“In the end, who among us does not choose to be a little less right to be a little less lonely”. ~Robert Brault
Ever walked into a store and although you had only been with your new boyfriend for several weeks, saw something that you just knew he would love? Then on the way home with this new gift you were just giddy with excitement and bursting at the seams to see the reaction on his face?
This situation plays out day after day in new relationships (and old ones as well), on every continent on this planet. Men do it, women do it and very few realize that this can be a very financially draining habit. One that can also cause you tons of heartaches and set you up as a victim of false love.
How many times have you been out shopping with your girlfriend and she stopped to buy a shirt or slacks for a man that you knew to be no good for her? Secretly you knew that there was no way in hell that this same man would ever come home to surprise her with a gift. You may not have understood it at that particular moment, but you had just witnessed your friend as she was attempting to buy love.
Women do this all the time, men not so often but it does occur. Remember the time that a guy you had went out with a few times, arrived at your place with a nicely wrapped box containing an item that you would never in a thousand years ask someone to buy for you? Yeah, he was trying to buy your love.
So what did you do with this unexpected gift? Inform him that you couldn’t accept it, that it was too expensive? Or did you accept it because it was oh so pretty and sparkly? Did you thank him profusely and offer to make dinner for him or allow him to take you out once again even though in your heart you really weren’t interested in him?
However, later though when you were alone you probably felt guilty. You know that it was wrong to accept such a gift, but you keep telling yourself that he’s a nice guy and he had assured you that he didn’t spend too much money on it.
Then when you went to work or school wearing the item, all of your friends commented on its beauty making you feel so special. But you still cannot shake the feeling that you simply shouldn’t have accepted it. How many of your friends made the statement to you that they wished their boyfriend was so thoughtful. You listened and decided against explaining that he’s not your boyfriend because it would lead to too many questions.
So you only tell your closest girlfriends and as in all friendships you have one that is cool with it. She tells you that hey, he’s cute and at least he has good taste in gifts and women. Why not date him a little to see if you can learn to love him. She tells you the worst case scenario is that it doesn’t work out and you get to keep the gift for at least trying.
However, your second friend chastises you for accepting an expensive gift from a man that you are the least bit interested in. She informs you that by accepting it, you are simply leading him on and that you should return it ASAP!What are you going to do? Hey this item is nice, women would kill for something like this and this guy thought enough of me to buy it for me without my even asking. Then your phone rings and he asks if you’re busy, he’d like to take you out for a few drinks and to talk. Its harmless, so why not right?
He picks you up and you go to a nice place and walking in you see a few guys that you could really find yourself attracted to. However, you are with a guy who although he is nice, simply isn’t what you’d select as your ideal man. Hey, but does it really hurt to at least try?
You sit in the restaurant and the drinks are ordered and the waitress spots the gift and comments on it. She then tells you that you are a very lucky girl to have a guy who thinks that highly of you. Then to assure that she gets a great tip she remarks that you two look great together. He smiles like a cat that swallowed a canary and you feign a quick smile to be polite, but you never correct the waitress.
After trying to find something interesting to talk about you find that he’s simply not that exciting. However, the guy that has walked past your table several time to go to the bathroom certainly is and how you wish that they could actually trade places.
You get to your apartment and go through that awkward moment where he is not sure if he should try to kiss you or not and you are not sure if you should let him. So the two of you compromise and hug before parting ways. This is not going to work, you know it, you already know it.
The next day you arrive at work (or school) and talk to the friend who told you that you should at least try to see if you can learn to like him. Hell, you can’t even remember why you went out with him in the first place, it must have been because you were getting over your ex and would have went out with anyone to get out of the house.
She informs you of this; “Hey, at least he has a job, his own place, treats you great and is most definitely into you. He’s not going to cheat on you, beat you or screw up your credit, right. Go with it girl! Just as she finishes her lecture, before you respond a delivery arrives. Yep, you just received a bouquet of roses from yours truly.
Now you are the envy of every woman in your office (or class) and you feel terrible. Everyone is walking by telling you how nice the roses look and making comments about how much this guy must love you. The only problem is that you don’t feel the same way. It gets worse when they begin to ask you when you’re going to have him stop by so that they can all meet him.
Now, the one person in the room that is not amused at all of this besides you is your other good friend. You know, the one who instructed you to return the first gift back and now you’re sitting there with a dozen roses and she has a look that shows she is not too happy with you.
She requests that you accompany her to the ladies room and although you know what she will say, it drains you all the more with each step because you know that she is going to be right. There is nothing as annoying as having a person preach to you about something that you already know is right, is there?
Once in the restroom she gets directly to the point. She points out the obvious, being that you didn’t return the first gift and that she is so disappointed in your decision to keep it. You know that she is not jealous, she’s just telling you that she knows you are better than that.
She then explains something to you that you didn’t know. She says, “You do know that he is trying to buy your love?” She has your attention now, doesn’t she? She goes on to tell you that she had been guilty of trying to do the same thing with her former boyfriend. She said that she brought him clothes, a Gucci watch, Boss suits, expensive shoes and ties and he accepted them all. She said that she was in love and she thought that by buying these items for him that he would love her as well.
However, she informed you that she was wrong. She went on to say that after thousands of dollars worth of trying to buy his love, it all came crashing down on her via a photograph. She had paid for him to visit his family in another State, even given him spending money for while he was there. Upon his return he had brought her back a silly ass t-shirt. You know, the ones that they sell in airports everywhere that read, “Someone in (fill in the blank) loves you.”
A few months later he had left his laptop computer on while he had ran to the store and hesitantly she had discovered his Facebook page open. Now get this, this was a different FB page then the one she had been sending him messages to, the one where it said that they were in a relationship. This was a totally different page, with different photos and friends and a totally different girlfriend.
But, you know what hurt her the most? There were forty to fifty photos of him on this new page with this other woman, and in everyone of them he was wearing something that she had actually purchased for him. The Boss suite was worn while they went out to dinner, a jacket she had purchased while they were at a baseball game and so much more.
She also discovered that the plane ticket she paid for, wasn’t to go home to visit his parents and family. Nope, it was to visit this other girl she discovered by the date and time stamps on the photos.
She said that she didn’t tell him that she knew right away. She had to digest and process all of this new found information first. She reminded you how she had went on emergency leave a few months back and you had thought someone in her family was ill. No, she tells you now that it was her that was ill, she needed to get away and at one point she had contemplated suicide. She had loved him just that much only to discover that he had no feelings for her whatsoever.
She finished by telling you that she came to terms with the situation once she reviewed the relationship and through tears discovered that it really wasn’t totally his fault. She had without knowing it, been attempting to buy his love from the very beginning. And you know what? It started with buying him a very nice bracelet that he hadn’t asked for. It was an innocent enough gift, or so she thought. But who the hell gives someone they barely know a $300.00 bracelet?
He had tried to refuse it but she convinced him that it was just a token and she wanted him to have it. She said just the look on his face was reward enough and in the end she would become euphoric with the thought that he could look at her this way. She confused this look for his love of her, but it reality, it was his love of the gifts that she was showering him with. This she said, was a painful and expensive lesson to learn.
The scar she bore on her heart was still raw, and then she asked you with conviction, “Do you really want to keep that gift, knowing that he means nothing to you?” Its a good question, one that you had been wrestling with yourself over the last 48 hours or so. What is a girl to do?
Now for any of you that are reading this post and are not exactly sure if you have ever actually attempted to buy someones love, answer this question; Have you ever gotten into an argument with a man you were going out with, and in anger you blurted out, “I buy you everything you’ve asked for”, or even brought up the fact that you purchased things for him? If you have, then you were guilty of trying to buy his love.
Now that you know that this is what you were attempting to do, please stop immediately and never repeat it in any future relationships, even if he asks for something you know you can afford. I know, men make comments all the time about things that they would like to have, like a new iphone or Ipad. Fight the urge to buy it, hoping he will be happy and reward you with his love. Because at the end of the day, its false love and eventually it will collapse, leaving you with a broken heart and a mountain of bills, alone again.
