Nothing Puzzling About How Sweet These Housemates Are!

I live in a flatshare with three other people. I’ve been feeling a bit down recently because I’m trying to finish my doctoral thesis and I am mostly working from home with my funding finished. It hasn’t been the easiest time for me, and I am not looking forward to my birthday as my boyfriend is currently out of the country and all my friends are pretty busy with one thing or another.

My birthday comes around, and I get a knock on my door. One of my housemates is there with a cake, singing Happy Birthday. What makes it extra sweet is that he checked the cake for the lowest amount of milk as I am lactose intolerant.

I bump into my second housemate later, and he gives me a round of Happy Birthday. He then hints that he and my other housemates are getting me a birthday present, but it hasn’t arrived yet. I thank him and tell him I will act surprised, thinking it will be something small.

After dinner the next day, I get another knock on my door while working. It’s the two housemates who are home, and they have a box for me. They heard that my mum gave me a jigsaw puzzle, and I mentioned that I am a huge puzzle fan in passing, so they give me a giant puzzle mat. Now I can do the puzzle and roll it up to store it while in process.

It might seem like such a small thing, but it really touched me after all the stress of the past few months. I am currently doing my puzzle with my housemates occasionally stopping by to do some backseat puzzling.