What’s the Price of Friendship?
Friending outside my household income level isn’t new to me. I’m a writer and most years I make less than 25K. I used to make more in my emergency dispatch days, but then again, except for the freedom to travel to foreign countries, I was rarely happy. These days, just about everyone I know earns more than I do. So what does this have to do with anything?
Recently, I was asked to be a fourth on a girls’ beach weekend. Two of the other three land solidly in a six-figure income bracket. I’ve never met the third gal, so I don’t know about her. Yet suddenly I’m feeling like Columbus scanning an Alexander-Wang-handbag-
Sure, I can pack my Anya Hindmarch mirror bag (bought at a garage sale last summer). And I can leave my credit card at home. But I’m human and girlfriend weekends, with the required shopping binge, can be fatal to budgets — not to mention diets and a resolve to curb alcohol consumption. Should I accept the invitation?
All this puzzling gave me pause when I realized this situation felt familiar. In fact, I’d written about it. In a novel. Mine.
In Prince Charming, Inc. my heroine, Elyse, is a matchmaker. Her best friends and clients are the upper crust of San Francisco society. Elyse barely fits in through designer thrift store finds and sturdy no-brand business-wear… and always feels a little inferior for it. Of course her friends are true, and in the end fashion has little to do with friendship.
Funny how our own characters have something to teach us! Of course I should go to the beach. So I can’t indulge in an outlet mall buying frenzy. Big deal. I can still be part of the group simply by blowing my diet and guzzling margaritas! There’s always a price to friendship.
Jamie Brazil is the wonderful author of Prince Charming, Inc.
