Fran decided to get an objective opinion on the Lenny situation, so she invited Val over the next afternoon to talk. Val certainly was not the sharpest tool in the drawer, but she and Fran had been friends since before they could walk. Fran knew if nothing else, she could vent her problems to her friend.
Val looked around the Sheffield kitchen and asked, "Where's Niles?" The butler was usually as permanent a fixture in the room as the dishwasher, but today he was absent.
"Oh," Fran replied. "Mr. Sheffield told him to go pick up a chicken for tonight's dinner, and Niles took off muttering something about inviting Miss Babcock over. Guess the fumes from all that Lysol have finally seeped into his brain or something." The nanny rolled her eyes.
Val contemplated this for a moment, and couldn't think of an appropriate response. She decided to change the subject. "So how'd things go with Lenny last night?"
After double-checking that her employer was nowhere in sight, Fran answered, "To tell you the truth, Val, I was kind of disappointed."
"Why? He wasn't as great as you were expecting him to be?"
"No, he turned out to be wonderful. A real mensch," Fran said with a sigh.
"Am I missing something here?" replied the blonde with her usual confused expression.
Fran sighed again, this time in frustration at her friend's apparent cluelessness. "There wasn't anything between us."
"You mean there was no centerpiece on your table?" Val asked, once again being her usual literal-minded self.
"No, Val! I mean, when I was talking to Lenny, I might as well have been with you!"
"Gee, thanks."
"No, I don't mean it like that," Fran said apologetically. "I mean there was no attraction. And I don't get it. If Ma had seen him, she would've burst into 'Sunrise, Sunset' immediately!"
"Ohhhh," said Val, as the light in her head finally turned on. "OK, well, let's think about this now. You said Mr. Sheffield took you to the Russian Tea Room to meet Lenny. How did that go?"
Fran stopped to think. In all her frustration over Lenny, she had almost forgotten about the time she'd spent alone with Maxwell. "It was really fun," said the nanny with a contented sigh and a dreamy smile. "I mean, for the first time in I don't know how long, we were actually out without the kids. It was almost like we were...a couple."
Val stared at her friend in shock. "Don't you see, Fran?"
"See what?"
This time Val sighed in exasperation. "The reason nothing happened between you and Lenny is you've got the hots for Mr. Sheffield!" Val said this as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"I'm beginning to think Niles isn't the only one affected by those Lysol fumes," Fran replied. "That's just crazy talk. I am not in love with Mr. Sheffield!" Val shot her a look that clearly said, "Oh, come on." "All right, so he is sort of cute. You know, the English accent and all," Fran admitted. "And, now that you mention it, I did sort of get goosebumps a couple times when he touched me last night." Fran paused a moment. "Should I tell him?"