One of Eric Forrester's most annoying character flaws is his tendency to pursue and get involved with his oldest son's discarded women. And Taylor Hamilton Hayes Forrester was no exception.
It all started after Taylor came back from the "dead" the for 1st time, (Why can't she stay dead for good ??? She already looks like a corpse ...) and forced her "hubby" Rigde to choose between her and Brooke Logan Forrester, whom he had married while Taylor was officially dead. Ridge chose (for a change) to stay with Brooke and asked Taylor for a divorce. Taylor was devastated.
At that time, Eric, who has just gotten psycho Sheila Carter Forrester to sign the divorce papers, was a free but very lonely and unhappy man. There was no woman in his life, Brooke the only woman he really loves was obbsesed with Ridge, and his beloved baby son was raised by Ridge who had the goal to insist that Eric would step back and not get too involved in Eric Jr.'s life. So Eric started to visit the devastated Taylor at her new beach house trying to comfort her and himself.
Seeing Taylor's strong desire to be reunited with Ridge, re-ignited Eric's feelings for Brooke and he confessed to Taylor his wish for a reunion with his true love - Brooke.
Encouraged by Taylor, Eric started to pursue Brooke, but she insisted that their love affair is over, and that she is determined to marry Ridge. (Stupid Brooke, remarrying Eric would have saved you a lot of heart ache.)
Brooke's rejection pushed Eric to start fantasizing about the possibility of a love affair with Taylor. And when a Forrester employee complained of stress Eric seized the opportunity and hired Taylor as Forrester's in-house therapist
Eric went from fantasizing to actually developing feelings for Taylor. He kept visiting her till one night he couldn't contain himself any more and kissed her
Taylor, who was very much aware of her best friend Stephanie's biggest dream - a reunion with Eric, gently informed him that there was no way she could ever get romantically involved with him because she doesn't want to hurt Stephanie. (What about not hurting Eric ??? How come everyone is so protective of Queen Stephanie's feelings, but not of Eric's feelings ???)
Eric didn't give up. When Ridge & Brooke threw a party for him so he can meet new women (and to calm down Eric Jr. who blamed Ridge for Eric's loneliness and misery), Eric gave Taylor a gown from his new collection and invited her to be his date at the party.
Taylor, who for Stephanie's sake still didn't want to get involved with Eric, but was too chicken (JMHO) to say it to his face accepted the gown. Thus leading Eric to believe that she will come to the party as his date.
At the party, a very happy and excited Eric has managed to tell everybody about the "new woman" in his life (without naming names) before a Forrester model entered wearing the gown and gave him the following "Dear John" letter:
"Dear Eric,
So Sorry, I know how much you wanted me to be there tonight and I wish I could have been. But it's too soon. Things for us have moved so fast. These last few weeks have been exhilarating and terrifying all at once. Just needed some time to make some sense out of this, and figure out the right thing to do. That's why I'm leaving L.A..
Please forgive me for not having the courage to tell you in person. I know that if you asked me to stay I wouldn't be able to say no. This is something I need to do. You have awakened feelings for me that I thought buried for ever. I wouldn't try to tell you that that doesn't frighten me, it does. But any time you love someone you are taking a risk. If it was just about you and me I think that I could take that risk and never look back. But it's not just about us. There are other people involved that we both care about. If you were here I know you'll tell me not to worry, that everything will work itself out. I wish I had your faith. I wish I could believe the feelings we share are strong enough to withstand any test. I'm still not sure, and until I am, I can't let you jeopardize the love and support of your family for my sake.
Eric, you are an incredible man. You deserve a woman that can give you all her love without doubt without reservation. I don't know if I am that woman. I've gone away to find out.
Taylor"
You can imagine how humiliated and devastated Eric was. But he didn't want to ruin "his" party. So he put on a "happy" face, got back to the party, gave a lame excuse for the "new woman's" absence and got drunk.
Eric tried to find Taylor but it was Eric Jr. who found her. The boy was very much aware of Eric's feelings for Taylor and of how hurt he was coz of her disappearance. So he skipped school went to her hiding place and begged Taylor to return to L.A. and give his father a chance.
In the mean time, Stephanie kept visiting Eric at the condo, in an attempt to cheer him up and score some points with him. One night when Eric went to bed he found her already there wearing pajamas. He was too tired and depressed to argue so he turned his back to her and fell asleep.
Unfortunatley for Eric, it was the same night that Taylor, after a long soul searching, has decided to come back to him. When Taylor saw the sleeping Eric & Stephanie together in Eric's bed she drew the wrong conclusion (not for the last time I might add) and ran away.
That was the end of the very short love affair between Eric and Taylor. Who knows what could have developed between those two if instead of jumping to conclusions, Taylor had bothered to ask Eric for an explanation …
There are several possible scenarios all ending with Eric's heart being broken again, because there is no way in hell, that Queen Satanie Forrester would have let Eric & Taylor be together for long. And any how, the Silver Fox deserve to be married to someone who doesn't look like the female version of Michel Jackson (not that his current wife Doanna can claim 1st prize for beauty
