In The Young and the Restless realm (well, really in the entirety of the soap world), relationships often start off sweet before devolving into a great ball of chaos.
Case in point, despite Victor (Eric Braeden) and Nikki (Melody Thomas Scott) being one of the most iconic couples in all of daytime, they’ve broken up and gotten back together more times than I care to count. While each makeup was more romantic than the next, the breakups in question were at a minimum chaotic and at a maximum explosive.
With that being said, we can’t help but believe that things for Claire (Hayley Erin) and Kyle (Michael Mealor) are soon going to go off the rails. Their bond started as a sweet friendship before evolving into a hot romance, but the forces against them seem to be slowly coming together to make the perfect storm, and we aren’t sure #Kylaire can survive.
Of course, Victor being against the couple is problematic enough, but he’s actively got Audra (Zuleyka Silver) doing his bidding, and she has Kyle in her sights at Cane’s (Billy Flynn) French estate. Despite Diane (Susan Walters) trying to run interference between Audra and Kyle, the two have continued to gravitate toward each other during this trip, and we think that spells trouble for him and his fidelity to Claire.
Adding to all of this, we once thought months ago that Holden’s (Nathan Owens) budding friendship with Claire would present a problem. Kyle clearly hasn’t been fond of their bonding, and we can’t say we blame him for being a little jealous. Holden and Claire definitely have a spark between them, and we’d suspect Claire would explore that if it weren’t for her loyalty to Kyle.
On that note, with Kyle out of the country, it looks like Holden will again have the opportunity to catch up with Claire in the episode airing on June 26. We think this encounter could lead to a couple of favors being exchanged between the two that could make things interesting.
From Claire’s perspective, she likely wants a shoulder to lean on to work through her emotions surrounding Cole’s (J. Eddie Peck) illness. Although he’s been diagnosed with pneumonia, we have a hunch that something else is going on with him that may later prove deadly. But in the meantime, Claire may open up to Holden about her going through this whole ordeal with her father and it being unfair considering they’ve only been able to build a bond in recent years.
Claire could also find herself struggling a bit at Chancellor with Nikki away in France. Claire is intelligent and has a solid education, but she’s never run a corporation before. We assume she’s running Chancellor for her grandmother while she’s gone, and it’s not hard to envision Claire encountering some problems. So could Holden, being unemployed and with business experience, offer Claire some helpful counsel? Sure, he could.
Speaking of Holden’s unemployment, he’s been adamant not to take any handouts from Damian (Jermaine Rivers) and the Winters clan. However, since he’s determined to stay in Genoa City, he's likely in need of a job. We won’t be surprised if he talks about his employment problems with Claire, and she offers to talk to Nikki about a role for him.
Here’s the thing: if Holden and Claire wind up working together, that means they’ll spend more time together. Could a few “working lunch dates,” late-night meetings and special projects prompt Claire and Holden to grow a connection beyond platonic?
It would be interesting to see Holden and Claire’s working bond accelerate into something more, as Audra and Kyle’s corporate rivalry competition pushes them to revisit their failed romance. We’d again be forced to ask who would cheat first, Claire or Kyle?
New episodes of The Young and the Restless air weekdays on CBS. Episodes become available to stream on Paramount Plus the next day.
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