When I was very young, my parent got divorced and my father married a woman who was very well off financially. My mother stayed single and struggled with money so she gave my dad full custody. Because of that my stepmom, Gloria, raised me, and she has done so since I was 6.

I’ve always been close to both my mom’s and was happy to have Gloria in my life. But I always remembered who it was that brought me into this world. And I cherished my biological mom. There was never more love for one or the other. In my books, they were equals.

Last week was my collage acceptance day and both my mom’s came with gifts. Gloria gave me a laptop, one of those gaming laptops I have always wanted. And my mom baked me a small, yet meaningful cake.

As I unwrapped the laptop, I saw my mom’s eyes drop. She looked really sad, kind of like she felt like she was unworthy, or that Gloria was better than she was. So I did the only thing I could think about at the moment. To spare my mother’s feelings, I said I didn’t need the laptop.

My stepmom was shocked since she knew how badly I wanted that specific laptop, so later that night I called her and explained the situation. She was very understanding and offered to give me that laptop on a later date, which I really appreciated.

But last night my mom called, and I was crushed when she asked, “Can I buy you something when I get paid? It won’t be as fancy as that laptop, but I’ll make a plan for something.” I told her that she didn’t have too. The cake was great, and it was more than enough for me.

It seems to have made matters worse though because now she thinks I don’t want anything from her. So Bright Side, how can I fix this and show my mom that I really do appreciate the effort she put in?