The inspiration!

Ridge and Taylor didn't see each other for a few days, as both were very busy. But they sent each other short messages every day. Both of them were happy and relieved that they got along much better. Steffy and Thomas were also thrilled when they heard about it. Today was Taylor's day off and she strolled through the shops. She needed a birthday present for Susan. Finally, she found just the perfect one. An Elvis puppet that could dance and sing. Susan was a huge Elvis fan and had a weakness for such stuff. Satisfied Taylor continued to walk along. Then she noticed that Ridge's store had to be around here somewhere. He had invited her to stop by. At first she looked through the shop window, but there wasn't much to see yet. She recognized a woman busily scurrying around. That had to be Ridge's assistant.

"Excuse me? May I help you? We haven't opened yet."

"Um I know, I was looking for Ridge, Dr. Taylor Hayes, I'm his ex-wife."

"Oh yes of course, Thomas and Steffy's mother right? Please come in. I'm Rosa, Ridge's right-hand. I'll see if he's available."

Taylor looked around. Ridge hadn't been exaggerating. At the moment, the store was indeed still more like a giant construction site.

"Ridge is still in a video conference, but he insists that you wait for him. May I offer you something? Water? Tea? Coffee?"

"A glass of water would be nice." Taylor regarded Rosa curiously. She seemed very energetic and confident but also had something likeable about her. Taylor estimated her to be in her mid-30s early 40s. Rosa handed her the requested glass of water.

"Well, as you can see, there's not too much to see here yet. Ridge and I have our hands full with the renovation at the moment, it's proving to be a bit tedious."

"Oh why? Are you having trouble finding good people?"

"No not at all, we are working with some good tradesmen. The issue is Ridge and his problem in decision making. He can't make a final decision on anything. Last week for example I had to contact the painter twice because he's not so convinced of the color design anymore. Has it always been this way that he could never make up his mind?" Taylor grinned and finally burst out laughing, this girl had no idea what true words she had just uttered. If anyone knew what it was like to feel Ridge's indecisiveness firsthand, it was probably her.

"Yes, indeed, that was always a problem for him and not only on the question of the wall paint."

"Ah well, I was beginning to think I was doing something wrong. I mean I really enjoy working with Ridge, he's a very pleasant boss and we have so much fun all day, but sometimes he drives me crazy with his manner. Even when I can't deny it, he has a certain charm too." As Taylor listened to Rosa, she wondered if there was more going on between Ridge and his assistant. From her looks, she definitely fell into his prey pattern. She was tall, slender, feminine, attractive and exuded confidence.

"Yeah, he knows how to wrap women around his finger."

"Are you talking about me?" Ridge approached the two women.

"Hey Taylor, nice you stop by!"

"I was just in the neighborhood and I thought I'd see what you've been up to all day." While Taylor and Ridge greeted each other, Rosa discreetly made her way out.

"A sympathetic lady, your assistant and she seems very impressed with you."

"Really? In fact I am of her too, she's a real support in all this chaos here, without her nothing would go on."

"She told me, you are having trouble making some decisions regarding the renovations."

"Well, you know me, I'm just very thorough."

"Mmm!" Taylor gave Ridge a skeptical look. Ridge wanted to change the subject, unceremoniously he looked into her shopping bag and spotted Susan's gift. With pointed fingers, he pulled out the puppet and regarded it with a mock disbelieving look.

"You told me you've made some changes in your life, but please don't tell me you're into such junk like this lately?" Taylor took the Elvis from his hand and placed it on the table.

"It's not for me, it's a gift for Susan, my new girlfriend. She's a huge Elvis fan and look, he can even dance and sing." Taylor turned it on to demonstrate its skills.

"The kids have already told me quite a bit about your new girlfriend, she seems to be a great person. But I have my doubts now. Anyone who is smitten with such trash, has some major issues. Sorry!"

"Don't be so arrogant. Susan is really a wonderful person. I'm glad I met her and everyone has a little quirk, after all." Ridge raised his eyebrows meaningfully. Rosa came back, she already had her jacket on and was dragging a small suitcase behind her.

"I'm off then, thanks again for the extended weekend." She and Ridge hugged briefly. "Dr. Hayes, it was a pleasure to meet you!" and she was out the door.

"Extended weekend?! Does that mean you gave her off until Sunday? It's just Tuesday."

"Well, she wants to travel to Chicago to see her husband. He's a very successful lawyer. He is working on a very complicated case there right now and since he's been there, they hardly see each other. She's been bugging me for days about how much she wants to visit him. So I had the choice of either listening to her heartbreak every day or giving her a few days off. I chose the latter."

"Very reasonable and very compassionate."

"Well, you know me Doc!" Ridge bit his tongue and made an apologetic gesture. Taylor pretended not to hear the slip.

"So she's married, do they have kids?"

"No, Rosa and her husband are both career people. Absolutely committed to their work. Apparently they both don't want any children."

"Okay, each to their own. I just hope they don't regret it one day. Not that my job isn't important to me, but completely without the kids? Nah, I cannot imagine that."

"I feel the same way. By the way, speaking of our kids, Thomas and Steffy sent me their latest designs. Would you like to see them?"

"I'd love to!" Taylor followed Ridge into his office. "Wow, I'm impressed. There's no doubt these two have inherited your talent."

"Yeah, you could say that, and if they keep working on themselves like this, maybe in a few years they'll be nearly as good as me!"

"As long as they're not as cocky as their father then, too!"

"Hey. I'm not conceited. I'm just confident in myself and my abilities."

"Mhm!" Taylor snorted derisively. "Will this collection be offered here in the shop then?"

"That's the plan, if the store ever gets finished."

"It can't be that hard!"

"You have no idea!" I mean, the customers should feel comfortable from the moment they walk in. So it does matter what color the walls are."

"That's true. If you need help, I know an excellent interior designer. He helped me a lot with my apartment. I can give you his number if you want."

"Better not. We have so many offers already, if anyone else gets involved, I'll go completely nuts. But thanks anyway."

The two walked back into the store. Taylor stood in the middle of the room, looked at the walls again, and then closed her eyes. Ridge noticed that she appeared to be thinking very hard. He kept quiet until she opened her eyes again.

"When I picture the dresses, I think the store needs a summery flair that fits best. I would maybe go into orange like with a touch of yellow and on the other walls light blue mixed with light green. You know, kind of summer, beach and ocean feeling. The people are more relaxed right away with the vacation spirit."

"Is that your famous psychiatric instinct talking?"

"Hey, I just wanted to give you a lead. It's totally up to you how you design your store. I've got to go anyway. I just wanted to stop by because I was in the neighborhood and thought it would be silly not to say hello." Taylor grabbed her bag and said goodbye to Ridge with a quick hug. Alone again, he surveyed the premises once more, running Taylor's ideas through his head. Finally, he went back to his office, where he busily took notes.

When Rosa arrived at work on Monday, Ridge surprised her with a new complete concept. His ideas differed greatly from their original ones, but she liked the new look. She promised to contact the painter right away and took matters into her own hands before Ridge could change his mind. A few days later, Ridge and Rosa were on lunch break, there was a knock at the door.

"Hello Dr. Hayes, nice to see you again!"

"Oh, enough with the formalities.'' Call me Taylor."

"Gladly! So what brings you here?"

"Sheer curiosity. Ridge told me the work had started. So I wanted to take a look." She glanced all around. "Wow! There's been a lot of activity."

"Yeah, all of a sudden it's going like clockwork. Ridge suddenly came up with a whole new idea." Rosa went to the counter and pulled out a large sheet of paper. "This is what the store is going to be when it's all done." Taylor looked at the design.

"Ah, interesting!"

"Right! Ridge said he wanted the customers to feel like they were on vacation. An oasis to unwind!"

"I see, I like it. I guess someone had just the right instinct." She cast a sidelong glance at Ridge, but he avoided her gaze.

"You might have had that instinct earlier!" Rosa gave Ridge a gentle nudge.

"Ridge is an artist, he needs an inspiration to exercise his creativity, and you never know when it's going to show up at his door. Am I right Ridge?" Taylor smiled mischievously at him, He scowled at her. He couldn't stand it when she was playing her games with him. He decided to put an end to it.

"Yes, you are. Well Rosa actually it was Taylor who came up with this idea. I merely expanded on it."

"Really?" Rosa looked at Taylor approvingly. Taylor rebuffed.

"I only gave him some impulses. But what came out of it, is his accomplishment." Ridge contradicted her.

"No, no. The credit goes to you alone."

Rosa looked confused back and forth between them. She had a feeling something was going on, she didn't understand. But it was probably for the best to stay out of it. This wasn't her cup of tea.

Over the next few days, Taylor showed up more often. Rosa and her had really become good friends and exchanged numbers. So all three of them sat together and picked out furniture for the waiting area. Rosa and Taylor had talked Ridge into setting up a kids' corner. Rosa was putting the last Post it marks on the pages of the catalog. She glanced at her watch.

"Wow. We picked out all the furniture and toys for the kids' corner in less than two hours. Now that's what I call efficient."

"Indeed!" retorted Taylor. "Speaking of efficiency, how are the applications coming along? Have you found enough people by now?"

"Yes, we have the sales clerks all together now, only the position for the future store manager is still vacant. Ridge wants to hire someone as soon as possible, so that he or she will be involved in the business from the very beginning." At that moment, Ridge's phone rang and he walked away from the table.

"Why don't you apply for the job? I mean nobody knows the store like you do."

"No thanks. I'd rather stay an assistant, it's more my nature."

"Well, that's true. You know what they say, the assistant is usually the soul of the company. Without them, everything would go down otherwise."

"Well, I'm not sure Ridge would agree." The addressed person came back.

"What about me?"

"You should offer Taylor the position of the store manager, without her we would be nowhere near where we are now." Taylor blushed and turned away.. Ridge was uncomfortable too. Hastily, he gathered up some papers.

"I don't think you could pry Taylor away from her current job."

"Exactly, besides, Ridge couldn't afford me in the first place. Well I have to go now, I'm about to be on duty at the 'UCSF Medical Center' " Ridge was surprised.

"You're on hospital duty here like you were in LA?"

"Yes, though not as often. We from the center take turns regularly. So it's quite okay."

"Well then, I wish you a quiet shift."

"Better not, I'd rather be busy. There's nothing worse than sitting there for five hours waiting for time to pass."

At seven pm, Ridge and Rosa were about to call it a day. Ridge spotted a scarf under the table where they had been sitting this afternoon. He showed it to Rosa.

"Is this yours?"

"No, Taylor must have lost it. I know for a fact she was wearing a scarf like this one."

"Oh!" Ridge packed up the scarf. "The hospital is pretty much on my way home anyway, so I'll drop it off there." Rosa gave him an irritated stare. She knew the street he lived on, and the hospital was in a completely different direction. However, she said nothing.

Around seven-thirty, Ridge arrived in front of the hospital and waited outside the entrance. He had the idea of intercepting Taylor when she would come out of the hospital. He had the hope he could persuade her to join him for dinner. As much as he was enjoying his single life, eating alone was not for him, so he hoped at least to have some company for tonight. His eyes fell on a man who also seemed to be waiting for someone. He was carrying a large package. Ridge wondered what might be inside. The stranger seemed vaguely familiar to him, but he had no idea where he had seen him before.

Taylor emerged from the entrance, but before Ridge could get out of his car, the man with the package had already seen her and waved her over. Taylor seemed very pleased to see him. She greeted him joyfully. He handed her the package. She was quite excited about it and enthusiastically fell around his neck. Together they went to her car and drove away.

Ridge remembered where he had seen the man before. It was the same guy Taylor had spent her lunch breaks with. Disgruntled, he made his way home. On the drive, he wondered if Taylor was involved with this man. After all, they had been very familiar with each other. He had never asked her if there was a new love in her life. He had simply assumed from her telling, she was single and she had never talked about any relationship, only about some new friends she had met. Ridge knew it was none of his business and yet he had his thoughts.