When it comes to romance, we often think of the big gestures as the ones that mean the most or stay burned in our partners memories for the longest time.
But this Reddit thread is showing that isn't always the case.
One reddit user asked:
Girls of reddit, what's the cutest thing your s/o has done for you?
And yeah, there were some grand-gesture kinds of responses but most of them focused on "the little things" - seriously if we had you guys play a drinking game where you had to do a shot every time someone in the comments said "little things" ... well ... just don't do it. I don't think our liability insurance covers cuteness-induced alcohol poisoning for our readership.
Under The Stars
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This is a long story but I'll never forget it. My very first boyfriend, we were around 15/16 at the time, was a hopeless romantic if I ever knew one. He was a very shy, sweet, dorky guy but just so in awe about everything around him and easily inspired/entertained by even the smallest things that life had to offer. He wasn't afraid to be vulnerable, but would stand up for anyone he thought was being wronged without question. People admired him and he was liked by everyone that knew him. Just a genuinely good guy who was raised right.
I was a tomboy who loved nature and books, wading through creeks to hunt for old bottles, wasn't afraid to get dirty, and generally didn't care much for relationships at the time. My mom had always told me that if you want something real you need to work hard for it and that life doesn't ever hand you love like that. But deep down, as most girls do, a small part of me wished for a tiny taste of that love at first sight feeling that would make any girl feel like they were the protagonist in a cheesy romance novel.
I remember seeing this boy and how well received he was by our classmates and I hated to admit that he really was charming and just had a way about him that was so innocent and hard to describe. I tried so hard not to have feelings for him because ALL the girls at our school did. But somehow we became fast friends and even faster lovers and he introduced me to a whole world of beauty I never really knew existed. The world was always the same, but the way I perceived it changed completely because of him.
I remember lying in the grass looking at the clouds with him at the local park and I confessed in the most awkward way possible that I thought I had feelings for him as more than just a friend. And he just paused for a second and rubbed his face roughly with his hands and exclaimed "Oh thank god, I like you too" and we just giggled about it for a long time. He asked me on a real date and asked what I might want to do. I told him how I had always wanted to do a date way out in the country where the street lights were dim enough and far away enough to where we could get a good view of the stars and just watch the sky for a while.
Around a week later he said he had a surprise for me and drove me 2 hours away from the city late at night and I was confused where we were going the whole time and kept pestering him about where we were bound to end up.
Well by the time we got to our destination, the weather had turned from a warm and breezy evening to a cold drizzle and clouds muddled up the evening sky. We had parked outside a freshly plowed cornfield and he seemed so upset that the sky had clouded over and expressed he had hoped to fulfil that dream date of mine under the stars.
I told him it was ok and tried to console him and got out of his clunky van to gauge the weather and see if it'd maybe clear up. After walking around for about ten minutes I came back and prepared to disappointedly tell him that he might have wasted the trip coming out here, but when I opened the door he was in the back of the van and it was pitch black back there. I asked him what he was up to and he says "just come back here with me real quick". He sounded borderline excited and hesitant, so I curiously crawled in the back to see what was up.
Not being able to see anything I reached out and he said to just wait for a second. And a moment later he turned on a flash light and shined it through an empty soda box that had a bajillion holes stabbed into it and pointed it at the ceiling of the van. I just stared in complete surprise and he started stammering about how he was sorry it wasn't the real thing but he hoped this could be a good stand in for now until he could take me to see the real stars.
It was honestly the sweetest thing anyone had ever done for me and to this day no one has been able to top the thoughtfulness, the kindness, or creativity this boy had to offer. In the end, after a year and a half together, we ended up separating because his family had decided to move across the country and he had no say in the matter. This was before cellphones were common place so we lost touch and never heard from each other again after he moved. My heart still hurts when I think of him and I've wished we could see each other again ever since that day. Wherever he is, I like to believe he's doing amazing things and I hope he achieved everything he ever wanted in life.
On the wildest chance that you ever read this Sebastian, I miss you so much and wish you nothing but the best.
One Man Show
I got him a Millennium Falcon plush for our first valentines day together (we were together for nearly a year by that point) and he gave me a one man show of the scenes from Episode 5 with the Falcon, completely unprompted. May be weird but it will forever be one of those cute moments that made me fall in love with him
The Little Things
The sweetest things were the small gestures like bringing me soup when I was sick or waking up very early to drive me to school or just buying me a gingerale on his way to meet me. Just things that I wasn't expecting and never took for granted.
A Long Distance Love
We're long distance so we can't really have any physical contact and I was having real trouble with my PTSD flaring up and me getting really bad flashbacks and having too many mundane things trigger panic responses. He sent me a surprise gift teddy bear to cuddle and hold ... best part is that this bear was wrapped in one of his shirts that he actually wore for a couple days so the teddy even smells like him because his smell really comforts me.
Pinata
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Once, on my birthday, he stuffed a pinata with lots of little gifts and hung it outside the house. Nothing expensive, but stuff like ponytail holders, my favorite candy, chapstick, a new brush, just little things. But I will always remember it, even after 25 years.
Why I'm Marrying Her
I was having a bad anxiety day and was incredibly overwhelmed. I came home to find my fiance had run a hot bubble bath for me.
After my bath, I went to our room to see she had transformed it into a giant fort, complete with a blanket nest and all the pillows in the house.
She had put one of my favorite games on (Resident evil 4), had her laptop open and playing my favourite show (would I lie to you?) and had surrounded the blanket nest with snack food and a cup of tea.
This is why I'm marrying her.
Pack Mule
My husband performs love acts of service when ever it occurs to him and this is my love language.
He carries my water and nutrition for endurance mountain bike rides. This helps me bike longer so I can see more remote locations. He calls it being my pack mule.
Welcome Home
Once, I had to go out of town to see my psychiatrist and I was very sad because we hadn't seen each other in a while and that was the only day he had free. I spent the day all sad and wishing I was with him. When I got home, he was waiting for me in my room with a handmade sign that said "Welcome Home".
3 years after that and we're still together
- Poty_
Constantly Busy
My s/o is constantly busy. He keeps his mind occupied with new projects after another and runs a successful company on the side. I often feel a bit afraid of his fixations and activity on things as I'm one with ADHD and just unable to comprehend how his mind works. I struggle taking a shower because on the way to the shower I see 10 other things I could do which in turn gets me overwhelmed and I sometimes end up doing none of those things because 'everything is just too much right now'. It often makes me feel very alone, when he's in his own world, only inches away from me but out of reach because it's impossible to try and distract him from what he's fixated on atm.
But then in the middle of all this he suddenly gets up and makes me sparkling water because I might be thirsty, heats up a hot pillow and places it under my feet because maybe my feet are cold or reaches out a hand to stroke my head if he's sitting next to me while working because for the next 3 minutes he doesn't need his other hand. Sometimes he runs downstairs because he ordered us surprise Starbucks and hands me my favorite drink. In the middle of a meeting call he puts the conversation on the speaker and jumps in to cuddle me on the couch.
To me, these little actions are enough to make me cry, because even though I sometimes feel disconnected of him constantly keeping himself busy on something, I know that all along I was there on his mind as a priority, not something pushed to the back of his mind, under all the million things he wants or needs to do.
The cutest thing ever? He drops everything if I don't feel well. Be it physically or emotionally, he drops absolutely everything to be there to support me. I'm having a panic attack? He buries my face in his chest to calm me down (which works for me, doesn't work for everyone). I'm getting sick? I'm tucked into bed with an endless supply of anything I might need and a 12 hour chicken soup on the way.
- skizjo