Going Dutch -5minutefreewrite (x3)

For https://steemit.com/contest/@freewritehouse/day-34-selfie-freewrite-celebration-contest-prize-109-286-sbd
Richard loved to surprise her, she was learning.

She had never been particularly fond of surprises, her home was a disaster of screaming surprises, credit card charges, death, accidents and alcohol.

Toodark, let's begin again.

Oh, Richard. She loved his little surprises. Every day a daffodil or a chocolate would appear as if by magic exactly when she wanted it most.... No doesn't capture the tone of that first sentence.

She was learning that he loved to surprise her. Sometimes they were good surprises, like dinner out. Sometimes they were meant as good surprises but were frustrating, like when he surprised her with a dinner party at his apartment when she thought it was going to be just the two of them. He didn't understand the difference, and would vow simply never to surprise her again.
That was an alright compromise for her, but he was devastatingly unhappy, and she... just couldn't stand it.
"Sharon," he would say to her, as unsurprisingly as he could, "I have been thinking about buying more toilet paper. I don't want you to be surprised. I have chosen Scott tissue as the brand I shall always buy from now on. I shall only buy in ...

She started taking up a lot of bad habits.

She could surprise him, dammit. She'd walk in on him in the bathroom. She'd set her alarm on her phone for 5am, and then put it on his side of the bed. Oh, yes, they'd moved in together. Sharon wasn't about to let his inability to understand her pull them apart. She'd just find ways to get even. Relationships are about being even, what else? She'd heard someone, probably a crank, claim that relationships should make you happy, but... probably a crank.

So every time he didn't surprise her in a ...

this got unnuanced. Let's talk more about real things that happen in relationships, like... like that dinner party.

Was it a nice surprise just for her? She could believe it. They were all nice people, and he had made all the dinner and gotten her some flowers. But when what you're imagining is pajamas and wine and maybe cuddling, all the friendly friends of your boyfriend in the world is not ... a good surprise.

But... but...

And then the question grows... what if it WASn't for her. What if he wanted to have some friends over for dinner? And he didn't want to have to plan ahead. Sometimes planning things don't pan out, so you grab the opportunities when you can.

An old letter from Amsterdam reminded her of Amsterdam. It came in the mail, but it came from the past, kind of. She had sent him a postcard before they had gotten serious. She hadn't known he had never gotten it, and here it was, arriving 6 months after she had sent it. So much had happened. They were a couple now. Planning to move in together. In her letter, she was telling him all about the wild, unexpected nights, a lady she had met in Dutch classes who was living in Holland and had been for some time introduced her to another friend who had invited her along for

Well, long story short, they wound up in an abandoned house that someone was squatting in, there was a barrel fire, and a punk rock band played really loud music while people graffittied the walls. It was amazing. Everyone was cool, and they all talked about politics, but not like modern politics, but like political theory. She was like, "yes" every night should be like this, and then she walked home alone at 4 am... home to the hostel, and there was just a couch in an alley, and she slept there for an hour, 'cause she was drunk and happy and tired and when she woke up, there was the sunrise over a field of tulips and a windmill in the background, and right next to her was a little shop selling this postcard Anne Frank meeting Vincent van Gogh's -