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In the design office at Forrester Creations, Hope works on some dresses for her line. Brooke comes in and gasps, “Wow!” She complains Hope beating her in isn’t a good look for the newest member of the executive. She wants to finish talking to her about Finn. She’s concerned she may not be able to fight those feelings. Hope says she has to, but explains that it goes deeper than an attraction. It’s a friendship. One she doesn’t want to ruin, so she’ll handle it. Ridge walks in as they hug and asks, “What’s going on here?”

Brooke directs Ridge’s attention to the dresses. He has a suggestion, but Hope assures him she’s already told them to adjust the length. Ridge still feels like he walked in on something and asks if it’s about Steffy. Hope admits she’s been struggling with something but it has nothing to do with whatever he’s thinking it is. Ridge asks again if it has to do with Steffy. Hope says she’s felt lost since Thomas and Douglas left and her feelings have been all over the place. She doesn’t want to get into it, but it won’t affect her work.

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Ridge is glad she has her mom to lean on, but tells Hope that she can talk to him too. He’s not sure what happened between her and Thomas, but his boy loved her very much. They go over Hope not being ready to connect. Ridge noticed she’s not been feeling well, and it started when Thomas left, so he thought she might have regrets. Hope recaps that it didn’t feel right to accept a proposal she wasn’t ready for. She gets teary-eyed and stressed out. Brooke rubs her back. Hope admits she’s been struggling more than people realize. Ridge asks if she’s reconsidering. Hope’s still not ready for marriage, but when she is, at least she’ll have known what it was like to be with someone who only has eyes for her. She’ll never settle for less than that ever again.

At Il Giardino, Sheila listens as Tom apologizes to Deacon if he overstepped by coming at him with all that stuff about Sheila. He really cares about him and wants to repay his kindness by kicking butt there. That’s why he started looking on the internet and discovered Sheila has a colorful past to say the least. Deacon notices Sheila and tells him this is a conversation for another time. He sends him off to the cleaning closet to stock supplies. Sheila joins Deacon and ask how he’s liking his new employee. Deacon spots Bill and Poppy and says he’s a lot more pleasant than some of the customers. Sheila looks over and groans. She doesn’t want Bill in her section. Deacon says he’ll handle this and walks over to ask if they have a reservation. Poppy says, “Nozawa, party of two.” Bill asks to be seated anywhere but in the homicidal maniac’s section.

Once seated, Deacon takes Bill and Poppy’s coffee order before walking off. Poppy enthuses about this life she suddenly has. He transformed her life and their daughter’s. Poppy hopes he knows how happy she is. Bill leers that she made that pretty clear this morning. Poppy says she still has a ways to go to show him how grateful she is in that department. Bill jokes, “Check please!” He tells her she’s transformed his life as well, by giving him a daughter. “I don’t have the words. I really don’t. A daughter…” Poppy smiles.

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In the kitchen, Deacon and Tom marvel that the toe hors d’oeuvres have become so popular. Sheila walks in as Tom remarks that cutting off a toe doesn’t seem like something a mentally stable person would do. Deacon takes off to answer a call, and Sheila turns to Tom with a knife in her hand. “Are you serious?! Stability?!” Tom looks nervously at the knife. We cut to commercial and then Sheila is no longer holding the knife. She hands Tom his pitcher of water and tells him they appreciate him and he’s well-liked. “You wouldn’t want to do or say anything to change that, would you?” Tom shakes his head. Deacon calls to Tom from the doorway and he tells Sheila, “Duty calls.”

At Bill’s table, Poppy is showing him photos of Luna when she was younger at a community pool. They joke about their daughter having a couple of pools now. Tom appears with the water jug and spills on Poppy. Tom and Poppy lock eyes and pause, as though they recognize each other. Once Tom walks off, Bill asks Poppy, who has a faraway look in her eye, if she’s still with him. She snaps out of it, says she’s right there, and kisses him.

In the kitchen, Tom peers out at Poppy and Bill. Sheila corners him and tells him regardless of what he read on the internet, there are two sides of every story. If he wants to survive around there, it’s her side he needs to be on. Tom doesn’t want to get off on the wrong foot with her. Sheila warns him not to bad mouth her to her husband ever again. Her past stays in the past. “It’s none of your business, you got me, Tom?” Tom says of course, and then goes back to looking at Poppy, who looks right back at him.