"Where the devil is Miss Fine? She is 40 minutes late to rehearsal," Max said to no one in particular.

"I told you this was going to be a mistake Maxwell," smirked C.C.

"Oh, stop it C.C. She probably just got stuck in traffic or something," Maxwell replied trying to act calm.

"Here I am," Fran yelled as she came walking in the theater.

"MISS FINE!! Rehearsal started 40 MINUTES AGO," Max shouted as he saw Fran acting like it was no big deal she was late.

"Oh, sorry Mr. Sheffield…," Fran started to say.

Maxwell cut her off, "Just do try to be here on time from now on Miss Fine. Everyone has been waiting for you to arrive."

Not likely the way Max was talking to her Fran replied, " Yes, Mr. Sheffield sorry. I will tell your children from now on I won't have time to help them in the morning so I make it here on time." 'Take that mister,' Fran thought, and by now the cast and crew had crowded around the couple.

One of the other actresses spoke up. "'Your children? You mean you two are married?"

"No, we just live together," Fran said, looking directly at her boss. 'See how you like that!' she thought.

Maxwell choked. He could feel one of those headaches starting again. He'd never expected this to be so complicated. "Miss Fine, can I speak to you privately?"

The other actors let out an "oooh!" as the two walked over to another part of the rehearsal hall.

"What do you think you're doing?!" Maxwell demanded when they were out of earshot of the crowd.

"I THINK I'm rehearsing a play!" Fran shot back. "I hope I'm being professional enough for you!"

"Miss Fine, please! I am already on the verge of a stroke, so can we please put this argument on hold for now and get on with the rehearsal?"

"As you wish, Your Highness," Fran said sarcastically. She walked back to the other actors. Max followed.

"OK, now that everyone is here," Max glanced over at Fran. "We can get started. Why don't we take it from the first scene?"

It had been a long day at rehearsal, and Max was more than ready to go home. He had ended up staying the whole time in fear of what Miss Fine would do when he left, so now he had a mount of paperwork to attend to tonight.

Fran was still up on stage conversing with her cast mates, when Max called, "Miss Fine, are you ready to leave? I am going home now."

"Yes, Mr. Sheffield I am ready to leave, but I don't think it would be too professional of me to leave with you, do you?" replied Fran calmly as we walked to the end of the stage.

"Oh, quit being ridiculous Miss Fine, and let's go," Max said to her. 'Why must she always start something,' he thought.

The limo ride home was silent. Each not wanting to be the one to speak first. Once they arrived home, Fran went to see how the children were and Max went straight to his office with Niles fast on his heels.

"How was first day of rehearsals, sir?" Niles asked dying to know.

"Don't ask," was all Max said in reply.

"Oh, sir it couldn't have been that bad," Niles said.

"Oh, really…it couldn't have been THAT BAD. Well, let's recap shall we. First, Miss Fine shows up 40 minutes LATE for rehearsal, then proceeds to tell everyone that she was late thanks to OUR CHILDREN. Now, everyone in the whole bloody play thinks we're involved!! We spent the better part of the day arguing, and to top it off she accused ME of not being professional," fumed Max. "So, as you can see rehearsal went just fine!"

"Oh sir, did you not listen to me last night. I told you, you have to treat Miss Fine with respect at the theater, and you would receive some in return. What happened to that?" Niles remarked. 'Why does he always screw things up,' he thought.

"I'm the bloody producer, she's an actress! SHE's supposed to respect ME!" Max barked. "God, I must've done 20 Broadway shows in my career, and I've never had such difficulty with an actress before."

"Well," said Niles calmly. "Maybe that's because you were never in love with any of them before." Without saying another word, the butler left his boss to think.

After careful consideration of Niles' advice, Max decided to try one more time to reason with Miss Fine. It was his only hope for surviving this show. Once the family had eaten dinner, and the children had gone off to do their homework, Maxwell asked Fran to step into his office.

"What'd you want to see me about, Mr. Sheffield?" Fran asked, as she bounced into the office.

"It's about the play. I'd like us to call a truce," Max said. "We obviously cannot continue working like this. Let's just wipe the slate clean and try to work together as adults."

"I guess I was kind of rough on you at rehearsal today," Fran admitted. "But you keep treating me like I'm not good enough to work in the theater just because I don't happen to be as cultured as you."

"I know, Miss Fine, and I apologize. I think the only way we can ever make this work is to separate our working relationship at the theater from our personal relationship here at the house."

"So that means no flirting at the theater?" Fran teased.

Max smiled. "Yes. You're much too distracting. I'd like to at least pretend to have my mind on my work."

A/N: Thanks to everyone for reviewing. We are glad to hear you are liking the story:) Continue to tell us, we love to hear it. hehe

Next chapter will be up on Tuesday! And don't worry Miss Fine always has a plan. And they always go so well, nu? ;)