The Thebault Family 101: NFTN #2

I quickly won Phillip over with my interest in the lightening bugs. I called them fireflies, they called them lightening bugs.

I met Brian, the father, later that evening when he was home from work. He was home at about 9 p.m. and he and Lisa had dinner separately from the children, which was their routine. They asked if I had any allergies or if there were any foods I would like to have around. I had one request--skim milk.

"Skim milk? Is that how you stay so thin?" Brian joked. I noticed Lisa running her eyes up and down my body. I was 5'4 then (A few years later I "grew" an inch after a spinal fusion with titanium) and had a stable weight of 105 lbs. Lisa was not overweight in any way but I noticed she went on a diet, joined an exercise class, and mirrored what I ate (she stopped ordering Coke for herself when she saw I always ordered water). She was a Calvin Klein size 4-6 and I was a junior size 0-3. Brian seemed to think I was attractive, but he never made a pass in any way. He flirted with one of my friends when she came over, but that was it. In general, he seemed to be happy with Lisa.

I asked Lisa once how they met and what their story was. She told me she came from a poor family and said she was the black sheep. She took a job as a secretary for Brian's father and when Brian was up late, she stayed late as well and brought him coffee. She said, with a laugh, "I seduced him". She told me she always knew, when she was younger, she was going to have this privileged life. The first years were difficult and lonely because Lisa was young and stayed home when Brian worked late hours at the office. "I was raised in a family where my father came home for dinner at 5," she said. She said she it took time to adjust. By the time I met her, she was adjusted well enough to leave the house and kids to me as she went to charity functions, and collect tips on how to keep the household help under one's thumb.

I was not the only domestic worker, but at least they did not approach ME with their request to wear a black and white maid's uniform. Maritza, the illegal hush-hush housekeeper who was a write-off on the company bill, was not so lucky.