Thursday, August 02, 2007, Episode #5116

Phoebe tells Ridge not to avoid Ashley because of her.

Phoebe finds Ridge working at home to spend time with Hope and R.J. As his daughter admires his latest design sketch, Ridge asks if she's headed to the beach. When Phoebe says she's meeting Constantine there to work on a new project, Ridge is glad that she's getting out into the world again after her breakup with Rick. Life goes on, Phoebe agrees, asking her dad if he's also moving on. Ridge assures her that he's OK, but she thinks he's still hung up on Ashley. She guesses that he really decided to work at home so he wouldn't have to see Ashley at the office. Ridge tells Phoebe to stop thinking like her mother, but Phoebe can see he's upset. Ridge tells her that he's upset that Ashley hurt her, but Phoebe states that Ashley didn't intentionally try to do that. She can understand if he's avoiding Ashley because the other man in Ashley's life was Rick, but she doesn't want him staying away from Ashley because of her. "I'm going to be fine, Dad," she states, "and I want you to be fine, too."

Constantine promotes his web site contest.

Constantine is down at Bikini Beach, handing out autographed flyers for his "Boldface Challenge" web site. "Vote for Phoebe and Constantine," he tells passersby as he hands out the flyers. He gives one to Phoebe's friend Madison, who is eager to go to the site and vote for either Phoebe and Constantine or Phoebe and Rick. When Phoebe arrives, she dishes with Madison about the online contest while Constantine hands out more flyers. Constantine points Phoebe out to the crowd and tells them to give her a hand. When the crowd applauds, Constantine calls out for Phoebe to tell her fans who to vote for. "Constantine and me! 'Everybody Loves!'" Phoebe cheerfully responds. Rick arrives and sarcastically critiques Constantine's "high tech" promotion for his duet with Phoebe. Constantine says he just wants to get the word out. Rick says he wants to do the same thing and calls out for a bunch of guys and gals wearing Forrester Originals t-shirts with "Vote for Rick and Phoebe" on the back. As the crowd cheers, Rick passes out some of the shirts to people on the beach. Constantine chides Rick for shamelessly plugging his family business, but Rick counters that Boldface Record is making money off this deal, too. The two young men trade barbs until Phoebe comes over and tells them to play nice. Rick doesn't see anything wrong with a little trash talk in fun and decides to use his PDA to log on to the web site and cast his vote for Rick and Phoebe. "All it takes is one single vote to win a contest," he boasts.

Rick looks to the skies for a promotional idea.

While Rick and Constantine keep plugging away at the crowd, Phoebe tells Madison about her break-up with Rick. Madison sees how hurt Phoebe is that Rick betrayed her, but she also notices how determined Rick is to win Phoebe back. When Rick calls out some guys with "Vote for Rick and Phoebe" written on their bare backs, Phoebe seethes that Rick hasn't gotten the message she's been trying to get across. "Do you really want him to?" Madison asks. Constantine berates Rick for using "human billboards," but Rick suspects that Constantine is just jealous that he didn't think of it. Phoebe tells Rick that she just wants him to be available for the concert on August 24th. Rick tells her that he'll be there, and he'll keep trying to win her back in the meantime. Phoebe says he can't, but Rick thinks he can, and he thinks Phoebe feels the same way deep down. "Until then," he states, "the sky's the limit." Right on cue, a plane flies overhead; Constantine and Phoebe look up, and Constantine scoffs when he sees a banner attached to the plane that reads, "Vote Rick and Phoebe at boldfacerecords.com."

Stephanie makes Ashley an offer.

Ashley stops by Stephanie's office with some sales reports on the fragrance line. As Ashley goes over the figures, Stephanie tells her to forget about the reports for a moment and think about Ridge. Ashley says she has a copy of the reports for Ridge, too, but she heard he's not in. When Stephanie confirms that Ridge decided from home today, Ashley guesses that he did it to avoid her and frets that she can't find a way to fix things with Ridge. Stephanie offers to talk to Ridge to smooth things over, but Ashley thinks this is a delicate situation that requires subtlety. Stephanie proclaims that she can be subtle when she has to. Ashley thanks her for the offer but politely declines. She thinks she and Ridge need to work this out on their own, so she'll head over to see him once she finishes her work here. "Either he'll forgive me or he won't," Ashley asserts, "but either way, we can get on with our lives."

Ridge tells his mother why he can't forgive Ashley.

Nevertheless, Stephanie heads over to Ridge's house. Ridge reminds her that he doesn't need her to babysit today, but Stephanie says that she's here to talk to him about Ashley. She admits that Ashley should have told him about Rick, but she doesn't think Ashley's not telling him is a good enough reason to avoid Ashley. Ridge again frets that Ashley's actions hurt Phoebe, and he just can't condone that. Stephanie tells him to consider that Ashley, like all of us, is human and makes mistakes, but Ridge doesn't think that changes the facts. Stephanie reminds Ridge how happy he was with Ashley, and she also points out how Ashley had just gone through a bad divorce around the time she got involved with Rick. She asks him to reconsider his decision to walk away from a wonderful woman like Ashley, because it's been a long time since she saw a smile on his face. But he's been smiling again since he's been seeing Ashley, so she urges him to take a chance on what could be a good future with a lovely woman.

Ashley tells Ridge how she feels.

After Stephanie leaves, Ridge remembers how Phoebe told him about Rick and Ashley. His thoughts are interrupted by the doorbell. He opens the door and is surprised to see Ashley there with the latest sales reports on the fragrance line. Ridge says that she could have messengered the reports over; Ashley says she knows she could have and asks where the kids are. Ridge tells her that his mother took the kids for ice cream. Ashley asks if he worked from home to avoid seeing her. Ridge admits that he didn't want to have their issues all over the grapevine in the office. Ashley agrees and says that's the reason she stopped by. Since she's here, Ridge has something for her: he hands her a package of severance papers waiting for her signature. Ashley is surprised that he's asking for her resignation and informs him that she's not going anywhere. She admits that she was going to quit and run off, maybe to New York where her sister Traci lives, but then she realized that already ran off once, when she let her brother Jack convince her to leave Genoa City and move to Hong Kong. She realized that she'd been playing Jack's game ever since her father died, which is why she decided to leave Hong King and come to L.A. for a fresh start. With Rick? Ridge asks. Ashley admits she came to L.A. to see where things stood with Rick, but it's come to feel like home for her and Abby now.