demanding my coworker pay me for a ride to work after many months of giving her a free ride?
For the last fourteen months, I have been driving one of my coworkers to and from work. She lives on the way, so I’ve never asked her for money or accepted when she’s offered me money.
From my perspective, I’m going there either way, and her overall household expenses are higher than my own, so it felt like the thing to do.
Over the weekend, my car went to the shop. I told my coworker that I wouldn’t be available to give her a ride either Monday or Tuesday. She said it wasn’t a problem because her boyfriend is off this week and would give her a ride.
I asked if I could bum a ride as well. I even offered to walk to her home so they wouldn’t have to drive backwards. She asked her boyfriend about it and he said he would, but he wanted $20 for the two days.
I know it’s just $20, but that set me off. I declined the offer and said I’d find my own ride.
At work yesterday, she asked about my car. I told her I’d be getting my car Tuesday night after work, but that going forward I’d like $30 a week if she wanted to ride with me.
She was upset about this and said her boyfriend had only wanted money from me because by having me in the car he was being forced to drive straight home when he picked me up.
I pointed out that I’ve been happy to drive straight home to help her out for over a year and that it probably wouldn’t have killed him to show me at least some level of appreciation.
Today she said she’d no longer be riding with me after talking about it with her boyfriend. She said she felt disappointed with me for holding his actions against her and that I was being petty.
A couple other coworkers told me through out the day that her boyfriend’s just an a-hole and she doesn’t really have a say at home, but overall agreed with me that it was not my fault.
From my perspective, this dude directly benefits from me thanks to his girlfriend not needing a car of her own or spending on travel, and my coworker should have defended me.
Do you all think I’m being petty about this?