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Tell Me More: DAYS’s Stephanie (Abigail Klein, r.) gets the download from Jada (Elia Cantu, with Galen Gering as Rafe) about her louse of an ex.
After months of waiting and speculating, viewers are about to find out some details about Jada’s failed marriage to Everett — namely, that her ex-husband was far from the perfect spouse. “This is finally the beginning of it,” enthuses Elia Cantu (Jada). “I know everyone’s been waiting on, ‘When are Jada and Everett going to come head-to-head?’ And that will happen, eventually.”
Jada and Stephanie meet up at Brady Pub, where Rafe joins them and playfully leans in as the two friends gossip about their lives. “We’re having girl chat,” sets up Cantu. “Jada’s finally giving Stephanie the dirt: ‘He cheated on me. He had an affair.’ Jada was married to him. He was dishonest. He was disloyal. He had secrets. He did not treat her well.”
To enhance her portrayal, Cantu created her own backstory of the Jada/Everett relationship. “A lot of these things I had to give myself as a character, because they were vague for me, and I wanted to give such a good performance,” she explains. “I had to put some things in my head. So I’m saying he was abusive. We’re not going to say physically, but I would say manipulative. He was really into mental mind games. He was a liar, and he was almost leading two different lives.”
Stephanie is surprised to hear what her friend endured with her ex-husband, not knowing that the louse she’s describing is her own one-time fiancé. “It’s kind of crazy how we don’t even know each other’s exes are the same person,” Cantu allows. “Stephanie’s sympathetic, yet she’s still left in the dark. She doesn’t know who Jada is talking about. She never did see the picture [of Everett on Jada’s phone]. She doesn’t know what he looks like. So as we’re having this girl chat, we still don’t know we’re talking about the same guy, the same man.”
Jada notes that she’s moved onward and upward from her former hubby. “She talks about that,” says Cantu. “Jada’s really happy that she’s finally found somebody [Rafe] who is not like her ex. They’re completely different. They couldn’t be any more different.”
Meanwhile, Stephanie gets a call from Everett and invites him to join her and her friends. “Jada’s super-excited to meet him,” relays Cantu. “She’s heard a lot about him from Stephanie. She thinks he’s a great guy because Stephanie’s been saying he is a great guy. Jada’s kind of living vicariously through Stephanie, because Stephanie’s had fun in Salem. She’s had, what, three suitors now? I mean, good for her. She’s living her life. Jada had that unfortunate situation with Eric, but now she’s with Rafe. So Jada’s excited to meet Stephanie’s man. She’s all down for it.”
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Now You See Me, Now You Don’t: Everett (Blake Berris) bolts from the scene after spying Jada.
However, when Everett shows up at the pub, he spies Jada through the window. “He sees Jada, but Jada she does not see him,” says Cantu. Stunned, Everett takes off.
Later, Everett calls Stephanie and apologizes, claiming that something came up and he couldn’t make it. However, Everett later gets together with Stephanie and tells her he has a confession to make.
Whether Stephanie learns about Everett and Jada’s past confession now or later, it’s sure to put a strain not only on the revived Everett/Stephanie relationship, but her friendship with Jada, as well. “It’s going to test their friendship. It’s also going to explore and showcase a little bit of it, too,” predicts Cantu. “We don’t really know about that — their history, how they’re friends, and how they feel about each other. It’s also going to bring out maybe some past traumas or suppressed feelings, because friendships are complicated. They’re relationships just like intimate relationships. So a light will be shed on that.”
