Part 4 - Separation
Once again Eric & Stephanie Forrester were separated. Only this time Stephanie was the initiator, who moved out of the mansion to Ridge's house.
No matter whose fault it was, while Stephanie had Ridge, his family and Mass to keep her company, an empty mansion waited for Eric at the end of the day. His children where there for him but Eric missed Stephanie. (Why? So she can yell at you and make you misrable ???)
Eric's hopes for a reconciliation were raised when Stephanie popped in for a visit on the day before their anniversary. Eric begged Stephanie to move back with him. He also invited her for a home cooked anniversary dinner with himself as the chef.
An excited Eric greeted Stephanie, when she came to the anniversary dinner, with 2 entwined jeweled hearts on a chain, that were supposed to symbolized their love.
But he was slapped down by Stephanie's announcement that instead of returning home, she is moving in with Mass.
Furious Eric kicked Stephanie out of the mansion, and then turned to kicking around the furniture.
Stephanie's stay at Mass's condo was short lived. She moved into the newly invented 2nd guesthouse at the Forrester mansion when Brooke gave birth to baby Hope
Living in Eric's backyard did not improve things between Stephanie & Eric. Stephanie continued to keep Eric at arms length, refused to move back in with him, or even spend a night there, and demanded that Eric will romance her.
Eric did try to romance Stephanie while they were in Portofino. He gave her a fabulous set of earrings, and arranged for a troubadour to sing love ballads outside his hotel room. But to no avail. (Oh Eric, why do you even bother? There is nothing romantic about Stephanie. Romancing her is like romancing a block of wood.).
Since Eric was unsuccessful in getting Stephanie to end their separation, he was replaced by pod-Eric (You know, the one that see Stephanie as his soul mate and the love of his life, and Brooke as public enemy #1). Pod-Eric marched one day into the 2nd guesthouse and ordered Stephanie to get dressed and report to the main house for their wedding vows renewal.
Stephanie obeyed and the wedding vows were renewed. But not before Mass tried to crash the ceremony and stop it. Ridge, who was already privy to his true paternity, managed to keep Mass quite.
Once again pod-Eric & Stephanie were "happily" married. But it didn't take long for the real Eric to emerge again and kick both pod-Eric and Stephanie out of his life (hopefully this time for good).
