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Ah, the age-old soap conundrum: Having to choose between the person you were about to marry and your presumed dead/missing/whatever ex, returning just when you thought you’d moved on. Plenty of Salemites have gone through it before (we’re looking at you, Marlena) but for Days of Our Lives’ Leo, this is a first!

Now, though, Javi’s put a stop to their marriage, pushed Leo away and run off to look after his father as he undergoes a quadruple bypass. As far as reasons for leaving town go, it’s a good one. But it doesn’t change the fact that before leaving, he just ratcheted up Leo’s confusion by insisting they couldn’t move forward with the marriage and Leo had to “figure out” his feelings for Dimitri.

Greg Rikaart spoke with Soaps to give us a peek into Leo’s mind — and it ain’t pretty at the moment! Right now, he shared, Leo’s going through “a whole lot of confusion. Leo is feeling very, very heightened emotions on every end of the spectrum. I think he is really heartbroken and sad.” But at the same time, he “feels somewhat redeemed in a way that the feelings he had for Dimitri were in fact real. Dmitri didn’t just often leave him for some guy he met in prison, which is what Leo was led to believe.”

And now, despite Leo’s pleading, Javi’s left — and in the process his doubt led Leo to doubt himself. And after all the growth and self-work, Leo’s kind of back to where he was before… feeling like Javi deserves better than him. Worse? He’s been left with Dimitri and Gwen; two people who have never brought out the best in him.

His feeling that he might not be a good enough person for Javi may end up being a self-fulfilling prophecy if he starts backsliding and returning to his devious ways. Then again, Rikaard cautioned that “that possibility already always exists. I love for that possibility to always exist for Leo. I mean, the more we change, the more we stay the same, right? So we can all work hard to better ourselves, but I think there’s pitfalls.”

In fact, he adds, “I hope there’s pitfalls along the way. It always makes it more interesting that way.” Well, your kind, mature, loving fiancé running off while your devious, greedy and, at times, murderous ex returns is about as big a pitfall as they come. But admittedly, that oversimplifies things a bit. Because when asked who he’d prefer Leo with, Rikaart refused to choose!

“That’s almost like saying which one of your children do you like better,” he scoffed. “I adore them both as people, as co-workers. I mean, that’s Sophie’s choice. I can’t, I can’t.

“I think there’s a vulnerability and an emotional depth in the relationship between Al [Calderon] and myself, and Leo and Javi,” he noted “But then I think of all the stuff Peter [Porte] and I got to do as Dimitri and Leo. And also, I can’t really speak to that dynamic without also mentioning Emily O’Brien. Because that trifecta of Dimitri, Gwen, and Leo is amongst my favorite things I’ve ever gotten to do in 20 plus years of doing this.”

Well, at the very least, could Leo and Gwen find their way back to being friends again?

“Perhaps,” Rikaart mused. “I sure hope so. They don’t seem to be making it easy for each other… There would and should be a long row to hoe because there is a lot of mistrust and a lot of bad feelings that would need to be worked out.”

Sigh… Well, one thing is for sure: Whatever Leo does next, we’re bound to be entertained!