We’ve all seen the iconic image of John Cusack holding the boombox outside Ione Skye’s window. Every romantic comedy has females yearning for these grand gestures of love and over-the-top displays of affection. While this is great to see in a 2-hour movie, in a long-term relationship you tend to appreciate the smaller gestures a lot more. I’ve come to realize these hold greater meaning since they come at times I need them the most and show just how well he knows me.
So, let me give some examples of times he’s put a smile on my face:
I’m a big baseball fan and awhile back was scrolling through Instagram and found a shirt I knew I needed to have. It was a gray sleeveless shirt with a picture of a baseball diamond and said “Diamonds are a girl’s best friend.” I immediately screenshotted this and sent it to him, saying I wanted to buy it. Him being the ever-so-rational person that he is, reminded me that I had just paid a lot of bills and maybe I should wait before making the purchase. As I constantly complained to him about my finances, I unfortunately knew he was right. Fast forward 2 weeks, I had just gotten out of the shower at his apartment, and went about my usual routine of grabbing one of his T-shirts to sleep in. When I opened the drawer, all of the T-shirts were missing and laid nicely in their place was the very shirt I wanted.
Fast forward a few months and for whatever reason, I had a craving for strawberries and whipped cream. I know this was not his favorite fruit, so I figured this would be something I would have on my own. I told him about my plan to do this and made a big fuss to him, questioning his choices in fruit. A few nights later after a particularly long day, I walked into his room to find a plate neatly decorated with two strawberries topped with whipped cream. (Don’t worry - he brought the container and the can of whipped cream as well, knowing I wouldn’t want just one of them.)
He also helps me deal with the day-today-things I hate dealing with. When we’re going somewhere we haven’t been before, he does all our trip planning. He looks up the directions, tells me what time we need to leave, and makes sure we arrive right on time. He’s also always the one who searches the internet to find a good stream of a movie we want to watch. Again, these things may seem silly, but to me they feel tedious and I’m grateful he assumes responsibility for these things.
The truth is, while these gestures seem small, to me they speak volumes. It shows how he listens to me and understands and even anticipate my needs, no matter how ridiculous they may be. He does things for no reason other than to make me happy and it makes me love and appreciate him that much more.
