The Romantic.com

IOU – A BETTER GIFT

submitted by: Laura L.

I love giving gifts.  I love putting the time and effort into something that the receiver with not only appreciate, but something that will make the receiver feel appreciated.  So for my one year anniversary with my ex, I started planning way ahead of time.

My ex was a huge baseball fan and the Boston Red Sox are his favorite team (we live in California).  I enjoy live baseball as a social event, but if I could pick anything to do, it wouldn’t be a baseball game – however I wanted to do something for him that HE would really appreciate.

So I saved and then shopped around for two tickets to Boston, MA – also his favorite city. I made sure that the tickets were over a weekend that the Red Sox not only had a home game, but were playing their rivals, the New York Yankees.  I was pretty proud of myself!  And since my ex had been hinting that the present he got me was pretty great, I thought that I was going to be just as wowed.

The anniversary came and we exchanged gifts.  I went first because I just couldn’t wait any longer… I’d been planning this for a long time.  He was blown away by the present and excitedly handed me mine… a card.  As I read the note (“I love you, you’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me, Happy Anniversary   Love, XXX”)  a slip of paper fell out that read, “I O U Giants tickets.”

That was it… a store bought card, a hastily written generic message inside, and an IOU for a present that was something he wanted to do, not me…