Helena swigged her whole glass of wine and rolled her eyes.  She didn’t know who she was more pissed at, her mother for trying to manipulate Alexa or Alexa for taking up the offer after dismissing her help earlier in the evening.  Helena knew her own brand of help had been a little more crass but the principle was the same.  But that was the way Helena always felt around Peggy, she tried to make everything she said seem reasonable and if you disagreed you were irrational.  She had hoped at least her own girlfriend would see through her, would be on her side, as usual when it came to her mother, she was wrong.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

As they arrived back at Helena’s house, Alexa could tell that something wasn’t right between them. Helena was quiet and when she wasn’t she was formal with her, besides the fact they had been in the house for a good five minutes and not touched each other once.

‘Did you enjoy tonight Helena?’ asked Alexa, taking a seat beside her and handing Helena a class of water.

‘Not nearly as much as you did,’ she replied

‘What do you mean?’ asked Alexa, detecting the snappy tone in her voice.

‘Well you seemed to be having a fabulous time with my mother.’

‘Helena, I was just trying to get along with her, I thought you wanted us to get on so she didn’t make things difficult for us!’

Helena refused to listen to the reason behind Alexa’s comments.  ‘I think accepting her offer of help with a job is a little more than that, especially when you rebuked me so strongly for the same thing earlier in the evening.  Tell me why is it ok for the great Peggy Peabody to open doors for you but not for me?’

‘That is ridiculous!’ said Alexa her anger rising.  ‘Helena you know full well that the way you tried to strong arm that doctor friend of yours into giving me a job was totally different to what your mother mentioned and if you must know I was still uncomfortable with it but I did it for you, for us, because to me being with you is more important than my distaste for nepotism.’