TOASTER BUDDIES

I was just coming in the front door when I heard my husband Steven call out, “The toaster you ordered came today.”

I placed my things down on the chair and went into the kitchen. “I didn’t order a toaster.”

Our son Alex was pulling out a nicely toasted piece of bread from a stainless steel Cuisinart four slice toaster. “Uh-oh!” he held the toast in midair for a second before dropping it on the paper towel. “Who’s toaster did we get?” he asked.

I looked over at Steven who was looking confused. “Three packages came today. I just assumed…”

I looked around the counter. “Where’s our toaster?”

Steven shrugged his shoulders. “I threw it out when I saw the new one.”

“What?”

“I thought you bought a new one!” Steven went over to the toaster and began pointing to all the buttons. “Look! It not only toasts but it has a setting for a bagel. It also defrosts and reheats!”

“That’s great, but it’s not ours.”

Alex was spreading jelly on his toast. “I’ve already used it so I’m pretty sure we own it now.”

I looked back at Steven shaking my head. “Do you still have the box it came in?

He shrugged his shoulders. “I threw that out, too.” He went to the back door. “I’ll go pull it out of the garbage.”

When he came back in with the box he was pointing to the label. “Okay. It’s our neighbors.”

“Seriously?”

“Hey! It was an honest mistake. I told you three packages came today so I just grabbed them and opened them all.”

I held up my hand to stop him. “I get it. But now what do we do?” I sighed as I leaned against the counter. “I can’t walk next door while I’m shaking the crumbs out of it and saying what a silly mix up we had.”

“So let’s just order the exact same toaster and when it comes in we’ll give her that.”

“We needed a new toaster anyway.” Alex reminded me as he took another bite of his toast. “Our old toaster took forever to toast something.”

“I guess that’s true.” I looked over at our accidental new toaster. “I have to say she’s got better taste in toasters then I do.” I looked at the brushed stainless steel. “I was always fine with the cheap plastic toasters, that just toasted bread.”

“Now we have one that does so much more!” Steven flipped the box over until he could find the model number on the box.

I took my phone and opened up our Amazon account. Searched for toasters then typed in the make and model. “Okay, well the price isn’t too bad.” I double-checked the description to make sure it was the one she’d ordered. Then scanned for the delivery date. “Oh, good! It’s going to be delivered tomorrow!” I pressed ‘order’ then put my phone down. “Now I don’t feel so bad. At least she’ll get her toaster tomorrow.”

“Hey, I’m hoping she orders a bathroom scale next and they accidentally deliver that here, too.” Alex popped the last piece of toast in his mouth. “Ours hasn’t been right for the last month!”