Chapter Fifteen

Philip's in Control

A day later ...

Philip was standing by the counter talking on his cell phone when Michael entered the room. He ended the call and turned to Michael. "So what do they know? Or are there any new developments that I should know about?" Philip asked the man who had just came from Wife Central (a.k.a. the Evans home).

"There's not much new information for you to know. You already knew about Mimi and Belle coming on Thursday, which is tomorrow. Liz is okay, a little depressed. But, that was expected. I think that after Saturday night everything will be all right. They don't know anything about what you have planned. Other than that there isn't anything new to report. Except that Chloe wants you to call her sometime today. So what's been going on over here, while I have been gone? Anything new?" Michael asked as he reached for a mug to get himself a cup of coffee.

"Max is still trying to get together what he should say. But, everything else is going as planned. I talked with both Luis and Ethan and they set everything up already. So the only thing left for us to do is to tell the ladies and get them ready to go. But, we'll do that on Friday." He answered placing the phone on the counter to move a strand of his blonde hair out of his eyes.

"Do you really think that's smart?"

"What?"

"Waiting until the day before to tell them about the charity ball. I mean won't they need to get the dresses and the other stuff they need to get ready. I'm only asking because I know that it takes Maria hours to get ready to go to one of my shows. And she has notice. I just think that we're asking for trouble here. It's one thing if it were just one woman, but we have six women who have no idea that we are planning anything. Well actually, only five women because Maria already knows about the charity and she has to be there. In any case, I think we need to do some extra planning for this." Michael took a sip of his coffee. Philip didn't say anything. He only watched the other man drink his coffee as he thought about what he should do.

"You're right. I hadn't thought about that. I know exactly what we should do," he paused as Max came into the kitchen with Ethan trailing behind him. "Hey man," Philip said as the other dark-blonde haired man came in. "I thought that you were going to come by later." He said as he shook hands with Ethan.

"Yeah, I was but, Theresa decided to invite the ladies to the house for lunch. So I decided to come and see how you were handling things."

"That's great. Why didn't I just take her up before." Philip said as he thought to himself while the other men in the room looked at each other baffled as to what he was talking about.

"What are you thinking, Kiriakis?" Michael asked.

"I just thought of the perfect solution to out problem. I don't know why I just didn't take her up on the offer before." The other men still looked confused so he explained. "A minute ago you were saying to me that under short notice the ladies would have trouble getting ready without the right clothes. So I was thinking about your wife," he pointed to Ethan. "She offered to give the girls some dresses from her line of clothing. Do you think that her offer is still open to fit the girls for dresses and then bring them to them on Friday?" he asked Ethan.

"I think that she would be willing to do it since she offered in the first place. But, I think that you should call her and see if she is still willing to do it. If she is all she has to do is get them fitted for the dresses." Ethan said as he walked to the phone on the wall in the kitchen. He dialed his home number and waited as it rang.

"Hello," Sara, his six-year old daughter, said as she answered the phone.

"Hey, sweetie, this is Daddy. Would you put your mother on the phone?" Ethan asked and heard some shuffling around as Sara handed the phone to her slightly out of breath mother.

"Hey, ... Ethan darling, ... what's up?" Theresa said as she handed her two-year old son to her daughter who carried him out of the room.

"You're out of breath, are you okay?"

"Yes, I was just playing with your son. You know how he can be when he doesn't what to take his nap. But, I don't think you called to talk to me about our son. So what's up?"

"Well, actually, Philip was wondering if the ladies arrived, yet"

"No, but they should be here any minute. Why?"

"Because, Philip wants to know if you're offer to make them dresses still stands."

"Ethan, it takes me longer than a day to make dresses. And besides that we are talking about six women here. That would take me some time." She said in amusement as she looked at her wedding ring.

"Man, you know she can't make them dresses. Ask her if she could have them fitted for some dresses, that way all she has to do is fit them. And we won't have anything to worry about." Max suggested to Ethan, who nodded in agreement and spoke to his wife.

"Okay, then would you have them fitted for some dress or gowns or whatever you think they should wear and would you still be able to deliver the dresses on Friday?" Philip grabbed the phone from Ethan.

"And if they pick out the dresses do not let them pick out anything too revealing, no thigh high slits, no bare back, and no cleavage. Other than that, I think anything will be find." He handed the phone back to Ethan.

"Okay, if that's all you request. Then, I may be able to do it. But, don't make any more changes and tell my husband I'll talk to him later. The ladies are here, I have to go." Theresa said as she clicked off the phone.

"Damn,' he said as he hung up the telephone. "Well, do you think that you gave her enough instructions?" Ethan asked.

"Hey, I just wanted to make sure my wife isn't showing anything that she shouldn't be. Besides, I don't think I was being unreasonable. They didn't have any objections." Philip responded pointing to Max and Michael.

"Leave, me out of this. I'm already in enough trouble as it is." Max said as he held his hands up and backed away from the other men.

"Okay, okay but I think that we should at least discuss how things are going to go on Saturday just to be sure that everybody does what they are supposed too. Nothing can screw this up it has to be perfect. Absolutely, no mistakes because this has been planned right down to the exact minute that everything is supposed to happen. But, we will talk about this more tomorrow when Shawn and Brady are here." Philip said as he drank some of his coffee.

"Yeah well, maybe everything will go as planned this time." Michael said.

"It will, nothing can go wrong." Philip responded sounding completely sure of himself. But, all the while thinking of things that could go wrong. "Nothing will go wrong."