A gift of sorts

For want of a credit card, the gift never arrived.
Hearing great raves about an Italian restaurant a couple hours away, hubby wanted to eat there ­ until he looked at the prices on the menu. “This will be your birthday, anniversary and Christmas gift,” he told wifey before ordering
They ordered, ate and asked for a to-go box with the bill. The waiter returned with both. Hubby reached for his wallet and his face fell.
“I forgot my wallet,” he gasped.
“I have mine,” wifey pulled out her credit card and paid for his birthday, anniversary and Christmas gift.
Usually during their infrequent outings to restaurants, hubby carried his credit card to pay for the meal. So wifey did not ask if he had it a couple months ago when he wanted to take her out for a belated Valentine’s Day meal at a seafood restaurant.
Hubby had mentioned the restaurant several times before and after Valentine’s Day. Life kept them too busy to be together until late one evening when they pulled up outside the restaurant and ordered a much bigger meal than either could eat. They asked for the check and take out boxes.
Hubby reached in his pocket, pulled out his wallet, looked inside and moaned, “I left my credit card on the desk after I ordered that tool online.”
“Don’t worry, I have my card.” Wifey opened her purse and gave him her card so he would look like he paid for the meal she now was giving him for Valentine’s Day.
The scene repeated again last week. Hubby decided to splurge on ice cream cones after a meeting. He drove home the long way so he could stop at the dip and serve shop.
He parked. She asked, “Do you have your wallet and credit card?”
He reached in his pocket and moaned, “No, I don’t.”
They couldn’t go home without the ice cream.
“Oh, don’t worry about it. I have mine,” his true love declared. “You do like to take me to eat at my expense.”
Inside the ice cream shop, they watched the clerk scoop and roll up a baseball sized ball of ice cream, plop it in a waffle cone and walk to the next tub for another flavor. Their eyes widened in wonder at the amount of ice cream in one cone, enough take some home to eat another day.
Early the next morning the couple arose early to take her car to the mechanic. Wifey said, “I want to run over to the neighbor’s yard sale. It won’t take a minute.”
“I’ll go ahead and buy the parts your car needs. That will pay you back for the ice cream,” hubby said.
A half hour later wifey walked into the garage in time to hear hubby finish telling the owner about buying the car parts in exchange for the ice cream she had purchased the night before. He also mentioned the restaurants and his forgotten wallet.
The owner listened politely, made out a work order and said. “The car will be ready in a few hours.”
They returned after lunch in hubby’s car and entered the shop to do the paper work: wifey to get the keys, hubby to discuss the repairs with the mechanic.
Reaching for the keys the owner held, she asked, “Who will be paying for this?”
“You will,” the garage owner said, “He doesn’t have his wallet.”
She laughed, pulled out her credit card and paid as Hubby discretely slid his wallet and card back in his pocket.