Chapter Seventeen

The Final Plan

Theresa, Maria, and the kids had just left the Lopez-Fitzgerald house. Leaving only the men there. They were all in the living room talking amongst themselves.

"Black, man you really have to stop flirting with my wife every time you see her." Michael said as he sat down in the chair after he came from seeing his wife off.

"What are you talking about Michael? This is the first time Brady's every met Maria." Miguel said.

"No, it's not. I've met her before." Brady responded as he came out of the kitchen with Shawn and Max behind him.

"Yeah, and everytime since then he's hit on her. I don't know what it is with you. But, you can't do that anymore. How would you feel if some guy hit on Mimi every time he saw her? Dude, you're married with a child. You should start acting like it." Michael told Brady as all of the men began to gather into the living room.

"I wouldn't be bothered by it at all actually. Besides, I only do it because people like you," he looked pointedly at Michael. "Hate it, while your wife thinks I'm just being cute. And Mimi knows that I do it to annoy you and she doesn't mind." Brady sat down on the arm of the chair. "So just deal with it Guerin." Michael glared at him.

"Gentlemen can we at least act our ages and not like children? We are here to discuss the plan so that we can do it without any problems. So Michael just relax because you know that Maria probably doesn't take him seriously. And Brady stop bating him." Philip told the two men as he went to cut off the television. "So is everyone ready to get down to business."

Before Philip could start talking, Shawn interrupted him. "Wait a minute, Philip. Before you start could you tell me why we're doing this in the first place. I mean I know that this mainly has to do with Max and Liz. But why are you doing this?" Shawn asked.

"You mean you don't know what he said?" Max asked surprised as he looked from Philip to Shawn.

"Look, it's not important. But, I said something really stupid to Chloe. It really has nothing to do with this. She's already forgiven me for it now. So it doesn't matter. Now, lets get back to the plan." He attempted to take attention away from what he said to Chloe so Shawn and Brady wouldn't find out.

"No let's not. You're obviously trying to avoid the question, which means that you probably did something really stupid. And I for one would like to hear what you said. Simply because I could be at home now spending the weekend with my wife. But, instead I'm here with you guys." Brady said then all the men looked at him. "No offense."

"None taken," they all answered.

"Yeah, I agree with Brady. Belle is just a few weeks shy of giving birth and I really don't like being away from her."

"But, aren't your wives here in Boston?" Ethan asked.

"Yes, but that's besides the point. But I'm wondering what Kiriakis did in the first place to get Chloe so mad at him." Brady responded.

"Man, why don't you just tell him so we can get on with this. I would like to see my wife eventually." Ethan said trying to encourage Philip.

"Look what happened, then is of no importance now. So as I was saying Max how is your 'thing' coming?" Philip once again tried to defer attention to the plan. However, his attempt failed when Max stated the source of the plan.

"Philip accused Chloe of cheating on him with..." Brady and Shawn looked at Philip with shocked amusement.

"You are an idiot. Dude, how stupid are you?" Brady said laughingly.

"...With you. And that the baby was possibly yours." Max finished and the laughter stopped. As all eyes turned to Philip.

Philip grimaced as Brady and Shawn looked down on him as if he were a monster. "I was angry and said it in the heat of the moment. Look, I know that it was stupid. But, I apologized to her about it already. It was a complete accident. Stop looking at me like that!"

"Alright, I knew that you were dumb. That was a given. But, I guess I didn't expect you to say something so unbelievable. And besides that you know that Chloe and I never had a relationship like that. By the way, if you hadn't apologized to her by now I would have to kick your ass." Brady said.

"Hey everything is okay now. We talked everything out. But, the only problem I'm having at the moment is the fact that my wife won't come home with me. However, that problem should be solved on Saturday. So just make sure everything goes as planned let's run through the basic part of the plan." He awaited the nods from the other men. "Okay, then the show starts at eight o'clock and Theresa has things set up for Max and Shawn."

"That's right. She also told me to tell both of you to be prompt she doesn't want to disrupt the other performances after yours." Ethan added.

"So Max, you will give your speech while I set up the music. Once he finishes, I will wait for my signal to start the music. After it starts I will go back to the table and escort Liz up to him. That's all I'm supposed to do. So what else do you have planned?"

"Well, after I give my speech I will signal you to play 'I Shall Believe' you," he pointed to Shawn. "Will escort Liz to me and I will do my dance with my own personal message. The only problem that I can foresee is that Liz won't be there when I give my speech. So I need someone to make sure she's there for the entire thing." Max said to the other men.

"Relax, I'll make sure that she's there Maxwell. So now that the big thing is out of the way, I think that we should talk about what else everyone can do. I mean even though we all didn't make our wives angry at us I think that we should do something special for them." Michael suggested as he looked toward the other men.

"Well. Theresa told me that they were taking some special dedications through the night. So I think that we should all dedicate a song to our wives. But, it would have to be given to her today, so she could set up the times." Miguel offered after thinking on the subject for a few minutes.

"That's a good idea. Only I think that we should all do something like that. And give a personal message to go along with the song, something that only they our wives would understand." Brady said.

"Yeah that sounds like a great idea, but we have to get this to Theresa tonight so she still has time to fix the schedule." Philip's cell phone rang. "I have to take this it my be Luis." He pulled the phone out of his pocket and flicked it on. "Kiriakis."

"Well, hello to you to Philip." Chloe said into the phone as the women watched.

"Chloe what's wrong, did something happen?" Philip asked seeing Shawn get to attention as soon as he heard Chloe's name. "Did Belle go into labor?"

"Nothing's wrong. Belle didn't go into labor." Chloe started but didn't have a chance to finfish her statement.

"Good, Belle's not in labor," Philip said to Shawn. "Well, if it's not an emergency why did you call me on my cell, instead of Miguel's number?"

"I didn't know that it was such a big issue to call you. I can just call you back later."

"No, no I'm sorry, I just got a little concerned that's all. So what's going on with you?" Philip said as he attempted to placate her.

"Well, not much actually, I was wondering why you didn't tell me that Brady and Shawn were coming down this weekend. They could have all come down with Belle and Mimi, instead of coming separately."

"The reason that they never said anything is because it was a last minute kind of thing. They only came up here to help me with some business matters that's all."

"That's strange. Oh, well," She started to speak only to be interrupted by him.

"Why is that strange?"

"Well, it's nothing really. But, a couple of days ago when I was talking to Victor he told me that he had put Shawn on restriction. You know the same thing he did with Brady when Mimi was close to her due date." Philip grimaced as he recalled exactly what she was talking about. She was right. His father had put Shawn on restriction from doing anything that involved him going out of town. "I guess Victor lifted it for him so he could come down and help you. Well, it's not important anyway. But, since I have you on the phone I might as well tell you about our plans."

"Plans, what plans? Are you guys planning something special?" He asked happy that she was forgetting what she knew.

"Actually, that's why I called you. I wanted to find out what you were doing this weekend. I wanted to send sometime alone with you. But, since I figured you were going to be working all weekend, the ladies and I decided that we were going to do some baby shopping..."

"That sounds like a great idea."

"...In New York. We decided that we'd make a weekend of it." Chloe finished as the other women high-fived each other awaiting Philip's response. Belle gestured for her to out the phone on speaker so everyone could hear him. Chloe placed the phone on the hook and turned on the speaker.

Philip had been completely with his wife right up until she said she was going to New York. Then he knew that this could potentially be a problem. "Chloe, you can't go to New York, this weekend." Philip said not registering the difference in the phone.

"Why ever not, Philip?" she signaled for the ladies to keep quiet. "You said yourself that you are going to be working all weekend. And I don't want to have Mimi and Belle just sit here and twiddle their thumbs all weekend. Besides, it's not as if we have something we have to do this weekend. So why shouldn't the ladies and I partake on a 'Baby Shopping Spree'?" She asked of her husband knowing that he would have to come up with some excuse or tell her what he had planned.

Philip lifted the phone form his ear and covered it with his hand. "They want to go out of town this weekend to shop, what should I do?"

"Well, obviously you can't let them go away this weekend, so get them to stay here." Brady said.

Philip closed his eyes and counted to ten. "That's what I am trying to do. But, I just can't tell her the plan. That would ruin everything. I need to tell her something," he said as he heard Chloe's voice call out to him on the phone. 'Philip, Philip, are you still there?'

"Yeah, I'm here babe. Look you can't go out of town this weekend."

"Why not?"

"Why not...because...because," Philip searched for something to tell her when Max grabbed his cell phone from him.

"You guys can't go out of town this weekend because we're taking you out to a special dinner tomorrow night." Max eyed the rest of the men. "We've been working all week planning this. As kind of an apology dinner. So you guys can't go anywhere or there won't be a dinner."

On the other side of the line Chloe and the other women frowned. "So you guys have planned a special dinner for us tomorrow. That's great! I mean I can't believe that you planned this all on your own. Well, listen Max, would you put Philip back on the phone for a minute. I need to talk to him." Max handed the phone back to Philip.

"So how did you like our surprise?" He asked as he tried to gage if it was a good idea.

"I love it. But, now I will have to go shopping to find the right outfit to wear. Listen, I'm going to let you go. I'll see you tomorrow night. Love you," Chloe said as she clicked the phone off know they needed a new plan.

"Alright, I love you too. See you tomorrow." Philip said as he released a deep breath and ended the phone call. He turned to face the other men. "That was some good thinking Max. But, now we have a problem."

"Actually, I think that we may even have a better chance at surprising them. Think about it. We take them out to dinner in a good restaurant and while we're there we tell them about the ball. That way they have no way to protest. Everything will work out perfectly without any hassles or problems. This fell right into our hands." Shawn responded as he pointed out all the pros in the situation.

"He's right everything will run smoother this way. So now the only thing that we have to do is worry about the dresses and the dinner tomorrow." Michael said.

"Don't worry about the dresses. I'm sure my wife has everything under control. We'll take of that. I can also get you into a good restaurant for tomorrow. Just let me make a few calls." Ethan said as he took out his own cell phone.

"Good, this is good. There is nothing to worry about. Everything will go as planned. Thank God for small favors." Philip said hoping to bring more luck his way.

"Damnit, I can't believe it. He actually kept the pretense up. So now we have to get some outfits to go out to dinner tomorrow. I thought he would tell me after I used that going out of town idea." Chloe said.

"Well, I have to say that I am impressed." Everyone turned to stare at Maria. "Hey don't look at me like that. If you guys are honest you'll admit that you're impressed too. Think about it, they are still managing to keep this a secret even though, it's practically falling apart around them. I am very surprised that Michael didn't say any thing to me about it; I've been with him practically everyday. I am so proud that he could keep this from me." Maria grinned as she thought about all the times he had been able to evade her questions on what he was doing.

"Maria, honey I think you have finally lost it. Obviously your pregnancy has gone straight to your head. In any case, we need to decide how we are going to handle this tomorrow." Mimi said as she pushed her auburn hair behind her ears.

All of the women were silent as they thought about how they should act. "I think that if we're going to do this we have to take it all the way. Let them tell us tomorrow and we can act as if we are finding out for the first time. Then, on Saturday we let them do their thing. And we will do ours making it something that they will never forget." Liz responded for the first time to the group.

"When you say we, does that include yourself?" Maria asked her green eyes sparkling mischievously.

Liz turned to face her pregnant friend and the rest of the women. "Yes, I am in completely. Even though, I'm still mad at Max, I miss him. So I will help you guys this plan because I don't want to keep you away from your husbands anymore. So what do you say, do you want to make our husbands suffer a little bit?" She asked the ladies.

"Yes," was the unanimous answer.

"Alright, we'll let them bring it on because the games are about to began and we are in it to win it." Maria said as they begin to plan how they would act. They are going to make their husbands beg and plead for them to stop their torture.