Outmaneuvered At The Restaurant

So D1's boyfriend Joel graduated UM Law, with both a JD and LLM, and his parents Marc and Cindy came in from Indiana to celebrate. D1 chose our old favorite Christy's for dinner, and D2 and Jonathan came along, too. Bad Miami traffic prevented the Midwesterners' on time arrival, so Wifey, D2, and I sat in the bar and watched the Heat play, appropriately, the Indiana Pacers. Shortly afterwards, Joel, D1, Mark and Cindy arrived, as did Jonathan. We toasted Joel and his wonderful accomplishment. My toast was that I already had a great life, though not as great as the Ds, and their boyfriends, but after I graduated from UM Law, things got even better. I wished the same for Joel. We got our table and ate, and I had 2 more martinis, and shared a prime rib with Wifey. I got up to check the basketball score and use the men's room, and tracked down our waiter Avi, who, in typical Miami fashion, had an interesting background: a Sephardic Jew whose Israeli parents moved to Puerto Rico to work in agriculture, where Ari was born. I told him he was the first Sephardic Jewish Boricua I ever met... I handed Ari my credic card, told him to take care of the bill, add 20% for himself, and quietly slip me the receipt. This is my signature move when I've been drinking and simply don't want to deal with splitting the bill after a great meal. Plus, even though I treated Joel's family to T Day 3 years past, his parents hosr D1 all the time -- even paid her full fare to Vegas last year. I wanted to thank them by picking up this tab. We sat some more, and enjoyed this shining moment, and then Ari appeared -- he handed the bill over my head, to Marc. No, I protested, I get it. Ari looked at me sadly and said "Sorry, Dave --you were outbid." Marc had pulled my same move, and when he found out what I had done, insisted that HIS card trump mine, and handed Ari some cash. I smiled, toasted Marc with what was left of the final martini, and told him he was OSG --Old School Gangsta. I also told him I learned in college that the nice Midwestern guys were often much slicker than New York boys like me... It was a classy move, of course. Marc is a classy guy, and his boy is that way, too. We've taught D1 well -- she knows what to look for in a man. And last week I happily lost a delightful chess game, at our favorite restaurant.