Here's the Story

I surprised my husband with The Bike of His Dreams this Christmas.

This is the face of a man who just received The Bike of His Dreams

So, that's the end of the story.  I gave Dave a bike.

The beginning of the story is much more complicated.  So complicated that I debated whether I could write about it.  But I'll try.  I'll try because giving that man The Bike of His Dreams was the most fun I've had in a very long time.

Dave came home a few days after Thanksgiving going on and on about a bike.  A mountain bike.  A bike that would replace the 1994 Cannondale he inherited from my dad.  This Dream Bike belonged to a friend of Dave's.  This friend was willing to sell his bike to Dave for an extraordinarily low price.

When Dave started going on and on about this bike, it occurred to me that this (THIS!) was my PERFECT opportunity to get him a great gift.  But I had to beat him to it.  I had to get to the bike before he went and bought it for himself.

The first thing I did was convince him that we ABSOLUTELY could NOT afford the bike.  "Not right here before Christmas, honey!".  He grudgingly agreed. 

That night, after he fell asleep, I searched through Dave's phone and found the number of this friend with the bike.  The next day I called this friend and made him a deal to secretly buy that bike.  Having never met me, he could have been a jerk.  I was some strange woman calling to ask him to be my co-conspirator in a giant scheme to deceive my husband.  Instead, he was lovely.  He laughed and said he would be more than happy to help me pull off my little plan.

The next day, Dave called his friend and politely declined to purchase the bike.

Perfect plan, right?

WRONG.

Dave came home from work a few days later and declared he was going to "sell everything he could on ebay in order to buy his bike of dreams".  And he began photographing items to list on ebay.  Beloved items. 

And I sat there and let him do it.  I let him LIST items on EBAY for heaven's sake!   

Then I called his friend the next day and asked him to LIE to my husband and tell him he'd already sold the bike.  Essentially, I asked him to CRUSH my husband's SOUL by telling him his Dream Bike was no longer available.  And this sweet man WHO'S NEVER MET ME obliged.

Thus, my husband's soul was crushed.  But at least he stopped selling his things on ebay.

The night before Christmas, I positioned the bike outside our garage door then asked Dave to run over and deliver something to neighbor Susan.

When he stepped outside, he saw The Bike of His Dreams.

And, Internet, there is NO WAY he was happier in that moment than I was.  No possible way.