Please take your coat off and have a seat

"Please take your coat off and have a seat, I'll just go check with Grayer's mom and let her know that we're home." I put his bag down next to the bench in the front hall and slip my boots off.
"That's okay. I'll just keep my coat on, thank you." Her smile tells me that I don't need to explain the frigid temperature or the mortuary flowers. I attempt to weave my way around the vases toward Mrs. X's office, only to find it empty.
I follow the sound of the boys' hyena giggles to Grayer's room, where his bed is serving as a barricade in the war between a pajama-clad Grayer and Darwin. "Hi, Grover."
He's busy bombing Darwin with stuffed animals and looks up only briefly to acknowledge me. "Nanny, I'm hungry. I want breakfast now!"
"You mean lunch? Where's your mom?" He dives to avert a flying stuffed frog.
"I dunno. And I mean breakfast!" Huh.
I find Connie in Mr. X's office, turning Grayer's fort back into a couch. The room is the messiest I've seen any part of the apartment since I've been here. Small plates with leftover pizza crusts line the floor and every Disney video is strewn about, separate from its case. "Hey, Connie. How was your weekend?" I ask. "You're lookin' at it." She gestures to the mess. "I was here all weekend. Mr. X didn't show, and she don't want to be alone with Grayer. She made me come all the way back from the Bronx at eleven Friday night. I had to take my kids over to my sister's.
Wouldn't even pay for a taxi. She didn't say boo to that boy all weekend." She picks up a plate. "Last night I finally just told her I had to go home, but she didn't like it."
"Oh, my God, Connie, I'm so sorry. That sucks. She should've called me-I could at least have done the nights."
"What? And let the likes of you know she can't get her own husband home?"
"Where is she?"
She points me toward the master bedroom. "Her Highness came in an hour ago and went straight to her room."
I knock on the door. "Mrs. X?" I ask tentatively,Fake Designer Handbags. I push it open and it takes a moment for my eyes to adjust to the darkness. She is sitting on the ecru carpet, surrounded by shopping bags, her flannel nightgown peeking out from under her fur coat. The heavy grosgrain shades are drawn.
"Could you close the door?" She leans back against the bureau, breathing deeply into a wad of lavender tissue paper pulled from one of the bags. She wipes her nose and looks up at the ceiling. Afraid that anything that I ask will be the wrong question, I wait for her to lead,LINK.
She stares off into the darkness and then asks in a flat voice, "How was your weekend, Nanny?"
"Okay-"
"We had a great weekend. It was ... fun. Connecticut was beautiful. We went sledding. You should've seen Grayer and his father. It was adorable. Really, a great weekend."
O-kaaay.
"Nanny, is there any way you could come tomorrow morning and just..." She seems exhausted,mont blanc pens. "Maybe help Grayer get off to school. He's just so ... He wanted his pink pants and I didn't have the strength-"
"I SHOT YOU! YOU SHOULD BE DEAD!"
"NO! YOU ARE DEAD! DIE! DIE!"
The boys' voices get louder,nike shox torch 2, as does the sound of stuffed animals being pelted down the hall.