You were never someone who liked to make a big deal out of things. So when you and your husband got pregnant, you decided to do a small, intimate gender reveal between the two of you. Due to a deployment, John had missed the doctor's appointment where you found out the gender, so you found this to be a perfect opportunity to surprise him and make him feel as involved as possible.

So you decided to bake a cake, coloring the batter to the correlating gender of your baby. Now baking was never your strong suit, but you figured this was less about the taste and more about the reveal of the color. John ate all of your cooking with a smile on his face anyway, so really you had nothing to worry about. You thought.

You carefully ice the cooled down cake, a smile on your face as you decorate it with strawberries, blueberries, and green grapes.

John and you go for a picnic in the backyard, eating afternoon tea sandwiches and pastries and drinking his favorite tea. When you present the cake and your intentions behind it, he can’t hide the soft, gentle smile that graces his weathered face. He had always been a hard, no-nonsense man before he met you. You simply melt him.

He takes the knife and you watch excitedly as he cuts into the cake, taking a slice. All the excitement and joy leaves you the moment he pulls the slice from the cake, revealing a swampy brown cake color. “Uhm… sweetheart? Are you sure you colored it?” John asks softly.

Tears immediately fill your eyes. You’ve ruined the reveal. And now you’ll have to just tell him normally and it won’t be special and—

“Hey,” he says softly, wiping under your eyes. “No tears.” His voice is soothing and gentle. You hiccup and sniffle, unable to stop, your pregnancy hormones running rampant. John thinks for a few moments. He reaches down and plucks a strawberry and blueberry off the cake, placing them in the palm of your hand. “I’ll close my eyes and you place either the blueberry for a boy or strawberry for a girl in my mouth, okay? Nothing is ruined.”