It's so hard to find good help these days...

Most of the volunteers working to build Mimi's new home had just gotten their assignments. They talked, sized up the lot, tried to imagine how the new house would look when it was done. Chloe didn't even see Belle approach. She looked towards a pile of rumpled shirts in the corner. The sun was hot, the day humid and most of the men had taken them off. Philips’s was lying on top, the blue and white checkered button down that didn't in the least suit a construction area. She searched for Philip among all the volunteers. He was stretching his shoulder to get the toolbox just out of his reach. His build was slim but strong and well proportioned, like a dancer or a swimmer and his muscles were long and fluid. He moved well.

"Chloe?"

"What? What?" she said a little flustered, hiding her face, as though Belle could read her mind.

"Hello?" Belle said as she waved her arms in front of Chloe. "It's all right."

"What's all right?"

"That." Belle said as she looked over at Philip and then at Chloe. "There's nothing to be embarrassed about."

"There would if Philip knew what I was thinking right now..."

"I wouldn't worry about that, believe me."

Chloe didn't quite trust Belle's meaning but she continued on in the same way. "Philip is arrogant enough as it is. I mean it's just an accident of nature..."

Belle was trying so hard not to laugh but Chloe wasn't making it easy.

"Hello ladies. Something of interest?" Shawn said. "Ah. Philly doing manual labor, what a sight." He spoke loudly in Philips’s direction. " K-man just loves working with his hands." Chloe dropped the bag of nails she was holding and stooped to the floor to pick them up.

"Shut up Brady...." Philip said turning to Shawn, though he might have been better off or at least his thumb might have been better off had he turned to the nail he was hammering. "Man..."

"You all right Phil?" Shawn said with real concern.

Chloe, who was still gathering nails off the floor, looked up for a second.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Don't laugh. You know you're no Bob Vila yourself."

"At least I'm not a danger to myself. Hey why don't I give you a job you can handle. Get me a screwdriver...the Phillips head over there..."

Belle immediately shouted, "I got it. Here." she said proudly displaying her newly found tool savvy.

"What is that?" Shawn asked.

"A screwdriver."

"God, you can't tell the difference between a Phillips head and a flat head."

"There is none," said Chloe glancing over at Philip. She'd been so quiet he thought she'd left. She stood with her arms folded in front of her and her chin way up. Chloe was no flatterer thought Philip, but she had one hell of a deadpan.

"One of these days, Chloe, one of these days, pow right in the kisser!' Philip said.

"What?" Chloe said, confused.

"The Honeymooners."

"I don't understand."

"Ralph Kramden, Alice, Norton, Trixie...reruns, they're on cable."

"Apparently Chloe isn't as cultured as you, Phil. " said Shawn.

"You never heard of the Honeymooners? Where did you grow up, the moon?" Philip stopped cold.

"I think the orphanage Chloe was at only had basic cable, Phil." Shawn said.

"I didn't mean anything....I wasn't trying to..."

"It's not important." said Chloe and everyone returned to their work, occasionally stopping to chat and laugh; everyone except Chloe who kept to herself, more like when she'd first come to Salem, than the weeks since her shining moment at the Last Blast dance.

Mimi, who'd been fairly quiet herself broke her silence in outrage at an utterance of sympathy for Chloe. "Poor baby." She whispered to Shawn. "Growing up without HBO and SportsChannel."

"Mimi, you of all people should know that you can't always tell how tough someone has had it." Shawn said. He almost immediately regretted saying it. Mimi was wrong, no question about but she was also in a great deal of pain and feeling as low as they come. "Mimi, if you don't like Chloe, just stay out of her way."

"Easy for you to say. You don't live in her house."

"Yeah, well you'd surprised how easily people can stay away from each other living in the same house."

Philip who'd gone off by himself turned around but quickly returned to his work. They were talking about Mimi living with the Wesleys.

"Fine, I'll try."

"Thanks. I mean that Mimi."

She just shrugged her shoulders. Good old Mimi, thought Shawn. When she walked in a room she didn't sparkle but she'd make it well lit and comfortable, a quality he appreciated more each day, though he suspected Mimi would have traded in ‘solid as an oak' for ‘glittery like a diamond' any time. He shouldn't have said anything but somehow he expected Mimi to just handle anything that came her way. To see her act out this way...it disappointed him.

DotCom, home of annoying techno music and really bad burgers. Philip wasn't even sure why he'd suggested it but somehow he didn't want to leave the day as it was. Well this bright idea of his paid off about as well as his ideas usually did. Shawn went to order the food and Belle and Chloe ran off to look at tapes and CD's. He scouted out the room. Well Philip had to be grateful for small favors, Minnie and Mo, otherwise known as Jan and Jason weren't there tonight. Mimi didn't want to come which was just as well. Boy everyone sure was taking their good old sweet time while he was sitting alone twiddling his thumbs.

"Ooh Chloe. Let me se what you have there. Rigoletto. I guess you really love opera huh?" Belle said taking the CD.

"I like other music too and movies and books..." Chloe said a bit too quickly.

"That's okay. It's really great music. My mom thinks all the pop singers I listen to sound alike. You know my folks have a subscription to the opera."

"Wow, so what have you seen?"

" Let's just say I didn't appreciate the beauty of it right away. So..." Belle scrunched up her face in a way that made even self-consciousness seem perky. "I've never been."

"Me neither."

"No ...way. You're joking right?"

"No. What can I say? Those $125 orchestra seats were a bit out of my range."

"I'm sorry. I didn't think of that."

"That's okay. So maybe we can see our first real live opera together." It was one of the warmest smiles Belle had ever seen on Chloe. "La Boheme, it's so romantic you'd love it..."

"Or Tosca the tragic story of the great opera singer and her sacrifice for love." Shawn added as he passed by with the iced teas. Chloe smiled.

"Wait." she said. ". Mozart...The Magic Flute...or Don Giovanni. What do you think Philip?" Chloe said eyeing Philip standing and listening from behind a pillar.

"Sounds good to me. " he said caught off guard. " Don Giovanni. So what's that about?"

"A two timing, womanizing jerk who ends up going to hell."

"Oh." Philip said nervously.

Belle and Chloe looked at each other and cracked up.

"You are so bad, Chloe. Though Philips’s really kind of okay."

"Well don't tell Philip but Don Giovanni is kind of a likable jerk."

"Hey Chloe!" Philip shouted out. "Look what I found." He returned holding several videos in his hand. Chloe grabbed one of the tapes and began reading the back cover. 'One of the classic sitcoms...'

"You gotta rent this Chloe."

"Sitcom? You want me to rent a television rerun?"

Philip turned the tape around and gestured to Chloe to look.

"The Honeymooners" she said quietly. "Well I can't rent these." Chloe snapped. " Nancy is like Royal Protector of the VCR. She needs to keep it available for all her romance movies."

"My folks hardly ever use the VCR. Come to my house and we can watch -em together." Chloe started and Philip quickly added, "We can all watch -em."

"Right now?"

"Sure."

"I've got to get home." Shawn said.

"Me too." said Belle. "We have a long day tomorrow."

Come anyway, Philip thought, please come anyway. Chloe was not sure. She looked at Philips’s face....

"Well if you don't think it'll take too long..." Chloe said flatly.

"They're only like twenty minutes a piece. We'll just watch one or two."

"Okay." she said reluctantly. "Let me just pay for these CD's first."

The house was big. Unbelievably...big. It was full of clutter, not the usual clutter like paper, but furniture clutter, useless knick-knacks. High back chairs not made for a living being, heavy ornamental desks with tiny drawers, upholstered leather sofas that seemed to groan at human contact. Everything was either brass or crystal or leather or heavy satin. The whole huge house was like an expensive shoe that pinched - beautifully constructed but it left you with blisters all over your feet. Chloe felt as if she needed air holes poked in the roof just to breathe. This was Philips’s home.

"I better call Craig and let him know I'm here." she said knowing full well what Nancy would have to say. "You know Philip if you think your folks would mind..."

"Nah. It's pretty early and my dad's usually pretty busy. They probably won't even know you're here."

Chloe did not seem relieved. This was such a mistake, Philip thought. Chloe did not want to be here. He'd pushed it and she was going to hate him for doing it.

A young woman in a maid's uniform approached them. "Ah Mr. Philip I see you have a friend. I bring you something to eat."

"Don't bother, Maya." he said. "We can help ourselves. Have a good night."

"Good night Mr. Philip. You too Miss." On her way out she said to Philip "You friend, very nice." Those famous Kiriakis dimples came out full force.

Chloe had always thought Philip would be the type to keep everyone in their place, sort of like, well like Craig and Nancy at the hospital. This, it surprised her.

They walked upstairs and down a large, narrow hallway. "Shhh" Philip said as they passed the first door. "My mom's resting...."

Chloe caught the bag of CD's swinging from her arm and held it steady with her hand. "I'm sorry...maybe this isn't a good idea...."

"It's fine. The den is all the way over there. See? We won't bother anyone."

Not in my house, thought Chloe. Chloe would have called the National Guard by now and possibly the marines. It took forever to walk down that museum like hallway. She half expected a guard to come and stop them.

Philip was about to shut the door behind them but thought better of it and left it half open. They sat together on the couch painfully aware of that little known law of physics: the gravitational force of a sofa will always pull inclining bodies inward. Both Philip and Chloe looked directly in front of them, their eyes veering not even a millimeter in any direction but straight ahead. Ralph and Alice had probably never been watched so closely and listened to so little. Then an odd thing happened. Philip noticed the corners of Chloe's mouth turn up. Every little muscle of her face moved with it. First it was a sort of a straight faced cough, then a tiny wee little chuckle and then...real full blown, choking, stomach aching, out loud laughter. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed Philip watching her.

"What?"

"Just..." he pointed to the TV....

"It's funny," she said with a shrug.

"I don't know...I mean this show isn't very PC..."

"I don't need ...well all that blowhard king of the castle stuff is pretty sickening but hey Alice usually ends up crowning him..."

"You got that."

"I mean they sound like they're going to end up killing each other...Ralph and Alice you know...but...you can tell they're having a great time together...that they really love each other...I mean that's what counts, right?"

"Yeah." He said quietly.

Philip turned around. Kate was at the door.

"Hi sweetie. I didn't hear you come in."

"Hey mom."

"Are you going to introduce me to your friend?"

"This is Chloe. Mrs. Wesley's daughter."

"How lovely to meet you. Ah I see you're going to watch a movie." Kate glanced over at the set where Ralph Kramden was trying to win the $99,000 question. "Oh that silly tripe. I can't believe it's still on the air. So Philip, I’m sure you've chosen some lovely films for Chloe. What are you going to see?"

Philip stuttered for a moment and let his eyes wander around the room. He pretended that he'd forgotten the title.

"It's a classic." Chloe said She looked over at Philip and smiled warmly.

From mortification to triumph in less time than a blink of those huge blue eyes he couldn't take his own eyes off.

"Good night Sweetie. Have fun." Kate said and walked out, her rich velvet robe, that for many would have passed as evening wear, sweeping behind her. Philip wasn't sure what to say. Finally he sucked in his breath, opened his arms like a child describing how many presents he wanted for his birthday and said in his best Ralph Kramden bellow "Baby you're the greatest!'

Philip stood waiting, his arms still out, his whole face lit brighter than Times Square on New Years' Eve. It didn't take a fan to know the cue from that line. He'd said the first thing that came to his mind. Philips’s excitement faded as Chloe shyly withdrew.