The mysterious night!

Maxwell Sheffield stretched in his sleep. Suddenly he had a terrible coughing fit, which woke him up. He blinked around in a daze and sat up in his bed. He was still very sleepy, but otherwise he felt a lot better than when he had gone to bed. Whatever horrible medicine Niles had given him, evidently it had done its job. He was only terribly thirsty. He searched his way to his bedside lamp and turned it on. First he looked at the clock. It was the middle of the night. Maxwell was just about to get up to get a glass of water when he suddenly had a strange feeling.

He had the impression he wasn't alone in his bed. Confused, he turned over and at the same moment he was extremely shocked. In the pillows next to him he saw no other one than Fran Fine. Maxwell couldn't believe his eyes. At first he thought this was just some kind of a weird fever delirium. But no matter how hard he hit his cheeks, rubbed his eyes or pinched himself in his arm, the figure continued to lie in his bed and snored blissfully. Carefully, Maxwell approached her and tugged at her hair. It felt damn real. Then he gently poked her face. This was definitely not a dream or a hallucination. Fran Fine was really lying next to him in his own bed. Suddenly he screamed as loudly as he could and in complete horror.

"Miss Fine!"

But Fran was sleeping so soundly that she obviously didn't hear him. She just grumbled something, turned over and went back to sleep. No matter how much Maxwell shook and rattled her, nothing could wake her up. Maxwell realized that not even a firecracker would wake her up at this moment. Completely at a loss, he got up and poured himself a glass of water. He paced back and forth frantically, thinking about what he should do.

This situation was too much for him. And he kept asking himself how it happened that Miss Fine had ended up in his bed. He plopped down on an armchair. This was a typical Fran Fine situation. Since she has been the nanny in his house, he has to expect this sort of chaos almost every day. But as he continued to think about how he should best handle the situation, he felt a tiredness overcoming him again. Finally, he decided to postpone the issue until morning.

With a slight feeling of unease, he climbed back into bed and lay down next to her. In the morning he would confront her and he could only hope for her sake that she had a very good explanation for all this.

Fran stretched and opened her eyes, still dazed. Her head was pounding terribly and her mouth was completely dry. Fran felt miserable. She had the impression an entire family of cats was meowing in her head. She carefully got up. It was already early morning and the room was gradually getting bright. When Fran looked around, she suddenly twitched nervously. Her surroundings didn't seem familiar to her at all. This was definitely not her bedroom. Then she heard a snoring next to her. She carefully turned her head to the side and was so startled that she almost fell out of bed.

Her boss, Mr. Sheffield, was lying next to her. Fran jumped out of bed. She stared desperately into space, hoping that it was all just a dream and that any minute she would wake up in her own room. But then Fran realized she was truly in her boss's bedroom. She tried hard to remember the last few hours and to come up with an explanation for how she had ended up in this room. The situation was clearly too much for her dizzy head. Yesterday she had been with Mona at her farewell party and she had treated herself to a Pina Colada. Or maybe it had been two? In any case, somehow she must have mixed up the bedrooms when she returned.

Fran was terribly embarrassed by the whole incident and was very glad that she had woken up first before Mr. Sheffield. He must not find out about this whole story. Fran could already imagine the fit of rage he would throw.

Frantically and as quickly as she could, she gathered her clothes and left the room as quietly as possible. She crept down the hall to her own room and was very glad when she closed the door behind her. She sat down on her bed and took a few deep breaths.

At breakfast, Niles noticed that both Fran and Mr. Sheffield were acting very weird this morning. Both were extremely taciturn and barely responsive if someone spoke with them. They both seemed more than absent-minded. Niles wondered if something might have happened between them that he didn't know about. Something was definitely in the air, that much was clear to Niles.

Fran was heading to the buffet for the third time already and she shoveled food onto her plate. There might be people who can't eat a bite after a night of drinking, but Fran was definitely not one of them. She had an enormous appetite, especially when she had a hangover. Otherwise, however, Fran felt extremely miserable. Not only did she still have a terrible headache, but she kept glancing restlessly at Mr. Sheffield. She didn't miss the fact that he kept glancing at her from time to time and frowned at her. These looks made Fran extremely nervous. She wondered if he had yet noticed that she had spent the night in his bed. This thought put her into sheer panic. She hoped to the core that she was wrong.

Maxwell, on the other hand, was preoccupied with his own thoughts. In fact, he couldn't stop staring at Miss Fine. He had been very confused when he woke up that morning and found the bed next to him empty. Maxwell pondered again whether he had imagined the whole scene last night. Had it all been just a very strange dream? These thoughts occupied him so much that he hardly noticed what was happening around him.

Even when he sat later in his office, he couldn't concentrate on his work. He couldn't get the whole incident out of his mind. The more he thought about it, the more he realized that it hadn't been a dream. It had all been real. He could still remember how he had touched and shaken her. He clearly hadn't imagined it. The only possible explanation was that Miss Fine had probably woken up before him and had fled out of his room.

Maxwell thought maybe that was the best solution for both of them to get out of the situation gracefully. Maxwell indeed was very relieved because that way he didn't have to confront her about it, but could just pretend that nothing had happened. He decided to just forget about it. And yet the image of Fran sleeping in his bed haunted his mind all day. And the whole time he hummed the song 'Georgy Girl'.

Meanwhile, Fran was sitting with Niles in the kitchen. He was just giving her one of his remedies for hangovers. Fran took a few sips and pulled a face of disgust. Yuck, that was a terrible concoction. As if she wasn't already feeling horrible enough. Fran wanted to distract herself with one of her favorite activities, she leafed through the 'People Magazine'.

After a while, she noticed that Niles was watching her the whole time with great amusement. Irritated Fran asked him what that was all about.

"Excuse me, Miss Fine. But could it be possible that you have caught some fleas?"

"Niles, what makes you think that?"

"Well, because you are scratching your ears all the time."

"What? I do not!" Fran replied, dismissing the question.

But at the same moment she noticed that she was scratching her left ear. Her ears had been itching all morning. Fran's face suddenly turned bright red. She stammered hastily.

"You know what, Niles?!" I think I'll lie down and take a nap before the kids get home from school."

She hurried upstairs to her room. Fran looked at herself in the mirror, anxious. Her ears usually only itch for a very specific reason. But that couldn't be. That definitely didn't happen. Fran pushed the idea far far away and tried very hard to convince herself that everything was fine. But she couldn't help but notice that her ears didn't stop itching the entire day.