It was supposed to be just another ordinary Tuesday. I sat at my kitchen table, sipping coffee and mentally running through our grocery list. My husband Daniel had a terrible habit of forgetting things, so I’d learned to get creative with my reminders. This time, I decided to have a little fun with it.
“Don’t forget to buy BREAD when you come home from work… and when your girlfriend Valerie greets you,” I typed, smirking at my own cleverness. The “Valerie” part was pure fiction – just bait to make sure he’d actually read my message.
My phone buzzed almost immediately. “Who is Valerie?”
Got him. I chuckled as I replied, “Nobody. Just wanted to make sure you saw my text.”
But then his next message froze the smile on my face: “But I’m with Valerie right now. I thought you saw me?”
Coffee forgotten, I stared at my phone in disbelief. My fingers trembled as I typed, “What??! Where are you??”
“Near the bakery,” came the reply.
Before I could think rationally, I was in my car, speeding toward our local bakery with my heart pounding. Valerie? From accounting? The one who always laughed too loud at his dumb jokes?
When I screeched into the parking lot, there was no sign of Daniel or any mysterious Valerie. Just the warm smell of fresh pastries and elderly Mrs. Thompson buying her usual rye loaf.
Then my phone buzzed again: “I’m at work. 
Now that you’re already there, babe… don’t forget the bread. 
”
That absolute jerk. He’d reverse-psychologied my own trick!
Turns out “Valerie” was the sweet sixty-year-old bakery cashier we’d met last Christmas. And Daniel? Safely at his office, probably high-fiving himself for this masterful plot twist.
I bought the damn bread (sourdough, his favorite), but not without sending one final threat about gluten-free being in his future. His laughing “Love you” reply told me this marital prank war was far from over.
