Chapter 35
Chloe threw the front door open to see Belle and Mimi. She tried to hide her
disappointment from them. She had hoped it would be Philip. "Hi guys,"
she said. She stepped back from the door and gestured for them to come inside.
"We can go upstairs to my room."
"I can hardly wait until you invite me up to your room again," Philip
murmured on the phone. Chloe rolled her eyes at his innuendo. "In your
dreams, Kiriakis."
"Every night, Chloe. Every night."
"Well," Chloe cleared her throat as she followed Belle and Mimi up the
stairs, trying to change the course of the conversation, "It wasn’t you
at my door."
"Nope," Philip smiled. "Can’t have you thinking I’m
predictable now can I? You’re going to have to learn to expect the unexpected
with me."
"But if I expect the unexpected, wouldn’t that make the unexpected
expected?"
"Don’t try and fool me with your feminine logic, Chloe."
Chloe walked into her room, and Mimi and Belle were hunched over her vanity,
apparently arranging things. Belle turned around and asked, "Is that Philip
you’re talking to?"
"Can’t you tell by her goofy expression?" Mimi replied with a slight
smile.
"Ask him what you guys are doing tonight so you’ll know what to
wear," Belle instructed, and turned back around to assist Mimi.
"Belle wants me to ask you what we’re doing tonight so that I’ll know
what to wear," Chloe told Philip, sitting down on the edge of her bed,
watching the busy Mimi and Belle.
"Forget it. It’s a surprise. You’ll get no information from me."
"Philip," Chloe sighed. "I need to know what to wear."
"Clothing’s optional," Philip grinned, and then quickly added,
"Kidding." But only a little, he thought. "Just wear something
comfortable."
"You are no help," Chloe smiled. "Look, I’d better go."
"See you in a little while, beautiful. Bye." Chloe heard him hang up
his cell, and she turned her own phone off. She refrained from flopping back on
her bed and sighing with happiness.
"Are the flowers from Philip?" Belle asked. When Chloe nodded yes,
Belle smiled and said, "Awww, that is so sweet! He sent you flowers!"
After Mimi and Belle had spent the requisite amount of time oohing and aahing
over the roses, Mimi nudged Belle and said, "Shouldn’t we get to work
here?"
Chloe saw Mimi go back to the vanity and press a button on the large case she
had been carrying. The top popped open, and there were several layers and
shelves in between the top of the case and the bottom. Mimi began opening hidden
drawers and pulling out more trays.
"Mimi? It’s a date. Not a fishing expedition. I don’t need the tackle
box," Chloe said in amusement.
"Oh, but you are, and you have a mighty big fish to catch," Mimi
responded, turning around and gesturing for Chloe to sit in the chair at the
vanity. "And you can’t catch him without the right bait."
"Now we’re using fish euphemisms for relationships?" Chloe moaned as
she sat down.
"Yes Chloe, because as you know, there are plenty of fish in the sea,"
Belle quipped as she began reading lipstick labels to find the right color.
"And a woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle," Mimi added,
pulling out the perfect shade of concealer and dotting it on Chloe’s face.
"We can keep going if you want," Belle offered, rummaging through the
eyeshadow tray.
"That’s okay. Let’s just do this. You’ve got to go home and get ready
for your date with Shawn, too."
A little while later, Belle and Mimi pulled back to observe their work.
"Damn we’re good," Mimi said.
"Totally agreed," Belle nodded, giving Mimi a high five. "Philip
is going to die when he sees you, Chloe."
Chloe observed herself and found it hard to believe that the girl blinking back
at her was her own reflection. Belle and Mimi were busily gathering up their
supplies and closing Mimi’s case. "I have to get out of here," Belle
said. "Shawn’s going to be over to pick me up in a little bit." She
reached up to give Chloe a hug. "Have a great time tonight. And you’d
better call me first thing in the morning to tell me all about it."
"Better make that a conference call," Mimi suggested. "That way
Chloe won’t have to repeat herself when she calls me." Chloe smiled at
her friends. She was so glad that she had worked things out with Mimi. She was
finding that Mimi’s friendship had become very important to her. It was now
hard to imagine a time when they weren’t friends. Chloe surprised Mimi by
hugging her.
The girls again said goodbye, and Chloe studied her outfit. A purse, she
thought. She needed a matching purse, and she didn’t know which one would go
with this outfit. She went over to the top of the staircase, and saw Belle about
to head outside. "Belle! I need a purse. What about the red leather
one?"
"Ugh," Belle grimaced.
"What?"
"Bad."
"Really?"
"Hello?"
"Okay. I’ll take the blue one."
"Better. Bye!" Belle called out as she and Mimi left.
Chloe looked at her watch. An hour. She had an hour before he’d be there. What
was she going to do until then?
**************************************************
Belle rushed into the lobby at about the same time that her mother Marlena
entered it. "Hi sweetie," Marlena smiled.
"Hey Mom," Belle replied, giving her mother a hug. "Did you have
a good day?"
"Sure did. What about you?"
"I’m having a fantastic day. Tonight’s my date with Shawn," Belle
said while trying to keep from jumping up and down.
"That’s right," Marlena replied while putting her arm around Belle.
The elevator doors opened and they stepped inside. As the doors began to close,
Belle spotted her father John racing across the lobby to catch them. Belle
pressed the open door button, and the doors retreated. An out of breath John
thanked his daughter and then pulled his wife into his arms, leaning her back
and kissing her. Belle looked away in embarrassment, pressing the penthouse
button. Even if they did embarrass her, she was glad to have parents that were
so in love.
"How are you doing, IzzyB?" John asked when he finally released her
mother.
"Apparently not as good as you, Dad," Belle replied, arching one
eyebrow.
"Did you have a chance to order the pizzas?" Marlena asked John. John’s
face fell. "I completely forgot. I was caught up in this board of directors
meeting and didn’t get a chance."
Marlena sighed. "Well, now we’ll have to wait longer. You know how busy
they get on Friday nights."
"Wait," Belle stopped them to ask, "Aren’t you guys going out
tonight?"
"Nope," John said, kissing Marlena on the top of her head. "We
decided to stay in." The elevator stopped at the penthouse level, and they
all got off. Marlena pulled her keys out to unlock the front door. The smell of
pizza wafted to their noses as soon as they opened the door. Marlena, John and
Belle stared at Brady as he set the table, three pizzas placed in the middle of
the table.
"Hey," Brady called out, putting down the last plate, as the trio
walked into the apartment. "I went ahead and ordered pizzas. I heard
Marlena telling Dad to do it this morning, and I knew he’d be busy this
afternoon, so I went ahead and took care of it."
Belle walked over to the table to see what her brother had done. Brady was so
excited about Mimi coming over, he was having a hard time containing himself. He
knew tonight was going to be incredible, and he could hardly wait. Mimi was sure
to get to the apartment soon, and then once everyone left to go on their dates
that evening, he’d have the house and Mimi all to himself.
"You know, you look really nice today, Marlena," he smiled. He was
full of a strange kind of happiness that was totally anathema to his
personality, and he was having a hard time keeping it in.
Marlena and John exchanged glances and then they both backed out of the
apartment, closing the door behind them. They reopened the door and walked back
in.
"What did you do that for?" Brady laughed.
"Just feeling a bit like we walked into the Twilight Zone," John
replied. He was trying to be cautious. He didn’t want to do anything to
destroy this fragile and tentative peace offering that Brady was giving them.
John placed his hand on the small of Marlena’s back, directing her to the
table.
Brady noticed that Belle was grinning at him strangely. "Why are you
smiling at me like that?"
"I’m smiling because you’ve obviously gone crazy and that’s what you
do to keep crazy people calm," Belle answered.
"Is it so unusual for me to make dinner for our family?" Brady asked
disgustedly.
"Um, yeah!" Belle exclaimed, emphasizing the last word. "I mean,
you’ve been home from school how long now? You haven’t lifted a finger
around here since you got back. And it’s not like you have a job or
anything."
"It isn’t easy to find a job," Brady retorted.
"Yeah, especially if you don’t look," she rejoined.
"As you can see, I got pepperoni for Belle, the works for me and Dad and
vegetarian for Marlena. Oh, I forgot something. Be right back," Brady said
as he headed towards the kitchen.
"Was that Brady?" Marlena finally asked once Brady had left the room.
Brady had not been this nice to her in years. She couldn’t believe that he had
been considerate enough to order her favorite kind of pizza.
"He claims to be. And he sorta looks like him even if he doesn’t act like
him," John said as he settled into his chair. "Guess we’re going to
have to take his word for it."
Brady came back out of the kitchen with candlestick holders and two candles.
"I know it’s kind of cheesy but I thought we’d make it a special
candlelight pizza dinner. You know, the way we used to when Belle and I were
little."
Marlena tried to hide the fact that her eyes were welling up with tears as Brady
set the holders on the table and lit the candles. She sat down on the left of
John, and Belle sat across from her. Brady sat opposite of his father. Marlena
held her right hand out to John which he firmly grasped, and then her left out
to Brady. "Would you mind if we prayed?"
Brady studied Marlena for a moment, and then slowly put his hand out to take her
smaller hand in his own. Marlena gripped his hand tightly and several tears
managed to escape. Belle wiped some of her own tears away, and grabbed Brady’s
other hand. John’s voice caught in his throat, and clearing it, he bowed his
head and began to pray, making sure to thank God for his family.
**************************************************
John sat on the couch in the living room, glad to finally have the chance to
read the newspaper. Marlena was in the kitchen cleaning up. Brady had retreated
to his room, and Belle was getting ready for her date with Shawn. The doorbell
rang and Belle ran out to the landing. "Dad, can you get that?"
"Isn’t it Shawn?" John asked while flipping a page.
"Yes."
"Then don’t you think you should be the one to answer it?"
"Dad," Belle whined. "I have to make him wait."
John folded his paper and threw it on the table. Brady’s teen years had been
hard, but he wasn’t sure he was going to survive Belle’s. Girls were
definitely different from boys. Belle ran back into her room while John opened
the door and invited Shawn to sit. "She’s not ready yet," John
informed him, picking his paper back up.
Shawn wasn’t sure why he felt nervous. He had spent nearly as much time in
Belle’s house growing up as he had his own. Their parents were close - Belle’s
father and his father had at one point even thought they were brothers.
Fortunately for him, that hadn’t been true. After a few uncomfortable minutes,
Belle appeared at the top of the stairs. Shawn had to suck his breath in. She
looked amazing. She was vision in a pale pink dress. She descended the stairs
like an angel descending from heaven. Shawn’s feet somehow began to move and
he met her at the base of the stairs, his hands behind his back. She reached up
and kissed him on the cheek. Shawn’s right hand crept around and he held out a
pink rose for Belle. It made Belle think of the breakfast he’d made her, and
when he’d left a pink rose for her then.
"For me?" she gasped. She took the rose from him and put the flower up
to her nose. "Thank you, Shawn." She studied him for a moment and then
asked, "Did you steal this from someone’s yard?"
"What?" Shawn asked, as if highly offended. "I didn’t steal it.
I harvested it." Belle began to laugh, and Shawn quickly joined in.
"It reminded me of you, and I knew you had to have it. It was so sweet and
fresh and pretty."
"Should we go see some boats?" Belle asked, suddenly aware that her
father was only a few feet from them. Shawn knitted his brows together.
"Don’t we have to wait for Mimi to watch the baby?" As if on cue,
there was a knock at the front door. Belle opened it and Mimi came in.
"I’m here," Mimi announced.
"You know what? You don’t need to stay," Belle told her. "My
parents are home, so if you want you can just call it a night."
Mimi looked up to the landing to see Brady standing in his bedroom doorway. His
eyes seemed to be pleading with her to stay. Maybe it’s just my imagination,
she thought. Brady hadn’t bothered trying to contact her the entire week, but
she was still missing him desperately in spite of that.
She saw Shawn and Belle looking at her expectantly. "Mimi?" Belle
asked. "Are you staying or going?"
to be continued...
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