Friend is mad at me because I wouldn’t buy essential oils from our other friend who works for an MLM (all of us 25/f)

I think you made a sensible judgement and then called your friend out when they were out of line. The problem is that Cara is telling her a bullshit version of events, and Katie doesn't seem to understand that a good friend wouldn't put her in the middle of a disagreement between two of her friends.

I don't think explaining everything is going to help it will just end up as an argument via chinese whispers with katie stuck in the middle getting more stressed out about it. What you really need is for Katie to just stay out of it but to phrase it in a nice way. Something like you want to remain friends and know cara is her friend too, so you dont want to put her in the awkward position of being stuck in the middle.

But honestly this is the point where stuff starts getting too complicated and just gets messier when I try to over-explain or repair things. With guys, you can just call them up and invite them to go do something together like it never happened. They are usually cautious or defensive when they answer the phone but are happy enough to pretend like it never happened too once they realize you aren't calling them up to start round two of the drama. It's possible she thinks you are mad at her at this point, instead of her being mad at you. So she might be relieved to find out you aren't.

/r/relationship_advice Thread