“Are you joining your parents for lunch, then?” Laure asked over her shoulder as she headed to the adjoining all-purpose cleaning room, to brush the mud out of Diane’s shoes, and rinse them.

“No I’m not,” Diane answered as she stripped off her socks and dropped them in the laundry basket that Laure had set down by the archway that separated the “mud room” from the kitchen area when she’d answered the doorbell.  She said nothing further as she drank the rest of the water, and was about to peel off the running jacket that she’d unzipped, when she saw Laure’s disapproving look, just as she was about to shrug off one arm of the jacket.

With a light laugh, Diane teased their curmudgeonly housekeeper, “What’s the matter?  It’s just us girls around, right?  No gardeners, cleaners, drivers, or handymen lurking about?”

With a huff, Laure took the laundry basket from Diane that the younger woman had bent down to pick up for her.  “Walking around in a sports bra even inside your house isn’t the thing people do in a proper Georgetown residence, Diane.  You were raised to know that!”

“Well … at least I’m wearing a sports bra, Laure,” Diane laughed lightly at Laure’s discomfiture, zipping her jacket again, and then spun on her heel to head to the media room where she had left her pilates mat, on which she could stretch out.  “I sometimes wear a lot less when I get back to my apartment from a workout or a run in the park, you know.”

She quickly slipped on the white earbuds dangling around her neck, that were attached to her phone, when she heard Laure exclaim behind her, “Diane!!”

Later, as she was drying her hair out, she heard her phone ring.  With a smile she thumbed the glass screen and greeted the caller with a warm voice, “Hey there sexy Shane.”

“What up D?” Shane answered coolly.

“I was just thinking that I need a cut really soon, actually,” Diane laughed, as she set her hair dryer down on the counter.  “It’s so long and messed-up already!”

“Your hair is silky, straight, and healthy, blondie,” Shane countered.  “There is little to no chance that hair like yours will ever look messed-up.  Unless you style it that way of course!”