Truth or Dare

Maxwell quickly pulls himself off of Fran and sits down on the stairs.

“Oh my Goh moh my God” these words come out in one breath as he holds his head in his hands. He is suddenly sober again. Margaret’s scream has definitely taken him out of his frenzy. This was the worst scenario he could ever imagine.

Fran sits up next to him putting her hand on his back. “It’ll be okay. I go talk to her. She…”

He does not allow her a chance to finish her sentence. “No Miss Fine, It’s not okay. She should not have to witness this. These things shouldn’t happen in this household”. He stands up and leans with his back against the wall.

Fran sighs deeply. She understands him and the discomfort of the situation but he is also overreacting. He is a grown man and talking about these things not happening in this household is clearly insane.

“You are over 40, it’s not strange that these things do happen. Maybe it’s not so convenient that Maggie walked in at the wrong time, but she is 17 and she will understand.”

“No she won’t! She shouldn’t have to walk in watching her father making out with…” he stops knowing that he was about to say something very insensitive.

“With whom Mr. Sheffield? You mean with the nanny? Are you embarrassed that it was the nanny she found you with and not some upper-class woman?” Her cheeks are glowing now and not because of the alcohol. How could he be this insensitive?

“No, Miss Fine that is not what I meant but …” he sighs again. Words fail him. He just wants to gety any and run into his room and hide for the rest of his life.

“You know, I don’t care what you think. I go up there and talk to Maggie about this because I think I owe her an explanation. I think you need to rethink this whole situation. Maybe you see this as a mistake but you have to know, I don’t! And excuse me, the nanny has to perform her duty now and talk to one of the children under her care.” With that she marches off and leaves Maxwell behind on the staircase.

Knock, knock. Maggie sits in her room staring at the wall. Her eyes are filled with tears. “Go away Fran. I don’t want to see you right now.”

Fran leans against the door and takes a deep breath. She has to focus now. The alcohol isn’t really helping but Maggie needs her and she needs to fix it. Also for herself and for Mr. Sheffield. “Maggie, you always come to me when you have a problem with a boy. Maybe you can let me come to you now with a guy-problem I have.”

Maggie sighs, trying to tighten her muscles. “Well, you don’t seem to have any problems in that department” she yells back.

Fran slowly opens her door. “Oh girl, you have no idea” she says walking towards Maggie who sits on the bed.

Through her tears Maggie looks at her nanny who unsteadily walks towards her. “You’re drunk” she states disgustingly. “Are you always like that when you’re drunk.”

“Like what?” Fran sits down next to Maggie, not too close, just close enough.

“Well, easy with guys.” Maggie finishes her sentence looking down at the floor.

Frn turns towards her and puts her hand under Maggie’s chin. “Listen young lady. I understand you are mad but I won’t let you say these things about me. You can just give me oppoopportunity to explain.”

Maggie’s shoulders fall. “Okay, but I don’t know if I even want to know. I thought you were here for us and I always hated everyone who called you a gold digger and look what a fool I made of myself”.

Fran feels very hurt but she won’t let it overpower her. She knows this adolescent too well and knows she doesn’t mean it at all.

“Okay, if that’s the way you feel. We really need a serious talk because I thought I was your friend.”

Maggie now looks straight at Fran. “Friends don’t steal each other dads!” Her eyes are shooting fire.

Fran gets cold shivers but convinces herself to rely on her own instincts. She puts her hand over Maggie’s. “Honey, the last thing I want to do is steal your father from you. Believe me!”

Maggie seems to defrost a little. “I just, I just … I don’t know why it feels so horrible. Gracie used to talk a lot about wanting you and dad to marry and I kind of always agreed with it but I just didn’t want to see you two …….having …… having sex on the stairs.”

Fran smiles a big smile now. “Oh sweetie, we weren’t having sex. If you didn’t see it clearly enough, we did have our clothes on.” With that last part she pokes Maggie in her ribs.

“Thank God!” Maggie can’t suppress a laugh either now.

“In case you want to know, your father and I haven’t slept together, ever.” Fran is now serious again.

“Your father and I are not having a secret affair like you might think now and I never took this job to make a pass on him. But….. I did fall in love with him.” Fran is surprised by her own confession but she has decided that Maggie is old enough to know everything so she has to be honest.

“How log has it been going on?” Maggie asks hesitantly.

“Nothing has been really going on until this evening. Okay we have kissed before. You remember the Romeo and Juliet rehearsal? Well, that really was our first kiss. You were there right? To you guys it might have seemed like acting but I was totally in 7th heaven when that happened.”

Maggie smiles. “We had no idea”

“And remember the Billy Ray Cyrus kissing contest?” Fran leans back a bit making it easier to focus on her story. Maggie leans back with her.

“The one you won?”

“Yeah, your father was teasing me that it wasn’t possible that I won that contest… so I showed him what a great kisser I was”

Maggie started laughing. “You really did that? Wow, that is so cool. I cannot imagine dad’s reaction to that”

“Well, let’s say he was shocked but he did not find it entirely unpleasant” Fran smiles at the memory.

“So that’s when you two fell in love?”

“Hey, I can only speak for myself” Fran clarifies before continuing “but I fell in love at another moment. “Do you remember you guys fixing me up with Erik Estrada for the Camp Kindervelt Reunion?”

“Yeah, but he was gone pretty soon, right?”

“Yes, that’s right and you know who came to save my evening? Your dad. He helped me impressing Judy Silverman and after that we danced. He is such a great dancer and he looked at me with those beautiful olive green eyes and I just melted..” Fran sinks back into the bed and stairs dreamingly at the ceiling.

Maggie props up on one elbow. “Wow, it sounds just like a romantic movie”.

“Yeah…” Fran sighs deeply.

“Okay, so I had a problem, being in love with my boss. I thought it was the most ridiculous thing in the world. We are from two different worlds and your father … well, he isn’t exactly ready for any relationship. So it was better to just discard those thoughts. I tried. An it actually did seem to work for a while until the Shakespeare evening.”

Maggie is getting really curious now. “What happened?”

“Ier ker knew how your father felt about me. And I didn’t expect him to like me that way. I knew I wasn’t his type of woman….”

Now Maggie chimes in “How can you say that? Just because he has more money?”

“Oh honey, your dad and I have so many differences in all areas. I don’t even know where to start.” Fran throws her arms behind her on the bed.

“But you makeh oth other laugh. When dad has a personal problem he always turns to you.”

Fran looks to her side at Maggie. “If only life was that easy…” she takes a deep breath before continuing. “Anyway, when we came back from that Shakespeare evening we had a wonderful time. Your dad was in a really good mood. He was so relaxed and loose. Oh, when we entered the house he suddenly held my arm and called me Fran. He leaned in to kiss me… I am sure of that. But then…”

Maggie finishes the sentence “You found Niles tight up in the living room and everything was gone. The kiss never happened.”

“Yes, that’s it. But something had definitely changed between us. Your father had shown some affection towards me and it set my own feelings on fire. I still presumed it wrong to be in love with him though and I felt your father was reluctant as well. So, we went on and hid our feelings again. Until this evening.” Fran let the memory of the past evening flow through her head. She still didn’t believe what had happened. It was like all of their walls were torn down for just a moment.

“Well, that’s easy. You were both drunk so you took your chances” Maggie couldn’t hide her sarcasm. She had understood Fran’s explanation and knew she was genuine but she still couldn’t shake the image off of her dad and nanny making out big time on the staircase.

“No, Maggie that’s not how it happened!” Fran propped herself on both her elbows so she could look at the oldest Sheffield daughter. “Niles, CC, me and your dad were all together in the living room. We decided to play a game of truth or dare.”

“Are you kidding? The four of you? Like some teenagers? I can’t imagine” Maggie is surprised to see the adults of the household in another light.

“Yeah, I couldn’t believe it either but it was funny and of course there was some alcohol along with that, otherwise we would never get Miss Babcock to play along.” Fran giggles and pushes her shoulder to Maggie’s who can’t suppress a laugh either.

“Of course Niles had to get at me and asked me for my most romantic moment ever and I described the Romeo and Juliet kiss. Not saying very explicit that it was with your father but he knew.” Fran winks at Maggie.

“And what truth did he have to spill?” Maggie started to get fascinated by this story.

“A very serious one. Miss Babcock is of course always trying to hit on your dad so she asked how he would spend the last night of his life. She thought he would spend it with her.”

Maggie started laughing hard. “Please No! Imagine us having CC as a stepmother, yuck!”

“Don’t be afraid Mags. He has no interest in her what so ever. Believe me!” Fran reassures her.

“So, he said he wanted to spend that night with you?” Maggie was on a thin line now. In one way she wanted to follow this romantic story between her dad and Fran but on the other hand she did not care for too many details.

“Not with so many words, but with a little poking from my site, he kinda admitted it. I felt really good about that!” Fran smiles at recalling the memory.

“So how did you two end up on the stairs and please not too many intimate details” Maggie shivers a bit, being afraid of hearing too much.

“Don’t worry, I keep those details all to myself to relive them over and over again.” Fran couldn’t suppress smiling hard. “Okay, your dad had pushed me into taking some wine and promised me he would carry me upstairs if I got all schnockered up. And I was, so he had to carry me. Isn’t that romantic?” She looks at Maggie. She knows it’s hard for a girl to hear about her dad’s romantic activities but she had to know. Maggie was old enough to understand. Thereby it felt good to talk to someone about it, who knows him really well, besides Niles.

“But dad had some brandies as well so you fell” Maggie completes the story.

“Yes, and when we lay there on the stairs he bend over and kissed me….. and Oh my is he a great kisser or what?” Fran’s body tinkles all over again at the memory.

“Yeah… uh…. I don’t really want to know but I could kinda see that he was really into it. So… how does it go from here?”

Fran sighs “Oh honey if I only knew. I think he is so scared now that he will probably stay in his room for the rest of the year.” Fran tries to make a joke but feels worried about what will happen next. She knows him too well, and his children walking in on him making out, was one of the worst things that could have happened to him.

“Should I tell him that I am okay with it and he has nothing to be embarrassed about. I think that he must be proud of being able to get a beautiful woman like you. And I am not mad at him because of mom. I understand he has to move on as well” Maggie softly says.

Fran turns to her, “Ahhhww you are a doll, do you really mean that?”

Maggie nods and Fran can’t suppress a big hug. “Sweetie, I am so proud of you. You’re taking this as a real adult. But I don’t think you should tell your dad anything. It might have the opposite outcome. He isn’t the one who likes to talk about feelings you know.”

“Okay, I just hope you two will be all right again. It will be kind of cool having you as my stepmom.”

“Thanks, you don’t know how much that means to me” Fran’s eyes are filled with moist now. “But don’t count on it too soon. He still has so many unresolved issues”.

“Ok” Maggie nods. Fran stands up and walks to the door. She really needs a bed right now. “But hey Fran …” Fran turns around.

“Next time you and dad can’t keep your hands off each other. Please get a room!” She smiles.

“Gotcha sweetie!” Fran replies with a wink as she closes the door behind her.

As Fran reaches her bed she falls flat on it. She doesn’t feel like changing at all. She just takes off her shoes, skirt and jacket and gets under the covers. She falls instantly asleep. In the other room someone is still tossing and turning.