Paying the Bill

Over break I had the privilege to go to Italy to visit my girlfriend. The first day I had issues with my card and hadn't withdrawn any Euros yet  so my girlfriend was paying for everything, the meals, tours, etc. We've been dating for almost a year now and before this past break she's only paid any sort of bill probably like three times despite her many offers. That first night the waiter brings the check and doesn't even put it on the table but instead hands it directly to me, I then had to hand it to her in front of him and he makes a startled gesture and apologizes and walks away. It may not sound like much but I felt very pathetic having to hand the bill to her in front of the waiter that night, I was extremely embarrassed. Throughout the next day when she was still needing to pay for things, something I would normally do without question, I slowly became comfortable with the idea of sharing costs equally like she'd always wanted. Once I did finally get my card working internationally I paid for everything the first day just to make things even, but then we split the costs equally from there. Every time the waiters would bring me the check, and half of the time I would just hand it to my girlfriend and they'd apologize. Once I accepted that she could pay for things too I was no longer embarrassed to hand the check to her, the first time it bothered me more because I had to hand her the check whereas after that it was out of choice not necessity. All in all, I am really glad I had this growing experience of dropping one task from the list of chivalrous things that I used to consider an absolute necessity. It was hard to step back and realize that i'm just her boyfriend not her caretaker, but it was really a great thing.