I spent several years on dating apps before meeting my current partner, and as you’d expect, that time was filled with ghosting, mixed messages and sudden, confusing endings.
Still, I maintain the same belief I’ve held before and after the experience – when it comes to our love lives, we all have a right to break up with whoever we want whenever we like.
So when I read an entry shared to Reddit’s r/AITAH (am I the asshole here) by u/eska089, I hoped she was aligned with my beliefs too.
“AITA for refusing to cook after my boyfriend tried to ‘critique’ my cooking with a literal PowerPoint presentation?” the original poster (OP) asked the group.
OK, here’s the story...
The poster shared that over the course of her two-year relationship with her partner, she had done most of the cooking.
“We live together and I’ve always done most of the cooking because I genuinely enjoy it... he claims he can’t ‘even boil water’ without setting off the smoke alarm,” she shared.
But one night, while the pair were eating dinner, she says she noticed a “smirk” on her then-boyfriend’s face.
“He then says, ‘You know, I’ve been taking notes,’” she revealed. “I laughed, thinking he was joking, but then he said, ‘No, really. I made a presentation’.”
She continued: “I still thought it was a joke until he got up, connected his laptop to the TV and opened a PowerPoint titled ‘Improving Our Home Dining Experience’.”
The OP wrote that she “was in disbelief” as she watched the slides, which had titles like “Slide 1: Too Much Garlic,” “Slide 2: Pasta Consistency,” and “Slide 3: More Salt, Less Sass”, came thick and fast.
“The kicker was Slide 8, which was just a photo of Gordon Ramsay facepalming with the caption, ‘What he’d think?’” she added.
Needless to say, she swore she’d never cook for him again after that.
Wait... where’s the break-up?
The Redditor has shared two updates on the site since her original post ― and it’s good news for commenters, who all thought his behaviour was abhorrent.
After the first post, the OP wrote in an update, she had “decided that our relationship needed a serious talk”.
So, she approached her then-partner to explain why her feelings were hurt – in response, she wrote: “He actually grabs his laptop, connects it to the TV again and presents me with another PowerPoint titled ‘How to Take a Joke: A Comprehensive Guide’.”
She later broke up with him with her own PowerPoint on the advice of other Redditors, whose slides included: “Resources for Finding Your Own Apartment.”
“I’m single, happy and cooking meals for myself without any critique except my cat’s judgmental stare,” she updated the forum.
In a final update, she says he’s become known as “the Powerpoint guy” in his office, where the story somehow got back to his colleagues.
“If you’re going to critique your partner’s cooking with a slide deck, be prepared for that feedback to follow you right into the break room,” she ended the update.