Photo by Flickr user Judy van der Velden. Used under a Creative Commons license.

Someone wrote into the "Your Call" line at Em & Lo asking

Dear Em & Lo,

I’ve been dating a great girl for a few weeks now (yes, we’ve had sex, it’s awesome). I’m just not sure what to do for Valentine’s Day. I don’t want to do anything cheesy or cliche, but I don’t want her to be disappointed that she didn’t get the whole Valentine’s shebang either. I also don’t want to rush things, or make her think that any gesture is an unspoken confession of my undying love. I mean I like her, but I’m not quite at the “I love you” stage, at least not yet. So what should I do for the 14th?

– Big Heart

Source: Em & Lo

The point of their Your Call post is to give readers a chance to give their own advice. I passed along some advice that was given to me under very similar circumstances:

Your mileage may vary tremendously but the best new-relationship present suggestion I ever got was “bath salts and tub toys.” (I mean toy toys, not sex toys.) The further admonition was “and don’t break the bank.”

Like you and your partner we were at roughly the six week mark where it was too early to really go over the top, but far enough in that I really wanted to let her know I cared.

While I admit it wasn’t my idea it felt great exercising my creativity around town looking for genuinely interesting toys and really nice bath bubbles and salts.

And, again keeping in mind that mileage varies, it was a great suggestion because 20 years later we’re still together.

If you've got your own suggestions for an early-but-important relationship gift post your idea in a comment.