Ben becomes awestruck after a manuscript falls into his lap about a fearless Masai Princess called Wahunthra. At Nicole's, he and Alex meet with its beautiful, unpublished author, Toni, and her much more talkative, plus-sized agent, Joyce. Ben's fascination turns to disappointment, as he had felt a strong connection with Toni through her writing, only to see she's nowhere near as communicative in person. But the dinner isn't a total wash, since there's chemistry between him and Joyce. They'll be having a lot of time to get to know each other better, since she visits the Home Court Press to say she's giving them the book rights. When she gets defensive after Ben says that he wants to meet with Toni again to discuss making edits, he realizes that ""Joyce"" lied to him - she is Toni. After he calls her on it, she admits she hired someone to play her, because she felt she didn't embody the beauty that is Wahunthra. He quickly wins her over by telling her that she does. But later on in privat

Ben takes out a mugger to protect Matty, making him a hero in his son's eyes, and an object of envy in Carl's. Ben just wants to put the incident behind him, but he doesn't get his wish after Matty brags about it in school, his class goes to the publishing company for career day, and all they want to talk about is how Ben beat up a bad guy. Ben and Carl go to Nicole's for dinner, where Nicole plans to give Ben a surprise party for his heroics, but she's forced to cancel the celebration when he tells her that, despite his write-up in the paper, he doesn't want to be thought of as a hero. The festivities are ruined, anyway, when he gets served a summons -- the mugger is suing him for using excessive force, rendering him ""unable to work."" Operating as Ben's attorney, Carl plans to file a countersuit over the mugger, Francis Shelton's, frivilous lawsuit, but Ben the peacemaker asks that he not, so as to get the matter settled quickly. Acting on behalf of Francis is Gloria Newberry, the uns

It's Halloween, and Ben dresses up like one of the Pips in preparation for a big party he's throwing. A big party to which Alex happened to invite Maya Angelou, who's in town for a book-signing gig. Matty and his new hockey teammates -- who are all two years his senior -- go out to their own party, dressed as a hockey fight. Carl the pirate hits on all the uninterested women at Ben's party, while Nicole the genie fights off the advances of all the men interested in her. Alex and Angela are there, too, as Count Dracula and Xena the Warrior Princess, respectively. Ben never does get to see Maya Angelou (nor do we), but he does get to meet the lovely Kyra Lewis, who's dressed up like a pregnant Madonna. Ben falls head over heels, but his stomach turns flips and somersaults when Kyra goes to the publishing company in normal attire, and he sees the pregnancy thing was no costume. When the soon-to-be-single-mother realizes he didn't know she was eight and a half months along, she apologizes

Matty gets a new--and older--Spanish tutor, Maria, but he's too smitten with her to concentrate on the español. James hears from his doctor that he's got bunions which require surgery. He doesn't want to take time off from his old-fashioned barbershop, so Ben offers his and Carl's services in running the place temporarily. The barbershop is exactly as it was when the two last saw it 30 years ago. Complete with James' crochety, old co-worker, Junior Braush... who hates Carl. After he gets a ""D"" on his Spanish test, Matty isn't content with Ben's suggestion that he find another tutor. While Nicole takes care of a demanding James during his recovery, Matty asks her for advice on how to ask Maria out, as he's not sure if she likes him. Nicole tells him that he can invite her to the restaurant for a grown-up dinner on her. With business at the barbershop nearly dead, Ben advises James that he should think about closing shop, as he's barely breaking even (no thanks to SpeedyCuts opening up a