Honestly if he can afford a $2000 hooker date, he could easily afford to spend an extra $100 on a nice gift; he's just a complete cheapsake and is lazy (much as how he puts no effort into his music either).
In his mind, that 100$ is a waste because he’s already
paid to sleep with the woman. His gifts are for the look of the thing. “I bought flowers!” (Cheap fistful of carnations) “I bought her dinner!” (Limited to the children’s menu, no refills)
Much like his manky suit, Russ only sees these things as tokens. All suits are the same, because they are A Suit. All gifts are the same because they are A Gift. Any man who puts actual time and cost into a thoughtful gift is a sucker or showing off.
Remember when some prozzie posted that a john bought her cats some cute cat toys, and she thought that was sweet? Russ was
pissed about that. Cat toys aren’t Flowers, or even Dinner! Cat toys aren’t featured as a cliche Gift For Women in rom-coms and commercials!! He didn’t
do it right, so why is the woman showering HIM with thanks???
Russ is autistic as fuck in this regard. All gifts are Gifts and thus of the same emotional value, so why spend more money or put thought into them? You’re just being foolish and showing off.
Russ doesn’t comprehend that sometimes a “gift” shows such a lack of thought, effort or time that it might as well be a piece of paper with the word “gift” written on it. Sometimes you’re better off not bringing anything at all, instead of bringing something lousy that says “this is how little I think of you. I spent pennies on a carnation because you’re not worth the extra pocket change for a single nice rose.”
He doesn’t get that. He only sees the world in terms of tokens and symbols, with no deeper meaning behind them.
