The Freeloader

My coworker and I were browsing the mall on our lunch break.
I glanced at a Sephora, and she immediately grabbed my arm, pulling me inside. Ooh, see something you like, sweetie? Spend a hundred and get forty dollars off. Help me hit the minimum!
She pressured me into piling a bunch of sale items I didn't want into my basket so we could check out together. The final bill came to 4000-1000018. My share was $58; hers was $60.
"Sweetie, with the $40 discount, my part is basically covered, so we're even, okay?" she chirped. "Plus, look! There's a gift with purchase. I’ll chip in a dollar so you can get this 4000-100005 shampoo. It’s all yours. See how thoughtful I am?"
She nudged me forward. "Go on, scan your rewards card so we can check out."
I gave her an innocent look. "Oh, I'm not a member."
She pouted theatrically. "Then sign up! It's only five bucks!" She snatched my phone, ready to do it herself. But the payment screen flashed a notification: Insufficient Funds.
My coworker, Lillian, froze. She'd already torn open the packaging on her items, confident I wouldn't back out.

1
Lillian stood there, locked in a tense standoff with the cashier, before finally shooting me a venomous glare and reluctantly signing up for the rewards program herself.
She stepped up to the register under the cashier's impatient gaze. "So, that's forty dollars off, right?"
"Ma'am," the cashier said in a monotone, "too many of your items are already on clearance. The best we can do is twenty percent off."
"What?! Then I don't want any of it!"
"Ma'am, you've already opened the packaging. You have to pay."
Lillian's face flushed crimson. She whirled around to face me. "Zoe, just use Afterpay. I'll pay you back later."
I pulled out my phone and tapped at the screen for an eternity, feigning confusion. "After… what? I don't think I have that."
Lillian's patience snapped. She grabbed the phone to set it up for me, only to let out a strangled cry when she saw the credit limit it offered.
"How is your limit only a hundred dollars?!"
"I've, uh, never used it before," I mumbled.
"Then request an increase!"
"But... it says here any increase won't take effect until next month."
"You...!"
The cashier had seen enough. "Ma'am, are you going to pay or not? I'm about to call security."
"Fine! Can we use her hundred dollars from Afterpay, and I'll pay the rest?"
"No, ma'am. The transaction has to be processed as one payment."
I silently cheered for the cashier. Usually, they could split payments, but she was clearly done with Lillian's drama.
Finally, cornered and out of options, Lillian had to put the entire purchase on her own credit card.
All the way back to the office, her eyes were fixed on me, dark and resentful. "Zoe, I remember you used to save money every month. How can you not even have five dollars to spare now?" Her probing gaze scanned me from head to toe, as if searching for a hidden wallet.
I showed her the screen of my investment app. "I locked it all up in a high-yield CD. I don't even have enough for living expenses right now. I have to ask my mom for lunch money."
"You didn't do that just to avoid splitting things with me, did you?"
"Of course not..."
Her face instantly darkened, her voice turning sharp and accusatory. "Zoe, if I hadn't begged our manager, Ms. Evans, to keep you, you wouldn't have even made it past your probation. And this is how you treat me? You're going to nickel-and-dime me now?"
She raised her voice. "If you think I'm taking advantage of you, then just stop having lunch with me! I only ask you because you look so pathetic with no one else to eat with. And in return, you make a huge scene at Sephora over a stupid discount?"
"That was over a hundred dollars! That's half a week's rent for me! All because you wanted to go shopping, I helped you get a discount, and then you tried to stick me with the bill!"
Her voice was so loud that the entire office had gone silent, all eyes on us.

2
Before I could say another word, a few colleagues drifted over.
"Zoe, how could you do that?" one of them chimed in. "You know Lillian's family situation is difficult. Why would you set her up like that?"
"Yeah, Lily, do you still have the receipt? Just make her pay you back for her stuff."
"Honestly, you should just stop having lunch with Zoe," another added, patting Lillian’s shoulder. "Come eat with us, so she can't bully you anymore."
Lillian covered her face with her hands, but from an angle only I could see, she shot me a triumphant smirk.
I lowered my head, my fists clenching at my sides. It was always like this.
Lillian had started at the company two months before me, yet we were both made permanent on the same day. I'd been on my way to ask Ms. Evans about the length of my probationary period when Lillian pulled me aside, a conspiratorial whisper in her voice.
"Sweetie, you have no idea. Ms. Evans was about to let you go. I had to tell her that if you left, I'd walk too. That's the only reason she reluctantly kept you on," she'd said. "She's still not your biggest fan, so you'd better not get on her bad side."
It was my first job out of college. I was clueless about probation standards and office politics, so I swallowed her story whole. Overwhelmed with gratitude, I started treating her to lunch, chipping in extra for her share of group orders, and always covering the difference so she could get free delivery on her coffee. She accepted it all without a second thought, as if it were her due.
It wasn't until a few days ago, when I overheard her talking to Ms. Evans, that I learned the truth. She was the one who had failed her probation. She had only saved her job by claiming that if she was fired, I would quit in solidarity. I, on the other hand, had been made permanent ahead of schedule.
From that moment on, my guard was up. But she'd been there longer, was better at networking, and was more popular. Every time she twisted the truth, my explanations just made me look like I was being cheap. She delighted in having me as her "lunch buddy," all because I owed her a "huge favor."

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