked me last night if we wanted to go out on a date, and I said yes. She told me she didn't have a car (which normally would be a nonnegotiable) but we live in Chicago, and it's not that abnormal to not have a car. So she sent me an address and said “can you please pick me up for our date” so I said of course. I picked this mexican place i've been meaning to go to, it's new and by the water and I've heard a lot about it from my coworkers and this seemed like the perfect opportunity.

 So I get out of work yesterday, go to the gym, go home shower and get ready for the date. I’m actually super jazzed, like I tried this new pinterest hairstyle i’ve been waiting for an occasion to wear and stuff, and get in my car. And I start heading out to the address she gave me and I'm getting closer and I see no houses, no apartments, but I'm like you know whatever. I pull up and I'm at a strip mall. I’m confused because I'm not seeing any apartments houses anywhere. I moved here just in March so I’ve never been here before. So I pull in, text her tell her I'm here, and ask her if I have the right place. Because this is a strip mall, but I know some places have apartments up top that can be rented out. 

Lady replies and says yes, and so I message “which one is your apartment” she goes “oh I'm actually in the nail salon just finishing up! do you wanna come in and wait for me?”

So now i’m thinking… very odd, but sure. I walk into the nail salon, text her that i’m inside. She texts me that she’s waving, and I find her, sitting there getting a pedicure. I walk up and say “Hey nice to meet you”

And Lady is like “I’m so sorry. I thought I would be done by now but it should only be like 5 to 10 more minutes” So while I’m waiting for her to finish we do some small talk, and she told me she's excited for dinner, how excited she is to meet me. And the whole time I’m thinking this is such an awkward way to start our first date, because I thought I was picking her up from her apartment. And as we were talking, she casually drops that it’s gonna be about $120.

I just give her like a confused look. And she says “my pedicure is gonna be about 120. I just wanted to look really good for you. Is that OK?”

And it fucking clicks in my brain. She wants me to pay for her pedicure. I’m actually appalled by the gall of this woman. 

So I finally say like, “oh you want me to cover it?” and she goes, “Yeah, I mean I'm getting ready for our date and I wanted to look nice for you.”

I’m clocking her shit now. I say I’ll cover it for her, and she smiles, and tells me since i’m paying I can pick the color. Now the nail salon lady is finishing scrubbing Lady’s feet, and I’m not trying to look at her feet (because I hate feet). So I turn around and go to the wall with all the color options on it and i just pick a random ass one like pink, idrc. I’m not the type of person to go to nail salons. Most i’ve done are press ons from target and those were only for my college grauation. But then I see their pricing menu/services thing on the wall and see the $120 package is the deluxe pedicure, with like wax and alkaline and callus peels, and I go back over to Lady and the nail employee and say we might as well go all out with the add ons, skin treatment, everything. 

And the salon employee’s eyes go huge like Mr Krabs seeing money i swear to god, and Lady is like “oh my god, you’re amazing, thank you so much.”

And I say “If we’re gonna make you look good, we’re gonna make you look good. I can’t wait to see that color on you.” And the employee gets started, and small talk kinda dies down so I wander around the salon a bit, watch the fish, then pull out my phone and cancel our dinner reservation. Then i go back over to her about 10 minutes later to see how it was going, and ask Lady if she likes how it looks so far, and she’s smiling ear to ear. And I say something along the lines of “Yeah, your feet look great”, and as I’m doing this I’m patting my pockets, like looking for my wallet. Then I'm like “Oh my God I'll be right back. I left my wallet in my car! Give me five minutes.”

Lady looks genuinely happy and says no problem, and I say “I’ll see you in a minute.”

Then I walk out of the nail salon, walk to my car, sit my ass right down in my seat, and I drive away. I left her in the nail salon because why did you think if I was offering to take you out to dinner, you thought I was gonna pay for a minimum $120 plus tip for you to get a pedicure?? I don't even like feet! I really liked talking to her over text and thought we'd really get along. I haven't opened hinge since to see if she's messaged me at all. I'm glad i didn't give her my number, but I also feel kind of bad.

TL;DR: I ditched my date because she tried to rope me into paying $120 for her pedicure. Am I the Jerk for ditching her?