AITA for bringing a different book after our book club spent two meetings on my friend's manuscript?
AITA"I thought we were doing my new draft tonight," my friend Tessa said when I put a novel on the table.
I said, "We can't turn every month into your writing workshop." Everyone heard. Tessa closed her laptop.
Our club is six friends who originally took turns choosing a published book. Two months ago, Tessa asked if we'd read the first four chapters of her novel instead. We all agreed. At the following meeting, she brought revisions and asked whether the changes worked. We spent that meeting on the same chapters too, although I hadn't expected to reread them.
Afterward I told her privately I didn't have time to keep giving detailed feedback. She said she understood. A week before this meeting, she sent twelve chapters to the group with "Looking forward to hearing what you think."
I didn't reply. Instead, I bought the next book I wanted us to read and brought it along, intending to suggest it for next month. I hadn't read her new chapters. When she said she'd been expecting feedback that night, my sentence came out sharper than I'd planned.
Two friends said they'd also expected us to go back to ordinary books. Another said Tessa had only shared the draft because we were the people she trusted to be honest. Nobody had clearly chosen what this month's meeting was for.
Tessa says I used the novel as a prop to embarrass her instead of answering her message. I think she's treating a one-time favor as a continuing commitment, but I did let her arrive believing I might have read the chapters. AITA for bringing the book and saying that?