Boom stared at her for a moment. “Makeup is stupid.”
Elisa chewed her lip for a minute. Boom was young, really young, and more interested in sports and mixed martial arts, to boot. Most of her friends were boys. That’s why last night’s sleepover had been unusual, according to Gary and Greg. But Boom was still a girl and going to school with other girls.
“Here’s the thing. I don’t think liking any particular thing is stupid. I like what I like, and I try to respect what other people like.” Not the easiest perspective to maintain sometimes. “So if a person likes makeup, it’s their thing and that’s okay.”
Boom grabbed a pen from the container and flipped it over and over between her fingers, clearly still agitated. Elisa watched her and wondered if Alex did the same thing.
“Liking makeup doesn’t make you any less able because you can still go toe to toe with any of the boys at Revolution MMA.” Elisa tapped the counter in front of Boom, bringing the young girl’s gaze up to meet her own. “But being able to do anything the boys can do does make it kind of uncomfortable with some girls, doesn’t it?”
“They shouldn’t matter.” The stubborn tone was something Boom had inherited from her father.
Elisa smiled as she recognized it and admitted silently that she loved it in both of them. “They shouldn’t. But leaving yourself open to their kind of criticism isn’t fun, either. Besides, there’s a good reason to learn how to do your nails and experiment with makeup.”
Boom’s eyes widened. “There is?”
Elisa nodded. “Skills are always good to have and learning to do your own makeup is a skill. It lets you look the way you want, when you want, at will. You can go natural any day of the week with no cosmetics at all. And if you have the skill, on the one night in a million, you also can give yourself a Cinderella moment. All on your own. Minimum stress.”
“I never thought about it that way.” Boom tipped her head to the side.
Elisa shrugged. “You don’t need it. Honestly. You’ve got a great face with healthy, lovely skin and a natural blush to your cheeks. But if you ever want to learn, just so you know how to accentuate what you’ve got at the right time, we can sit down together.”
Any person looked a million times better when they could step out with confidence in themselves. For Boom, ten was way too early for the works, in Elisa’s opinion. But a little dab of gloss here and maybe a touch of powder could do wonders for her confidence level in simply knowing she could do it if she wanted to.
Then Boom could go back to being herself without the doubt.
Boom nodded. “Let’s do it. I want to learn to do it right so I don’t ruin my face.”
Elisa blinked. “Who said anything about ruining your face?”
Though that was another consideration. It could totally happen with bad habits.
Boom lifted a shoulder in a half shrug. “It’s one of the things those girls talk about when they make fun of girls who try makeup when they don’t know how. Mess up your face forever or end up with ugly, yellow fungus nails.”
Ugh. No wonder Boom had been twisted up about this. Elisa would’ve been, too, even as an adult.
“Good call. I like your face, so I’ve got a vested interest in helping you keep it the way it is.” Elisa winked. “A lot of beauty regimens are mostly about properly washing and moisturizing your face, anyway. The better you take care of what you have, the less you ever need to tweak the way you look.”
“Washing? Like taking those sugar baths you talked about?” Boom perked up at the idea.
Elisa laughed. “There’s different kinds of stuff. Sugar scrubs could be for your lips once in a while but mostly you use the scrubs for the parts of your body that take a lot of abuse, like your hands and feet or elbows and knees.”
“Break out the big guns for the extra rough spots.” Boom nodded sagely.
“Something like that.” Elisa shook her head.
Boom gave her that brilliant smile. “Thanks. I kinda like my face, too. It’s why I keep my guard up ’cause a punch to the face can ruin it, too.”
Elisa raised her eyebrows. Apparently Boom had taken a lot of talk into consideration. “Good point.”
Boom was going to grow up into one heck of a woman. Alex might not survive it.
“You know, Dad spends a lot of time looking at your face.” Boom’s voice took on a sly tone.
“Oh?” Nope. Elisa was not going to take the bait from a pre-teen.
“He seems to like you whether you have makeup on or not.” Boom chewed her lip.
Wait. Elisa deliberately stopped chewing her own.
“I bet if you did your makeup all special, his jaw would hit the floor.” Boom tipped her head back as she continued to consider. “But most mornings he has a silly kind of smile on his face when he sees you before you’ve had your coffee, and you don’t wear makeup most days. So I guess that’s a different kind of like, too.”