Geoffrey pressed his ear to Peter's bedroom door. He could hear the shower running in Peter's private bathroom. He stood like that for several minutes, listening to be certain that Peter was in the shower. Once he felt certain that Peter would not come out Geoffrey placed his white-gloved hand on the doorknob and turned slowly. The door eased open and Geoffrey crept silently into the room, closing the door quietly behind him. Geoffrey tiptoed across the darkened room, his wing tips squeaking slightly as he did.

Geoffrey was barely visible in the room with his deep chocolate complexion and his deep black butler’s uniform. He blended right into the darkness. The white of his shirt and his white gloves seemed to be traveling through the air on their own. A small crack of light shone under the bathroom door. Geoffrey was cursing his luck as he made his way through the room. He had hoped to take care of this matter earlier in the day while Peter was in classes at the local university. However, Peter chose today to stay home and cut all his classes.

It made Geoffrey mad to think of just how spoiled Peter was, or rather Master Peter, as he was forced to call the spoiled eighteen-year-old brat. Peter didn't care about an education, but his father told Peter that if he opted not to go to college he would have to get a job and there was no way Peter was going to do that, so he signed up as a communications major. But he only went to classes when felt like it and today he did not feel like going. Therefore, Geoffrey was unable to sneak into the youth's room and replace the money he had taken.

It was the first time that Geoffrey had ever taken money from anyone in the house in all the fourteen years that he had worked for the Sullivan family, and he felt horrible that he had done it now, but he had no choice. His father had needed a prescription filled. He had neglected to tell Geoffrey that he was on his last pill and it was vital that the prescription be filled right away. Geoffrey's father's memory was not what it once was, so Geoffrey, at age thirty-four, was forced to take on the added role of caretaker. Normally Geoffrey would have just asked Mr. Sullivan for an advance and he would have given it without any argument, but Mr. and Mrs. Sullivan were on a cruise and he had no way to get in touch with them right away.

He had considered asking Master Peter for the money but decided against it. How he hated having to call the boy Master Peter, but out of respect and tradition this is what was done. The domestic referred to the young men of the house as Master. However, Geoffrey knew that when he referred to the young man as Master Peter it gave the youth great delight. He knew that the boy hated him and saw him more as his possession than a person, so when he referred to Peter as Master it made the spoiled youth feel as though his "boy" was being kept in line, and that thought turned Geoffrey's stomach.

Ever since he was a small boy, Peter seemed to take great delight in making Geoffrey's life miserable. Even as a five year old, when Geoffrey would wax the floors Peter would come in just as he finished and track mud all over