Different Circles

She donned the robe and then closed up the tub. She then walked quickly back to the house, leaving wet footprints on the concrete as she went. She opened the sliding door and stepped back inside. She locked the door and secured the security latch and then quickly made her way back to her bedroom. Once inside, she went to the bathroom and shucked off the now soaked robe. She dropped it in the laundry hamper and then pulled a towel from the rack and dried herself off. She dropped the towel in the hamper and then walked back into the bedroom, where she pulled on a pair of lacy blue panties and then grabbed one of her long t-shirts she preferred to use for nightwear. This one was blue, tattered from years of use, and had a picture of Snoopy on it. She pulled it over her head and let it settle into place.

She felt a little sleepy after the wine coolers and the orgasm, but it was too early to go to bed just yet. If she went to sleep now she would wake up at three in the morning. She decided to go back to the entertainment room and watch some more TV. Maybe she would put on a DVD from Jake and Laura’s extensive collection.

She walked back out and saw her purse sitting on one of the chairs. She walked over to it and picked it up. Elsa would give her hell if she did not put it where it belonged. As she hefted it, she saw a red light blinking from within. That, she knew, would be her cell phone. She picked it up and flipped it open, looking at the little screen. There were three missed calls there, all of them placed over the past thirty minutes, all of them from her mother.

“What the hell is going on now?” she asked the air. The air did not answer.

She dialed her voicemail number to see if Mom had left a message. She had, but it was not very helpful. It just said to call her as soon as she could and that it was very important. That Mom’s voice sounded a little bit frantic was her only clue.

She sighed and walked back over to the couch, leaving her purse where it had been and making a mental note to move it later. She looked at the phone in her hand, not really wanting to make the call. Her mother most definitely did not approve of her new job or her new employers, particularly not after finding out how much the Kingsleys were paying her (“there is no way in Heaven they are paying you that much just to be a nanny!” her mom had cried). Both of her parents had always been a little overprotective of her, but her mother was, by far, the worst offender. She had hovered around her her whole life, second-guessing every decision she had ever made, giving her unwanted advice on every aspect of living. The overprotectiveness had become even worse after she had dropped out of college before her junior year. And then, when she had told her that she was going to be working for the Kingsleys and moving into their house with them, she had become even whackier. She loved her mom, but sometimes she was just a little hard to take.

“Might as well get this over with,” she said with a sigh. She pushed the callback button on the phone. A moment later, it began to ring. She sighed again and put it to her ear.

Loraine Zachary, her forty-eight-year-old mother, answered the phone on only the second ring. “Meggie!” she barked. “Is that you?”

“Yes, it’s me, Mom,” Meghan said. “I’m returning your call.”

“Where in the world are you?” Loraine demanded. “Why didn’t you answer your phone?”

“I’m at home,” she told her. “I was out in the hot tub watching the sunset.”

“That place is not your home, Meggie,” her mother said sternly. “And who were you out in that hot tub with? Was that Satanic singer and his wife out there with you?”

“I was out there by myself, Mom,” she said patiently. “Jake and Laura and Caydee are out of town for the weekend. It’s just me and Elsa, the maid here. And Elsa has her own quarters. Oh, and Jake is not a Satanist. I thought we had gone over that.”

“Then why do all the papers and new reports say that he’s a Satanist?” she asked. “And why does he write songs about Satan if he’s not a Satanist?”

Meghan sighed. “I’m not going to argue about this with you,” she said. “Is there some reason you called me three times?”

“Yes, there’s a reason, young lady!” she barked. “Earlier tonight, I got a call from one of those reporters!”

“A reporter called you?” she asked. “About what?”

“He’s from that horrible American Watcher rag,” Loraine said. “He said they’re planning to run a story about you in next week’s edition!”

“A story about me?” she asked, confused. “What the hell?”

“He says it has to do with your relationship with those horrible people,” she said. “He says they have information that you and they are ... well ... that you are more than just their nanny.”

“That is complete bullshit, Mom,” she told her.

“Don’t you swear at me!” she said sternly. “You didn’t use to use such language with me before you moved in there!”