In today’s Days of Our Lives, Marlena answers the doorbell to greet Leo, dropping by with some Sweet Bits scones. He pushes his way in, which is when she tells him about what happened with Belle and EJ. She’s horrified that she just blurted it out, but Leo’s honored in being confided to. She’s got no one to talk to without John. (And Belle’s not an option with this.)
She talks about what happened and worries about telling it to “a gossip columnist.” Former, Leo tells her. Plus, maybe she’s confiding in him because he’s a close, trusted friend. Maybe even a Best Friend! Marlena briefly laments letting the doctor/patient boundary evaporate, but gets over it quick. Leo just wants to tell her the happy news that he and Javi are back together.
He runs through the entire story of how they reconciled and Marlena’s happy for him — but maybe sleeping together right away wasn’t a great idea. Leo insists it just felt right, and maybe Marlena’s projecting her Belle/EJ issues onto him. “You’re right,” she stunningly tells him, then they get back into the besties thing and she admits he’s hers. They hug.
Down in the tunnels, EJ brings Rafe a cupcake for his birthday, cheerfully singing while wearing a ridiculous party hat. He puts a candle on the cupcake and makes Rafe blow it out (after his first try with the gag still in didn’t work) and make a wish. “I wish you were dead.” EJ chides him that the wish won’t come true now that he said it, then tells Rafe that it’s not just his birthday, it’s also his wedding day!
Rafe demands to know how EJ knows about their plans. Because, EJ tells him, they moved forward. Jada’s getting married. Rafe says that’s absurd because Jada’s looking high and low for him. Then he finally gets it. “Arnold.”
EJ promptly blames it all on Jada for getting him fired, but Rafe’s horrified. “What do you think is gonna happen on their wedding night?!” EJ tells him to relax, Arnold won’t touch her. He promises he will never let what happened to Sami happen again, but Rafe doesn’t see how he’s going to stop it, especially with Arnold in the mix.
But EJ’s got it covered. By the end of the night, Jada will be outed as a corrupt cop in front of the entire town. She’ll lose her job, which will let Paulina reappoint Rafe (or rather, Arnold), who will then convince the mayor to reappoint him. Ava faked Rafe being a dirty cop, and hate her or not, she had a good idea. So EJ did the same with Jada.
He picks the cupcake back up, makes choo-choo noises to feed Rafe — and gets jumped by a very angry and very free Rafe!
Gabi’s feeling downright musical, humming to herself as gets coffee ready. She calls Jada in, who, like much of the rest of the bachelorette party, is hungover. She can barely even function, let alone get ready. Gabi hands her some coffee and says she’s got her back. They’re family. Speaking of which — where’s Javi? Helping Rafe get ready, Gabi says.
Stephanie drops in with some “Hollywood level cosmetics” swiped from Body and Soul and Gabi heads out to run an errand. Alone, Stephanie checks in with how Jada’s feeling. She says she’s fine, no more nervous than anyone would be. She’s done this before — with Bobby. But at least that experience helped bond her and Steph.
Jada starts feeling better from her hangover, but… She admits to Stephanie she hasn’t heard from Rafe. She’s feeling ghosted, so Stephanie tells Jada she could always call him. Jada, though, admits, Rafe’s seemed “off” lately. He’s been different for awhile now, from the dancer to taking EJ on as a client. Stephanie tries rationalizing it, but Jada doesn’t think working for EJ makes any sense, especially with how much the former DA hates her.
Gabi heads over to the Hortons where she’s thrilled to see JJ answer in just sweatpants. They head inside and he tells her she looks gorgeous — she says the same to him with a grin. She’s there to ask him if he wants to go to Jada and Rafe’s wedding today. She needs a plus one. She was going to ask him earlier, but she lost her nerve.
She likes him and he likes her and it would be fun to go together. It is a big deal to go, JJ says, but he would love to be her date. They kiss, only to be interrupted by the ADA calling JJ. A trial he has to be at got moved to today and he can’t make it to the wedding. He apologizes and says he’d rather be with her than anywhere else.
Gabi understands, especially with Rafe having been a cop for so long. Before she heads out, JJ says that even being asked was a huge step, and he likes that.
Arnold’s passed out on his bed when Javi shows up at the door with birthday ceviche to help with his hangover. He wants to help Rafe get ready for the wedding, but before Arnold can usher him out, the stripper exotic dancer from the night before comes out of the bathroom. She grabs her clothes to get changed and Javi demands to know what happened.
?
RoboRafe makes some excuse about her bringing his scarf to him, but was too drunk to drive, so he told her to spend the night here. “Where, exactly?” Javi asks, looking at the bed. In his bed, Rafe says, but he slept on the floor. Javi doesn’t buy it and demands the truth. RoboRafe admits they did the horizontal tango and Javi goes off on him for cheating on Jada — after proposing with his mother’s wedding ring!
“Rafe” tells him to get over it because he won’t be breathing a word to anyone. Javi’s indignant, but his faux cousin says Javi telling Jada would just hurt her. This isn’t weird, lots of people “sow their wild oats” before settling down. “This isn’t some ‘80s movie,” Javi snaps. But RoboRafe tells him to keep his trap shut.
Javi storms out, but agrees not to say anything, even though he hates it.
is comingIn the show’s final moments, Leo runs into a ticked off Javi in the square, leaving the Inn. Leo ruined the wedding. Back at the Hernandez house, Stephanie tells Jada she understands, but thinks there might be some echoing trauma of Everett/Bobby. Just then “Rafe” calls a delighted Jada who plays down her worry over not hearing from him.
And down in the tunnels, the real Rafe looks down at an unconscious EJ in disgust. “There’s not going to be a wedding today.”
