Howard Wise/jpistudios.com
Public Display Of Affection? Daniel (Michael Graziadei) poses some new relationship rules to Heather (Vail Bloom).
Today, Lily unexpectedly returned to Genoa City and walked into Daniel’s apartment to find him breakfasting with Heather and Lucy. “They were all having this really cozy moment, so it became extremely awkward really fast,” points out Vail Bloom (Heather). “Lucy is a teenager so she was very uncomfortable just with the energy of it — and Heather, being a parent, was trying to acknowledge her daughter’s awareness of the situation and encourage maturity, which added so many layers of awkwardness.”
Daniel and Lily headed up to her penthouse to have that talk, leaving Heather to anxiously await his return. “Heather likes to be Teflon but she’s nervous. I think it’s impossible for her to not be nervous,” notes Bloom. “She had been confident that her and Daniel’s love is something deeper and more mature than what he has with Lily. But in this part of the story, Heather is finding it difficult to stay completely calm because she has gotten her hopes up of being with Daniel again. She’s worked really hard to put down her armor and approach this from an ‘unconditional love’ point of view, but patience is not necessarily her strong suit.”
Lucy is also upset over what could be transpiring between her dad and Lily. “Lucy has her own concerns and fears and voices them to her mom,” Bloom explains. “So, Heather is caught between calming her daughter down but internally, that is triggering Heather a little bit. Obviously she’s the adult but I think it is actually making her a little nervous inside because her daughter is voicing on the outside what Heather is already thinking.”
To clear her head, Heather makes a solo trip over to Society, and when Daniel eventually shows up there, she’s unable to gauge his demeanor. “He’s very unclear at first and she’s struggling to read him,” Bloom describes. “The texture on him could mean a couple of things and she’s not sure which one it is. It’s definitely a hard conversation to have for Daniel.” Daniel eventually tells Heather that Lily was not as surprised about their renewed relationship as he expected and even mentioned that on some level, she knew it was coming. “I think Heather loves hearing that,” Bloom admits. “She couldn’t help but [view this] as a win for her because she’s like, ‘Everyone can see how great we are together once we’re connected.’ At least, that’s the way Heather took it. Daniel said Lily was like, ‘I’m not surprised that something happened because she had it out for you,’ so Heather couldn’t help but kind of perk up and be like, ‘Oh, Lily saw it, too.’ That’s kind of wonderful to Heather because it proves that she and Daniel clearly have a connection.”
When Daniel voices his regret over hurting Lily, Heather asks if he really means that he wishes he hadn’t gotten involved with her again. Daniel immediately assures her that he feels no remorse over their reconciliation. “I think that Daniel is really steadfast and grounded in his love for Heather and I think that shows through in a very beautiful way,” Bloom says. “She can hear that in his response and that’s pretty special.”
When Heather expresses her excitement over not having to hide their relationship anymore, Daniel bursts her bubble a bit, expressing that he doesn’t want to rub their coupledom in Lily’s face. “Heather isn’t happy about that but she understands and respects it,” Bloom reports. “And when it comes to the workplace she really gets it, because they all work at Chancellor-Winters. I think Heather is really good at separating her work from her personal life. She showed that she can do it years ago with Adam and she can do that now.” But will Lily and her protective brother, Devon, be able to do the same? Bloom teases, “There’s a saying: ‘A smooth sea never made a skilled sailor,’ so everyone should buckle up, because it won’t be smooth sailing.”
