Vault: She Caught Her Boyfriend Buying Double Of The Same Gifts! - Part One

Summary

The Bert Show: Vault – “She Caught Her Boyfriend Buying Double Of The Same Gifts!” (Part One)

Date: November 26, 2025
Host/Cast: Bert, Kristin, Abby, Cassie, Tommy, Janice Torres Rodriguez, David, Melody (caller)
Theme: Relationship drama – Melody discovers her boyfriend bought double of each Christmas gift, raising suspicions about a possible “other woman”

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Overview:

This episode centers on a relationship dilemma: Melody, a regular caller, recounts her confusion and concern after discovering that her boyfriend appears to have bought duplicates of Christmas gifts—two tennis bracelets, two sets of pajamas, and two vacation certificates. With the Bert Show cast, she dissects whether there's innocent (or guilty) reasoning behind her boyfriend’s shopping, and listeners are invited into the cast’s signature blend of humor, candor, and detective work.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Melody’s Discovery and Suspicion

• Situation Setup: Melody and her boyfriend of two years agreed on a “three-gift limit” due to financial constraints.
• She finds SIX gifts at his place while “snooping respectfully” (03:48), citing:
  • "I was snooping in the most respectful way possible just to make sure that I was doing the right thing." – Melody (04:48)
• Gifts Found:
  • Two tennis bracelets (same style)
  • Two pairs of pajamas (identical, different sizes: small/medium)
  • Two homemade certificates for trips to St. Thomas (different dates: New Year’s & Valentine’s)
    (05:16–05:52)
• Immediate conclusion: “Common sense tells you that he wouldn’t get me the same pajamas in two different sizes, assuming I’m going to gain that much weight over the holidays. That would just be kind of poor form.” – Melody (06:29)

2. Panel Analysis & Theories

• Initial Reactions:
  • Janice: “Are all the items the exact same?”
  • David: “Common sense tells you he wouldn’t take you on vacation twice... in a couple of months.”
• Humor and Skepticism:
  • Joking about the pajamas for different sized versions of Melody.
  • “Nothing like spending New Year’s or Valentine’s Weekend with your mom.” – Panel banter (08:34)
• The Other Woman Theory:
  • Melody hasn’t seen any concrete evidence, but finds the duplicate gifts suspicious.
  • “If the New Year’s trip is for me, I’m going to wait to break up with him until after the trip. I’m going to try and convince him on the trip to break up with her.” – Melody (07:33)
• Other possible recipients considered: His mom, parents, or overly cautious shopping.
• Certificate Details: Pajamas aren’t “super sexy,” but “definitely not for mom,” squashing the ‘mom’ theory (09:07).

3. Alternative Explanations

• ‘Backup Gifts’ Theory:
  • David suggests maybe the boyfriend bought two sizes (bracelet, pajamas) and two date certificates for flexibility if Melody is unavailable on certain dates.
  • “He thinks she’s got backups.” – Janice (09:36)
  • “You can return the gifts after Christmas... The gift certificates are so she can figure out what day they want to go.” – Melody (09:37)
• Skepticism about Guys Returning Gifts:
  • “Guys don’t return stuff.” – Melody (10:11)
• Is this thoughtful or suspicious?
  • “Before you assume... Has he ever given you any indication... that he cheated on you up until this point?” – David (11:14)
  • Melody: “No.” (11:40) But acknowledges his new life in Florida creates a gap of trust.

4. Advice and Next Steps

• How to Test the Theory:
  • Janice and David suggest planning both New Year’s and Valentine’s weekends to see his reaction.
  • “Try to plan for those two weekends... see what he says.” – Janice (12:03)
  • Melody considers but thinks, “That’s kind of obvious, right?” (12:17)
• Panel Debate:
  • Some argue direct questioning will just make him pivot and preserve the surprise, so it’s not foolproof.

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• Melody on gift snooping:
  “I was snooping in the most respectful way possible...” (04:48)
• On breaking up after the vacation:
  “If the New Year’s trip is for me, I’m going to wait to break up with him until after the trip.” – Melody (07:33)
• Panel humor on duplicate gifts:
  “Common sense tells you that he wouldn’t buy me the same pajamas in two different sizes, assuming I’m going to gain that much weight over the holidays...” – Melody (06:29)
• David on cautious boyfriends:
  “So, David, you’re assuming this guy is being overly cautious... if it’s the wrong size, she’s still going to be satisfied on Christmas morning, which would make him even more thoughtful, right?” (09:55)
• On guys not returning gifts:
  “Guys don’t return stuff.” – Melody (10:11)

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Key Segment Timestamps

• Melody introduces her dilemma: 01:30–02:50
• Background: Relationship and financial setup: 02:56–04:08
• Discovery of duplicate gifts: 05:06–06:14
• Speculation about who the gifts are for: 06:15–09:07
• Panel theories (backups vs. side-chick): 09:33–10:23
• Past relationship trust & distance: 11:14–12:03
• Advice: How to confront/test him: 12:03–12:43

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Tone & Recap

Light-hearted, comedic, but respectful—classic Bert Show energy with real talk blended with humor and gentle ribbing.
Melody’s story fits the show’s format: blending authenticity, audience engagement, and group banter to break down an everyday relationship problem into thoughtful (and laugh-out-loud) pieces.
Listeners are kept guessing: Is this an innocent boyfriend anticipating every need, or a classic case of double-dealing?

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To be continued…
Part Two is likely to follow, potentially with updates from Melody or further input from listeners and the Bert Show cast.

Transcript

[Janice Torres Rodriguez]

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[Melody]

Want your most burning.

[Podcast Host/Announcer]

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[Janice Torres Rodriguez]

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[Podcast Host/Announcer]

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[David]

Acast.com hey the Birch show so Melanie calls us up yesterday and I think in normal circumstances, anybody, any woman at least, would be pretty happy to know that her man is done with his Christmas shopping already.

[Janice Torres Rodriguez]

I mean, because that means there was effort made that he was thinking about you. He's trying to personalize the gift. He didn't wait till the last minute to run through the mall before he came to your house to give you your Christmas gift. So I mean, yeah, everything should be fine, but she actually found more than she bargained for.

[David]

So common sense tells you that if your boyfriend already has his shopping done for you for Christmas, he's been thinking about you.

[Janice Torres Rodriguez]

Yeah.

[David]

Put some thought into it. Got it done in advance.

[Janice Torres Rodriguez]

And yeah, yeah, and effort, effort, effort, effort. Thought ahead, went and got it. Already has it. Not waiting till the last minute thought for himself. So I mean, it should be rewarded for that, I would think. Nope.

[David]

Melody not too happy with her boyfriend he's got his shopping done. Hey, Melody.

[Melody]

Hey. How's it going?

[David]

Okay. How are you today?

[Melody]

Well, kind of confused. Like you can imagine.

[David]

How long have you been going out with?

[Melody]

Dude, we've been together a couple years now.

[David]

Like two years? Yeah, two years. Okay. And do you guys live together?

[Melody]

We don't know.

[Janice Torres Rodriguez]

Okay.

[David]

All right, so explain how you found out that your boyfriend has his shopping done early.

[Melody]

Well, I spend the night at his place a lot. He has a house here in Atlanta and I was there by myself once. He had to leave before I did and that's like usual. I have a key and everything. And I decided to do the little snoop thing to see what he got me because. And there's a reason. It's not just that I was being a snoop. I mean, there really is a reason for it. We were both kind of broke. I just graduated and I don't have a real job yet. I'm still waitressing and I've got student loans and stuff I can't even stand to think about right now piled up like you can't believe. So that's my deal. But for him, he has this house in Atlanta and just for work reasons, he took this six month job in Orlando because he thought it would help him to get better work here in Atlanta, which is where he wants to be. But he's paying the house mortgage and he's also got an apartment there because that's going on over there. So between the two of them, he's also pretty broke. So we just. We came up with this rule for this year that since we're both like kind of strapped, we would limit ourselves to getting each other three gifts. We have this three gift rule thing.

[David]

It's a trap.

[Melody]

Maybe it is. But I think. I mean, probably of the two of us, I'm the more broke. I don't know. But I kind of think that because he does have a real job at least, even though he has all these expenses. And I just. I didn't know. I needed to know if it was like $320 gifts or if it was like three $200 gifts, in which case I need to pick up some extra shifts and stuff, you know, because I just. It's bad form if you're not sort of close to the same level. You know what I mean?

[David]

Well, you guys certainly define the meaning of Christmas in your house, for sure.

[Janice Torres Rodriguez]

I understand where she's coming from. You don't make sense completely out of that.

[Melody]

No, I mean, it might sound bad, but I was snooping in the most respectful way possible just to make sure that I was doing the right thing.

[David]

I understand.

[Melody]

You know what I mean? Okay, so that's why the snooping. But then, okay, so I do the.

[Podcast Host/Announcer]

Snoop, and to the snoop.

[Melody]

And what I found has me completely confused.

[Janice Torres Rodriguez]

Oh, no. What'd you find?

[Melody]

Well, okay, when I did this, I found there were actually six gifts.

[Janice Torres Rodriguez]

Okay.

[Melody]

And there were two tennis bracelets, two pairs of pajamas, the exact same ones, except one's a small and one's a medium and two, like, homemade. Like, you could tell he did them on his computer. These two certificates, which are good for a weekend in St. Thomas, one of them is over New Year's, and the other one is, like, for Valentine's.

[Janice Torres Rodriguez]

Okay. I'm trying to put it all together, and the items. Yeah. Are all the exact same. You say the tennis bracelets are the same as well?

[Melody]

Yeah.

[David]

The only difference in the pajamas is they are two different sizes. One you said was a small, one was a medium. And there are certificates for two different vacations to the same island at two different times.

[Melody]

Yeah.

[David]

So he. Common sense tells you that he wouldn't take you on vacation twice. Twice to the same place in just a couple of months.

[Melody]

Common sense tells you that he wouldn't get me a tennis bracelet for each rib.

[Janice Torres Rodriguez]

Yeah.

[Melody]

And that he wouldn't buy me the same pajamas in two different sizes, assuming that I'm going to gain that much weight over the holidays. You know, that would just be kind of poor form.

[David]

So the small was for you?

[Janice Torres Rodriguez]

Yeah, of course it was.

[Podcast Host/Announcer]

Are you sure?

[Melody]

I'm positive.

[Janice Torres Rodriguez]

Oh, Jeff, don't be silly.

[David]

All right, so what do we make of this?

[Janice Torres Rodriguez]

Here's what I want.

[David]

A little csi.

[Janice Torres Rodriguez]

Yeah. I have a couple questions. First of all, do you guys already have plans to be together over New Year's, or has he told you he's gonna be away from you on New Year's?

[Melody]

We. I mean, we were together last year, and it was just sort of assumed we were spending New Year's together. So we haven't really talked about it.

[David]

If you've been with each other for two years, though, I mean, there is an impl. It's assumed that you will be together on things.

[Melody]

You just. Of course.

[Janice Torres Rodriguez]

I just wondered if he had already told her. Like, maybe if he had already said, yeah, I'm gonna be on a business trip this New Year's Eve or something, then maybe we could sort of find out a clue from there. But if he hasn't said anything about it, then maybe he's taking you on New Year's, and then he'll fake a business trip over Valentine's.

[Melody]

Well, see, here's. Here's the thing. Like I told you, I'm, like, I'm completely, completely broke. Like, I mean, like, beyond broke. You know, I haven't had a vacation. Like, I haven't even thought about a vacation in longer than I can remember. So here's what's the most confusing for me. I mean, I'm just telling you like it is. Okay? I'm just being perfectly straight with you. If the New Year's trip is for me, I'm going to wait to break up with him until after the trip. I'm going to try and convince him on the trip to break up with her.

[Janice Torres Rodriguez]

Oh, my God. That's.

[Melody]

Valentine's trip is for me. Then I can't wait that long, and it's over.

[Janice Torres Rodriguez]

Right.

[Podcast Host/Announcer]

So hold on. So the Valentine's trip is for you, what then?

[Melody]

I. I mean, I just. I can't wait that long. I'm just gonna have to end it and hope that, you know, I hope.

[Janice Torres Rodriguez]

You got the New Year's trip. So, you know, there's somebody else. You're basically.

[Melody]

I. Maybe with you. Like, what else could it be?

[Janice Torres Rodriguez]

Yeah, could it be his mom? I mean, honestly. Yeah, I mean, Jamie has a point. Yeah.

[Podcast Host/Announcer]

Nothing like spending Caribbean. Nothing like spending New Year's or Valentine's Weekend with your mom.

[Melody]

Well, maybe it's like a gift for his parents.

[David]

Could be you've done that for your parents.

[Podcast Host/Announcer]

Is the certificate clearly for one other person to join him, or is it a.

[Melody]

Something like join me, blah, blah, blah, you know, join. Join me on it? I don't remember the exact words, but clearly it's him.

[Podcast Host/Announcer]

Are the pajamas. Are the identical pajamas, are they more sexy or are they more practical?

[Melody]

They're not super sexy, but they're definitely not for mom, if you know what I mean.

[Podcast Host/Announcer]

Yeah, I haven't gotten my mom's sexy pajamas since I was 12.

[David]

One man's sexy is another man's practical. David, you are convinced that this dude is not cheating?

[Melody]

No, he's not cheating on her at all. I mean, the question I have for her was, are the tennis bracelets the same size?

[David]

Are the tennis bracelets the same size?

[Melody]

That's something. I didn't look that closely.

[Janice Torres Rodriguez]

Oh, so you think I didn't know.

[Melody]

Bracelets came in sizes.

[Janice Torres Rodriguez]

He thinks she's got backups.

[Melody]

You can return the gifts after Christmas. And if the pajamas are different sizes and she can Return the one that's the wrong size afterwards. The gift certificates are so she can figure out what day she can. They want to go on. And if the tennis brace is one smaller than and doesn't fit her risk, he's got a spare that will fit.

[David]

So, David, you're assuming this guy is being overly cautious, like thinking that much about the whole thing, that if it's the wrong size, she's still going to be satisfied on Christmas morning because he got one size of each, which would make him even more thoughtful, right?

[Melody]

Guys don't return stuff.

[Janice Torres Rodriguez]

I hope that's the. I hope that's the case.

[Melody]

But then what about the certificates? What is that about?

[Janice Torres Rodriguez]

He said so that it depends on when you could go.

[Podcast Host/Announcer]

So what he might have done is. This is brilliant because you say he's got a plate. He's got two different houses to keep up, right? So he's obviously very busy. So it's very possible that he bought two of everything. Listen, just hear me out, you skeptical women who want scandal to happen. He could have bought two of everything. Like, look closely at the tennis bracelets. Like, maybe is one gold and one white gold. Two different sizes, whatever. And then he can. He can drop the hints into, like, hey, what are we doing for New Year's? And that way if you say, oh, my God, I've already got. I made a reservation at, you know, such and such a hotel in Atlanta because they're doing this big party or whatever your plan is. Like, if you say that to him, then he knows to tear that certificate up and throw the Valentine's one out. You know, give the Valentine's one.

[Janice Torres Rodriguez]

I'm just really buying that.

[David]

Before you assume. Before you assume. And let's ask this question, too, Melissa, before you get to yours. Has he ever given you any indication. You guys have been with each other for two years now. So in my world, if a guy builds up two years of credibility, that should certainly somehow play into the equation here. Has he ever given you any reason at all to believe that he cheated on you up until this point?

[Melody]

No.

[Janice Torres Rodriguez]

Is he listening to me?

[Melody]

But, I mean, we did have a talk when he, you know, with this whole thing in Florida and all that, that it was gonna be really hard. I mean, he has been really good. Like, we make sure that we see each other every week. You know, he's been. But still, he does have this whole other life there. That wasn't the case before.

[Janice Torres Rodriguez]

Try to plan for those two weekends. Like, try to start planning ahead for vacations. Talk about those weekends and see what he says.

[David]

Beautiful.

[Melody]

Like, do both at once. Be like, hey, I want to do this for New Year's, and what about this for Valentine's? Like, at the same time?

[Podcast Host/Announcer]

No, because then you'll.

[Melody]

That's kind of obvious, right?

[Podcast Host/Announcer]

All you have to do is talk about New Year's.

[David]

All you need to know is about that first. Tr.

[Podcast Host/Announcer]

Actually, no, because then he immediately, in his mind, can go, oh, yeah, she wants to spend.

[Janice Torres Rodriguez]

Well, no, well, see, my thing is. My thing is that, like, a lot of times you, like when Katie and I are trying to coordinate stuff, we will look ahead. And the fact that you live in two different places, I think it's feasible. You don't just do those dates. You do the next few months.

[Podcast Host/Announcer]

You're not gonna learn anything.

[Janice Torres Rodriguez]

Why not?

[Podcast Host/Announcer]

It's a gift. It's a surprise. So guess what he'll say, okay, we'll spend New Year's together in Atlanta. And that doesn't really tell you anything. Or if he says he could say to you now, hey, you know what? We can't, like, no, I can't commit to anything New Year's, and you could get all freaked out. But he's only saying that to throw you off for the gift that he's gonna give you in three weeks.

[Melody]

Hey.

[Podcast Host/Announcer]

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[Janice Torres Rodriguez]

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[Podcast Host/Announcer]

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[David]

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