Happy Birthday Mel!
To Alex one of the hardest things in the world was selecting gifts for people. He didn't have much practice with it and it showed. When he was young he had his mom and brother to get gifts for, but in those cases it was usually a homemade gift for his mom and a small store bought toy for his brother. His family never had much money so gifts were small. Now he had money, he didn't spend much of his Alpha Flight pay on himself, and it was Mel's birthday.

He wandered the local mall aimlessly wondering what he could get his girlfriend. There was only so much ABBA things he could get her and something non-ABBA would be a nice change. Though he had no clue what that non-ABBA thing would be. So he walked up and down the mall looking for something to catch his eye or make him think of Mel.

Alex was just about to give up when he spotted Williams-Sonoma. A store dedicated to cooking and kitchen stuff. It was /perfect/ and totally Mel. As soon as he entered the store he was even more hopelessly lost. There was just so much in the store and he had no clue on Earth what exactly to get her. A saleslady took pity on him when she saw his confused face and asked him if she could help. Even with her input he still didn't know what to get Mel. He opted for a gift card with an extravagant amount of money on it.

He thought gift cards were a little impersonal, but he would make up for that fact by taking Mel here and the two of them could make a day shopping and grabbing some dinner afterward.

The gift card was put into a card and he went to deliver it to his girlfriend.