Rosanne Dietermann couldn't say that she hated working for the Schuyler family but she couldn't say she loved it either. Thank God she had her family! Being happy married to a good man, being the mother of two mostly good daughters, owning their own home--all that made up for a fair amount of the crap she took being the Schuyler's housekeeper.
But that didn't mean she wanted to keep on making the beds, cooking the meals and chasing the Schuyler dust around forever. Rosanne had always wanted to own her own business and that is exactly what she planned to do someday. She had it all planned: a restaurant downtown on the square that made old-fashioned meals like her grandmother used to make. Rosanne's place was going to be romantic too, with plenty of ambiance. She'd already saved five thousand dollars and she'd signed up for a class in small business ownership offered by the Community Education center. She figured a few more years and she'd be on her way.
One thing she could say about Ron Schuyler was that he was pretty generous when it came to paying her, a fact that had seriously shocked her when she first started working for the First Family of Schuyler Square. After a few months Rosanne figured out why the Schuylers paid so well: they expected her to keep all their dirty laundry to herself. And she wasn't talking sheets and towels.
Never had Rosanne met such complicated, competitive, down right demented people. Ron and Mavis Schuyler seemed to go out of their way to mess up their lives and their children weren't much better. Take whatever was going on between Mavis and that blond cop. Mavis must think that Rosanne was deaf, dumb and blind not to have noticed how often Officer Van Husen was at the house. Rosanne most definitely didn't approve of the buddy relationship but she also didn't really care. Mavis was over 21 (way over) and Officer Van Husen wasn't a spring chicken either. It made her sad because she knew Chelsea Van Husen and she deserved better than she was getting. All Rosanne really cared about, though, was that her own husband wasn't running around on her with a tipsy socialite. She would kill Mike if he ever fooled around on her and he knew it.
"Rosanne?" Mavis's voice came over the intercom. Rosanne was in the laundry room ironing and half watching a movie on the small television set Tyler had installed for her. Tyler Schuyler was a nice kid, better than his big brother but that wasn't saying much. "Bring us some coffee please."
Rosanne sighed as she unplugged the iron. If Mavis wanted coffee for two, that meant Officer Van Husen was back for yet another visit. Funny, she hadn't heard the front bell ring. Good God, what was wrong with the man? Didn't he see he was playing with fire? Did he honestly think Mavis would abandon the lifestyle she had now to run off with him? And what about his own family?
From years of practice, Rosanne shut her mind off. What the Schuylers and the Van Husens did was none of her business. She put a tray together and was waiting for the coffee to brew when Mavis's voice came over the intercom again. "One minute," Rosanne muttered under her breath. That woman was so impatient. She paused to listen to what latest command her boss had to issue.
Only Mavis wasn't calling Rosa. She must have accidentally hit the intercom button.
"Have we done enough real work for the day?"
"You tell me, Mavis."
"Well, I know I have. I have to tell you--you make it very hard for me to concentrate on things like fundraising."
"What do I make you think about?"
"You make me think about...long afternoons under satin sheets..."
Rosanne's mouth dropped open. Wait until she told Mike about this! Her husband was going to be as shocked as she was over the latest chapter in the Schuyler saga.
The back door of the kitchen opened. Tyler Schuyler stepped in. "Hi, Rosanne. What's new?"
Rosanne stared at Tyler. She had to get him out of the room before he heard his mother and her wannabe lover make one more inappropiate comment over the intercom...
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