A Gift That Keeps On Giving

Passing on presents you can’t make use of is the only sensible thing to do!

DEBBIE instantly recognised her husband's grin.

"Open it," Rob prompted, D handing her a parcel wrapped in pink paper.

"Didn't we agree that we weren't doing anniversary presents?" she reproached him, secretly pleased.

"It's only a small thing." The "small" thing was a box weighing as much as a bottle of Prosecco.

"You didn't have to," Debbie protested as she removed the wrapping.

Under the paper was a cardboard box with beautiful orchid prints.

Could it contain a scarf with that pattern? Or a silky dressing gown? Debbie smiled in expectation, but when she lifted the lid, her smile faltered.

Inside the box was a large bottle of bubble bath.

"You really didn't have to." This time she meant it.

Rob grinned.

"My pleasure, darling."

Debbie opened her bathroom cabinet and placed the bubble bath on the shelf next to the others.

She'd received lavender, rose, honeysuckle, Parma violet, and now she had a vanilla-scented one, too.

What was she going to do with all those bottles? One day, when the children were grown up, she might have time for luxuries like bubble baths.

An idea flashed across her mind.

Her sister had just got engaged. If Debbie put the bottle back in its box and wrapped it again, it would make a lovely present.

"Thank you for making time for a cup of coffee with me," Amanda said to her older sister.

Debbie was so busy with work and family, Amanda hadn't seen her for a while.

"A coffee was long overdue." Debbie pulled out of her shopping bag a beautifully wrapped parcel.

"Plus, I wanted to celebrate your engagement properly." "Oh, thank you!" Amanda had been a little disappointed by her family's reaction to the news of her engagement.

Because she and John had been living together for a while, their engagement had been taken for granted by their families.