C.C. Babcock was not blessed with the ability to have open and honest relationships. Sure, she could schmooze backers or make choreographers wish they never worked on Broadway; however, she could not come to terms with how she really felt about the people that constantly surrounded her.
For example, she never loved Maxwell Sheffield. Sure, her mother would have loved to see C.C. marry a rich successful Broadway producer, but nothing about him excited C.C. He was a pretty face with brown eyes. Even though she was not attracted to him, flirting with him was almost a game. She was supposed to win him over. They worked together for long hours on end, they had similiar backgrounds, and their parents would have been more than happy to have one another in their families. Although C.C. played the game, she never wanted to win.
However, she did want to win over a certain butler. Although, she would never admitt it (even to herself depending on the day), she liked Niles. Of course, she could never act on her emotions. She could blame it on Niles being a butler,or older than she was, or she did not want to give up her penthouse apartment. The truth was she had no idea how to have an adult relationship. She was either too cold or too clingy. No one could handle her mood-swings or volatile temper, but it was a possibility that Niles could. She didn't have a problem settling for zingers and pranks, because if they took it to a romantic level,there would be no way to determine whether it ended in heaven or hell.
Although she did not loathe Niles, she really hated (no-absoloutely despised) Nanny Fine. C.C. hated how her nasally voice rang through the air. C.C. hated how she grabbed Maxwell's attention by sitting enticingly on his desk. C.C. hated the woman's tight shirts and short glittering miniskirts. Nanny Fine had no class, and she was trying to marry Maxwell Sheffield, of all people. Sara exuded class, softness, feminity, and demur. She had warmed C.C's heart, and Nanny Fine appeared on a doorstep. She wished she could forget the big-haired woman, but she had an annoying tendency to meddle in everyone's business.
One thing C.C. remembered was the children's names. That was an easy task. She was there with Sara when she gave birth to the children; furthermore, she was Gracie's godmother. Maggie reminded C.C. so much of Sara that it almost hurt to look at her. Brighton, as soon as he grew out of his rebellious phase, would become a cultured young man then grown into a proper man like his father. She intentionally called them the wrong name so she wouldn't call them by their parents' names. C.C. adored Gracie. For a child, she was intellegent and had developed worldly views before she was fifteen. Despite her intellegence, she was compassionate to everyone she met. As fond as C.C. was of the child, she could not call her siblings the wrong names and her the right name. That would be wrong, so she called her the wrong name as well.
C.C. would continue to flirt with Maxwell, fight with Niles, loathe Nanny Fine, and call the children the wrong name. Sure, it hid her real feelings about them, but that was the only way C.C. Babcock knew how to have relationships.