When my friends handed me a beautifully wrapped birthday box, I experienced excitement.
This year had been hard, and I was looking forward to the evening of the party.
But as soon as I saw the gift, my heart sank – not from joy, but from shock.
It was a watch.
Not just any watch.
It was the exact same watch.
The same model, the same colour, the same brand that I had bought for my ex a few months ago.
My stomach twisted.
I smiled strainedly and carefully unwrapped the packaging, hoping – praying – that I was wrong.
But no, the weight in my hands was all too familiar.
My mind frantically searched for an explanation.
Coincidence?
Maybe, but something in their stares, in their eager anticipation of my response, made me feel a chill run down my spine.
‘You like it, don’t you?’ – Lisa, my best friend, nudged me in the side and smiled widely.
I gulped.
‘Yeah… it’s really pretty.’
‘Of course!’ – Jake put in.
‘You’ve been picking it out for Alex for weeks yourself.’
There it was.
Confirmation of what I’d been so afraid of.
They knew.
My friends, people I trusted, intentionally gave me the same gift I’d worked so hard to pick out for my ex-boyfriend, Alex.
And they liked it.
A mixture of embarrassment, anger, and betrayal boiled up inside me.
I put my watch down on the table and took a deep breath.
‘So… you all thought it would be funny?’
Lisa shrugged.
‘We thought it was symbolic.
You were heartbroken when Alex left, and you kept saying how perfect that watch was.
And now you have one just like it.’
I clenched my jaws.
‘You mean the same watch that I myself saved up for weeks for and bought with my own money and he just threw it away like it was unnecessary?’
‘Exactly,’ Jake nodded.
‘They’re yours now.
It’s like you’re taking back control.’
Control?
That was the last thing I felt.
I looked around the table.
They were all laughing, like it was some brilliant joke, a beautifully closed circle.
But for me, it was cruel.
I’d spent months carefully choosing that watch for Alex, thinking it would be a symbol of our relationship, our future.
And when he left me unexpectedly, I was forced to watch him almost immediately start dating someone else, as if our years together meant nothing.
And now my so-called friends were throwing that painful moment right in my face, pretending it was some form of release.
I stood up.
‘I don’t want them.’
Lisa’s smile trembled.
‘What?’
‘I don’t want them,’ I repeated.
‘You all thought it was funny, but it’s not.
It’s humiliating.
You didn’t give me a nice gift-you just reminded me of what I’ve lost.’
Jake frowned.
‘That’s not fair.
We just wanted to help you move on.’
‘Move on?’ – I laughed bitterly.
‘Making me relive one of the worst moments of my life again?
That’s not moving on, that’s just salt on the wound.’
There was silence at the table.
I grabbed my bag, my heart racing.
‘Real friends don’t do that.
They don’t turn your pain into a joke.’
Lisa reached for my hand.
‘Wait, don’t…’
But I was already walking away, leaving my watch on the table.
That night I realised something important.
I’d been around people for too long who thought my broken heart was entertainment, who didn’t take my feelings seriously.
I deserved better.
And from that moment on, I promised myself that I would only surround myself with people who truly valued me.
That was the real gift.
