After the dark of sadness comes the glory of happiness!

A new project!

Ridge and Taylor heard no more from Brooke and were both very relieved. It allowed them to focus on their own life again. Taylor noticed, Ridge was drawing a lot recently. Nearly all the time he was working on new designs. In the last few months his creative work wasn't his top priority, getting the store on the run took a lot of his time and energy and he still had his responsibilities as CEO. Although Eric was running the daily business in LA, there were still a lot of duties Ridge had to manage. But since the store was doing exceptionally well, Ridge devoted his time to his true passion. Often he was working at home now. Back when he had moved in permanently with Taylor, they had rearranged the furniture in the large living area and Ridge had set up his own workspace right in front of the large window and he loved it. It was wonderful to look out of the window from time to time and to enjoy the view above the city. The best part about his workspace though was, he had a perfect view of Taylor's desk. There was nothing more inspiring to him than peeking over at her while she was engrossed in her work. They worked both at home at the same time, as often as they could. They used this time to talk about everything that was on their mind or when they were too busy they just enjoyed glancing at each other now and then and feeling each other's presence.

That afternoon, they were both captured by their work. Taylor was preparing herself for her next day sessions with her patients. She was studying her files, one bow of her glasses in her mouth as usual. Ridge was working on a sketch and kept squinting over at his sweetheart. Finally, Taylor put her glasses down, rubbed her eyes and stretched. She was about to stand up when Ridge spoke to her with force.

"Hey, stop! Sit down!" Startled, she didn't dare to move.

"What is going on Ridge?"

"Don't move, stay like this.'' He continued to draw on his sketch. Taylor already knew this game. She was getting impatient.

"Ridge please! I have to go to the bathroom and besides, I'm hungry!"

"Yeah in a minute, just a minute!" He continued drawing and then obviously he was very pleased. He gave her permission to stand up. 

"Thank you, how gracious of you!"

"Bring me something to eat too!" She gave him a penetrating look.

"Please!"

"Much better!" After a while she returned, with a sliced apple for herself and for him a peanut butter sandwich. As she put it, in front of him, he threw a kiss to her. Taylor tried to catch a glimpse of his design, but Ridge quickly pressed it to his chest.

"Hey! No peeking here."

"Oh come on Ridge, since when are you so picky about your designs? Let me see it, please."

"No, I'm nowhere near ready. This isn't meant for your eyes yet." Taylor stared at him shaking her head, lately Ridge was making a big secret about his designs, she wasn't used to that at all.

"Since when do you treat your sketches like a secret?" Ridge became tentative.

"It's just, I'm on a big new project right now, but it's not ready to talk about yet. You know you don't count your chickens before they hatch." Taylor relented. Ridge was an artist and all artists tended toward superstition. 

"Okay, but if there's anything to say, I want to know everything, every detail."

"I promise you, when this thing gets concrete, you'll be the first to know about it," he promised.

A few days later, the time had come. They made themselves comfortable after dinner, when Ridge pulled out his portfolio.

"Ah, are you finally ready to reveal the big secret?"