AITA for leaving dinner when my friends revealed they had invited a surprise blind date?

Three friends invited me to dinner after I ended a long relationship. They said the evening was just our usual group and promised not to discuss dating.

When I arrived, a man named Eli was sitting in the fifth chair. I assumed he was someone’s coworker.

My friend Nora smiled and said, “We thought you two should meet.”

Eli looked as surprised as I felt. Apparently he had been told I knew the plan.

I stayed long enough to order water, then told everyone I was leaving. Eli apologized even though he had done nothing wrong. Nora asked me not to make the evening humiliating for him. I said the humiliation belonged to the people who had lied to both of us.

I left before the appetizers arrived.

Eli stayed for dinner. Later he sent a polite message saying he understood but had felt abandoned at a table of strangers who spent the first twenty minutes apologizing for me. I apologized to him directly.

My friends say walking out made the one innocent person absorb the consequence. They think I could have treated it as a group dinner, made no romantic commitment and confronted them afterward.

I think staying would have rewarded the setup and required me to perform ease for everyone who arranged it. Still, the person I intended to punish was surrounded by friends. The person I left was not.

I protected myself quickly and distributed the embarrassment badly.