"You're working at a magazine?" RJ zipped around the loft, grabbing everything he would need for work. Then he saw himself in the mirror, stopped, and used his fingernail to clean a black spot off one of his teeth. "Since when do you write? Or even work?"

"It's a music magazine, and I'm interning. It's a way to network so I can get the ears of A&R departments. I thought you would be more, well, supportive."

Noah sounded annoyed to RJ, so he turned to his boyfriend and flashed his freshly scraped teeth at him with a smile.

"Honestly, I'm glad you're finally doing something other than going to the gym or sitting on the couch. You need a life. When does this thing start?" RJ looked back to the mirror and started to play with his hair. He was starting to get bored of solid colours. Maybe a midnight blue with pink streaks would freshen things up?

"Liam is supposed to call and let me know after he speaks to the Editor-in-Chief of Axe."

"So it isn't even finalized yet?" RJ clicked his tongue and spun away from the mirror. "Don't count your chickens, Noah."

"What does that even mean?"

RJ shrugged. "How should I know? It's something old people always say. It just sounded good. Listen, if it happens, I'll take you out to dinner and we'll celebrate all proper like. But I have to leave for work right now because we're having the models fitted for our winter line and Maya will have me beheaded if I'm late."

"Winter? But it's barely summer."

"It's so cute how you've been living here this long and still don't understand how anything works." RJ patted his boyfriend on the head, grabbed his bag off the couch, and ran out the door.

B&B

"What are you doing here, Bill?" Ridge asked through a mouthful of a Snickers bar. He swallowed, then stuffed the other half into his mouth. "And who is your new lackey?"

Bill smirked and Ridge wanted to punch him.

"This is Eden, my new intern. She's shadowing me today to see what it's like to do a real job. Eden, see what this man is doing? That's what is known as scribbling. It is not a real job."

"What do you want, Bill?" Ridge threw down his pencil and regarded his rival. "Do you plan on spending all your time insulting me now that you have your wife and your son doing all of your work at Spencer?"

"You would be surprised just how much work I have even when I'm not CEO, Ridge. But as much fun as it is belittling you, I have other things to do. I'm here to visit my niece. Where is Caroline?"

"She's in a meeting with Rick and some thing. Do you want me to give her a message?"

"No, that's fine. I'll see her later." Bill snapped his fingers and Eden jumped to attention. "We're leaving."

"Girl, you be careful around this man," Ridge warned Eden as she and Bill began to leave the office. "He threw me out of a helicopter."

"You say that like it's a bad thing," Bill laughed. Then he snapped his fingers again and Eden closed the door.

B&B

Even though it was through a video chat, Liam hated seeing the disappointment on Noah's face.

"Really? He said no? How can he tell you, the CEO of the company, no? Your dad owns that magazine."

"Yeah, about that. We actually don't. We just own the American print and worldwide digital distribution rights. Axe magazine is published by Spencer, but we have no creative input. When I deigned to suggest taking you on as an intern, I called a nepotistic nancy boy and the editor hung up on me." Liam knew that would never have happened to his dad, but Liam also knew everyone hated his dad. Fear and intimidation were not how he wanted to run the company.

"That sucks. Man, I was really hoping you'd come through for me. Thanks for trying."

Giving a half-hearted smile, Liam made another offer. "They're not music-focused, but we do have other magazines. A lot of them. And we own them! I can email you a list and all you have to do is let me know if you want to work on one."

"I don't..." Noah sighed. Then he gave Liam a defeated smile. "Yeah, sure. You do that. Thanks."

"I don't know who you're talking to, but you need to hang up, Liam. I want you to meet my new intern, Eden Baldwin."

Liam looked to his dad and the pale woman with black hair standing just beside him. He nodded, then turned back to his phone. "I've gotta go, man. Mein führer is here. I'll email you that list later."

"Did he say E-" Noah's question was cut off as Liam exited the app. He felt bad about just hanging up, but he really didn't want to deal with his dad's bluster about being ignored.

B&B

"Mr. Logan?"

RJ and Amber spun in their chairs simultaneously.

"Who are you, and will you marry me?" Amber asked as she held out her left hand. "The ring goes on this finger."

"Amber, shut up," RJ ordered, rolling his eyes in mild annoyance. "Thad, this is Amber Moore. She's the co-owner of Logan & Moore and my design partner. Amber, this is Thad Zapado."

"Pasado," Thad corrected. He smiled and handed a manila folder to RJ. "Your mother sent me to deliver these, Mr. Logan. They're her notes on your new designs."

"Make yourself useful and read these." RJ gave the folder to Amber. He then spun around in his chair, stopped it, and smiled up at Thad. "And you, stop being so formal. Call me RJ."

"And you can call me Mrs. Pasado," Amber suggested as she licked her lips.

RJ poked Amber with his pencil, leaving a smear on her arm. "Down girl. We don't need a sexual harassment lawsuit."

"I don't mind. She's cute and it's funny," Thad chuckled. Amber lit up. "Sadly, you're barking up the wrong tree, Miss Moore. I'm gay."

"Like I care about that." Amber waved one of her hands in the air. "I will have you know that I have made out with many a gay man when I hang out at the clubs with RJ here."

Then RJ snickered. "Amber, those weren't guys: they were very butch lesbians. I mean, there was all the plaid and the facial piercings as clues."

"NO!" Amber gasped. She tapped her chin thoughtfully. "Actually, yeah, that makes more sense."

Then she shrugged and looked back to Thad.

"Are you a lesbian? Because apparently I'm one now. We can be all lesbionic together. It would be really hot."

"Goodbye, Miss Moore," Thad said with a grin and a wave. Then he nodded to RJ. "See you around... RJ."

Amber poke RJ in the side with her pencil as soon as Thad was gone. "I hate you."

"What? Why?" RJ slapped the pencil out of Amber's hand, so she slapped his hand back. Soon enough, they were in a playful slap fight and laughing.

"How is it every hot guy in this city is either gay or dating a Logan woman?" Amber sighed, lowered her hands, and picked up the folder Thad had delivered. "Even you have someone."

"What do you mean even I have someone? Why wouldn't I have someone?" RJ protested dramatically, putting his foot on Amber's chair and pushing her away from the desk. "I'm a catch!"

"You're high maintenance and loud." Amber opened the folder, started looking through it, grimaced, closed it, and threw it at RJ. "Not today. You are dealing with your mother because she wants us to not have a bedazzled piece."

"I told you she'd hate it." RJ shook his finger in Amber's direction. She threatened to break it.

B&B

"Bill was here? Why?" Rick asked the person on the other end of his phone call. Layla didn't really know this Bill guy, just what she had heard other people say, but he always seemed to piss Ridge off. Anything or anyone that pissed off Ridge Forrester or Caroline Spencer was aces in Layla Williamson's book.

"This Bill guy is your uncle, right?" Layla asked Caroline. "You guys close?"

"We're family. I don't know how things are in whatever project you grew up in, but family tends to be close here in Los Angeles."

"You're from New York, so quit acting like you know more about LA than I do. It's old. And I didn't grow up in the projects." Layla really, really wanted to slap Caroline every time she spoke.

"Sure you didn't." Caroline sipped her coffee and looked at Rick. "Uncle Bill can wait. I've been trapped in this ghetto ass meeting all damn day. The fumes from her weave glue is giving me a headache."

"You ain't cute with this ghetto stuff. It'll catch up to you someday. Karma is a bitch," Layla warned Caroline.

"And so is Caroline, which I know you've noticed in your four months working here," Ricked added as he hung up his phone and joined the conversation. "Caroline, be as stubborn as the jackass you're marrying on about anything else, but this is business. Layla's stuff is great, but I just need you to look it over and give it that Forrester shine. It's a collection for a new market, but it's still a Forrester collection. And we need good press after that Ivy stuff."

"Oh, fuck Ivy. Her death and everything she did in New York is just an excuse. You know this thing has no talent and you want me to be a ghost designer. No, Rick. Ridge and I are busy enough as it is without you trying to bully me into picking up Leanne's slack."

"It's Layla," she corrected through gritted teeth. "Why can't you ever get it right?"

"Why can't you get back to Atlanta where you belong?" Caroline asked as she kept tilting her head in different directions. Layla wanted to know which direction it would go in after it was hit with a chair. "Rick, my answer, for the fiftieth time, is no. It will always be no. I will not work with Laura and that's that."

"I didn't want to work with you anyway!" Layla exclaimed, throwing her hands in the air. "Rick, I'll just make the alterations according to your notes. We're already ahead of schedule on the fall line and it got positive reviews. So clearly we don't need Caroline or Ridge helping out with my winter line."

"Positive reviews don't equal good sales. L&M outsold you," Caroline reminded Layla. "And that was with the Forrester name backing you up."

"Layla is a new designer." Rick's defense was sweet, but Layla didn't need it.

"It outsold you, too. Not in dollar share, but in units. And I turned a profit. So I'm an asset to this company by virtue of my own hard work. You have Ridge's reputation keeping your stale designs afloat. And his reputation isn't shit to my customers anyway."

"Forrester did well without your customers for decades. They aren't needed and neither are you," Caroline shot back. She stood up and glared at Rick. "I'm leaving. The next time I come to a meeting, you and Lulu better have learned how to be professional."

B&B

Noah just stared. It was her. It was really her. He wanted to run to her, hold her, kiss her, and tell her how much he had missed her and that he wanted her back. Instead, he just kept watching her run the copying machine.

"I'm almost done. You can have it in a mi..." Eden turned to the man watching her and jumped. When she spoke, her voice was quiet. "Noah? Noah Newman?"

"My god. It's really you. You're here in Los Angeles." Noah licked his lips and nervously tried to smooth down his hair.

"I was offered an internship. It's a huge opportunity. I would've been crazy to turn it down." Eden bit her thumbnail and ran her eyes over Noah. He leaned against the doorway, no longer trusting his own feet to keep him upright. "You look good. I'm glad you're doing so well out here."

"And you're as beautiful as ever," Noah breathed, smiling genuinely for the first time in weeks.

For a moment, just a fraction of a second, Eden frowned. If he had blinked Noah would have missed it. His insides turned cold even though she had quickly resumed smiling.

"You work here, too?" Eden asked, holding her hand out and sweeping it across the copy room.

"Where? Here? Spencer? No. I mean, not yet. I'm friends with the CEO and he's trying to get me something. It's just to kill time. I'm trying to get a record deal, after all." Noah stopped his rambling and forced himself to breathe.

Eden brushed her hair behind her shoulders and laughed. It was nervous. "I'm glad you're back into music. You had... I kinda thought you had quit. It's good that you didn't."

"Yeah. RJ really helped me a lot." Then Noah stopped smiling.

He had a boyfriend. He had a boyfriend that he loved and lived with and whom he had completely forgotten about the moment he heard Eden's name come out of the speaker on his phone.

"You do know about RJ, right?" Noah asked Eden, his heartbeat slowing and his senses returning. "I don't know how you couldn't."

Just like before, Eden frowned for a nanosecond. She was back to smiling when she answered him. It didn't change the fact that he had seen her looking unhappy at the mention of his boyfriend.

"Yes, Noah. I know about you and RJ. You are my ex-boyfriend, so of course when you were outed as gay everyone called to tell me. It was... It was definitely a surprise. Are you happy with him?"

"I'm not gay," Noah explained, not answering her question. "RJ is, and we all knew it back in Paris well before he did, but I'm not. I'm..."

Noah stopped talking because he didn't know why he was saying what he was saying. Except, he did know and he hated himself for it.

"I do love him," Noah ended up saying, licking his lips and forcing his eyes away from Eden. There was a tear on the cuff of his sweatshirt and he started pulling at the loose threads. "We're good."

"That's... I'm happy you're good, Noah. Both of you. I'm still apartment hunting. The move was so sudden. Michael and Lauren are paying for my hotel room, but I need someplace more permanent. Do you have any suggestions?"

"I don't... I haven't lived here that long. I still get lost if I try to go to more than two places in one trip. Sorry. Google is going to be more helpful than I am." Noah still wasn't looking at Eden. "I need to... I've gotta go. See ya."

And before she could return the farewell, Noah was walking away. The thud of his heartbeat grew heavier with each passing second.