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"Don'tyou think you should have run it past me before you sent her over?" she asked.
I was startingto get a little irritated. Daisy did nothing but try to help her.
"What wouldyou have said if I suggested it? Any time I try to help you, you get butt hurt and refuse. It's not like her help took anything away from you. It wasn't a suggestion that you weren't competent, smart enough, or anything else. But if I had said, 'Daisy has done hundreds of these, and she's a pro, why don't you let her help you,' you would have been upset and refused the help," I snapped. "I don't see why Daisy helping you is a bad thing. I didn'tgiveyou anything."
She suckedin some air through her teeth, and her eyes narrowed.
Jade didn't respond,and I figured I would just shut up. There was nothing that I could say that wouldn't make her even more upset than she already was.
There was a brief pause."Your mother joined us for lunch yesterday," Jade said shortly.
I wasn'tsure where she was going with this. "She mentioned that she might do that."
"Apparently,she doesn't like my appearance, although she thought that Daisy was the most beautiful and well-put-together person on the planet," Jade said sarcastically.
Huh?Where was this coming from? "What makes you say that?"
"She wasfull of compliments for Daisy. She loved herhairand became excited when Daisy told her that she had her suittailor-madebecause you had told her that it was worth paying the extra money for," Jade said, emphasizing "hair" and "tailor-made."
"And?"I asked, very confused about what her point was.
"Then,she looked at me and told me there was a great new hair stylist at the salon where she gets her hair done. She told me he was very busy, but because she was such a great client, she could get me in to see him fairly quickly," Jade snapped, her eyes flashing.
"That soundslike she was trying to do you a favor," I told her, unsure what the problem was. My mom was a considerate woman; what was wrong with what she said?
"It soundedlike she was trying to say that my hairstyle is terrible and that it would be one of the two reasons my business would be unsuccessful," Jade said fiercely. "It was a subtle insult. And, on top of that, riddle me this – who would pay for it? Getting my hair done at that place would take up at least a month's worth of my salary."
I opened my mouth,but she put up a finger.
“Before you saythat you or she would be glad to pay for it, I want to remind you that I am not a charity case. I don’t take handouts from you or anyone else,” she said.
“There issuch a thing as gifts. People give them to others, especially when they care about said people,” I reminded her. “If someone offers to pay for a day at the salon, it is just someone being nice. You can’t always confuse niceness for charity.”
The glareshe gave me would have disintegrated the insides of most people.
“A giftI could have seen if there hadn’t been a precursor of the insult,” Jade said. “She also had a problem with my clothes. I wore a blouse and jeans because I had anticipated working from home the rest of the day. However, while Daisy was more beautiful than ever, your mother commented that I might need to think about my choice in wardrobe since I could never have a successful business the way I looked.”
Sighing heavily,I briefly closed my eyes. “She wasn’t trying to insult you. She was trying to be helpful. She knows you want to have a successful business and gave you tips. She comes from the business world, so she thought she would give you some advice.”
“What she toldme is that I didn’t measure up to her or Daisy’s standards,” Jade said tightly, her eyes flashing dangerously and her lips trembling. I could tell she was extremely angry.
“You were reading toomuch into the situation. Mother was trying to be helpful. She wasn’t insulting or telling you that you weren’t good enough. She was merely giving advice. You have to stop taking things so personally,” I told her.
That went over about as wellas trying to baptize a cat. Jade made a strangled noise, but I ignored her.
“You aren’tthe only person having to make adjustments,” I said heatedly. “You are still working for Jordan, who happens to be your ex-boyfriend and who isstill in love with you. I’m not happy about that situation, but I don’t harp on it because I know you are taking care of business.”
Jade stood up,shooting daggers at me.
“This whole moving-in-togetheridea was terrible. There is no way that we can make this work. We should return to our original co-parenting plan,” Jade snapped, her hands balled into fists.
Then,without another word, she turned around and stalked out of the room.
“Daddy?”a quiet voice came from inside the kitchen door.
Robin stood there,tears streaming down his face, his bottom lip trembling. His face was pale, and I could see the hurt on his face.
“Why were you and Mommy fighting?”he asked in a small voice.
