Chapter Thirty
It was a frequent occasion for the Blacks and Brady's meet each other for a late lunch at the Brady pub on a Saturday afternoon. And this was one of those occasions.
"So does anyone know when Philip and Chloe are coming back to Salem?" Mimi asked before taking a sip from her glass of iced tea.
"On Sunday I think. Though they might be back on Saturday, I can't remember which day she told me. I was too busy trying to stop Ian from putting the phone cord in his mouth to pay complete attention." Belle replied.
"Well, whatever day it doesn't really matter to me but as long as it's before Monday. Philip has a meeting on Monday that he has to be at." Brady added rubbing Mimi's shoulder. "Tink have you heard from Dad lately."
"No, not really. Why?" Belle replied.
"I was just wondering because he hasn't spoken to me lately either. Other than taking my kids out and doing the normal Grandfather stuff he hasn't spoken to me at all."
"You know now that I think about it Dad has been acting kind of weird for a while. I remember telling Shawn––,"
"Telling me what?" Shawn questioned as he sat down next to Belle in the booth.
"About Dad. You remember don't you? It was the other day when JT dropped by with Dad."
"Yeah, I remember John couldn't wait to get out of our house. I thought it was a little odd myself. But, he's your father." Shawn said and was rewarded with a hit on the shoulder from his wife. He smiled as she punched his shoulder again.
"You know Conrad has been acting a little strange himself lately. It's like every time I make a little comment or a suggestion even about something little he practically goes all out to do the opposite. The other day is a perfect example, I walked in on Conrad and JT talking about something when I went to put his laundry away and they both went silent like they had a secret or something. I put that down to teenage secrecy though. You know Belle and I were just like that when we were younger acting like we had this great big secret against the world."
"Ain't that the truth? You and Belle used to act like you were the CIA or something with all the little weird things you did." Brady added reminiscing on the antics of his wife and sister.
"Well, anyway, I didn't tell you the rest of the story. So the really weird thing is that when John came to pick the boys up for the basketball game he gave me this look," she tried to imitate it. But, failed. "You know the arched brow look like I was guilty or something." Belle frowned.
"You know Meems, the day that Shawn I and were talking about, you were there at the house looking at the design for that dress you ordered for that benefit show the radio station was having."
"You know you're right and I was also home the day John dropped the kids off too. Do you think I've done something to make him mad at me? I mean what could I have done to get John so upset?" Belle reached across the table and grabbed Mimi's hands.
"Meems I wouldn't worry about it. I'm sure Dad's not mad at you. I didn't mean to imply that he was for some reason. The reason Dad's being so standoffish probably has something to do with Basic Black. Right Brady?"
Brady didn't answer at first as he was thinking over everything Mimi had said. Something wasn't right. He'd noticed Conrad, JT, and his father giving Mimi the cold shoulder over the past few weeks. Frankly, he didn't understand why they were acting the way they were. But, he'd get to the bottom of it, if only to ensure that Mimi didn't get hurt. Bringing himself back to the conversation at hand he leaned down and brushed a kiss across Mimi's cheek. "Of course not, Babe. Who could have problems with you? You're prefect." Mimi smiled as the conversation shifted although, not completely taking his attention away from his previous thoughts.
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Philip pulled into the garage and turned off the engine. They had decided to come back a day early due to a phone call Chloe received informing her that she was expected back at work prompt and earlier Monday morning. So they packed up their kids and stuff and left Virginia Beach. Although, not before the issued an invitation to Emilia and Casey to join them in Salem for a Fourth of July picnic. They were now returning to the Manor late Saturday night.
"Jarod you can go on up to your room and go to bed sweetie." Chloe told her eldest son since he was the only one of the children who hadn't fell asleep on the ride home. He wearily walked into the Manor and went toward the stairs.
Nicolette and Henderson helped to bring in some of the bags into the house. As soon as all of the bags were brought in, Chloe dismissed them telling them that she and Philip could handle everything else before she went back to the car.
She was unbuckling Jessica from her seatbelt when Philip returned. "So how do you want to do this?" He asked quietly as to not wake their sleeping children.
"You get the twins and I get Jessie." She suggested and he nodded circling the car to lift his sleeping son from the car. Chloe followed behind him and lifted Ariana into his other arm. After he went back into the house and she softly closed the door then she circled the car to pick up Jessica and close the door.
After she had put Jessica to bed she walked down the hallway to check on her children only to find that they weren't in their beds. Frowning, she thought, ~that's weird. ~ So she went to her own bedroom to ask Philip where the children were only to find that he wasn't in their bedroom either. Chloe went downstairs in search either her husband or her children. The sight that she was presented with upon her entrance into the living room was heart warming. Philip was asleep on the couch with Dominic on his right, Jarod on his left, and Ariana in his lap. The boys were both leaning on Philip's shoulders while Philip had his head against the back of the couch slouched over. Chloe assumed that Philip must have seen Jarod on the couch asleep and come to direct the child to his bed and fell asleep himself with the twins.
Looking at the Kiriakis' Chloe saw a resemblance that was shared among them. Everyone always said that the children resembled her. But, as she looked at all of them peacefully asleep she noted that when sleeping they couldn't look more like their father. Quietly, she took an afghan throw cover off the back of a chair and placed it over her sleeping husband and children.
The next morning Philip woke up to the strong smell of coffee under his nose. Rolling his head to the side he slowly opened his eyes as a slight weight settled down next to him. Finally he opened his eyes all the way and moved his head up right to see who had sat down next to him.
"I was wondering when you would wake up. The twins and Jarod were up about two hours ago." Chloe replied drinking some of her coffee as Philip stretched and wiped the sleep from his eyes.
"How long have I been asleep down here?" He asked his voice slightly raspy from sleep.
"Since last night. I guess you were more tired than you originally thought. After I put Jessie to bed I went to say good night to the twins and Jarod only to find that they weren't there. So I went ask you and you weren't in the bedroom either. So when I came down here to find you, you were cuddled with our beloved children. You all looked so sweet that I didn't want to wake you up." She said before drinking more of her coffee.
Philip stared as his wife as drank her coffee. She was dressed in a pair of jeans, white t-shirt and her favorite over shirt, one of his dress shirts. She looked so unbelievably relaxed he had no trouble believing that she had been up for hours. "Should you really be drinking that coffee?"
"It's decaf and it's not really coffee it's French Vanilla Café." She placed the mug on the table before her. "My mother called and asked me to bring our little darlings over later. Do you want to go with me?"
"When are you leaving?"
"In a couple of hours. There's no rush." She replied.
"Okay let me take a shower and get dressed." Chloe moved off the couch. "Did she say why?"
"No but knowing my mother like I do, I'd say it's probably to take pictures or something for her to brag about to her friends. You know what my mother's like." Chloe said as she leaned down and pulled Philip off the couch and grabbing her coffee as they start to walk up stairs.
"Yeah it's either that or she wants to see how much bigger you gotten in the last two weeks. She probably wants to see if you've already grown a huge belly." He added and received a hit on the arm as they headed to their room.
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Brady knocked on the open door at John's office. John looked up surprised to see his son.
"Brady why are you knocking? Son just come in." John replied putting the folder aside as Brady settled into a seat across from him. "So to what do I owe the honor of your visit?"
"I wanted to talk to you about something important." He paused. "About JT and Conrad." Brady said cutting straight to the point. John's facial expression revealed nothing.
"Oh, what seems to be the problem son?"
"To be blunt I think you know the problem better than I do, Dad. I'm not stupid; I've noticed a distinct chill in the air whenever Mimi is around either my son or my brother. They avoid talking to her and when they do talk to her it's only when they have to. So don't bother insulting my intelligence by telling me they aren't or that you don't know why because I know you do."
John thought over everything his son, had just said knowing that it was clear he knew nothing about Mimi's affair or even that Conrad knew. "Look, son I'd love to help you out. But, what JT told me was in confidence and I can't break it not even to you. All I will say is that you need to talk to Mimi." John said giving away just enough detail to protect JT's secret and Brady too. Because once he knew about Mimi's affair it probably would kill him or send him into a rage and kill Jason.
Brady frowned. "Why would I talk to Mimi about this? She doesn't even know what's going on. Hell, Dad she's under the impression that they're angry about Conrad's grounding or something." Then, it finally dawned on him John was trying to tell him had something to do with Mimi and Mimi alone. But, the only thing he could think of that had happened recently was the thing with Jason. But, no on knew about that or did they? "Are you talking about a little problem Mimi had with someone else?" He asked not letting onto his father that he knew about the affair already.
"So you know about that?" Brady nodded.
"Of course I knew about that, Mimi and I have no secrets. She told me about it after the idiot tried to make a move on her and I dealt with Masters."
"What do you mean when he kissed her? That day in her office was the first time he tried anything?" John asked making sure to get his story correct, he brow arching all the while.
"And the last. He started giving her this whole spiel about how they were right for each other and he kissed her. She was caught by surprise for like a second and then she pushed him away and set him straight. She read him the riot act and came home to tell me. Then, I went and handled the situation and let him know I didn't appreciate it." He informed his father rather cockily.
"So she pushed him away and didn't actually kiss him?" John questioned again this time easing down in as he did and Brady nodded,
"Of course, she did. My wife would never cheat on me. And you can damn well bet that I constitute kissing as cheating in my book. The only lips on my wife are mine, anyone else and I'll––," Brady replied. It was beginning to seem like John thought Mimi was having an affair. Although, he had no idea where John heard about the Mimi/Jason situation.
"Whoa son," John cut in before Brady got overheated he laughed. "So you're saying Mimi didn't have an affair with Jason."
"What the hell kind of question is that? Are you out of your mind? Who the hell thinks that?" Brady asked incredulously. Then he thought about, it was Conrad and JT giving Mimi the cold-shoulder. So one of them had seen the kiss between Mimi and Jason and told the other that she had an affair, "Which one? Conrad or JT which one of them saw Mimi?" Brady asked needing to know which one misconstrued the situation.
"I can't tell you that, son. I made a promise to them and I won't break that confidence. All I could tell you is to go talk to them separately. That way everyone will get their stories straight." John added unwilling to reveal who told him about the kiss.
Again Brady nodded as he walked to the door. "I'll question both of them and find out for myself. Believe me I will find out." He said before walking out of the office to go on his merry way.
Tell me what you think. Feedback is greatly appreciated. J