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Post by Bethanie Foster on May 19, 2019 19:39:19 GMT -5
Beth was very much looking forward to today. By nature she wasn't the type of person who liked to see other people be put in their place, but in this instance she was very much looking forward to doing just that to her eldest. Michelle was her first baby, she was intelligent and beautiful and bound to be successful in life. She also, at some point, had developed an attitude of superiority that needed to be put to rest sooner rather than later. So, she'd cleared it with her boss and had brought Michelle with her today, getting her a training badge to wear and planning on allowing her to take control of most of the sessions until she wouldn't be able to. The first bride was a young woman, coming in with a picture of the exact dress that she wanted and chatting excitedly to them as they headed over to the room where she'd be able to try it on. Obviously Michelle had no knowledge of the stock room, so she helped lead her daughter to the proper dress but made her carry it back to the room and help the bride to be get into the dress.
"Oh wow," the young woman sighed, looking at herself in the mirror and tearing up already. "It is even more stunning in person."
"You look very beautiful," Michelle spoke up. "It looks like it was made for you."
Apparently, her daughter did know a little about what to do here because she was handling this client perfectly. Then again, she was a very easy client all things considered. So she accompanied both of them out into the area where the woman's family waited and they all instantly swooned over her. Beth knew this sale was definitely going to her daughter but she also knew this sort of client was unlikely to make up the bulk of the day so when the woman confirmed that she wanted to buy this quite reasonably priced dress and Michelle shot her a look of smugness she didn't worry in the slightest.
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Post by Michelle Foster on May 19, 2019 19:44:29 GMT -5
Michelle went into today ready to prove her mom wrong. Clearly she thought that she was going to flame out here and prove that her job wasn't something that just anyone could do. And sure, she didn't think that her dad could do it, but like, he also wasn't fashion savvy and did not care for weddings - it wasn't a high bar. And she was proven right as soon as the first client of the day met with them, a girl just wanting to be told that she looked beautiful. Sure, the dress wasn't as expensive as she might have liked but this sale proved very clearly that she could do this just as well as her mom could when she'd started and already she knew that it was going to be a very profitable day. The next bride came in and she smiled as she introduced herself.
"Hello, I'm Michelle, I'm training here and I'll be assisting you today," she greeted.
"Training?" the woman, who was a few years older than the first asked.
"I'm the senior consultant, Beth, and I'll be here the whole time shadowing to make sure that if any more complex issues come up I can help," her mom inserted smoothly and with a warm smile.
"Alright then. So, I'm thinking I like the mermaid silhouette but I want to look like a princess, you know, very regal. No lace though, I hate lace," the bride insisted.
"Okay we can bring you some options," she assured her and then headed toward the room with her mom. "So, mermaid silhouette but no lace?"
"There's a lot of options, I'll need you to be more specific in what your vision is for her," her mom answered.
Of course she was being no help here. "Fine, mermaid silhouette. No lace. Sweetheart neckline."
"Fabric?"
"I don't know. What is left? Silk, satin, tulle?"
"Come with me, I'll pull some options and you can pick yes or no," her mom went along and pulled out some of the things that fit her specifications. She narrowed it down to three dresses to bring in for now and brought them back to the bride to be that was waiting.
"I've brought you a few options that I think you'll like," she said, setting the dresses onto the hooks that were in the room and starting to open them up.
"What are these?" she questioned immediately, her nose wrinkling in disgust. "None of these are regal at all. And they're all so boring! I don't want to look boring. No, I don't even want to put any of them on. Bring me something regal."
She had to bite her lip but nodded and gathered the dresses back up. "Of course, ma'am, right away."
Her mom stayed behind a moment after she'd stepped into the hall, she could hear her asking the woman a question but it was too muffled to make out. So, she headed back into the room with the samples and asked her mom again. "Something regal."
"What does that mean?" she asked, blinking at her wide eyed.
Now it was frustrating. "Mom, you know what regal means! Like royalty."
"That's very vague, Michelle. Are we talking Diana? Are we talking Marie-Antoinette? The Duchess of Sussex? Those are all very different looks," she stated simply.
"Fine, something with sleeves I guess. And a long train." There were plenty of choices there too, so she narrowed it down to another three. She also noted that her mom had pulled a few dresses along the way, keeping them in her own arms before leading back to the waiting bride-to-be. She gave her choices, two of which were immediately shot down but the other one she at least put on before she decided that it wasn't for her and was 'lacking that something special.'
"I also grabbed a few dresses that I think you should look at," her mom spoke up afterward, going into the hall and grabbing the dresses from where they'd hung. The first dress she opened got a lukewarm response but the next two had the apparently impossible to please bride gushing. They were beaded in delicate designs going down the dress, one with cap sleeves and one that featured elbow length sleeves and a high neckline but paired with an open back. The woman tried on both, and showed both to her family, going back and forth between them because there was one her family liked more and one she liked more. Her mom talked it out with her, ending up getting her to agree to the dress that she'd liked and signing to buy it.
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Post by Bethanie Foster on Sept 11, 2019 14:05:00 GMT -5
Beth was not the kind that was prone to bragging, thus when she got the second sale she didn't give her daughter any sort of smug look. Instead, she helped the bride to be gather everything up and get her dress ready to be sent to alterations. She could tell that Michelle was not happy with the turn of events though, and as they went into the next appointment, she noticed her daughter trying to mirror her a bit more. Asking more questions about what the bride wanted and what she meant by it. Beth could tell immediately though, that this was not a bride that was going to commit to anything today. She was vague even when pressed for descriptions. And that left Michelle with the task of trying to just pull a little of everything and hope that something stuck.
The picky bride to be had something to say against every dress that was brought to her, even the ones that Beth pulled in for her to try and she accepted then and there that there would be no sale on this client. Instead, she focused on trying to get her to pick out things that she liked with various dresses, getting her to reign in her ideals to something more clear, but it wasn't enough and the session finished with her picking anything to wear. That was how it worked sometime though and she encouraged the bride to research more and offered to set up another appointment in a few weeks, which she accepted.
So they went into another appointment which started out well for her daughter, she was closer on track to what the bride wanted - until she made a suggestion for a modification that could help make the dress even better for her after the bride had already fallen in love with the gown.
At that the bride looked to Beth worried, her glow of happiness fading. "Does it- does it need a lot of adjustments?" she asked, looking at herself in the mirror. "I thought it looked quite nice."
Beth shot Michelle an unhappy look as she came up behind the bride and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. "It looks beautiful," she assured the young woman with a smile. "My assistant is studying fashion design, so we're still trying to break her of trying to 'improve' every dress that she comes across. Obviously, it'll need to be hemmed, but almost everyone needs their gowns hemmed. And then, optionally, if you wanted, we could adjust that neckline a little, but that's fully up to you. The dress won't be perfect right now, but that's because it hasn't been tailored to your exact measurements. Once we do that, well I suspect that there won't be a dry eye from your family."
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Post by Michelle Foster on Sept 11, 2019 14:06:26 GMT -5
Michelle didn't realize her misstep until her mom shot her a look that showed just how unhappy she was. Honestly, though she was just trying to help the woman whose figure wasn't exactly right for the dress that she'd picked. With a couple of modifications it could have been perfect, but her mom was there trying to reassure the bride. They had to put her in a few other choices before she came back to the original and sought her mom's assurance another time before deciding to buy it. That was a quick lesson about what not to do. So, the next appointment she kept her mouth shut about the imperfections of the dresses that were pulled and of the body that this bride had - not that she thought anyone had a perfect body, herself included, it was just a manner of dressing to help the traits that you wanted to show off. When the woman raised the points about what she didn't feel comfortable with in her own skin, Michelle did her best to assure her that she was going to look beautiful. That didn't work.
Her mom now was coming in and explaining ways that they could help camouflage the areas that she was uncomfortable with - while somehow assuring her that they weren't as bad as she thought they were, but the whole time saying that the most important thing was that she felt beautiful and they would work with her to find whatever that meant. And the thing was, Michelle couldn't help but feel like her mom actually meant it. Like she actually really, deeply cared, about what happened to these women and wanted them to have a beautiful wedding.
Lunch was a relatively quiet affair, one where she stayed on her phone for the majority of the time even as her mom tried to chat some with her. Though she too was texting someone - her dad from the looks of it - even while she spoke. If she was going to brag, it seemed that she was waiting to do it later. Afterward, she tried to dive back in and have a little more luck than before; success was not easy to come by.
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Post by Bethanie Foster on Sept 11, 2019 14:08:22 GMT -5
Going through a whole day of work with Michelle turned out a lot easier than Beth had originally thought. After lunch they had more appointments and though Michelle was trying hard, the young woman couldn't manage to get the sales closed. Or she'd pull a dress that just wasn't right. She didn't take it well when customers disagreed with her vision and she tended to get frustrated when people weren't sure what they wanted. Unsurprisingly, her daughter didn't make any other sales for the rest of the day and she was getting a bit defeated about it toward the end. After their final sale, she sat her down in the room that they'd been for the entire day, giving the brunette a look that said that she was expecting an apology for the way that she'd been acting. "Well?" she asked.
Michelle had crossed her arms across her stomach and sighed deeply. "Well what? I think you made your point?"
Beth raised an eyebrow at her oldest. "I'm sorry, what point was that?"
"Okay, you're being really insufferable about this," Michelle said, then gave a more exasperated sigh. Her mom just looked at her with the same look that said she wasn't about to drop this before she heard what she wanted. "Okay, fine, your job isn't as easy as I thought."
"And?"
"And what?" Michelle was not pleased about this. It seemed she already felt like she'd said enough.
"I'd like you to admit that you don't have what it takes to do it," Beth continued. Her oldest sputtered a bit at that point just like she knew that she would. Leaning forward, she took the young woman's hand in her own. "Michelle, listen to me, it takes all sorts of people to make up this world. And I know you think I waste my potential here. I love this job. I am good at this job. Just because it's not what you think someone with my education should be doing, doesn't mean that it isn't."
Michelle raised an eyebrow as she looked down at her mom's hands on her own. "Is that all?"
"No, it's not," Beth hardened her tone as she looked at her daughter who still didn't seem to fully understand. "You are not better than this. What I do, it isn't beneath you. We just proved that you don't have what it takes to do it. And I'm sure that infuriates you because you are so used to being good at everything, but I need you to understand this, no matter how amazingly brilliant you are or how hard you work... it doesn't give you the right to shit on the rest of our accomplishments. I have a beautiful family, a job that I adore, and I have no regrets about the choices that I've made. They might not have been the choices that you would have made, but that doesn't mean they were the wrong choices."
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Post by Michelle Foster on Sept 11, 2019 14:10:42 GMT -5
Honestly, Michelle knew that there was a lecture coming from her mom when the end of the day came about and she felt a bit annoyed for it. Clearly, she'd underestimated the actual skill that her mom possessed that was apparently needed to deal with people in this sort of climate. So when her mom sat her down she got ready for the 'I told you so' portion of the day. She wasn't going to play along with it though and so when her mom started trying to get her involved she gave very little response. It was clear that she'd learned her lesson here, she didn't know what else the older woman wanted from her. That was until she hardened her tone and talked down to her in a way that she wasn't used to her mom doing. It didn't make her feel that great either, it made her edgy and a tad defensive over the way that she was being spoken at. Especially as her mom seemed to imply that nothing was beneath her, so she kept herself closed off even as she finished by saying that she hadn't made any choices that she regret. "You know," she said, a bit sourly. "Most parents would encourage their children to try for better."
Her mom's eyebrows pulled together and she sighed. "Michelle, you know very well your father and I have always encouraged everything that you've ever done," she said, a touch of forced patience audible in her voice. She might have had a point. "And we both believe that you already have and will continue to do amazing things with your life. That isn't the problem. The problem is, you don't realize that those accomplishments don't make you better than anyone else."
"Oh, so I'm just at the same level as some high school dropout now?" she demanded, not understanding at all where her mom was trying to go with this.
"You aren't better than them because of your accomplishments," her mom repeated, slowly and with great importance. "Because accomplishments are measured differently by everyone. There is no global metric of success and you can't judge people based solely on yours. That's what you're missing. I am so, so proud of you, Michelle, and everything that you accomplish. You know that, I tell you that. And I don't want you not to be proud of what you do because, it is really impressive and really great."
She was feeling confused now, at the way that her mom seemed to be going back and forth, about what she really meant here. "Then what is it you want from me?" she found herself asking, actually curious as to what the answer was going to be.
"I want you to stop looking at people who don't succeed in your manner of success as failures," her mom said simply, leaning forward and pressing a light kiss against her forehead. "At the end of the day, no one else can say who is successful and who isn't except the person living that life. So if someone says they're succeeding at something, if they're excited about their accomplishments, don't dismiss them. It's rude, it's hurtful, and it doesn't endear you to anyone. People who you write off will celebrate things you'll never be able to do. Your brother and sister will do things you'd never be able to do. Their skills differ from yours as much as mine do. Don't make the mistake of thinking you're always the smartest person in the room because not everyone is as kind as I am about showing you it's not true." She'd said a lot that Michelle had to think about, a lot that she would likely be thinking about for the coming days if she was honest. "Now, come on. It's the end of the day and I have a dinner to make."
Quietly, Michelle followed, her thoughts still swirling as she tried to reconcile the idea that perhaps her mom did know a lot more than she let on. Mostly she thought of her mom as someone a bit empty headed, a lot of emotional intelligence but mostly wasted potential. However, there'd been no denying that her mom was really in her element here and it was a lot trickier of a job than she'd thought it was. The way her mom could instantly recall hundreds of dresses off the top of her head was insane and she seemed to have an instinct about everything that Michelle had never considered could be important. She'd been embarrassingly outdone and her mom had done it with a smile, in heels, and without ever losing her positive attitude. It made Michelle feel a bit uneasy, knowing how badly she'd misjudged the job and by extension what her mom actually dealt with on a day to day basis. It was bad enough that the woman had told her a few weeks ago that she'd beaten her ACT scores. Now everything seemed a bit off kilter and she wasn't sure how long it would take to fix it. Hopefully though, her mom never tried to hustle her again because she couldn't take this twice.
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