DEAR MISS MANNERS: My husband and I went out to brunch to celebrate three single friends’ birthdays. The three of them had made these plans among themselves and then invited us after the planning, when matters of date, time and place were already set. When the check came, my husband went to pick it up. One of the birthday celebrants said, “No, we’re all paying.” After a little back-and-forth, everybody paid an equal portion of the bill. Yet one of the birthday celebrants was miffed, as he let us all know later, over another meal together. He said that he didn’t like having to pay for his own birthday brunch. (We are old people with even older friends, so the truth usually comes out.)