Buying an expensive gift for a close friend is generous, but buying the exact gift his girlfriend already wanted to get him is a different story.

When a woman spent $2,500 on a gift for her best friend and orchestrated a birthday reveal that left him in tears and his girlfriend in silence, she thought the night was a success.

His girlfriend’s text the next morning told a different version of events.

You’ll want to keep reading for this one.

AITA for purchasing my guy friend his dream birthday present and “outshining” his girlfriend in the process?

My guy friend, “Tom,” has been one of my best friends since college. We’re in our mid-20s now and are both currently in committed relationships with long-term partners.

I have never had feelings for Tom, nor has he ever had feelings for me.

That being said, the two did know each other very well.

Since college, Tom has been a huge watch fanatic. Two months ago, he was showing me this stunning vintage watch and made an off-handed comment about how he would die of joy if he somehow got his hands on one.

Very coincidentally, I was in NYC a few weeks ago and stumbled upon this watch store that just so happened to have the exact one Tom wanted.

The price tag was huge, but she felt she could justify it.

It was expensive, I won’t lie, at about $2,500, but I decided to get it for his 25th birthday (to me, it was basically fate, lol).

My boyfriend and I do very well financially, so this was something that I could personally afford and wanted to buy for Tom, especially knowing how happy it would make him.

So she let Tom know she had something to give him.

Tom has a tradition of hosting a dinner party at his place for his birthday and then following that up with cake and gift opening.

I told him before the dinner that my gift was a huge surprise and asked if he could save it for last, and he agreed.

Others gift their gifts first.

His girlfriend ends up going first and she gets him this gorgeous sweater that she crocheted for him and a book that he’s been wanting, which I thought was super thoughtful and lovely.

Last, it was my gift.

Tom was beside himself with joy.

When he opened it and saw what it was, he literally screamed, hopped over a bunch of people, and squeezed me in this huge bear hug. I was so happy to see him happy — it genuinely filled me with so much joy.

He even got emotional and I saw him swipe a few tears. He also said that it was the “best gift he’d ever received.”

His girlfriend, however…

The whole time, his girlfriend was only slightly smiling and stayed quiet.

The next morning, I got a text from his girlfriend that essentially said that although she appreciated my thoughtful gift, she thought that it was a bit out of touch and lacking awareness.

She wanted to buy the gift herself, but couldn’t, and soon she started hurling unfair accusations.

She admitted that Tom had also told her about the watch and she wanted to get it for him, but it was way out of her budget.

She accused me of knowing this (I had no idea) and still getting it to rub it in her face and to “outshine” her.

Now Tom’s girlfriend is really mad at her.

She finished by saying how she felt like I had overstepped a boundary by getting the gift and would appreciate me not doing anything similar in the future.

She tries to defend her intentions.

I responded and told her that while I could see her point of view, I was just trying to do a nice thing for a close friend of mine.

I asked her, “Wouldn’t you rather he have gotten the gift and seen the happiness that it brought him than him not getting it at all?”

But this is seen as a clear overstep.

She responded that that happiness was “only shared between me and Tom” and no one else, and that she felt hurt by my actions.

Only my boyfriend knows about this and he’s on my side. But thinking through it all again, I do see how I could’ve overstepped, but my boyfriend says that it’s not my job to apologize for her insecurities.

So, AITA here?

Sounds like the biggest thing to blame here might be jealousy.

What did Reddit think?

Perhaps asking to go last was a bit self serving.

This user thinks the girlfriend had a right to feel overshadowed.

The intentions might have been good, but the execution was bad.

Perhaps there’s such a thing as too good of a gift.

Good intentions are great, but so is reading the room.

If you liked that post, check out this story about a guy who was forced to sleep on the couch at his wife’s family’s house, so he went to a hotel instead.