After the dark of sadness comes the glory of happiness!

Dinner and a bench!

As arranged, Ridge arrived outside the orphanage around seven pm. A little later, Taylor came out of the building. Since they had no lunch, both were starving. For this reason, they stopped at the first restaurant that came across their path. After they both placed their orders, Ridge could no longer contain his curiosity.

"Now tell me, what do you do at the orphanage when you weren't there as a professional?"
"I volunteer there,once or twice a week."
"Wow, that sounds great!"
"Yes, it's so much fun with the kids and these kids are so grateful for every bit of attention. All of them have lost both parents and have no other family to take care of them and even though most of them are only in elementary school, they have just a little chance of being adopted because they are already too old. Most of them stay in the care of welfare until they are of age."
"That sounds sad, and what exactly do you do with the kids?"
"Anything that's going on, helping with homework, organizing games, accompanying them on outings, helping to prepare the parties. In general, just helping out where it's needed. The educators really do everything they can, but they can't really do justice to every child."
"It's certainly not always easy, and without volunteers it would probably be even more difficult. How did you come up with the idea?"
"Through a colleague, she works as a child psychologist and has professional work there from time to time and at some point she mentioned to us how difficult it is for the orphanage to find volunteers. Well so I thought I would like to participate. You know when I came here, I always wanted to pack my days full of activities. I definitely wanted to avoid having time to-" Taylor broke off and looked at her plate in silence.
"You didn't want to have time to quiet down and think about everything that had happened?!" Taylor looked at Ridge in amazement. He still knew exactly what she was thinking. Silently, she just nodded.
"I can understand that, I feel the same way right now."

Ridge would have liked to hear more about her volunteer work, but at that moment the waitress brought them their food. They both pounced on their noodles as if they hadn't eaten in days. It wasn't until the waitress cleared the plates again that Taylor continued their conversation.
"Now I was just talking about me the whole time. How are you doing? What gave you the idea to open a store here in San Francisco?"
"Dad was offered the store by a former business associate. He suggested I take over it because I told him I'd like to get away from LA for a while, and Europe was too far away for me, especially because of Thomas and Steffy.
"Did you want to leave because of Brooke? The kids told me it's ice time with you guys right now and you're going your separate ways again?!" Ridge noticed her mocking expression, groaning loudly. "Did I say something wrong?"
"No not exactly, I can just see you are thinking exactly what most are thinking or rather almost all are thinking. You are sure the thing between Brooke and me is just a phase that will eventually subside, eventually we'll get back together and remarry until it starts all over again."
"Sorry Ridge, but what other way should I see it? I mean, this whole thing has been going on for years. So far, none of your so-called breakups have lasted forever."

"This time, though, it's final. It's over. I have no interest in ever living with Brooke again. I have no feelings for her anymore and I'm definitely not in love with her any longer. I wanted to leave because it's just too hard to work with her every day right now because she still doesn't want to acknowledge the breakup. I just need distance from it all." Taylor was more than taken aback; she had never heard Ridge talk about Brooke with such determination. So far, they had mostly only broken up because some circumstances had come between them, but never because he had doubted his feelings for her. She guessed there must have been a lot more going on this time than the usual minor difficulties.
"Well anyway, San Francisco is a great city to just take a breath and relax," she changed the subject.
"Right now I don't have a lot of time to switch off and relax, my assistant and I have both hands full with the renovations. I want to give the store a whole new look, so right now it's more like one giant construction site. There's no telling when we'll even have the opening."
"That means you can't estimate how long you'll be in town yet?"
"Do you have plans to make a red cross on your calendar today for when you'll be rid of me?! I'm sorry, I can't give you that date yet." Taylor laughed at his joke.
"Well, that's not what I meant."
"Like I said, first we have to get all the renovations done, get the store set up, etc., and then if we ever open, I'll definitely be here for the first few months until the store is a successful run and stable enough that I can trust it with a store manager. So I guess you'll have to put up with me for a while."
"I could imagine worse!"
"Thank you! I'll take that as a compliment." They got ready to leave the restaurant. Ridge paid the bill and the two left. In front of the restaurant was a small plaza with a few benches. It was a mildly pleasant evening, so they sat down on a bench. For a moment there was silence between them. Until Taylor took her heart and asked the question that had been on her mind all along.