In her hurried call to Christy, Diane had explained to Christy that she was planning to spend some time in DC with her parents.  “Can I give you keys to my place, and would you mind just checking around it from time to time, look at the bills, etc?”  Christy had assured her she’d take care of things while Diane was away.

As Diane stepped under the awning of her building, she stopped to ask her building’s porter to call her a cab.  But she noticed Tom’s driver standing by his car, which had been parked half a block away from her apartment building’s entrance.  He walked over to take her luggage from her, and explained that Tom had instructed him to stay there, in case she’d needed to go anywhere.

She gave him a small smile, and then asked him to take her to Christy first, who was over at Bette and Tina’s, and then from there they were to head to Penn Station in Madison Square Garden.  He returned her smile sympathetically, and nodded his understanding of her instructions, then held the car door open for her.

She tapped out a message to Tom as she settled in the back seat of the elegant car, and then composed a more formal one to her boss, and a separate, friendlier one to her team, while the driver took them across Central Park , heading towards Bette and Tina’s duplex.

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After having breakfast with Diane, Demeter left for the series of appointments she’d scheduled for the day.  Diane decided to go for a run, and returned an hour later.  She smiled her thanks at Laure, who had opened the side door of her parent’s home after Diane had pressed the doorbell.  With a smile, Laure handed her a cool glass of water, clucking her tongue disapprovingly at Diane, as she stepped nonchalantly into the sparkling floor of the “mud room” that preceded the entrance to the kitchen with her muddy trail running shoes.

With an apologetic smirk, Diane tracked her way back to the side door while she drank gulps of water, and then kicked off her muddy shoes, raising her eyebrows at Laure, who had confronted her with a still-disapproving glance.  Diane bent to pick her shoes up from the floor, muttering under her breath, “This is supposed to be a mud-room, right?”  She fixed on a bright smile, however, when she straightened up and handed the offensive shoes to Laure, who had stuck her hand out for them, lips pursed.