It's always the same!

The next morning, Taylor and Ridge overslept and therefore they had to rush to get finished. They had arranged a hiking tour with the others and were in a hurry to get to the meeting place on time. After the feast last night, they had spontaneously decided to go dancing afterwards and had gotten home very late. A little exhausted and still tired, they finally arrived at their destination. However, they were not the last ones. Marc and Steven were not there yet. Ridge pulled Rosa along with him.

"Do me a favor please, don't mention Brooke's visit in Taylor's presence."

"You didn't tell her?" hissed Rosa softly.

"I couldn't!" Taylor just proudly presented her cover photo. "She was so happy about the article, I just couldn't tell her! I didn't want to ruin her night!"

"Okay, in some way I understand that, but still it wasn't right!"

"I promise you, I'll tell her the first chance I get."

"Hey, you two! It's the weekend, so no more whispering about work!" Taylor had come up to them and squeezed in between them.

"You're right Doc! Sorry!" He pulled her with him to join the others, Rosa looked after them shaking her head. This couldn't go well, but she had decided to stay out of it. That was Ridge's problem.

There was no opportunity for Ridge to talk to Taylor on the trip. Again they came home very late that night and were so tired and exhausted that they barely managed to brush their teeth and fall into bed. The next morning, Ridge surprised Taylor with breakfast in bed, determined to tell her the truth now. However, when Taylor began to feed him and obviously had other things on her mind than talking to him seriously, Ridge again couldn't bring himself to do it. Secretly, he calmed himself with the thought that perhaps Brooke had already left. Taylor spent Sunday afternoon at the orphanage. Ridge stayed at home alone, working on new designs. He had checked his phone; Brooke had tried to call him several times and had left him some messages, but he deleted them without listening to them first. His thoughts circled back and forth. He actually knew it wasn't right to keep this secret from Taylor, especially because it was about Brooke. On the other hand if she left quickly, then Taylor might never have to know about it. After all, it made no difference to their relationship whether Brooke was in town or not. He calmed his guilty conscience and gradually convinced himself why he should needlessly upset her.

On Monday morning, to his great annoyance, Brooke showed up at his office again.

"Hey Ridge! Why haven't you checked in with me all this time!"

"Brooke?! What are you still doing here? I told you to fly back to LA! By the way, you knew I had other plans this weekend. When are you going to realize that it's over between us! I'm with Taylor now and we are very happy. So please do me a favor and stop coming back to me all the time!"

"Oh Ridge! I know you don't mean that. After everything we've shared, you can't not care about me. I just don't believe you! You love me Ridge!" He was getting more desperate. He stepped toward her.

"Of course I care about you, you're RJ's mother and because of that you will always be a part of my life, but you have to realize, I don't want to live with you anymore."

Brooke put her arms around his neck.

"But we were so happy together..." Hastily, Ridge tried to take her hands away. At that moment, the door opened.

"Hey sweetheart! I wanted to..." Taylor stopped, startled by the image that presented itself before her eyes. "Brooke?! What are you doing here?" Taylor had to pull herself together very hard, she was full with anger. Brooke smiled sweetly at her.

"Hi Taylor! How nice to see you!" Taylor laughed mockingly.

"Yes certainly, it's good to see you too! Again, what are you doing here? How dare you just show up here at Ridge's office!" "I wanted to see Ridge again!" She looked at Taylor with interest. "You seem surprised to see me here. Didn't Ridge tell you I'm in town?" Ridge turned pale. Taylor grew even angrier. She scowled at Ridge. Brooke guessed she had hit the mark with her comment. "I've been in San Francisco all weekend. I was already here on Friday and asked Ridge over for dinner, but he said you wouldn't be thrilled about it and just now I was going to ask him if we could go to lunch together!"

"Well then, I don't want to bother you any longer!" Taylor turned on her heel and stormed out of the boutique. She didn't care that all the customers were staring at her. She ran out the door and down the street. Her eyes were blind with tears. Meanwhile, Ridge broke free from his torpor.

"You're a beast, Brooke!" As fast as he could, he ran after Taylor. He just saw her disappear around a corner. He ran until he finally got to her car, but Taylor had already locked it from the inside and disregarded Ridge banging on the windows. She stepped on the gas and drove off. Ridge still tried desperately to call after her, but it was futile. He walked back to the boutique. Rosa came toward him.

"What happened?" Out of the corner she had seen as they both stormed out of the store.

"Taylor saw me with Brooke, and Brooke told her she'd been in town since Friday!" Rosa had a bad feeling.

"And Taylor still didn't know about it?! Oh my god Ridge! You are so stupid!"

"Please, no lecture now! I know myself that I messed it up. Tell me better, what am I supposed to do now?"

"You're still asking? Go after her! Try to talk to her, explain yourself and I hope you have a damn good explanation!"

"Yeah, you're right! I've got to try to fix this somehow. In the meantime, could you please take care of Brooke, in other words, make sure she gets out of the shop."

"I'll see what I can do!" Ridge went back to his office first and without paying any further attention to Brooke, he reached for his car keys. The first route took him home, hoping Taylor was holed up there. He was relieved to see her car in the parking lot. Hastily, he rushed into the apartment. He called everywhere for her, but there was no sign of her anywhere. He thought for a moment and then had another idea. A little later he rang the doorbell and banged on Susan's door. She was more than surprised when Ridge pushed past her into her apartment and searched all the rooms.

"Hey, what are you doing? Can you explain to me why you're running amok here!"

"Where's Taylor? I really need to talk to her!"

"I have no idea where she is. I haven't seen her all day."

"She wasn't with you just now? Tell me the truth!"

"No! Like I said, I haven't seen her yet today, and I don't know where she is. What happened anyway? Did you guys have a fight?"

"You could call it that. I need to find her! Do you know where she might be?"

"How should I know?"

"She's got to be around here somewhere. Her car is in the garage." That's when it rang a bell for Ridge and he knew where to find her.

Ridge went to the park where Taylor and he often take a walk. Hectically, he looked everywhere for her. Finally, he found her on a park bench. She was sitting there completely slumped over, crying. It almost broke his heart to see her like that. With unsteady steps he approached her. She got a frightened expression when she saw him. Then she ran away.

"Taylor..wait!" He kept calling her, trying to catch up. Finally he got a hold on her. He tried to take her in his arms, but she hit after him and tried to break away.

"Don't touch me! Let go! I don't want to see you!"

"Taylor, please listen to me! I can explain all of this to you! Calm down please!" He tried to soothe her, but she kept hitting him on his chest.

"No! Go away! I don't want to hear anything!" A Park employee who was observing the situation approached them.

"Excuse me Miss, do you need any help? Is this gentleman bothering you?" Instantly, Ridge let go of Taylor and looked at her pleadingly. Taylor took a few deep breaths.

"No, it's okay! This is just a quarrel."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, everything's fine, thank you!" The park employee gave Ridge a scowl.

"You shouldn't treat your wife like that!" He walked away. Ridge tried to walk toward Taylor, but she backed away.

"Thanks for not having me arrested right away!" Taylor glowered at him angrily.

"Although, you actually deserve it!" Ridge laughed uncertainly.

"Well, before the conviction comes the trial first. Maybe you'll at least allow me the opportunity to present my defense and give me a chance to negotiate a probation." Taylor looked at him, annoyed.

"Ridge, what are you doing? I don't wanna play 'courtroom' with you right now."

"I'm sorry, but please listen to me and give me a chance to explain." He pleaded with her with his eyes. Finally, she relented and they sat down on a bench. Taylor crossed her arms and still acted very dismissive.

"So Brooke's been in town since Friday and you knew about it! And you didn't even mention a word to me? I guess you thought I don't need to know. I mean, why should I even care when your ex-wife is in town!"

"Taylor please, it wasn't like that! I-"

"Did you meet with her behind my back? Is that the reason why you didn't tell me? You were probably making fun of me with her about how naive I am!"

"Taylor, stop it! I didn't see her! What do you think? I swear to you, I haven't seen Brooke since Friday and I haven't had any other contact with her. You have to believe me, please! I was completely shocked when she suddenly showed up at my office on Friday, and I told her very determined that I don't wanna go out with her and that she should take the next flight back to LA." Taylor sighed deeply. A little calmer, she continued.

"Okay. Let's say I believe you. Why didn't you at least tell me? I thought we were in an honest and sincere relationship. I thought you had really changed, but you're still the same! There's a difficult situation and you completely shut me out like I have nothing to do with it!"

"I was going to tell you, when I came home Friday night I had every intention to do it, but then you came with your article and you were so elated and proud, I didn't want to spoil your joy. And then on Saturday there was no opportunity to tell you because we were with the others. Then on Sunday I wanted to tell you at first, but then I just couldn't do it anymore. I thought maybe she had already left and you wouldn't have to know. I didn't want to upset you unnecessarily."

"Unnecessarily? Brooke shows up to win you back and I'm not supposed to be upset about it?! You're always telling me not to worry about Brooke and to trust you, but how can I when you're hiding things about Brooke from me! When are you going to realize that just because you don't talk about a thing, it's still there. It's that typical Forrester logic, as long as you can keep something under wraps, it's practically non-existent and no one needs to know about it. But I don't want to live in a fantasy world created by you and it shows me that you obviously don't have any faith in me and that hurts! It hurts me deeply!" Again, tears came to her eyes. Ridge reached for her hand.

"I'm sorry! Please forgive me! I know I was wrong. I also don't know why I always try to avoid problems instead of tackling them and always want to deal with everything on my own. But I promise you, I will change. I will never lie to you again and I won't keep such big secrets from you anymore. Just please tell me that you forgive me! Tell me that I didn't ruin everything?! I love you so much!" Taylor glanced at him and all of a sudden she realized that Ridge obviously was really scared of losing her. There was a frightened and anxious expression in his eyes, she had never seen before. His whole body was trembling. All at once her anger and rage were gone. She stroked his face.

"I love you too, even when you act like a jerk!" They fell into each other's arms and kissed over and over again. He pulled her so tightly that she almost couldn't breathe. For a while they sat there. Slowly both calmed down. They wiped each other's tears away and didn't want to let go of each other. Ridge looked straight into her eyes.

"I promise you, I will do everything to make up for my mistake! Tell me what you want, anything!"

"Let me think about it!" Taylor put a finger to her lips and thought hard. Ridge looked at her expectantly. "Mhhh...no, that's too easy!" She continued to think. "Maybe you could...whereby...that's not enough punishment for you either!" Ridge was starting to get scared.

"I know what! See that ice cream stand over there..." Ridge nodded, unsure of what to make of it. "Buy me the biggest sundae they have and everything will be fine!" Ridge stared at her as if she had lost her mind.

"Taylor Hayes you are..." She grinned mischievously at him. "The most impossible, craziest.. and most adorable best woman in the world." Again he wrapped her tightly in his arms.

Later, they strolled through the park with giant-sized sundaes. Ridge, overjoyed Taylor had forgiven him, promised her over and over again from now on he would include her in everything and wouldn't hide any burden from her. He told her in detail what had transpired in his office Friday afternoon. That's when his phone rang. It was Rosa, who told Ridge to return to the boutique immediately.

"What's going on?" asked Taylor when she noticed Ridge's expression darkened again.

"Brooke apparently went on a rampage in the boutique, berating some of our employees very harshly. She demanded that they give her my address, but they were all under strict instructions not to give it out. She yelled at one of our sales clerks, Lynn, so violently and threatened her, she would lose her job so Lynn had some kind of a nervous breakdown!"

"What? Has Brooke totally lost it now? Lynn, the young College girl?! Can't Brooke pick someone who is a match for her!"

"She seems to be completely ticked off. Rosa wants me to come back right away and take care of this disaster."

"I'm coming with you!" said Taylor firmly.

"Doc please, I don't think that's a good idea."

"Ridge, don't start with me again. I'm coming with you!"

"It's not because of that, it's just..." He paused. "I have no desire to visit you in jail for the next thirty years because you were convicted of murder." Taylor chuckled.

"Ridge please! What do you think of me? I promise you I'll control myself." They walked to the car. As Ridge drove off, Taylor said dryly. "And besides, we could always make it look like an accident!"