My Husband Won't Charge His Relatives, So I Smiled

Hearing Benjamin say that, my heart sank.

"So you really intend to let your sister eat and drink for free at the restaurant for the rest of her life?"

He nodded without hesitation, firm.

"That's right."

"I'm not like you, counting pennies over a few meals."

"You'd even go after my own sister's money. I don't know how I, Benjamin James, ended up with a wife as petty as you."

Before I could say anything, my mother-in-law came hurrying out from the back kitchen, where she'd been cleaning.

She'd clearly overheard our whole conversation from outside, and the second she stepped through the door she rounded on me.

"Cordelia, don't take this the wrong way, but you really are narrow-minded and far too calculating."

"Leila brings people in to eat here every day. That's her being kind, drumming up a little business for us."

"You can't even bother to thank her, and instead you're haggling with her over a few dollars of food?"

I was speechless.

"Mom, she brought seventeen groups in over two weeks, always ordered the most expensive dishes, made a scene every single time, and scared off every paying customer we had. How is that drumming up business?"

"This is her using the restaurant to buy herself goodwill, playing generous with our money, dumping every cost and every bit of pressure onto us!"

Her face darkened at once, and her voice went cold.

"That's just how favors between people work."

"If you ask me, growing up poor out in the sticks left you scared of spending a dime. You've got no vision, no sense of the bigger picture."

"You've married into the James family now, so learn from us. Be generous. Stop making us sick with those penny-pinching habits of yours."

"Our family has always been generous. We never take money from relatives!"

Benjamin chimed right in.

"Exactly. Between family it's about loyalty. I'd rather the restaurant lose a little money than charge my relatives for their meals."

"Don't ever bring this up again."

"I won't have people thinking the James family's gone so broke we're shaking down our own relatives for money."

Watching the two of them play off each other like that, I suddenly had no desire to argue.

The restaurant wasn't mine alone anyway.

Since they were all so generous, why should I stick my nose in?

I nodded calmly.

"Fine. I understand."

Seeing me stop arguing, Benjamin assumed he'd talked me around. He looked down at me, smug.

"See? You should've come around sooner."

"The one thing you never do between family is scheme. Learn a little from the way the James family carries itself, and your life will go a lot smoother."

My mother-in-law picked up the thread, sneering.

"Exactly. Otherwise, with that shortsighted country-bumpkin outlook of yours, you'll never amount to anything in this life."

The two of them went back and forth, every line belittling me while puffing up this so-called James family class of theirs.

I gave a faint smile and said nothing.

Fine. Since you're all so generous, I'll help you live up to it.