“He Gave Me Shower Gel for My Birthday — And I Haven’t Stopped Thinking About It”
It arrived in a small, perfectly wrapped box — the kind that usually holds a necklace, a love note, or something with a touch of thought behind it. I opened it with a smile, already imagining what he might’ve picked to celebrate me.
Inside? A bottle of shower gel.
No ribbon. No note. No explanation. Just something you’d grab from a supermarket shelf — generic, impersonal, and oddly clinical. I stared at it, half expecting a punchline. But there wasn’t one.
At first, I laughed — awkwardly. Maybe it was part of a bigger gift? Maybe he forgot the card? But hours passed. Days. Nothing followed.
It wasn’t the gift itself that hurt. It was the realization that he hadn’t seen me — not really. On a day meant to feel personal and joyful, I felt like a task checked off a list. It wasn’t about price tags or grand gestures — it was about the message, or in this case, the lack of one.
Gifts can be mirrors. They show how much attention we’re paying, how much effort we’re willing to put in, and whether we still see each other as individuals worth celebrating. This wasn’t about the gel. It was about feeling invisible in a relationship that once felt full of light.
And sometimes, it’s in the smallest, most seemingly insignificant moments that the biggest cracks begin to show.