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Sheet Music: Stephanie is “on cloud nine” after making love with Everett, reports portrayer Abigail Klein.
Stephanie pays a surprise visit to Everett after their heart-to-heart, and the connection between the pair is palpable.
“Stephanie got introspective [during their previous talk] and decided that they’d lost so much time together with Everett being in a coma, her moving back to Salem and moving on,” sets up Abigail Klein (Stephanie). “She’s reassessing where she’s at in her life and what she wants out of life. Here is this man who she has a history with, who she’s now learning never meant to leave her… All of the possibilities are now swirling around in her mind, and she comes to a decision of, ‘I want this.’ ”
However, when Stephanie arrives to see Everett, “he has no idea that she’s feeling this way,” explains Klein. “He’s squirming in his seat wondering where she’s at, and I think she enjoys that.”
Finally, Stephanie takes advantage of the fact that’s in the driver’s seat regarding where their relationship is headed and surprises Everett by admitting that this “friend” thing isn’t working for her. “Well, she used to be a race car driver, so that’s fitting,” cracks Klein, adding that Stephanie “gets to speak her truth now and kind of [toys with Everett a little bit]. She knows that Everett is going to love what she tells him at the end of the night.”
The pair start discussing their past. “They’re going down memory lane, and it’s reminding them of their fun and special times together,” says Klein. “Stephanie tells Everett that she doesn’t want that to end. She wants to make more memories together.” She adds, “It helped so much that the writers wrote such detailed memories that were really sweet. They really helped build what Blake [Berris, Everett] and I were trying to play as actors.”
After, Stephanie and Everett make passionate love for the first time in years. “The tone of those scenes was emotionally intimate, and it was beautiful,” shares Klein. “We were focusing more on our connection together as opposed to really anything physical. It was all in the eyes, and it was all in these soft, long drawn-out moments. I really loved that they took the time to make sure that was the tone of these scenes, because it speaks to the history that these two have. Blake and I wanted to do that justice in any way that we could.”
Klein isn’t sure how viewers will feel about Stephanie and Everett’s re-connection. “Everyone is so skeptical of him”,” she notes. “They don’t know what his story is with Jada, fully. They think he’s hiding something, and that’s just a testament to Blake being interesting on camera. Everyone’s like, ‘What’s he thinking? What’s going on, exactly?’ That’s why I like these little precious moments between Stephanie and Everett, because you get to see that maybe they had a really genuine lovely relationship. Maybe fans will see that in these upcoming scenes and root for them. We’ll see.”
In the afterglow, Stephanie is quite content with the status of things between her and Everett. “Stephanie is feeling like, ‘Our love has been so hard-fought.’ They had a solid relationship before, but it just got way more solid now, knowing what happened to Everett, that he never stopped loving her, and was only trying to get back to her,” sums up Klein. “Stephanie is on cloud nine, feeling like she has a second chance with Everett. She also feels proud of how they’ve both grown, where they’ve come to and how they’ve found each other and evolved together. All of that culminates in her feeling really grateful and hopeful.”
