Alessandra steps into the lobby and smells the deep roast of the Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee that Edie has percolating （they use a vintage percolator and the guests rave about the flavor）。 She hears Mandy Patinkin singing a Gershwin song: “They Can’t Take That Away from Me.”
She’s late due to the check, the kiss, the walk with the bags. She likes to arrive before Edie because she feels it gives her the upper hand, and now, when Edie looks up and sees Alessandra and notices the luggage, she looks confused and just a bit superior.
“Good morning, Alessandra,” she says. “Taking a trip?” Edie’s voice is light and easy despite the fact that Alessandra is always chilly with her.
“Good morning, Edie.” It’s not that Alessandra doesn’t like Edie; she does. Edie is smart, self-effacing, and excellent with the Marsh children. （Both Wanda and Louie are terrified of Alessandra.）
But Edie is also young, and the last thing Alessandra wants is for Edie to look up to her. Alessandra doesn’t want to lie to Edie about her past or her present, and hence, friendship between them is impossible. Alessandra has to push Edie away.
It’s for your own good! Alessandra wants to say, because she can see her brusqueness hurts Edie.
Alessandra drops the bags behind the desk and logs on to her computer.
Lizbet pops out of the back office for what’s probably her fourth cup of coffee; she drinks so much caffeine, Alessandra is surprised she doesn’t flap her arms and fly away.
Lizbet notices the bags because she notices everything. “What’s going on here?” she asks with an arched eyebrow.
Alessandra meets Lizbet’s gaze. “My housing fell through, so I’m moving in with Adam and Raoul.”
Lizbet moves for the percolator. “What happened to the place on Hulbert?”
Alessandra tries not to care if Lizbet has figured it out. Lizbet can’t fire her for what goes on in her personal life, though it might invite scrutiny later on, something Alessandra wants to avoid. She smiles despite the bitter, nearly chemical taste in her mouth. “Oh,” she says, “that was just temporary.”
Chad has been assigned a cleaning partner named Bibi Evans who treats every room like it’s a crime scene. This might be because Bibi aspires to be a forensic scientist, or it might be because Bibi is what Chad’s mother would call a “nosy parker,” or it might be because Bibi is a thief. Chad doesn’t like thinking this last thing, but that’s what his gut tells him, because Bibi touches every single item in any room that might be worth stealing. She touches the things that Ms. English has expressly asked them not to touch, such as watches, jewelry, cash, and pills.
They’ve been working together for two weeks when Bibi lifts a diamond tennis bracelet out of a travel jewelry case and tries it on. Chad is freaked out （and also somewhat impressed） at Bibi’s moxie; she doesn’t seem to be intimidated by Ms. English or the rules. Bibi holds her hand out so that the diamonds catch the sunlight coming in through the picture window overlooking Easton Street. “I was meant for the finer things.”
“You should probably put that back,” Chad says.
“You’re such a rule follower.” She says this like she’s calling him a pedophile.
It would be easy for Chad to shock Bibi with the ways that he’s broken the rules, but it’s nothing to be proud of. “The guest could walk in any second, Bibi,” he says. “Or Ms. English.”
Bibi waves her arm around as though showing off the bracelet to a roomful of admirers. It looks wrong on her pale, knobby wrist. Bibi wears heavy black eyeliner and has a tattoo of a skull on the back of her neck, which Chad noticed when Ms. English insisted that Bibi gather her stringy dark hair into a ponytail. She’s nothing like the girls Chad went to high school or college with; Chad understands that she’s from a different “socioeconomic class.” Bibi is the mother of a nine-month-old girl, Smoky （that’s her actual name; it’s not short for anything）。 She told Chad that she took this “crappy job” because she wants to go to college, study forensics, and join the homicide unit of the Massachusetts State Police so that she can give Smoky a better life than the one she had growing up. Bibi’s life involved a drunk for a mother （Chad can commiserate with her there, though he’s not sure his own mother and Bibi’s mother have much else in common）。 Bibi often lamented that paying for child care and the ferry tickets from the Cape took more than half her paycheck. Chad made what he hoped sounded like sympathetic noises. He told her the baby was cute.