Overthinking

Valentine’s Day. Should she get him a card? A flower? Not a rose. He hates roses—the ultimate cliché. Baby’s Breath is too frilly and might it suggest she wants one. A baby. Well, yes, she does, but that isn’t the message she’s looking for. Not really. No. Not Baby’s Breath. No flowers at all. One doesn’t give men flowers, does one? 

        Well, why not? They like flowers. He likes flowers. He’s a gardener. But only exotics. Plants growing where they’re not meant to grow. So a flower would be appropriate, would show she knows him, knows his passions, knows how very, very particular he is which is why a flower would be wrong. Whatever plant, flower, herb, bush, tree she chooses, it would be wrong.

A tree! Well, there’s an idea. A tree for Valentine’s Day. Something tall, strong, enduring. A tree is forever and a subtle link of his love of the the natural world and her need for a long-term relationship.
  Or is a tree too much?

Just a card. Red or pink? Two colors he hates. Okay, something with an edge, black with a touch of red? She can make it from recycled paper. 

No, not black, maybe ecru and mauve, and he’ll open it up and see . . . and see . . . what? The  two of them planting a tree that will last forever. . . inscribed in a large, green heart.      

    Yes!

But what tree?