"We need some cheering up. Look at us sitting here all depressed after having as exciting of an evening as we had," Mimi scolded. "Let’s do something that will make us feel happy."

"You mean like punching Shawn?" Belle sniffed through her tears.

Envisioning Belle punching Shawn made Mimi immediately think of knocking Brady out. Punching Brady certainly had merit as an idea, but Mimi knew all too well the consequences of that sort of action.

"I meant like comfort food. I know your mother. There is always some type of junk in this house. Surely we can find something that will go straight to our hips," Mimi said. She leaned over to Belle’s nightstand and grabbed the box of tissues and handed one to Belle.

Belle laughed slightly, and took the tissue that Mimi offered her. Belle couldn’t figure out how one of the most exciting events of her life was now making her feel so sad. "Okay. Just let me go splash some water on my face in case the guys are still awake downstairs."

**************************************************

Brady stopped for a moment. He felt that he owed Philip some sort of an explanation and Chloe an apology, but he wasn’t sure he was quite ready to let either Shawn or Philip know about the little fling he and Mimi were having. He folded his arms in front of him and tried to think of just what he should say.

Philip looped his thumbs into the front pockets of his jeans. "I’m waiting."

"Look, it was all a big misunderstanding. I was trying to take care of my good buddy Shawn here. So I set up this little scheme so that he and Belle would be forced to finally kiss, which they did, and…"

Philip let out a whoop of laughter. "I didn’t think it was that cold outside!"

Shawn looked at Philip quizzically. "What’s that supposed to mean?"

"I thought hell would have to freeze over before you ever kissed Belle," Philip chuckled as he flopped onto the couch. There was a bowl of popcorn sitting out on the coffee table and Philip picked it up and began to munch away.

"Ha-ha, Kiriakis. I’m so glad that my love life amuses you," Shawn retorted sarcastically.

Brady could see that this information had relaxed Philip some. Brady eased back onto the couch. He absentmindedly rubbed his bruised jaw. He had already felt the brunt of Philip’s fury once that evening. He had no desire to be punched again.

"Oh, so now it’s love, is it?" Philip asked with a smirk.

"Whatever," Shawn sighed.

"So?" Philip asked with a raised eyebrow. "You giving us details or what?"

"Hello? I’m still in the room," Brady pointed out. "I don’t particularly want to hear about somebody making out with my little sister."

"Yeah, Brady might have to kick your butt if he hears about what exactly you did to Belle," Philip grinned.

Brady clasped his hands behind his head, leaned back and smiled. "Actually, I consider myself more of a lover than a fighter. Unlike you, Uncle Phil."

Shawn was glad for the chance to change the subject. "Yeah, Brady here filled me in on your John Wayne impersonation. What was that about?"

Philip’s mood visibly changed. "You know what that was about. Either one of you would have done the same thing in my shoes. Speaking of which, you still haven’t explained what that guy was doing with Chloe."

Damn, thought Brady. He thought that he’d gotten out of having to explain it. "Look, in order for my plan to work I needed to make sure that the girls didn’t go running off with some random guy. I paired them up with three guys that I thought I could trust."

A dark glint shone in Philip’s eye, and his cheek twitched. "So you decided to set Chloe up with a rapist?"

Brady threw his hands out in front of him. "Philip, I had no idea Mike was like that now. He used to be one of my best friends. I thought she was in good hands."

The storm continued to rage in Philip’s expression. Brady sighed. "Look, you’ve already hit me once this evening. I think you’ve sufficiently punished me."

"You owe Chloe an apology. And you’d better not ever do anything like that to her again," Philip snapped.

Brady nodded. "I was planning on apologizing first thing in the morning. And you have my word - I won’t ever do anything like that again to Chloe. Scout’s honor." Brady raised his hand up in the Boy Scout sign.

"So that’s what the damn thing looks like," Philip muttered.

"Wait a second," Shawn butted in. "Brady, I’ve known you my entire life and not once have you ever done anything that wasn’t totally self-serving. What did you get out of tonight?"

"Me?" Brady protested feebly. "Uh…nothing. Just your and Belle’s happiness was reward enough."

"Speaking of which…" Philip continued as he threw a popcorn kernel at Shawn.

Shawn knew that Philip was not going to give him a break until he said something. "Look you guys. To be truthful - kissing Belle was awesome, but I think it was a mistake," Shawn sighed.

At the top of the stairs Belle put her hand over her mouth to muffle her cry. She turned and ran silently back to her bedroom with a shocked Mimi following behind her.

"A mistake? Why?" Philip asked.

"Because I know that Belle will never feel about me the way that I feel about her. It was worse kissing her because now I know exactly what I’m missing out on," Shawn said sadly. He could finally admit his feelings to his friends if for no other reason than it was obvious Brady and Philip had already figured out how Shawn felt about Belle.

"Oh, please!" Brady exclaimed in disgust and threw his hands up in the air. "Are you all blind? For some reason beyond my comprehension, my dear sister is madly in love with you, Shawn."

Shawn looked at Brady in shock and shook his head. "No way. Don’t you think I would have noticed by now?"

"Ummm…no. Apparently you’re about as clueless as they come." Brady retrieved his game controller and unpaused the game.

"I don’t believe it," Shawn said lowly, toying with his own controller that he still held loosely in his hand.

"Believe whatever you want. I just say it like it is," Brady replied, giving his full attention to the video game.

Could Brady possibly be right? Shawn knew how close Brady and Belle were. Had she confided in him? Could Belle have feelings for him? He’d been too busy enjoying the hell out of that kiss to really even register what her response had been. Now that he thought about it, she had seemed like she was into it…Shawn’s face broke into a wide grin. Maybe Belle did want to be more than friends.

"Now what I want to hear about is what Philip’s been doing upstairs in that dark room all alone with Chloe," Brady said, leaning wildly to the left as if it would help his on-screen character do the same.

"You mean in between her visits to the porcelain throne?" Philip laughed amid mouthfuls of popcorn. "Not a whole lot."

"But you like her, right?" Shawn asked. He felt like he was on Cloud Nine. He wanted all his friends to be as happy as he was right then. Admitting how he felt about Belle out loud had made him feel like a huge weight had been lifted off of his chest. Maybe he could get Philip to do the same.

Philip paused for a second from eating. "She’s so different. She’s not like any other girl that I’ve ever met. She’s really…" Philip searched for the right word. "…special."

"In an Olympics kind of way?" Brady asked, expertly ducking his head as the pillow Philip had thrown at him went careening past.

"Nice move," Shawn observed.

"Thank you. You’d be surprised how many people have been trying to commit acts of physical violence against me lately. Have to be on my toes," Brady replied, his gaze focused on the screen in front of him.

Philip stood and put the almost empty popcorn bowl on the table. "I’d better get back upstairs to Chloe. See you guys in the morning."

"Night, man," Shawn called after him.

"Have fun Florence Nightengale!" Brady added.

Brady finished the level he was on and saved the game. "Think I’ll head upstairs too. I’m feeling pretty tired."

Brady stopped at the first step and looked back at his cousin. "If you’re even thinking about sneaking up to my sister’s room tonight, just remember that I’ll be keeping my lucky baseball bat next to my bed."

**************************************************

Mimi strained her ears in the quiet of Belle’s room, trying to hear any noise that would indicate somebody else was still awake. She’d just spent hours comforting Belle and rehashing the night’s events in the minutest detail. Belle had finally fallen asleep out of total emotional exhaustion. Mimi was tired as well, but she kept thinking about Brady at the frat party. The way that he kissed her…Mimi didn’t know it was possible to even feel the way that he made her feel…as if she were wanted, as if she were desirable, as if she actually were beautiful. She wanted to feel that way again. Mimi had been lying there for hours trying to convince herself that the worst possible idea in the world was to go down the hall to Brady’s room. So far she wasn’t winning the argument.

Belle’s breathing was heavy and even, indicating that was in a deep sleep. Mimi quietly unzipped her sleeping bag and shrugged the top layer off. She slowly stood up, trying carefully not to wake Belle. She tiptoed over to the door and gently pried it open. She noted that all the lights in the penthouse were off. Mimi couldn’t hear any noise from downstairs. It seemed that everyone was asleep. She continued her quiet walk down the hallway. Outside of Brady’s room she hesitated. The door was open, and she wondered if he was awake.

"Mimi?" Brady’s voice called softly out of the darkness.

Mimi froze, her heart racing. How did he know she was out there? She wasn’t sure what to do – should she go into his room or should she sneak back to Belle’s?

"Mimi, I know you’re out there. Come in here." Brady’s voice was a gentle invitation.

Against her will, her feet started moving her into his room. She paused in his doorframe. Brady had a small lava lamp on the table next to his bed that only emitted a faint illumination. She could see him sitting up in his bed with his hands clasped behind his head. He was bare-chested, and Mimi couldn’t keep her eyes from roaming over and appreciating his extremely toned body.

"Why are you still awake?" she whispered.

"Same reason you are." Mimi could hear the smile in his voice. He was so damn smug and arrogant. She made up her mind to turn and go when he said, "I’ve been laying here hoping to have a chance to spend time with you again."

"’Spend time’ with me?" Mimi snorted. "You make it sound like we’ve been watching a movie together or something. I’d hardly call what we’ve been doing ‘spending time together’."

Brady shrugged. "We could watch a movie if you wanted."

Mimi had to smother her laugh. "Yeah, I’m sure that watching a movie is what you want to be doing at three in the morning."

"Or we could play Monopoly? I have the Millennium Edition, you know," Brady teased.

"Play Monopoly with you? You’re probably the biggest cheater alive. I bet you’re one of those guys that insists on being the banker so that you can hide money under the board that magically appears before you go completely bankrupt, right? I don’t play games with people that don’t play fair," Mimi asserted.

Brady grinned and said lowly, "Now Mimi, it wouldn’t be any fun if I played fair, would it?" Mimi knew from the tone in his voice that he wasn’t talking about Monopoly. Some small voice in Mimi’s head was screaming for her to leave the room – that she was in way over her head. Mimi felt like she was a moth and Brady was like a flaming inferno – if she got too close she was sure to get irreparably burned. But much like that stupid bug, Mimi found herself irresistibly drawn to the flame.

Brady could sense the indecision in Mimi. "You know, we could just talk. Discuss world politics. The situation in Bosnia maybe. Or current economic conditions in Russia. That sort of thing."

Mimi shook her head at the thought of trying to have a serious adult conversation with a half-naked Brady. She didn’t think she’d be able to talk about anything with him looking at her the way that he was right then.

"No? Well, we could talk about the possible ramifications on the teenage female population in this country if the three remaining Backstreet Boys get married." Mimi shook her head no again. She didn’t really want Brady to be using his mouth for talking right then.

"Or you could just come over here and we could discuss the first thing that pops up," Brady teased in a silky voice that almost felt like a caress. Mimi had to laugh again. Brady certainly had a one-track mind. He turned on his side and pulled his blankets up and pushed them to one side, clearing a spot for Mimi next to him on his bed. Before she even knew what she was doing, Mimi was crossing the room to join him.