Painful Indulgence

Ok, well it's the boyfriend's birthday in two weeks and I finally got his birthday list. Amongst items such as an Audi R8 (v10 not v8 I am told) were 'shorts'. Now, shorts can be many things. First of all there is the colour, does he want something light for summer or dark for more everyday easy wear? Then material... does he want cotton or linen, when will he be wearing them? How hot does he get? Which material feels smoothest against his skin? Then we have length, does he want it schoolboy/ boyscout above the knee or below the knee? Well, I was stumped, so upon further questioning I managed to extract from him the following criteria : 
'Nice'. 
That was it. He wants a nice pair of shorts. Well, all that was left to do was to get browsing and let my imagination run wild.
Now, do not worry avid readers, I have not broken my lent challenge. My challenge is specifically not to browse or shop for clothes for myself. Shopping for someone else is a completely different matter. Unfortunately, most shops are unisex, so as I have been clicking onto homepages I keep getting a flash of 'what could be', glimpses of bright spring florals and large swathes of red proclaiming SALE!. But no, I carry on and begrudgingly click on the 'men's' section of each site and trawl through pages of nice and quite a few particularly un-nice pairs of men's shorts. Out of the corner of my eye I spotted a pair of cream killer heels that made my heart beat faster, but I carried on. 


Although I feel like I have somewhat indulged my browsing urges, the indulgence is painful and bitter-sweet. I know that I will never own these items, and they would never make me look like some kind of covergirl, because these clothes are not for me. Although I can imagine my boyfriend's excitement as he opens his present, his excitement would not be as great as mine to receive a beautiful item of clothing. His clothes end up crumpled in his washing basket, or on his chair or in a kit- bag for weeks on end before they are washed and thrown into a drawer. The browsing for someone else feels slightly empty, and the temptation to click women's instead is so strong. But, I can't stop now... my quest continues to find the 'nice' shorts.