Chapter 4
The ringing in Chloe’s head began to intrude on her ability to continue
sleeping. Was it one of those strange bells on a Parisian fire truck? Maybe it
was on one of the thousands of bicycles people rode through the streets. It
couldn’t be…the windows were closed to keep out the February cold. Surely a
bicycle bell wasn’t loud enough to be heard on the eighth floor of the hotel
through an unopened window. She snuggled down beneath the covers and held onto
Philip more tightly. The bell continued to ring in regular intervals until she
forced herself to open her eyes. The huge feather pillow she cradled in her arms
bore no resemblance to Phillip. She raised her head and saw not a solitary sign
of him anywhere. The ringing was the telephone on the desk where it waited
impatiently to be answered. She crawled across the side of the bed where Philip
had been holding her hours before and stretched her leg out until her foot made
contact with the carpeted floor. Chloe stumbled across the room vaguely
reminiscent of Charlie Chaplin’s "Little Tramp" character in her
mincing steps, yawned continuously and reached for the telephone. Mercifully, it
stopped ringing as she brought the receiver to her ear.
"Hello……………..Hello?" Chloe answered in a squeaky, uninspired
tone.
"Hi……uh………Chloe?"
"Yes….who is this?" she asked in a slightly irritated voice,
clearing it as she slowly awakened. After the endless ringing of the phone, why
wouldn’t this person know who they were calling? Chloe momentarily wondered if
even in Paris, telemarketers had the same lousy timing as they did in the States
when they called random numbers - - except this person knew her name.
"Hi, Chloe….this is Shawn."
"Oh, hi, Shawn…I’m sorry, I didn’t recognize your voice," she
said softly, the instant contriteness apparent in her voice.
"Yeah, I didn’t exactly recognize yours just now."
"What’s up?"
"You means besides you, now? Actually, I’m sorry, Chloe, that I woke you
up. The hotel connected me to the wrong room. I had asked them to put me through
to Philip’s. They’ve obviously made a mistake. If you can switch me back to
the operator, I’ll try again."
"No, that’s okay, Shawn…..this is Philip’s room."
There was a slight pause on the line before Shawn continued. "Oh, I see. I….uh….."
"Shawn, it’s not what you think," Chloe said understanding what was
probably going through his mind.
"I wasn’t thinking anything."
"Yes, you were. I did spend the night with Philip but only because I didn’t
want him to be alone. Nothing happened between us…well, except…."
"Except? Wait….I’m sorry…it’s none of my business what went on
between you and Philip."
"It’s okay, Shawn…I opened up this topic. Wait…before I say anything
more, you called wanting to talk to him."
"Yeah, is he there?"
"I don’t know. He wasn’t in bed when I woke up to the phone
ringing."
Shawn felt his face warm at the thought of Chloe and Philip sharing moments of
intimacy during the night…even if it was only sleeping in a common bed…and
nothing more as Chloe has said.
"Let me check the bathroom just to be sure he’s not around. Hold
on."
Chloe put down the receiver and padded across to the bathroom doorway, knocked
and pushed open the door slightly. No one was in sight. She looked to see that
Philip’s suitcase, garment bag and laptop were still in the room. A cursory
survey with her eyes detected no handwritten note left in a conspicuous place
for her to find. She headed back to the phone when a soft knock sounded on the
room door. She ran to the telephone.
"Shawn? He isn’t here but someone’s knocking at the door. Maybe it’s
Philip if he forgot his room key. Can you wait until I find out who it is?"
"Sure, no prob."
She jogged to the door and opened it a couple of inches and was surprised to see
a bellhop loaded down with suitcases on a large cart.
"Your luggage, Madamoiselle….you asked to have it transferred to
here?"
"Oh, that’s right. Please, come in. I’m sorry, I don’t know off hand
where my tote bag is to give you a tip."
"It is not necessary…it was taken care of by Monsieur Kiriakis this
morning."
The first image that came to her mind of "Monsieur Kiriakis" was
Philip’s father and it startled her.
"What do you mean, Monsieur Kiriakis?"
"The young gentleman….tall….blond….slender. He made the arrangements
with the concierge earlier before he went out."
"Philip? He made the arrangements? What time was that?"
"Perhaps seven thirty…eight o’ clock."
"Did he say where he was going?"
The bellhop shook his head as he displayed a sympathetic smile.
"Merci."
The bellhop bowed, pulled the cart from the room after leaving the two luggage
on a wide bench and quietly closed the door behind him. Chloe stood in the
middle of the room trying to think where Philip would go and not leave any word
for her – especially in a city where he didn’t speak the language and was
constantly asking her to translate. She faintly heard her name being called as
she pondered Philip’s whereabouts.
"Oh, my God….Shawn!" She dashed for the telephone receiver and
profusely apologized.
"It’s okay, Chloe. Was that Philip at the door?"
"No, it was just the bellhop delivering my luggage from my room to here. I’m
going to stay with Philip until he’s ready to head back to Salem."
"Any idea when that might be?"
"No, for one thing he hasn’t been interviewed by the gendarmes and
Interpol yet. With so many witnesses from the Coronation to interview, I don’t
know where he is on their schedule. We have to have clearance from the French
authorities before we can leave, but you’re probably in the same predicament
since you have to be interviewed as a witness, too. I have to go late this
morning to give my statement but Philip hasn’t said when his appointment is.
He actually hasn’t said much of anything since we left the hospital. Last
night when I came out of the shower, he was talking to the Titan corporate jet
pilot. I didn’t get much of the conversation but we shouldn’t be here more
than a couple of days. I think there are legalities he has to work out with the
French gendarmes before his father’s ashes can be released to him."
"My grandfather’s being cremated?"
"Yes, that was his wish according to Mr. Brisco…Mr. Kiriakis’ lawyer.
Even Philip knew nothing about what his father had desired be done with his body
after his death."
"I don’t know how Philip’s holding up considering he has to do nearly
everything…. making arrangements and funeral services pretty much on his own…..Chloe?"
There was a long silence on the phone before Chloe could control her voice.
"Shawn, could I ask you something?"
"Sure, anything."
"I know it’s a little after nine…have you had breakfast, yet?"
"No, I slept in this morning. I stayed with Belle at the hospital until we
knew her dad was going to pull through. It must have been almost two a.m. before
we got into the hotel."
"I couldn’t believe Belle’s father had been shot but I’m glad he’s
going to be all right. I should call Belle and see if I can do anything."
"I wouldn’t for awhile, Chloe. She was planning to sleep in before she
goes back to the hospital to visit her dad and Mimi later today."
"Well, then, how about you come up to the eighth floor and have room
service breakfast with me? There’s something I want……need, actually, to
talk to you about. I wouldn’t ask you if it wasn’t really important."
"Well…okay…..I need to take a shower and clean up."
"I need to get ready, too. Anything special you’d like for
breakfast?"
"Nah…whatever you order is fine."
"Okay, then how about I see you in an hour? That’ll give me time to pull
myself together. Maybe Philip will even be back by then from wherever he went
this morning."
"See you in an hour, then. Bye, Chloe."
"Bye, Shawn."
Chloe slowly placed the receiver back in the cradle and stared at it for a
minute or more. She knew what she was doing would probably upset Philip but it
was something she needed to do for her and in doing so, would eventually help
Philip, too.
An hour later Chloe answered the door to find a waiter with breakfast. She
motioned to him where she wanted him to set up the table, signed the room
service check and gave him a smile as he saw the generosity she had extended to
him in the tip. She lifted the cover lids to be sure everything she had ordered
was present when she heard another knock. She checked her face in the mirror and
noticed the slight puffiness still visible around her eyes…the result of
crying herself to sleep the night before. Chloe attempted to force a tiny smile
on her face as she opened the door and saw Shawn leaning against the door jam
with a lazy grin on his face.
"Hi, Chloe….am I late?"
She shook her head.
"No, you’re……you’re….."
One look into his serene brown eyes and all her resolve to be strong dissolved
into tears. She covered her face with her hands – pushing her glasses up onto
the top of her head where they wouldn’t stem the tide of salt water about to
tumble down her cheeks.
"Chloe?…..Hey……hey…..come here…..what’s wrong…..huh?"
Shawn asked her in a soft tone.
He stepped into the room, put an arm around her and tried to look into her eyes
between her fingers as she hid her face from him…the sobs increasing in
intensity. Turning to face her directly, Shawn placed his other arm around her
shoulder and drew her to him. Chloe removed her hands from her face and placed
her arms around him crying into his chest. Shawn patted her on the back the way
he sometimes did with JT, his baby brother, when he cried after awakening in the
dark nursery at night. It soothed the baby; perhaps it would be as beneficial
for Chloe. After silently cradling her for several minutes, he steered her by
moving his body more into the room and closed the door. She showed no signs of
letting up the wrenching sobs that had begun the minute she had seen Shawn.
"Did I do something to make you feel badly or is this about Philip?"
Shawn asked her bending down to look up into her tear-stained face.
She nodded, unable to verbally respond to his question. Realizing he was no
closer to knowing what had caused her emotional outburst by combining the
possibilities into one question, he thought a moment and attempted to be more
concise.
"Did I do something?" Chloe shook her head and wiped the tears from
her face with the fingers of both hands but could not speak.
"This is about Philip?" A vigorous nod of the head was her response.
"Victor’s death? It’s about Philip and his father’s death." The
last comment Shawn spoke as a statement of fact; not a question. Chloe’s
breath caught in her throat as she slowly nodded, looking gratefully at Shawn
that he had deduced the answer in so little time. The sobs were subsiding but
she knew she hadn’t yet finished releasing the wave of emotional pain she’d
held inside for almost twenty-four hours.
"Come over here with me. Sit down right here. I’ll be back in a sec,
okay?"
Chloe slowly lowered herself into the powder blue and white antique chair as
Shawn held her arm, only releasing it when he knew she was secure. He went into
the bathroom and quickly returned with tissues, handing them to Chloe. She
lifted her face to look at him as he stood over her and tried to smile.
"Th…thanks." She dried her face as much as possible and blew her
nose before tossing the used tissues into the wastebasket. A minute more passed
as she began to take deeper breaths. Shawn pulled up the matching chair to Chloe’s
and sat forward on it, his elbows on his knees – hands clasped together and
watched Chloe until she looked up at him. It was an unspoken signal - the worst
had passed. Once again she offered Shawn as a sign of her gratitude and
embarrassment all rolled into one - a miniscule smile.
"Feel a little better?"
"Well, in three words…’yes and no’. Yes, I feel better about having a
good cry but no because I did it in front of you. I’m sorry, Shawn. I had no
idea that was going to happen when I opened the door."
"It’s okay, …really."
"No, it’s not. I have to keep my emotions in check and be strong,
Shawn."
"Why? It isn’t emotionally healthy for a person to do that, Chloe,
especially as hard as you were crying just now."
"Because I have to……I just have to, that’s all." Once again
Chloe’s eyes brimmed with tears betraying her best effort to quell them
completely.
Shawn handed her another tissue and took her right hand in a gesture of comfort
while she released more of the grief demanded by her body. Though she cried
longer the intensity had abated. Eventually, she sat up straight in the chair
and looked at Shawn with a determined set to her face.
"I’m not going to do that any more."
"Okay….if you say so…."
"I do."
"…but I won’t hold you to it. If you feel like it would help to let it
out again, I know where there’s more tissues if we run out," he gently
joked and grinned at Chloe.
He was rewarded with a shy grin
"Lord, I must look awful. I wasn’t too glamorous when I looked in the
mirror awhile ago and that was before I lost it."
"You look fine except for your patriotic eyes."
"My what?"
"Well, they’re kinda red, white and blue at the moment."
"Oh, wonderful," Chloe sarcastically said and went to look in the
mirror. "You’re right, the center is blue and they’re surrounded by red
and white. On top of that I could vie for Rudolph’s job pulling Santa’s sled
in the fog with this nose. I need to pull myself together. Would you excuse me
for a few minutes?"
"Yeah…sure:"
"Matter of fact, why don’t you sit down at the table and help yourself to
some of the breakfast before it gets any colder":
Chloe went into the bathroom and ran cold water onto a wash cloth, held it up to
her eyes, and cheeks pressing gently. She reapplied her mascara and lip gloss
and ran a brush through her hair before satisfying herself she was presentable
to her breakfast companion. She returned to find Shawn fixing a plate of eggs,
toast and hash browns. He looked up when he sensed her presence and nodded his
approval.
"You look better."
"Thanks and I have to admit…I feel a little better."
"Good and you’ll feel even more so when you’ve eaten a little
something. Want some orange juice? Says here it’s fresh from Florida."
"You’re kidding, Florida orange juice…in Paris?"
"Oui." Shawn pointed to the familiar emblem on the small carton. They
sat on opposite sides of the table and ate for several minutes in silence. Shawn
would furtively glance up from his plate at regular intervals checking to make
sure Chloe was eating. She took small bites of food and stared at her plate but
she did clean off the portions she had placed on it. When she had finished, she
leaned her elbows on the table resting her chin on her clasped hands.
"With everything that happened this morning, I never really have told you
why I asked you to come over."
"I told you I figured it was about Philip and his father’s death."
"That’s most of it, yes, but it also is about me as weird as that
sounds."
Shawn nodded. "That makes sense…you’re his girlfriend…you knew
Victor. It’s bound to have an impact on you …particularly the violent way he
died. We didn’t just hear about it We all saw it happen. Philip was
practically standing right in front of him."
"I know. I keep remembering him grabbing me and throwing me to the ground.
I couldn’t understand why he had and then the bullets started flying. He
wouldn’t let me get up even after they had stopped."
"He saw the gun about the same time I spotted the other one on the side of
the room by the balcony. Those were the longest minutes of my sixteen
years."
Chloe’s eyes grew large and her mouth opened.
"Shawn….how could I be so insensitive? Victor was your grandfather…besides
being Philip’s father. It completely slipped my mind. Here I am prattling on
about his death…"
"It’s all right. Even though he was my grandfather…I didn’t think of
him that way…at least, not like I do Grandpa Shawn. I knew him…I’d spent
time around him but we had nowhere near the relationship Philip did with him.
With that said, I think we’re at the point of why you wanted to see me other
than sharing breakfast?"
Chloe nodded.
"I don’t know how or where to start. I guess from my own emotional point
of reference would be best. With my background I never really allowed myself to
react to things much - good or bad. I wanted to protect me from being hurt. Even
when my adoptive parents were killed, I didn’t cry. I never did. I believed
that to let myself feel anything made me vulnerable and open to letting people
hurt me. What you saw when I first came to Salem with the black clothing was
really me on the inside, too – dark and lifeless. And, then…"
"Philip came along."
"Yes, but before him you and Belle made me begin to think maybe I could
have friends and not close myself off any more. I liked both of you. The tough
part was sharing myself and what I thought….felt. I’ll always be glad I had
sense enough to open up to you both."
"Thanks, Chloe, that means a lot to hear you say that. It means even more
since I made that stupid bet…."
"…that’s in the past. It’s over. We all learned lessons from it.
Amazingly, out of that I learned to forgive and I didn’t know I could do that.
But, you’re right, Philip came along and I was afraid of the things he made me
feel and the thoughts I had about him that I couldn’t control. I didn’t know
where they were coming from or why I had them."
"You weren’t alone – Phil would call me at night or want to get into a
little one-on-one at the court and spend the whole time telling me how much he
wasn’t interested in you, which, of course, meant he was."
"Belle had to hear me spouting the same thing while we were doing homework
or she dragged me shopping to Salem Place. You two should be licensed therapists
by now with all the hours you put in on us."
"So, now? Where does all that bring you and Philip to on this day after his
father’s assassination?
"A role of reversals, Shawn."
"I don’t understand."
"Remember I told you I didn’t cry when my adoptive parents died? Loving
Philip has released emotions I thought I didn’t even have. Don’t you see?
Today, you saw me. I cried for Philip’s father. I hurt, Shawn, in my heart. I
cared about him. He was very good to me. He shared the most wonderful part of
himself with me, his son."
Shawn leaned back in his chair with a look of revelation on his face.
"Are you telling me Philip hasn’t shown any emotion?"
Chloe stared at Shawn and slowly shook her head. "Nothing…except silence
and occasional temper flares. I recognize what he’s doing. He’s me a year
ago. To make it worse, he is being what he believes a son of Victor Kiriakis has
to be – strong- willed, stoic and capable – all business. That doesn’t
leave much time to grieve."
"But, here with you away from everyone, he can let go."
"No, he’s shut down completely. That’s why I don’t want to leave him
alone for very long– so, I plan to spend the nights with him. There was a
grief counselor at the hospital last night who told me what to expect. She was
right. She told me to stay with him…be affectionate and not let him retreat
completely because it would only make him worse. I tried but still he became
angry last night for the slightest reason. I told myself ‘I know it’s not me
he’s angry with’ but it didn’t keep me from retreating from him last night
after he yelled at me. I knew he didn’t mean it but it still hurt to have him
do something so unlike him. What it tells me is that if I hurt this badly about
his father, how deep the pain and hurt must be for Philip. No wonder he can’t
deal with it…not yet."
"Chloe, what…what would you like me to do? How can I help?"
"Just try to understand him over however long it takes for him to get
through this and maybe tell his friends so they’ll know what to expect. The
doctor didn’t know how long he might be this way. My fear is, going back to
Salem, being the Kiriakis heir, will make it worse. I do feel guilty that what
with seeing Belle through her father’s near death, you have more than enough
demands being made on you now."
"Don’t worry. I can handle it. You have the tough part. Maybe it won’t
be as bad as you think. Have you seen him today at all?"
"No, he left the hotel early this morning. I don’t know where he
went."
"It could be he might be doing better today. He’s had some time to deal
with the shock. If not, you can talk to me whenever you need to. I’ll leave
you my cell number. There won’t be any bad time for you to call."
"You’re wonderful, Shawn. I don’t know if I can ever do as much for
you."
"Sure you will. When Philip does face everything, he’ll be okay because
he has you beside him. That’s all I want…that’s all any of us will want in
return….Philip as himself again." Shawn placed his hand on Chloe’s and
smiled at her.
Neither heard the key in the door until Philip came in and was surprised to see
his best friend sitting at what appeared a breakfast with his girlfriend.
"Well, don’t we look cozy."
to be continued...
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