8■After months of pushing
aside their feelings for one
another, Eric and Sarah admit
they’re in love and consum-
mate their relationship. A
heart-to-heart with Maggie
convinces Sarah to reveal all
to Eric. “Sarah tells her mother
that things have blown up with
Rex, and Maggie really helps
her to see how misguided not
being true to her own feelings
are,” explains Linsey Godfrey
(Sarah). “She makes Sarah
realize she can’t keep pretend-
ing she doesn’t have feelings
for somebody because she’s
just going to be miserable.”
Armed with Maggie’s
encouragement to pursue
a relationship with the man
she truly loves, Sarah heads
to tell Eric it’s over with
Rex, but quickly realizes Rex
has already confronted him.
“Sarah comes in kind of with
guns blazing,” notes Godfrey.
“She’s buried these feelings
down for such a long time,
so she’s like, ‘I need you to
listen. Now that this door is
open, I need you to know how
deeply my feelings go. It’s
not just that I have a little bit
of a crush or I’m smitten. I’m
crazy about you.’ ”
Eric tries to resist pursuing
things between them. “Sarah
has to keep driving home
the point that her marriage
is over, that she and Rex are
not coming back from this
and she’s in love with him,”
continues the actress. “She
has to beat it into him a little
bit.” Finally, Eric hears her,
accepts that it’s over withNicole, and realizes he loves
Sarah, too, and wants to be
with her. “It’s one of the
most validating feelings in
the world,” she adds.
Godfrey describes the big
Eric/Sarah moment as “emo-
tional, emotional, emotional
and then sexy,” as the pair
makes love for the first time.
“It’s a little slapdash, sponta-
neous and hungry. It’s a long
time coming. So it’s definite-
ly more raw and passionatethan slow and sensual.”
The next morning, Rex
shows up at Eric’s apartment
and confronts the couple, not-
ing that his marriage to Sarah
was over before it began.
“It’s true,” contends Godfrey.
“It was such a wrong choice
for them. How many times
did Sarah say no before she
finally agreed to get married?
They had no business being
together in the first place. It’s
one of those awkward, sad
things.”
As Eric and Sarah commit
to each other, Rex quits his job
at the hospital. Before leaving
town, he delivers a parting
shot to Sarah. “It’s a final little
twisting of the knife because
he’s hurt,” says Godfrey.
“And it’s going to spook her.
There’s a part of Sarah that
will never really feel safe in
her relationship with Eric
because she can never be
Nicole. Nicole and Eric have
this history, and Nicole was
first. Sarah can’t beat that, and
that’s always in her head.”XJ
JOHNSON/
JPIDAYS: ERIC
AND SARAH
MAKE LOVE
late-breaking news
“She’s buried
these feelings
down for such
a long time.”We Go Together: