Stealing Home (Read 9,784 times)

[melly]

Do Kiriakises grocery shop? I figured Henderson came over to do the shopping for Philip...

[fluffysmom]

I understand Chloe not feeling ready to share a bedroom with Philip. I wonder if he will understand.

[unavitasegreta]

Oct 2, 2014 5:33:03 GMT -5 melly said:

Do Kiriakises grocery shop? I figured Henderson came over to do the shopping for Philip...

You know, I actually think I assumed the same thing - LOL!!!!

I like that Chloe is hesitant about sharing a bed with Phillip.  There's still some 'secrets' between them, even though she said she didn't want to know, and they need to both be fully ready for that big commitment.

[Kpatch]

Chapter 4


Philip and Chloe entered the grocery store, with Philip bouncing Parker in his arms. “That’s funny,” he said to Chloe. “This used to be a Jewel Osco, just a few months ago. Now it’s Whole Foods. Completely remodeled.”

“This is better,” Chloe noted, picking up a loaf of fresh bread and perusing the label. “All natural ingredients. Our son shouldn’t eat foods with pesticides and preservatives. ... What? Why are you looking at me like that?”

Philip smiled at Chloe. “You remind me of someone.”

“Who?”

“Parker’s mother. She always said she never wanted any impurities to travel down her son’s digestive tract.”

Chloe rolled her eyes. “Well she’s a very smart woman. Oh!”

Standing in the bakery department, Philip asked her, “What? What’s wrong?”

“We need a cart. I’ll be right back.” She headed back to the entryway to get a shopping cart.

Meanwhile, Philip strolled toward the Produce department holding Parker in his arms, remembering the last time he was in the store on Christmas eve, when he heard someone call his name.

“Phil? Phil, is that you, buddy?”

Philip turned around. “George! Hey, I was just thinking about you, wondering if you were still employed.” Philip used his free hand to shake hands with George.

“Yeah, when they closed the Jewel store, I was lucky enough to get a job managing this new place. So, welcome to Whole Foods. Hey, who’s this little guy. It’s not Porter, is it?”

“Parker. Hey Parker, say hello to my good friend George.” Parker turned shy and buried his head against Philip’s shoulder.

“So I see you took my advice,” George said. “I told you it didn’t matter if he was your kid by blood or not.”

“Well, it turns out he actually is my son,” Philip said proudly, holding Parker a little closer. “Long story, but it looks like it may have a happy ending.”

Chloe returned pushing a shopping cart and slowed down as she approached Philip and the stranger. She looked a little uneasy.

“Speaking of which, this is Chloe,” Philip told George.

George eyed Chloe. “Well well well, no wonder you were torn up about losing her.”

Her brow knit as she looked from George to Philip.

“Sweetheart, this is George, he’s the store manager here and a good friend of mine.” Philip set Parker in the shopping cart’s child seat, then he reached into his wallet. “George, here’s my business card. If you ever need anything, give me a call. I owe you.”

Looking at the business card, George said, “I’ll do that. Well, I gotta get back to work. Nice meeting you, Chloe. And you too Parker. Take care Phil.”

After the store manager walked away, Chloe asked, “What was that all about?”

“Um, what do you mean,” Philip hedged.

“How do you know that man? I never heard you talk about him, but you were acting like long-lost friends.”

Philip took hold of the grocery cart and started pushing it down the aisle, hoping to avoid the subject. “No offense, Chloe, but I do know a few people you don’t.”

Walking alongside him, Chloe sarcastically said, “Nice,” not at all appreciating the tone of Philip’s remark.

“Okay, look,” he stopped in the aisle and looked at Chloe. “George let me bend his ear one night when I was at a low point.”

“Really? A grocery store manager?”

Philip gripped the handle and started pushing the cart again. He felt annoyed at Chloe and he knew exactly why. It was because she wasn’t going to be sleeping with him. But it wasn’t just about sex. It was the closeness he missed so much all these long, lonely, harrowing months. “Sometimes it’s nice to talk to someone who has no preconceived notions and isn’t there to judge you.”

A light bulb went on and suddenly Chloe understood. “Oh. It’s like Father Matt. It’s like confession.”

“No, it’s better than confession,” Philip disagreed. He was running out of patience. For the past six months, he’d been imagining what it would be like when the three of them were back in Chicago as a family, how everything would be back to normal. But it wasn’t. He realized now how naive that expectation was. “There was no expectation of anything in return,” he snapped, “and no moralizing or Hail Marys. Just a sympathetic ear.”

“Sheesh, Philip, why are you so angry?”

“I’m not!” But he was. Even though, rationally, he knew none of this was Chloe’s fault, he was human. He was disappointed that Chloe wasn’t ready to be a real couple yet. Meanwhile, he was beyond ready. “I had no one else to talk to about what happened with us.”

“You talked to him about me?”

“No. I told him about me.”

Chloe smiled and linked her arm with Philip’s, in an effort to break the tension. “Are you saying it’s not all about me?” she joked.

Philip picked up on her cue and decided to relax. He went along with her lighthearted comment and reached for the hand that was holding his arm. “It’s mostly about you, if that makes you feel better.”

“In that case, let’s finish shopping and go home. I’m still hungry.”

[melly]

Aw, man....I was hoping for a full-on shouting match in the middle of Whole Foods!

(I'm kidding.)

I really like this chapter--the emotions are very relatable, for sure!

[gapeach]

Something tells me the truth is going to come out sooner rather than later. Any chance for weekend previews Kpatch??

[fluffysmom]

I'm glad Chloe got Philip to calm down. He needs to slow down and let Chloe get acclimated to her new surroundings.

[Kpatch]

Just a small preview.


Chloe has a life-changing idea for Philip.

Christmas comes early. Or maybe late.

[unavitasegreta]

Oct 4, 2014 10:54:51 GMT -5 Kpatch said:

Just a small preview.


Chloe has a life-changing idea for Philip.

Christmas comes early. Or maybe late.

This coming week sounds good. I can't wait!

[melly]

PREVIEWS!!!!!!! Woot!

[fluffysmom]

Thanks for the intriguing previews Kpatch.

[Kpatch]

Chapter 5


The next morning, Philip sat at his laptop in his home office, typing a message and pausing every few seconds to talk into his headset. “Well I’m back, so go ahead and set it up. ... Yes, I’ll be coming into the office more often. ... Ha, yeah he’s great. It’s amazing to have him back. Thank you. And thank everyone there for their support. ... You know what? Nevermind. I’ll tell them myself when I see them tomorrow. Yep. Okay. Take care Dave.”

Chloe peeked her head into the room. “Am I interrupting?”

Taking his headset off, Philip said, “No, come on in. What’s up?”

Chloe walked around to Philip’s side of the desk. “Nothing, I just wanted to see where you work.”

“You’ve seen this before. Ah. I mean....”

“It’s okay, Philip. No eggshells, remember?”

“Right. I was using the home office a lot while I was taking care of Parker by myself, before you came to Chicago.”

“Remind me why you left Salem without me?”

“Oh. Well, you were going through some issues related to post-partum depression and you weren’t dealing well with your divorce from Daniel. Parker wasn’t ... um ....”

“Phiiiilip,” she said, drawing out his name. “Come on. No eggshells.”

Philip took a deep breath. “Okay. Parker wasn’t as much of a priority in your life as he should have been, so I decided that he and I would both be better off here in Chicago.”

“Better off without me? Seems harsh. Was it supposed to be tough love?”

“You could say that.”

“And it worked?”

“Eventually,” Philip smiled at her.

“So exactly what do you do for a living? I mean, I know you run Titan....”

“Titan’s Media division,” Philip corrected.

“But what does that mean? What exactly do you do?” she asked. “I think it used to be a shipping business. Is the business ligitimate?”

Philip merely smiled, but didn’t answer Chloe’s question.

“... I’m sorry. You’re busy,” she said. “You don’t have time to answer my silly questions.”

“Wait. Chloe, stay.” With his arm around her waist, he pulled her toward him. “I like it that you’re interested. ... Titan is still in shipping. Imports and exports. Dad and Brady handle that division while I run Titan Media. We do TV, we even have our own news station -- TNC, and a channel where we run new independent series under the call letters TOP, Titan Original Programming. We also do traditional print publishing, and e-publishing.” Philip studied Chloe’s face for a minute. “I’m boring you.”

“What?? No. Never,” she said sincerely. “I was just waiting for you to say something about music. Is there no music in your media empire?”

“Um. No.”

“Well there should be,” she said as if she were CEO.

“Oh?” Philip folded his arms across his chest. “Why? Convince me.”

“Well, I was reading my subscription to Billboard Magazine....”

“Birthday present from me and Parker to you last year,” he interjected.

“I figured it was something like that,” she smiled. “Thank you. … So the music business has exploded and it’s not done yet. Youtube and MP3 and iTunes downloads have given the industry new life. The article said it’s grown 400 percent in the past five years.”

Philip leaned forward. “I’d like to read that article.”

“So you’re interested.”

“I might be,” he said. “There’s a lot of competition though. I mean Amazon and Apple....”

“Amazon and Apple are already your competition in book publishing. Did you know Amazon is getting into the TV business? And Apple purchased Beats, the music headphone company.”

“Yes, of course I ....” Philip stared at his computer for a minute. “Sounds like you’ve been reading the Wall Street Journal, not Billboard.”

“You’re impressed, aren’t you?” she said proudly.

“I don’t know much about the music business.” He looked at Chloe and thought for a minute before speaking. “But you do. If we were to start a music division, hmmm. What would you say if I said I’d want you to run it.”

“What?? Me? I don’t know anything about business.”

“You obviously know more than you think. Chloe, you’re smart. You’re analytical. You know music. And I trust you. Hey, I’ll teach you some business basics and you can take some courses. That is, if you want to.”

“Oh my god Philip, yes! I’d love to help start up a music business. I’d need to work from home though. I want to be available to Parker.”

“We’ll work it out.”

Chloe’s eyes were sparkling with delight. “I’m excited, Philip.” She kissed his cheek. “Oh. I guess I can’t be doing that if you’re going to be my boss,” she joked.

“As your boss, I’m going to require you to do a lot more of that,” he winked at her.

“But … What will people say?” Her smile disappeared and she suddenly sounded insecure. “They’ll hate me because I didn’t work my way up through the ranks.”

“Hey, it’s a family business, and you’re family. Chloe, don’t worry about what anyone else thinks. It’s not important. Besides, you’re going to earn your title. It won’t be fun and games. There’s also Parker to consider.”

“Of course. He comes first,” Chloe agreed.

He touched her hand to bring them both back to reality. “Before either of us gets too excited about your idea, we’ll have to run a feasibility study.”

“You lost me. I don’t know how to do that.”

“No sweetheart. It’s not something you have to do, or even something I have to do. The finance team researches the potential return on investment and reports back to us on whether they think it’s a feasible business for Titan.”

“Oh.”

“You do know that we’re in this to make money, right?”

She looked askance at Philip. “Don’t be condescending.”

“Sorry. I mean, I know it sounds like a fun job, but before the fun can start, we need to determine whether we can make any money at it.”

“So it might never get off the ground?”

“Or, it may be a huge success,” he told her. “One step at a time, okay?”

Something caught Chloe’s eye. “Hmmm. What are these?”

“What?”

“There are wrapped boxes here by the closet.”

[melly]

No worries, Chloe....I'm pretty sure no one who works in upper management at any of Salem's corporations worked their way up the corporate ladder...

[fluffysmom]

I really like Chloe's ideas for a music division at Titan. I'm glad Philip is taking it seriously. It could be a great collaboration for the two of them.

[Kpatch]

Chapter 6a


“What are these?” Chloe asked.

“What?”

“There are wrapped boxes here by the closet,” Chloe indicated the packages.

Philip got up to take a look. “Oh, our Christmas presents. I was wondering where the cleaning crew put them.”

Chloe looked at him. “Since when did you get so organized, buying and wrapping presents for Christmas five months in advance??”

“They’re not for next Christmas, Chloe. They’re for last Christmas,” he told her. “Remember that memory you had of us reciting our lists after we decorated the tree?”

“Yes.”

“Well, that was ... that was our last day as a family,” he said sadly. “We never did get to celebrate Christmas together.”

“Why? Oh!” The light dawned and she said, “That was when we got word that Daniel was Parker’s father, right?”

Philip nodded.

“And ... what happened then?” she asked, clearly distressed. “Did I just up and take Parker and leave you? Did I do that to you Philip? Because if I did ... oh my god. I’m a horrible person. I have no loyalty. Look at what I did to Daniel and to Lucas, and especially to you.”

“No, Chloe, calm down. That’s not the way it happened.”

“Really? Then what did happen? Why did I leave you? Why did we break up?”

Oh man, Philip was not prepared to answer the question, not now, anyway. Chloe seemed to vascillate between wanting to know what happened and not wanting to know. Those times when Philip was ready to tell all, that’s when she didn’t want to hear it. But when he wasn’t mentally prepared, that’s when she’d ask. “It’s a long story. And I’ll tell you all about it, but ... um ... why don’t we open our Christmas presents first?” That might not have been the most original tactic, but he was hoping the presents would distract her.’’

“Oh. Oh yes! But Parker’s napping and he should be here with us.”

“Don’t worry, Parker got his presents. I mailed them to my father’s house in December so he’d have them in time. These,” he said picking up the gift for Chloe and holding it out to her, “are our presents to each other.”

“I see. Okay, then, fine. Let’s open them.” Taking the gift, she squinted at him. “But you’re not getting out of telling me why we broke up.”

“There was a time you didn’t want to know.”

“I know,” she sighed. “That was when I thought I’d remember on my own.”

“I’m not trying to get out of it, really.” He hoped he sounded convincing.

Chloe rolled her eyes and laughed. “You’re a bad liar. You always were.”

“Well....”

Luckily, she took the bait and let the subject drop. “So I guess that one that says ‘To Philip’ is from me to you. And when I say I don’t remember what it is, I really don’t remember.”

Philip laughed lightly. “Well whatever it is, it’s huge,” he said, picking up the oversized, oddly shaped, somewhat weighty box. He shook it a little. “I wondered about this so many times. I was tempted to open it but ....”

“You resisted.”

“I was afraid there might be too many painful emotions attached to it, you know?”

“Not really. But now’s your big chance Kiriakis. No need to resist anymore. Open it,” she ordered. “The suspense is killing me too.”