Scrubbed

Eve used a toothbrush to scrub the rim of the coffeepot. She scrubbed the stains off the shirts and spills off the white carpets. She dreamed of cleaning all the crevices in the apartment with a miniature bottle brush she found inside the doll house. You're overwhelmed, you're overtired, you need a few days off, her daughter Lanie told her.
I like order, it makes me feel calm when things are in place, Eve said.
That's why you are good at your job, Ma, but don't overdo it.

Lanie gave her mom a gift: a week-long vacation cruise off the coast of Florida, stopping at all of the Caribbean islands. She insisted that her mom accept. I don't want you to end up like dad, working himself to death, Lanie said. On the cruise Eve didn't know what to do with herself. She had never taken a vacation, just Sundays off.

By the second day my mom was going out of her mind. She saw a cabin door open across the hall and spotted clothing piled up on an unmade bed. She wandered in and began tidying up, folding the clothes, organizing the toiletries, Lanie told her friend Georgia.
Really? What happened when the person came back? Georgia asked.
She told him that she was the housekeeping maid. He thanked her and gave her a handsome tip. The next time he saw her he invited her to dinner.
You're kidding!
It gets wilder, Lanie said. She came home with a marriage proposal.
What?
It's true, Mr. Messy fell in love with her and they spent six nights together on the ship. I think she's really in love. He's some kind of mad genius, a whirlwind of brilliance and chaos and he seems charmed by her company.
Only your mother could have an adventure like that, Georgia said. When do you get to meet him?
They're in Switzerland right now. He's a microbiologist, or something like that; a bird and bug specialist. He's accepting some big award and giving a talk about the mating habits of termites but then they'll fly back here for a few days before they settle down at his home in the Caribbean.
Wow, now that's an address, said Georgia.