Close, But No Cigar

I have been asking Holland if she wants to get her ears pierced. Yes, you read that right, I have been asking her not the other way around. I don't know why, but I have been wanting her to get them pierced. Maybe I want to secretly share unicorn earrings, I don't know. Anyway she has been adamant about not wanting it. She'll tell me, "not every girl has her ear pierced." and I come back with, " But your friend, Avery and Tiffany and Terry do.." And she says, "that doesn't mean I have to.."
The role reversal is a little weird, I admit.

Anyway, on this day, I had her convinced and she was excited, sort of, about it. She picked out earrings that matched her friend Avery's, sat in the chair, and held onto the bear. I even had 2 girls ready to do it, so she could have both ears pierced at the same time.
So, the girl went over the paperwork with me, and talked about cleaning them to prevent infection and so on and so on. I kind of tuned her out because, well, this wasn't my first ear piercing rodeo.
Then the girl had to run check another customer out and while she was gone, my carefully laid plan fell apart. Apparently, all Holland heard in the girl's speech was the word "infection". And with Holland, it only takes a single word to make her come unglued, and that was the magic word. The tears started, she started asking about what we do about an infection, would we go to the doctor, what, what would happen..... I brought in my back-up salesman, Grey who tried to distract her from thinking about it and was actually pretty successful until this 9 yr old girl walked over to lend her unsolicited support. I'll refer to her as "miss anti-helpful." Miss anti-helpful says, " Girl, when I got my ears pierced, you could hear my screams at the other end of the mall.....but I was happy afterwards."
I looked over at Grey, who just looked down and shook his head. We threw up the white flag.

There would be no piercings that day. Sure, I could have forced the issue, but I want it to be a good memory. Besides, she is going to be one of the ones that chooses my nursing home. Better not to have any traumatic memories for her to draw upon when that day comes.