So this is my version of what I think will happen from 5x06 onwards, based on promos, guesses and what I'd like to see :) All chapters will be posted before the corresponding episode airs as I want to see how much I guess correctly! Hope you enjoy it :)

Disclaimer: I sadly don't own Younger, it's characters or any canon text.

CHARLES

Sat in a Shelter Island country club bar, Charles ground his teeth in annoyance as he swirled the whiskey in his glass. This meeting was supposed to be a formality – meet the author and get him to sign with Empirical. But like everything else in Charles's life at the moment, it wasn't going to plan. This young rockstar was arrogant and entitled and had been a thorn in Charles's side for the past three hours. If Empirical wasn't in such financial hot water, he'd have been tempted to tell this guy where to go, but this memoir would be a huge get for the company and could potentially take some of the strain off for a while. Although deep down Charles was quite shy, he was usually a pretty good people person and had no problem building a rapport with even the most obnoxious of authors. But try as he might, Charles just could not seem to build a rapport with this guy, who was a young 20 something that had risen to incredible heights of stardom and fame and was known the world over. He was also not at all modest about his achievements and now wanted to write a book to tell his story and further cash in. The guy's attitude irked Charles pretty much from the first few minutes of speaking to him, but normally Charles could just grit his teeth and smile his way through the meeting, but he was off his game lately. It could have something, no it definitely had everything, to do with the woman he had not been able to get out of his head for the past year. He sighed as he thought of her.

Liza Miller. He had been drawn to her since the moment he met her, and as the weeks and months went on, seeing her around the office and talking to her, however insignificant the topic, became the highlight of his day. He tried to convince himself that they were just work colleagues who got on so well because of their shared love of literature and similar sense of humour. As time went on though he could no longer deny that he was attracted to her, but he brushed it off – she was 26 and he was her boss, this could never happen. He felt like the stereotypical midlife crisis – forty-something guy lusting after his twenty-something assistant, well not his assistant but an assistant who worked for him none the less. But it always felt different with her – when it was just the two of them and they would talk, sometimes for minutes, sometimes for hours, it never felt like there was an age gap. Like he'd told her, he felt like him around her again – and he hadn't been able to say that for years, even long before Pauline left. Him and Liza got on so well and they had so much in common. It often confused him because she seemed so wise beyond her years, but he shook it off and put it down to her being an old soul. Charles scoffed at this thought now. He'd opened up to her and let her in, and he'd allowed himself to lower the barriers that usually prevent anyone from getting too close to him. He told her things that he never told anyone, not even Pauline. She knew him and he thought that he knew her, but it turned out that the woman he'd fallen in love with had been lying to him since the day they met.

There, he admitted it – he'd fallen in love with Liza. He'd only admitted this once before, when he'd still been in shock from the revelation and trying to get advice on what to do from one of his oldest friends, Bob. He couldn't pinpoint exactly when it happened – it could have been in the Hamptons when he had held her in his arms and they had swayed together to 'take my breath away', or it could have been way back at the Millennial launch party where he had watched her let Kelsey take all the limelight and beam with pride watching her friend give her speech, but somewhere along the line he had fallen for this intriguing young woman who had captured both his heart and mind. He remembers feeling the sting of pain whenever he would see her with Josh or hear her talking about him, but at the time he brushed it off and refused to acknowledge his feelings. But as time went on that became nigh on impossible. When he found out that she'd left Empirical, he felt physically sick and needed to get her back. When he'd gone to the department store in New Jersey his only intention had been to convince her to come back to the company, but something inside of him snapped seeing her standing there, and for once he followed his heart rather than his head. He kissed her, and it should have felt wrong but it didn't – it felt so right, like he'd come home. When she didn't turn up at the Carlisle, he'd stepped back thinking that she didn't share his feelings's and wanting to respect her on-again off-again relationship with Josh. He tried to move on with Radha but when Liza ended up in the hospital and Radha had given him an ultimatum, there had been no choice in his mind – he'd gone to Liza and he knew he'd been kidding himself trying to move on. Even if he and Liza couldn't be together, even if they just saw each other in the office, his life was better just having her in it. He still didn't think she shared his feelings but in the Hamptons she was the one that kissed him and a glimmer of hope ignited in his heart. That was until they'd got back to her room and he'd seen the doomed marriage proposal on her bed. There always seemed to be so many obstacles in the way of them being together. He felt guilty about Liza and Josh breaking up and the fact that he may have played a part in it, but Liza assured him that they'd wanted different things and although he'd never admitted it, deep down a part of him was relieved that they weren't together anymore. He didn't know Josh well but from what he'd seen and heard about him, it didn't seem like he had much in common with her.

With Liza single there was one less obstacle in their way, although the path to them being together was still far from clear. As they spent more time together and worked together more closely, his feelings became stronger and deeper, and it became harder to hide them. It all came to a head when he thought she was dating his old college friend Jay - a forty-something guy working in publishing - who wasn't him. He hadn't meant to blurt out his feelings but he was so frustrated he couldn't help it. If dating a guy in his 40s wasn't an issue for her then why couldn't she date him? When she came to his office he'd thought she was going to let him down gently but he couldn't have been more surprised when she strode over to him and kissed him with such intensity. It didn't take him long to recover, after all those months of longing, all that pent-up desire was just bursting to get out. She started to undo his tie but he ripped it from his neck before she had the chance, eager to be as close to her as possible. In the heat of the moment she had said there was something she needed to tell him, but he stopped her, not wanting to talk any more, just wanting to be with her. In hindsight looking back, he now realised what it was that she wanted to tell him. The moment didn't last very long as once again they were interrupted, this time by the janitor, and then a further obstacle was thrown in their path – this time in the shape of his soon-to-be ex-wife. This proved to be the biggest obstacle so far and as much as he tried to convince Liza that it was over between him and Pauline, she pushed him away and didn't want to stand in the way of his family getting back together. At Pound Ridge after getting punched in the face by Josh, he tried once more to assure Liza of his feelings. All of the need and the passion that had built up in him he poured into that kiss. He knew she was only trying to do the right thing but it was frustrating – he wanted her not Pauline, and he knew she had feelings for him too, or at least he thought she did. Seeing her with Jay and then finding out she'd gone to Ireland with Josh irritated him no end but he couldn't seem to do anything about it. For a second he considered getting back together with Pauline but he dismissed the thought almost as soon as it arose – he was in love with Liza, and even if he wasn't his marriage to Pauline in reality had ended years before she had actually left.

The L L Moore fiasco had created innumerable problems for his company, but as he looked at Liza whilst he was standing on that stage, she gave him the strength and courage to go through with it and he knew he was doing the right thing. When she'd stood in his office and admitted to him that her feelings for him were there, they were real and that she thought about what happened in his office all the time, that little spark of hope that maybe, just maybe they could be together after all, had been reignited. But then his world and everything he thought to be true had come crashing down around him. L L Moore had taken great pleasure in informing him that Liza was a fraud and in actual fact was not 27 but rather a divorced 41 year old from New Jersey, with a college aged daughter. He didn't want to believe it at first - how could he, this was Liza - he knew her. But there it was in black-and-white - she had been lying to him all this time. The disbelief soon turned into anger - how could she do this to him? She had betrayed him. It hurt, more than he cared to admit. Part of him was relieved that she wasn't 27, but the other part of him was so hurt and so angry that this person that he cared so much about had lied to him all this time. Her age had always been one of the perceived barriers in their way, and a part of him was angry that that barrier didn't even exist and that if she'd been honest with him they could have been together from the start. But then again, if she'd lied to him about her age, what else had she lied about? Was she lying about her feelings for him too? When he'd apologised to her for taking his anger out on Don, she begged him to believe her that she cared about him and whenever they'd kissed it always felt reciprocal, but he just wasn't sure of anything anymore.

Sighing, he threw back the last mouthful of his drink and slammed the glass down on the counter in disdain. Usually work was a good distractor from any personal drama he was having, but it just wasn't working this time. This rockstar guy was young and cool and wanted to publish with someone relevant to his target readership – he wanted Millennial. In any other circumstance that wouldn't be an issue, Millennial was Empirical's imprint and all revenue goes to the same place, but with Kelsey in Washington with Zane, if he wanted to sign this guy and prevent him from going to another publishing house, then that only left Liza. Picking up his phone he scrolled through the contacts and hovered over the L's. As angry as he was with her, he had to admit that Liza was very good at her job. She had proved herself invaluable to the company and had made some big saves since starting work there. He hated to admit it but he needed her. Before he lost his nerve he clicked on her name and forced himself not to end the call before it connected. It rang five times before she picked up. He was beginning to think she wouldn't answer, and if he was honest with himself he couldn't really blame her with how we had been treating her lately. When she did eventually answer, with a slightly apprehensive sounding "hello?", he involuntarily took a sharp intake of breath at hearing her voice - he had missed it.

It took him a few seconds to compose himself and remember what he had called her for. "Liza, hi"

"Charles, is everything okay?", Liza sounded concerned and still a bit apprehensive.

It never used to be awkward between the two of them, but he reminded himself that it wasn't his fault that it now was – well it mostly wasn't his fault. "Liza, I need your help". He decided to get straight to the point and avoid straying into personal territory.

"erm, okay. Is everything alright?"

"You know that memoir I've been trying to close the deal on?"

"The rockstar?"

"Yeah. Well he wants to sign, but with Millennial rather than Empirical. He won't sign until he's spoken with someone from Millennial first though, and with Kelsey in Washington…"

"Oh, right…okay" Charles heard the disappointment in her voice and felt a pang of guilt. She thought she was his last resort and that he was only calling her because Kelsey was unavailable. "Did you want me to Skype him or something?"

"No actually, he's quite high maintenance. He wants to meet face-to-face or no deal. I'm sorry to ask, I know you're probably busy and it'll be late by the time you get here…"

"No, it's fine really – I want to help. I'll come now. What's the address?" A small smile crossed Charles's face - even if she'd hurt him personally, he could still rely on her professionally.

"It's a country club on Shelter Island. I'll text you the address and send a car." Some of the tension ebbed from Charles's shoulders. "Thank you".

"No problem".

He could tell that she meant it. He was still angry with her, but she was helping him out and he felt he owed her something. "…and Liza…you're very good at your job - I wouldn't have asked you if I didn't think so" He wasn't sure if he imagined it, but he was sure he heard her sigh on the end of the line.

"Thank you. I'll be there as soon as I can. Goodbye Charles"

"Goodbye Liza"

Well, he'd been doing a fairly good job of avoiding her for the past week, but being alone with her three hours away from home would unavoidably put paid to that. This would be interesting - he may need another drink!