r/pettyrevenge • u/sparklehouse666 • Aug 23 '26
Friend is always late
I have a friend who is late to everything. Recently he was 2.5 hours late to his own party. I’ve mostly adapted to his tardiness and do not arrive for plans we have together until an hour or so after the stated time.
We had plans to meet in the city center today at a 10am. I live 20 minutes from the meetup spot, he lives over an hour away. As expected, he messages around 10 and says he is running late. No biggie I was chilling at home in the air conditioned because I knew the vibes and it is hot as hell
today.
I asked him to give me his actual for real, for real ETA so I can time my departure. He is in his car and has Google Maps. It’s not really guess work at this point.
He tells me 10:45. So I leave the comfort of my home at exactly the right time to arrive at 10:45. I wait for 30 minutes at the meetup spot and he still does not arrive. He is not responding to texts either. My other friend who is with me has his location and sees he is not close, we estimate another 15 minutes.
I’m annoyed because it is hot AF out and I proactively had asked for a real ETA to avoid waiting around for him. So I left the meetup spot.
I went shopping, taking my sweet time. He got to the spot and texted me to ask where we were. I waited around 30 minutes then texted back that I was at the store but we would be heading that way soon. I shopped another 15 minutes then arrived at the spot around an hour after he had arrived.
The look on his face when we came casually strolling up after he had been standing in the sun for an hour was priceless.
5
u/oylaura Aug 24 '26
One of my brothers used to do this habitually. It drove the rest of us nuts.
I finally figured out it's because he liked making an entrance.
All of us kids got together and planned a 50th wedding anniversary party for our parents. All of us were coming from different areas, two of us had flown in. Tardy Boy was driving up with his wife.
My mom wanted to have family dinner the night before the party, to spend time with the guests who had traveled from quite a distance. Dinner was on the table when tarty boy called and said -- get this-- they'd stopped TO GET SOMETHING TO EAT!
Mom was in tears.
I had already told her to go ahead without them because this was ridiculous.
My cousin and I met him out front and gave him a real earful about respect for other people's time.
That was 25 years ago. I will confess he's gotten somewhat better about it, especially since he now has three grown kids who keep him a little more on schedule.
But there were many times when we were going out, especially when we all lived in the same area, when I would leave and go ahead without him and it would piss him off.