This is a silly question but one that popped in my head in the middle of the night when there was nothing I could do about it.
I have an old friend--who used to be my boss. He was my first boss when I started in market research 20 years ago. His path and mine diverged ages ago--I left the company 10 years ago, and he left shortly after to start his own business. He hired one of the people that worked on the same team as he and I, and he also has several part-time project managers, etc. I haven't seen either one of them in years.
So he emailed me a few weeks ago and asked if I'd be free for dinner on the 13th because he and P__ were going to be in NJ. They'd love to see me, yadayada. So I said yes.
We had a really fun time last night at a local restaurant, reliving old times, catching up on work and family, etc. The check came, and my friend/old boss took it and paid it.
It was only a few hours ago when I realized that I probably should have at least offered to pay my share. I honestly don't know why I didn't do that--I'm usually pretty good at that type of thing. For some reason, I took it for granted that he was paying. He was always my "senior" (even though he's more of a friend now) and he was out on a business trip, and he invited me.
But given that we've evolved into "friends"--should I have at least offered to pay my share?? I'm wondering what his expectations were.
Not a big deal, but would you have pulled out your wallet--even if just symbolically?