February 28th - Night
"Your definition of 'down the street' from the hotel, is a bit different than mine." Maggie said as she and Patrick sat down at a table in the quiet little restaurant.
"Well, it is on the same street."
"True, but what…2 miles past my hotel?"
"A mere technicality!"
"Sure Patrick…sure." Maggie excused herself to go wash up. She washed her hands and gave herself a quick look in the mirror, to see how the days crying had affected her. "Hey", she thought, "my eyes only look a little puffy now…yay me."
When she returned to the table, she found an open bottle of wine and 2 filled glasses waiting. "What all this about?" she asked, gesturing to the glasses and taking her seat at the same time.
"Well, we are having dinner, and we are in Paris, so of course there must be wine." Patrick picked up his glass and gestured towards Maggie in salute. She mimicked the motion before sipping at the red wine. "I hope you don't mind, but I took the liberty of ordering for you."
"That's just fine. I wouldn't have made any sense of the menu or have been able to order from it. That was the kind of the point of this." she said with a chuckle.
"So, if I may be so bold as to ask, what has you upset Miss Stone?"
"Don't waste anytime do you?"
"Life is too short to do so. When you seek an answer, it is best just to ask."
Maggie sighed. "Sad, but true. I don't want to bore you with my life history, but I just had a lot of memories dredged up today as to why I left Pine Valley." She picked up her wine glass and prepared to take another drink.
"Really, and here I thought you had come for love and romance with Miss Montgomery." Patrick said very matter-of-factly.
Maggie choked on what little wine had made it into her mouth, and a portion of it flew across the table, smattering Patrick's shirt. "What is it with people constantly dropping that bombshell on me when I am eating or drinking?"
Patrick looked down at his shirt, now stained with red wine. "It would appear I hit a nerve."
Maggie timidly passed him a napkin so he could dab at the stains with it. "Sorry about that, it's just…I…well I get that a lot, but usually from someone who has known me, oh, more than three days."
Patrick was working on the stains, and looking down at his shirt. "So, you think it took me the whole three days to figure it out?"
Maggie leaned forward, resting her forehead on her hands, with her elbows leaning on the table. "I swear there has to be some sort of invisible ink on my forehead that tells everyone about us." She rested her head for a moment in silence, while Patrick worked on his shirt. "Patrick….how…how much do you know about Bianca and I?"
"Bianca Christine Montgomery, daughter of Erica Kane and Travis Montgomery. Lived in Pine Valley….." he continued to rattle off all sorts of details about Bianca as he worked on his shirt. He sounded like he knew just about everything there was to know on her. The story got up to the return of Miranda to Bianca just as their food arrived.
Maggie had noticed a pause in his voice when he had gotten to the subject of the rape by Michael Cambias. After the waiter had walked away, she decided to ask him about it. "When you mentioned Michael…..are you ok?"
"Yes….I…I just knew Michael when he was younger. I was his father's driver for many years before his death. I was of course disturbed when I first heard of what he had done, but now….now that I have met Miss Montgomery….it makes it worse."
Maggie sat in silence for a moment. "Yeah it was rough on all of us." Maggie picked up her sandwich to take a bite and attempted to change subjects, in hopes of not depressing herself even worse. "So how did you learn all of that information about Bianca?"
"When I was told she had picked me as her driver, I requested the company file on her. It had been assembled as soon as it was known she would be giving birth to a Cambias. It was updated when it was discovered Miranda was alive."
"Well, whoever researched it did their homework."
"Now, the mystery to me is you, Miss Stone."
"Me? There's nothing mysterious about me."
"Well, we don't have a file on you so I don't know that much about you except from what I could catch in Miss Montgomery's file. I know about your sister's murder and Jonathon Lavery from that."
"Wow….really hits the high points of my life I see."
"And of course, what I have witnessed in the past few days."
"Oh, and what is it you have 'witnessed'?" she inquired, taking another bite of her sandwich.
"That you both are very happy around each other, until it comes time for you two go your separate ways in the evening. You are both most alive when you are near each other."
Maggie paused, the sandwich near her mouth still. "You…um…see a lot through that little privacy window don't you?"
"Well, yes, but I have also been young and in love myself."
Maggie had sadly just taken a bite of her meal, and this comment caused her to cough on the piece of sandwich in her mouth. She set down her food and took a sip of water to clear her throat. "Ok…yes, I admit there is….something…between Bianca and I, but even she and I don't fully understand it. Yet everyone around us seems to think they do."
Patrick leaned forward. "Miss Stone…" Maggie shot him a look, he smiled. He had been intentionally calling her that all night to gauge her mood. "Maggie, it is as obvious as the stars in the sky that you two feel something for each other. And it is also obvious when you two go your separate ways for the evening, that you both become miserable. That is what puzzles me, why do you live apart?"
Maggie sat back in her chair and sighed while laying her arms on the arm rests. "That, Patrick my friend, is the million dollar question. If I was to guess….it would be because of the things I said and did to her while I was with Jonathon."
"They couldn't have been that bad if she asked you to come with her to Paris." Patrick said, finally taking a bite of his own meal.
"You have no clue how horrible they were. The things I said ….they were vile…and venomous." Her eyes went distant remembering some of those very phrases.
"Did you apologize after everything was over?"
"Yes, but……"
"But what? That was obviously enough if she asked you to come along."
Maggie leaned forward again, and folded her arms to lean against them on the table. "So old and wise one, how do you explain my exile to the suite if she's so ok with everything?"
Patrick raised his sandwich to take another bite, and looked more at it, than at Maggie "Did you think to ask her why you are there and not in the penthouse?"
Maggie studied him for a moment, and then lowered her eyes to the table top. "Well…no, but who really wants to hear how they hurt someone…." Her voice trailed off as she contemplated some of the things Bianca would probably say to her if that subject was to come up.
"As the old saying goes 'nothing ventured, nothing gained'."
"Yeah yeah, and 'You gotta be in it, to win it', save me the fortune cookie wisdom." She sat upright again and picked up her sandwich to take another bite
"Maggie, all I am trying to do is show you that there can't be that much harm from just asking her what is happening. As I said, the obvious remorse at you two parting ways each night is mutual. So to these eyes, you have nothing to lose, but everything to gain from asking her."
"Thanks Patrick…I guess I needed to talk about this more than I thought, and you have given me a lot to think about."
"Well, sitting around all day, waiting for a phone call to drive someone gives a person a lot of time to think." he said with a smile. "So, now what about this, 'be in it, to win it'?"
Maggie smiled, and lifted her wine glass for another sip.
Bianca said her good-bye's with Myrtle and hung up. While talking to her friend, Bianca had gone about finishing drying off Miranda and putting her in pajamas for the night. As the conversation had worn on for well over an hour, she was now dealing with a very tired little girl.
She placed Miranda in her crib, and saw by the heavy eyelids that no singing was going to be required tonight to get the little one to sleep. She turned on the baby monitor, grabbed the twin end of it, and quietly exited the baby's room.
Once in the master bathroom, she removed her sweats and t-shirt and stepped into the shower. As she started letting the water run over her hair, her mind drifted back to everything Myrtle had said about the situation between Maggie and herself. "Maybe I should just ask her what it is she wants. Would that be pressuring her though?"
Bianca always enjoyed washing her hair, but with as long as it was getting, she also realized what a hassle it was becoming. She worked the shampoo in and let it rest for a few moments before rinsing it out. "Just getting her to come with us was hard enough, I would hate to scare her away only a few days into this. This living apart is enough to drive me insane though."
After rinsing her hair, she set about washing the rest of her body, but they were all very automatic movements as her mind kept fighting with itself over the best action to take. "Part of me wants to ask her first thing in the morning, but part of me also knows I should wait for a 'better' moment. How do you find one of those with someone who is so confused, without running the risk that you scare them away?"
Her shower over, she reached out and grabbed a towel to dry herself off. "I'm not going to ask her to 'move in with me', I'm only asking if she wants to be roommates again. We've done it before, we can do it again….I hope."
She wrapped the towel around herself, and grabbed a second towel to dry her hair with. "Of course, those two times we lived together both started before her confession of love, and the second one ended before my confession….so we would be living together as roommates, but now knowing we have both said 'I love you' and meant it? No, that wouldn't be awkward at all." she mused, while making a sarcastically, dismissive face.
Finished with towel drying her hair, she picked up the blow dryer and started running it lightly over her hair while brushing it. "Myrtle has been right about so many things over the years though. She has never had anything but my best interest at heart, so why shouldn't I follow her advice now?"
She leaned her head to the left and continued to dry her hair. "Because I'm a chicken, that's why. There are so many more factors now…the 'I love you''s…the kiss back in January…the kiss and conversations on the plane…but I just miss her so much. She is so close, but yet it doesn't seem like it."
Done with the left side, she tilted to her head to the other side and continued the task of drying her dark hair. "With my work schedule, we aren't going to see that much of each other probably. My days will lighten up once I am settled in, but for now, I will be lucky if I see her an hour or two a day, especially if she takes off each day when I get home."
Now all that was left was to hit the still dampish spots and she would be done. "I'm sorry Myrtle, I appreciate your advice, but I just can't risk scaring her away. Even if it is only for an hour at a time, I need her here. I can't stand the thought of her going back to America…I just can't. So if it means living this way, then it has to be. I will just have to make do with just a little dose of Maggie Stone each day."
All done with her hair, she set the dryer down and walked into her bedroom. She put on a floor length, silky, blue nightgown, and over that a matching robe that she tied at her waist. She walked back into the bathroom, picked up the baby monitor, and peeked into Miranda's room one more time to make sure she was asleep.
Satisfied that her daughter was out for the night, Bianca walked out and headed downstairs by the main staircase to start going through the resumes she had brought home. She walked over to the window wall for a moment and stared at the Eiffel Tower, and though she couldn't see it, the George V hotel beyond. She pondered what Maggie must be doing, and how she wished she knew for a fact what she was doing. "I would always know what she's doing if I would just take Myrtle's advice and ask her to live here."
She sighed yet again, and turned to walk to the stroller in the front hall to retrieve the resumes. "Not yet….not quite yet."
The rest of Maggie and Patrick's meal had been spent in pleasant idle chatter. They had finished their dinners and gone back out to the limo so Patrick could drop Maggie off at the suite. She again insisted on sitting in the front seat, but Patrick didn't bother to argue, as he knew it would be pointless.
After the two mile drive back to the hotel, both people hopped out of the car, and walked to the trunk so Patrick could give her clothes from Bianca's, back to her. "Are you sure this is where you want to be?" he asked her.
She smiled up at the tall Frenchman. "Thanks Patrick, but yeah, I think I need some time to think before I do anything."
"If that is the case, are you sure I am not picking you up in the morning?" he inquired as he closed the trunk lid.
"I'm positive, now quit stalling and head home!" She reached up with her free arm, hooked Patrick's neck and hugged him.
He was a bit shocked, but returned the hug. "What is this for?" he asked.
"For trying to knock some sense into my thick skull." she said as she let go. "Not saying it worked, but at least you tried." She started to walk towards the doors of the hotel, but stopped and turned around. "Good night Patrick…and thanks."
He smiled at her and reciprocated the salutation, "Good night Miss Stone." as he got back into the driver's seat, and closed the door.
Maggie rolled her eyes, and headed on into the hotel.
Maggie stood in the shower, her head leaning forward, allowing the spray to hit her hair full force. Her palms rested flat against the wall in front of her, supporting her leaning weight. She stared down at the drain, watching the water that dribbled off her chin, fall the approximately 4 & ½ feet to the tub floor below, circle the drain for a few seconds, and then get whisked away into the Paris sewer system.
Patrick's words from dinner had caused a swirl of questions inside her own head that mirrored this, and now she stood here, contemplating each of them. "Why haven't I just asked her? Am I that afraid of her being angry with me? I know the truth already, so why do I not want to hear it? Will that make it more real…to hear her say how horrible I was…and that is the reason I am living here instead of with her and Miranda?"
She lifted her head, closed her eyes, and let the water hit her full on in the face. "Maybe it is time….the longer I put it off, the worse it could get. Maybe if she got everything out in the open now, and told me what it is I can do to fix this….."
Turning around, she tilted her head backwards and let the water again run over her hair. She arched her back, and used her hands to get the long, brown-dyed strands away from her body so it could hang free. "And the sooner I can do this….who am I kidding? Maybe this can't be fixed! Maybe she invited me along out of pity! 'Oh look at poor Maggie, I think I'll take her along to Paris for the heck of it.'"
She pulled her arms inwards, hugging them to her chest, and leaned forward so the water could hit the full expanse of her back. "Ok, I have to admit that one is over the top…she would never say that…I hope."
Grabbing the loufa sponge and soap, she lathered it up and began to scrub her face and neck. "So….what is the solution here…do I just go on being a coward, living in fear of what she might say …."
She turned face forward again to wash the soap off her face "….or do I work up my courage and get this bad energy out from between us….and when should I do it?"
She turned the faucets off, opened the shower door and grabbed a towel to dry herself with. "Ok, lets see, she'll be busy in the morning getting ready to go to work…."
Wrapping the first towel around herself, she grabbed a second towel to use on her hair. "After work she is going to be tired and will be wanting to spend time with Miranda, and it will look awkward if I just hang around waiting for a good moment…."
Using the second towel, she wiped off some of the steam on the mirror and looked at herself. "What about right now? It's not that late…Miranda's probably asleep…I doubt I am going to get much sleep tonight with this on my mind…."
She gazed at herself in the mirror…and gazed…and gazed….and then burst into a flurry of activity with the towel, drying her hair. "Hurry…hurry…before you lose your courage…no time to blow dry…no time for make up…grab clothes…naked asking forgiveness not good…grab clothes."
Throwing the hair towel on the counter, she ran out of the bathroom to the clothes she had still in the bags from her shopping trip. She threw on a pair of jeans, tore off her towel and put on a long sleeved, plain red button up shirt. She slipped on the sneakers that were on the floor of her closet, got the key and money out of her suit jacket, and threw on her gold over coat that she had worn to Bianca's farewell party and dashed out the door.
Maggie walked determinedly out the front door of the hotel, the cold February air hitting her still damp hair sent a shiver down her spine, but she had no time to worry about that for fear of her courage disappearing.
"Excuse me." she said to one of the bellman. "Could you hail me a cab please?"
The bellman looked at her with a confused expression on his face.
"I'm sorry, do you speak English?"
"Yes Ma'am." he spoke in a haltering English. "I am just not sure why you need a cab."
"Because I need to go somewhere." Maggie replied, now just as confused as the bellman appeared to be.
"Oh certainly Ma'am, but shouldn't you just take your limo?" he said gesturing in the direction over Maggie's shoulder.
She turned around and saw the Cambias limo sitting there, and Patrick in the front seat smiling at her. She started towards the limo and thanked the bellman for his help over her shoulder as she walked. She got in the front passenger door and closed it. Both she and Patrick sat there, staring out the front window, not looking at each other.
"How much longer did I have before you gave up and went home?" Maggie asked.
Patrick looked at his watch. "I had given you an hour, so, you still had eighteen minutes."
"Good to know…would you mind driving now, or did you park here so we could just stare out the window."
"Whatever you wish Miss Stone."
Patrick laughed at the pain in his left bicep that radiated out from where Maggie had just playfully punched him.
Bianca sat at the dining room table reading through the resumes for personal assistants. She had made three piles in front of her for "Yes", "Maybe" and "No". As Jean had seen fit to slip in his own resume again, he was the lone occupant of the "Not going to happen" pile that was on the floor to the right of her chair.
After finishing the piles for the first time, she lifted her arms above her and leaned back to stretch. She stood up, picked up the baby monitor and slipped it into the pocket of her robe. She shuffled towards the kitchen to make herself a cup of tea to get through the second culling of candidates.
Finally the water hit its maximum temperature, and she filled the pot from the tap. She walked over to the range top, turned it on, and set the kettle down. She retrieved a mug, placed in a tea bag, and leaned back on the counter to wait for the shrieking sound that would let her know her water was ready.
As she stood there, thinking over some of the resumes she had read, she heard the rumbling of the elevator. Nothing that odd since the pulley system was on her floor, but she noticed it was rumbling long enough to perhaps be coming to her floor. Sure enough, she shortly heard the ding out in the hallway. "Who in the world could that be?" she thought.
The next thing she heard was someone at her door, and what sounded like someone trying to enter her apartment. She sucked in a deep, sharp breath. Panic stricken she looked around the kitchen and spotted the knife holder on the counter. She grabbed a knife out of it and laid it on the counter, her hand resting on top of the handle.
She heard the click of the lock…the door swinging open….the sound of the door closing…and the sound of very soft footsteps. She tightened her hand around the handle of the knife, having no clue who had entered the apartment.
From her vantage point she could see out the kitchen, through the dining room and all the way to the den if the lights were on. For now though, she only needed to see to the entry hall. She saw a small framed woman walk into the view.
She stood there, framed by the door way, looking into the kitchen. "Hi." came the very soft, timid voice of Maggie Stone.
Bianca sighed in relief and lifted her hand from the knife and placed her palm flat against her chest. "Maggie! You are welcome here any time, but could you give me some warning next time? I think you just took ten years off my life!"
"Sorry." was the mumbled reply. She spotted all the folders on the dining room table "Oh…you're working…maybe I should just…yeah, I should just go…" she said as she turned towards the door to leave.
"Maggie!" Bianca called after her. "Don't be silly! I just put water on for tea, would you like some?"
"O…only if you're sure I'm not bothering you."
Bianca grabbed another mug out of the cabinet, and another bag of tea. "Trust me, not reading those resumes again is a blessing, not a bother." Both mugs ready, Bianca walked to the door from the kitchen to the dining room. "Come on, take your coat off and sit down, the tea will be ready in a minute."
Maggie hung her coat on the rack in the hallway and walked back into the dining room, taking the seat across from where Bianca had been when sorting through the files.
The kettle in the kitchen was whistling, and the taller girl had walked back to fix the cups. Once filled, she grabbed some cream and sugar, placed the items on a tray, and took them to the dining room. "So….to what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?" she inquired as she set a mug in front of Maggie. "And why is your hair all wet? Do you need a towel?"
"Um…yeah, I guess I do." Maggie said while laughing. She had totally forgotten about her damp hair at this point.
Bianca ran to the half-bath that was neatly hidden under the main stair case in the living room, and retrieved a towel. Once back in the dining room she handed it off to her friend who covered her head with it. "So, what is going on? It must be important if you came over with your hair still wet. And…how did you get here too?"
"Patrick brought me. He and I had dinner, and a bottle of wine, since his wife was working, and he doesn't trust his own cooking. And then…um…I went back to the suite and showered and thought about coming over here and…um…well….he was still around, so he brought me over."
Bianca could feel her eyebrows rising, and the questions in her head swirling. "Why was he still hanging around for so long if you were upstairs at the hotel showering."
"You know, I'm not totally sure actually. He was just sitting outside the hotel in the limo still when I came out to hail a cab."
Bianca felt some relief as for half a second she wondered if something was going on between Maggie and Patrick. Though she knew the mere idea was somewhat silly, Maggie did have a history of running to men in her times of confusion, so it wasn't that outlandish of a notion. "Is he still downstairs?"
Maggie smiled "No….he finally went home…I'll take a cab back to the suite later."
"So what prompted you to come over? Not that you really have to have a reason."
"I…um…just wanted to see what you were doing….which is work…so maybe I should go…" Maggie started to rise from her chair to yet again make for the door.
Bianca rose from her own chair, leaned on the table with her left and shot her right hand across to grab Maggie's wrist. "Maggie…what's going on here? You are holding something back from me….just tell me what it is? Whatever it is, will be fine, but it's obvious you aren't going to settle down until you say it."
Maggie sat back down, and Bianca released her grip just due to distance. "I….came to ask you….something." Maggie said, now staring at the table top.
"Which is…?" Bianca asked, lowering her own head to try to see Maggie's eyes under the towel.
Maggie swallowed hard, she knew it was now or never. "Is there…..is there some reason you don't want me living here…in the apartment I mean?"
Bianca just stared for a moment, not saying a word.
"Damn it…I knew I shouldn't have asked…I knew it was stupid…I knew it had to do with all the things I did to you while I was with Jonathon…"
"Maggie."
"This was too soon….I should have kept my mouth shut…" she continued as she rose from the chair and started pacing back and forth.
"Maggie!"
"I shouldn't have listened to Patrick, but noooooooo, he had to convince me I should just ask you and…." She threw her arms up over her head in frustration as she continued to pace.
"MAGGIE!"
Maggie stopped and turned to look at her friend. She pulled the towel off her head so it hung around her neck. Seeing the serious look in Bianca's eye, the tightness of her jaw, she took this as a sign she should just sit back down and hear what she obviously had to say.
"Are you quite done? Good, because I do have a question for you. Why in the world did you ever think I didn't want you living here?"
"Be…because you set up the suite for me…and you never said anything else….and…it just kind of felt that way."
"Well, I thought YOU didn't want to live here actually."
Maggie's jaw dropped slightly. "How did you get that idea?"
"Well, I told you when I invited you here that you had the option, but you never spoke up, so I…um…just kind of assumed…and I figured it had something to do with my telling you I loved you." she said, her voice slowly getting weaker with each word.
The two friends sat there for a moment, staring at each other, until finally, Maggie broke the silence. "Let me see if I have this right….you thought I didn't want to live with you because of my confusion?"
"Right….and you thought I didn't want you living here due to all the Jonathon stuff?"
"Yeah…"
The two girls sat there, absorbing what both had just said. So many thoughts swirling in each of their heads as they contemplated all the ramifications. As what had happened dawned on both of them, the corners of their mouths turned up in sly, little smiles. These slowly grew into broader smiles. Those were followed by snickers….then chuckles….then full on laughter…and finally in hysterics that caused both to realize they would be safer laying on the floor as they began to laugh so hard they were in danger of falling out of their chairs.
After several moments, their sides hurting, their cheeks stained with the trail of tears of laughter, the occasional chuckle still escaping them, they both were laying on the floor of the dining room, on opposite sides of the table, staring at the ceiling. Maggie finally spoke. "Um…Bianca?"
"Yes?"
"So can I live here?"
"Gee….I don't know….Yes!"
"I think when I go back to school I may want to look into taking a communications class, because we SERIOUSLLY need work in that department!"
After they finally had pulled themselves off the floor, and chatted about how stupid their fear of talking had been, both girls stood in the servants quarters that were just off of the kitchen.
"Are you sure this is where you want to live?" Bianca inquired.
"It seems perfect to me! You get to keep your spare bedroom for the inevitable family visits…we both get the benefits of living together, but yet we still both get privacy…we can get another crib to set up in here, so I can come in here and study when I go back to school and watch Miranda at the same time…what is not to love about this idea?"
"I know, but still…do you really want to live in a place known as the 'servant's quarters'?" she asked, her face expressing concern.
"Well, we could do something wild, like rename it."
"'Maggie's room'….I like that."
"Really? I was sort of leaning towards 'Maggie's Pleasure Hut'." throwing her arms out
wide like she could see the title on a sign.
Bianca walked over to where Maggie stood and smiled at her. "What am I ever going to do with you?"
Maggie tilted her head to the left and squinted her left eye "Um…give your new roomie a hug?" She opened her arms in a show of welcome to the taller girl.
Bianca accepted, and stepped closer, wrapped her arms around Maggie embraced her friend. "Maggie's room."
"Pleasure Hut."
Bianca closed her eyes and shook her head as they continued to hug.
March 1st – Morning
Patrick pulled up in front of Bianca's apartment building at 8:15 AM, his standard 15 minutes early, but today he was more anxious than usual. He had no clue how he was going to find it since he felt it impolite to just ask, but he was dying to know the results of Maggie's visit the previous night.
At precisely 8:30, he rang the buzzer for Bianca's apartment. She replied that she would be down momentarily. A few moments later, the front door opened and out she came. Patrick opened the car door for her, she got in, and he went to his own seat to begin the drive to the office.
Along the way he constantly glanced up the rear view mirror to try to see what he could gauge from Bianca's face, but she was all the way in the back most seat, reading what appeared to be personal folders from Cambias.
About half way along the trip, she put the folders down and moved to the long side bench of the limo, taking Maggie's usual spot near the privacy window.
"Patrick…what do you have scheduled for today?"
"Well, nothing Miss Montgomery, I am at your beck and call as always. Do you have another errand for me to run?"
"Actually there is a huge mess you created, and I need you to clean it up."
Patrick gulped. "A mess I created Ma'am?"
"Yes. It seems you thought it a good idea to intervene in my personal affairs and bring Maggie to my apartment last night for an unscheduled visit."
"Well, yes Ma'am, I did bring her over, but I…"
"But nothing, you created this situation, and now you are responsible for fixing it."
"Y..yes Ma'am. What is it I need to do?"
"As soon as you drop me off you are to head back to my apartment and get Maggie and Miranda. Drive them over to the suite and help Maggie collect her items. Inform the hotel the room will not be needed for the foreseeable future and then bring them, and all of her items, back to the suite and help her unpack properly."
Patrick was totally confused. "Um…Miss…excuse my asking, but how exactly is this a 'mess'?"
"She's moving for the second time in four days, and that is very traumatic on anyone. I mean really….you couldn't have spoken to her BEFORE the first move? Come on Patrick…be a bit more perceptive next time!"
Patrick finally saw the smile Bianca could no longer hold in check. "Yes Ma'am, I'm sorry Ma'am. I will try to act faster next time."
"You'd better!" Bianca reached through the privacy window and squeezed Patrick's right shoulder. "Thank you Patrick….I don't know what you said to her, but whatever it was, it got us to talk, and get this silly living situation worked out. You've been a true friend to the both of us, and I will not forget that."
"Miss Montgomery, it was my pleasure. You are both very special women, that is plain to see, and I was delighted to help in anyway I could. Whatever you may ever need, just let me know."
Bianca pulled her hand back, folded her arms onto the privacy window and leaned forward, her chin resting on them "Well…there's this little matter of what she wants to name her room….."