After Ashley spends a lot of time and effort getting her fiancé’s Christmas present, she is completely devastated at her gift in return. At her wits’ end, Ash leaves for her mother’s house to salvage Christmas, only to come to a realization about her relationship.
Let me be clear: I never wanted our relationship to feel transactional, but sometimes, you have to wonder if things are as balanced as they should be.
My fiancé, Ben, and I?
We were far from equals financially. He was a pediatrician with his own private practice, and I was a hairstylist trying to build my clientele. Yet, I never let that be an excuse to fall short when it came to gifts.
Especially for Christmas.
Last year, I worked double shifts for months to buy Ben the one thing he’d been talking about for ages: a PS5.
“I just want something that I can do while switching my brain off. Work is tough enough, Ash,” he would say.
Ben loved gaming, but for whatever reason, he hadn’t bought the console for himself.
I figured that this was my chance to surprise him, to let him know that I had been paying attention for the longest time.
But there was a catch. The PS5 was impossible to find at retail price. I searched online, checked every store in town, and finally found one through a cousin, who kindly added a hefty markup for “his troubles.”
