With Friends Like That...

When my husband landed his first job after graduate school, we had to move to a new city where we knew no one. I had trouble finding a job and making friends, and I was miserable. I joined a networking group for young women and started attending meetings, hoping to get job leads and meet people. One night, I sat next to a very pretty blond girl, and we chatted all night and made plans to meet at the mall the next week. We had a great time walking around, talking, having lunch, and she asked me if I wanted to come over to her house that weekend for a makeover. Sure!

I showed up to her house, and it was a one-woman Mary Kay party. She was a new Consultant and had taken me on as a "project". There was no conversation, no friendliness, just point blank discussion of how to cover my faults with her make-up and what weird hands and feet I had. I was at her kitchen table, being told how to apply eyeshadow like an idiot child, when her husband walked in with their dogs and had a conversation with her about dinner, totally ignoring me. She didn't even introduce us.

At the end, she said, "So is this the best you've ever looked?" I tried to be polite, and said, "It looks great." And she said, "Well, if you get everything I showed you tonight, which I recommend, it'll be $212, and here's how to make out the check."

I was floored but still trying to salvage what I thought was a possible friendship. "I don't mind buying a few things, because I'm glad to help support you, but I really just came over tonight to hang out with a new friend."

Her answer? "That's great for you, but how does it help my bottom line?"

She should have kept up the chummy salesmanship just a few hours longer. I was out of there with nothing.

- D.D., Georgia