Gerica

Gerica is the het ship between Erica Goldberg and Geoff Schwartz from the The Goldbergs fandom.

Canon
According to him, Geoff has a crush on Erica since the second grade, but it is not known if she knew him as a child.

Season 2
Geoff is part of the group of friends of Barry the younger brother of Erica. When Barry and Erica's best friend Lainey Lewis start dating, they spending all their free time together, neglecting their friends. Erica therefore begins to frequent the JTP (the name with which the group of friends of Barry is called) and after a while tries to exploit them to separate her brother and Lainey, failing miserably.

In short, all three JTP fall in love with Erica, and although she declares that she is not interested in any of them, the three woo her insistently. When Erica admits she tried to split Lainey and Barry because she missed the first one, the two forgive her and Barry convinces his friends to stop courting his sister, telling him that Erica is unable to choose between them. Of the three Geoff is the only one who remains in love with Erica.

Season 3
Erica does not want to go to the school dance and has little opinion of all the boys who attend her school including Geoff. Her father Murray and Lainey inspire Erica to be less selective and she decides to go to the dance with Johnny Atkins, a pompous idiot, but after learning that he also wants to go with another girl, Erica decides that Geoff Schwartz is a "nice idiot "and asks him, but in the end they just go for a ride together. The two seem to have fun and enjoy each other's company.

After seeing music videos of their favorite rappers, the Beastie Boys, Barry and his younger brother Adam form a group called "Tasty Boys", and Geoff joins them just to impress Erica, but fails because of his fear from the stage. In the end it will be Erica herself who sings avoiding a bad impression on her brothers.

On Valentine's Day, Geoff tries them all to conquer Erica: he arrives to send her a hundred roses anonymously, or hiding doves in her locker. However Erica seems annoyed and irritated by all these attentions, with great sadness of Geoff. However, after seeing Barry and Lainey profess their love, Erica realizes she wants the same thing, and begins to stare at Geoff.

Later, Erica is fully aware of Geoff's feelings, but claims to see him only as a friend, but nevertheless he declares that her sincerity only makes her more attractive to him. After seeing their favorite movie, Dirty Dancing, Erica and her mother Beverly decide to do a school dance theme, obtaining the consent of the principal. Bev soon stops supporting Erica's idea when she realizes that the dance can lead to unseemly acts and forces the principal to withdraw the permit. However, Erica continues in the project and tries to recreate the main scene of the film with Geoff, failing miserably. With Beverly's support too, the two try again later, succeeding.

Geoff shows he loves the same music that Erica likes, but for her it's not a valid reason why they start dating. Ironically when Jhonny Atkins makes her passionate about Rush, Erica starts dating him. Geoff, the other JTP, Lainey and Erica's father, Murray do not approve at all, but she continues to frequent Jhonny for the sheer pleasure of spite them. When the two break, Geoff tries to imitate Jhonny, but even this attempt is not successful.

Geoff still tries to impress Erica, without succeeding. Furthermore, Erica signs Geoff's end-of-year diary with an unimportant sentence. However, when the boy gives her a mix of songs made and played by him, Erica realizes that she is in love with Geoff and decides to tell him ... only to find out that Geoff has now resigned and started dating, Evelyn Silver, with her great sorrow. Eventually Geoff greets Erica with, the same sentence she wrote in the boy's yearbook.

Erica's regret
Lainey decides to enroll her father in a video dating service, and Erica also decides to make a video but in every shot she only despairs of losing her chance with Geoff. Adam the younger brother of Erica takes a crush on Zoe McIntosh and tries to make himself desirable. Taking inspiration from an episode of The Brady Bunch in which one of the characters invented a fake boyfriend George Glass, Adam invented his girlfriend Lampie Tableman. Erica initially teases him but soon does the same thing by inventing a university boyfriend named Jordan Wahlberg (joining the names of two members of the New Kids on the Block) in the hope that Geoff gets jealous, but nobody believes her, so she does a fool ruining his reputation, when a handsome guy who claims to be Jordan Wahlberg sent by Adam confirms her story in front of everyone. Geoff and Evelyn declare that they will go to the Halloween dance dressed as Audrey and Audrey Jr. of Little Shop of Horrors, and Erica lies saying that she will go to the dance with Lainey's cousin Nate. However, because of the pain of unrequited love, Erica has neglected her attitude a lot, becoming very ugly, so Laineyu cannot convince Nate to take her to the dance. To avoid a fool, Erica rents an Audrey Jr. costume and forces Barry to wear it and take him to the ball, with Lainye's approval, but during the party the head of the costume falls, and everyone sees that Erica has been accompanied by her brother and she goes away humiliated. Shortly thereafter, Lainey and Barry ask Geoff to console Erica, and he does, singing a song with her and telling her they will always be good friends. Thanks to Geoff's intervention, Erica returns to the dance and enjoys herself, no longer worrying about the opinions of others. On Valentine's Day, Erica falls into total depression, for losing Geoff and seeing Barry and Lainey enjoying their romance does not help. To his great shame he admits that he is jealous of them, and neither his mother nor the teachers can cheer her up. Erica gets so sick, that even Evelyn, who has understood her feelings, takes pity on her. This causes her a surge of pride, and she collects herself by organizing a clandestine party, succeeding thanks to her mother's help.

Become a couple
Erica's father Murray tries to get involved in her daughter's love life after seeing her depressed. The man knows that his daughter likes one of his brothers' friends, but he doesn't know the details and tries to get her out with a friend of Adam Dave Kim, who gives her a love serenade in the cafe the next day, ridiculing her. Discovering that everything was caused by her father, Erica fights us at home; during the discussion it turns out she likes Geoff Schwartz ... who went to see Barry and hears everything. Geoff later tells Erica that he is flattered to like her, but that she is with Evelyn and things are going well. After a few seconds of silence, Erica and Geoff hug and kiss.

After their first kiss, Erica and Geoff begin to see each other secretly behind Evelyn. They decide they want their relationship to become public, but Erica doesn't like the way they started it since as the truth comes out, Evelyn is very hurt. Reluctantly, Erica suggests that Geoff wait to be seen together in public until it seems right. Upon the arrival of the dance, Erica and Geoff desperately want to go together, but not being sure that it is the right time, and they decide to go with other people, so that they can at least see each other at the dance and go out. Erica invites Ruben Amaro Jr., while Carla forces Geoff to go with her, since she is angry with Johnny Atkins and is trying to make him jealous. However at the dance Erica and Geoff eventually start dancing with each other.

Erica and Geoff are a bit sad when Erica's diploma approaches, because since Geoff is one year younger than her they will no longer go to school together. Geoff then helps Erica figure out what a fantastic mom she is, when she is bothered by her mother's attentions.

Long distance relationship
When Erica starts attending college, she and Geoff find themselves having to manage a long-distance relationship. The two spend so much time talking on the phone, and so Erica accumulates a huge telephone bill.

Surprisingly, her father Murray, who has always been stiff about money, does not mind, because he knows that until Erica spends all her free time talking to Geoff, she will not approach college nightlife. However, her roommate makes her understand how pathetic she is, that she does nothing but talk to her high school boyfriend and convinces her to go to a party. For Geoff this is not a problem because he trusts Erica, but Murray forces him to go and see Erica, even leading him to ask her to marry him! Fortunately, Erica realizes that this is not a serious proposal, and when Geoff admits that he was manipulated by Murray, Erica gets very angry, even if she forgives Geoff almost immediately and asks him to stay with her for the night.

Lainey went to see Erica for Halloween and the two went to a masquerade party. However, Lainey could not resist the desire to see Barry, so crying Erica, at the first opportunity to rush to him. Erica, however, sensed what had happened and followed Lainey to the party where she and Barry were celebrating the resumption of their relationship. There was also Geoff and he and Erica were delighted to see each other again (even if they were a little disgusted by the fact that the characters they were dressed in, were mother and son).

Geoff: ''Looks like you got through to them. Well done.''

Erica: ''Why do I feel so lousy? ''

Geoff: ''Cause you were right. Long distance really does suck. But it's worth it. At least for us.''

- Geoff consoles Erica sad for having to convince Barry and Lainey to part ways.

When she learned that her brother and friend had returned together, Erica was not at all happy and explained to them how difficult it was to maintain her relationship with Geoff, now that they lived three hours apart from one another while now Barry and Lainey lived twelve hours apart and Geoff confirmed, what led Barry and Lainey to leave again. Although she knew she had done the right thing, and had once been against the relationship of Barry and Lainey, Erica felt terrible about hurting her so much, two people so dear to her. Geoff nevertheless consoled her by confirming that he had done the right thing, and the two decided that their story would continue, since there was less distance between them than between Lainey and Barry.

Erica returns home to celebrate thanksgiving, and when she says she wants to talk to him, Geoff fears that she wants to leave him, but in reality Erica wants to inform him that she has accumulated three thousand dollars in debt and wants him to help her make money from Beverly. Geoff refuses and the two have a little discussion; later the boy offers to repay Erica's debt, but she refuses, saying that she must be responsible for her mistakes. Erica returns home for the winter holidays and Geoff covers her with romantic gestures. Erica, however, gets tired of it after she slipped on the rose petals, with which Geoff covered the stairs telling him that she just wanted to relax during the holidays and that it's getting stifling, so he is disappointed. At that point Erica worries about becoming the same as her rough and unromantic father, and asks her brother Adam and her girlfriend Jackie for advice and tries to recreate a romantic scene from one of their favorite movies, but only manages to combine a disaster. In the end, Erica merely tells Geoff that she really loves him, even though she struggles to show it.

When Erica's birthday comes to surprise her, Geoff invites her whole family to join them for her birthday dinner in a restaurant. Erica is not at all happy, because her family are unbearable customers, and Geoff completely loses patience and loudly scolds the Goldbergs in front of the entire restaurant, exactly what Erica feared would happen. She later tells Geoff that she is part of her family.

Erica is encouraged by her roommate Erica Coolidge to become more educated, so she refuses to see The Hooters with Geoff when she gets tickets and he reluctantly decides to take Barry with him. Later, Geoff and Beverly reach the two Ericas at a musical show, partly to show their support, but above all to convince Erica that she is becoming pretentious. Erica initially avoids both, but then realizes she has taken a bad attitude and runs to apologize to Geoff.

Erica and her roommate start to irritate each other, and when she complains to Geoff, he suggests she irritate the other Erica, inviting a guest, but to Geoff's disappointment, Erica invites Barry, and when the plan fails Lainey. In the end is Barry who invites Geoff and the other JTPs, and Geoff forces the two Ericas to talk to solve their problems.

When she starts attending a dance class, to get her daughter to her essay Beverly tells her that Geoff betrayed her. Erica is devastated, and when she finds out the truth she is relieved, but then gets very angry with her mother.

When Barry complains about the past year, Geoff says it was a good year for him as his relationship with Erica remained solid despite the distance. However, it should be noted that when Erica decides to drop out of college to form a band, unlike Barry in ecstasy that Lainey has returned to live in the city, Geoff doesn't seem particularly happy with this, perhaps because he is worried about the future of his girlfriend.

Season 6
The two Ericas (Erica Coolidge moved into the Goldberg house after dropping out of college) waste a lot of electricity and pile up a very high bill. When she finds out Erica panics fearing she will become the most hated daughter in the house, passing Barry who is about to marry. When he finds out, Geoff tries to reassure the girl, but once he learns that the figure amounts to $ 906, he berates her for the waste, then tells her to find an adult way to solve the problem.

At that moment Adam arrives who angry that everyone has forgotten his birthday, has been persuaded by his friends to organize a clandestine party and asks his older sister to organize it for him. Even Erica has completely forgotten her little brother's birthday, but immediately sees the opportunity to get him in trouble so that her parents divert attention from her. Geoff understands this and clearly disapproves of Erica's plan, but says nothing. Erica urges her parents and Bill Lewis to take Barry and Lainey to Atlantic City to celebrate the couple's engagement (Beverly turned supportive, after the two told her they could give her grandchildren) as the city is far enough away for a change. air, but close enough to get them back in time to find out about Adam's party.

Just as it happened in Season 1 when Erica and Lainey threw a party for Barry, the party degenerates and causes a lot of confusion ... and just like it had been then no one knows Adam and only people who know Erica come, and everyone is convinced that it's Erica's party, Adam gets bored quickly and tells Erica it's her party.

Shortly after Erica discovers that it's Adam's birthday, she confesses that she framed him to avoid being scolded. Adam goes on a rampage and gives the sister of the selfish loser and the miserable failure, hurting her a lot. Geoff is clearly sorry for what happened, but doesn't say a word in defense of his girlfriend, probably admitting that Adam is right to be angry, and not wanting to get into an argument that doesn't really concern him. Eventually brother and sister make up and Erica makes sure that Adam gets a taste of her popularity. Geoff finally seems to be enjoying himself at the party probably happy that the two have made peace, and that his girlfriend has understood her mistake.

Beverly wants Lainey to take care of Barry now that the two are getting married and gives her her recipe collection. Lainey, however, does not want it and reluctantly accepts. Later the blonde complains to Barry that she doesn't intend to cook for him like his mother does, and the boy agrees ... when in reality he wants Lainey to cook and take care of the house like Beverly and come up with a plan. with the complicity of Geoff, who would instead like the recipes and take care of Erica: Barry takes the box out of his girlfriend's bag and gives it to Geoff. The latter is then enthusiastically applied to cooking.

Erica goes to the day to present careers in high school (for free food only), and Geoff stops by her rock star booth to ask her how she is doing. When Geoff lets it slip that his father's ophthalmologist work doesn't appeal to him, Erica suggests that he try something else. Seeing Murray, she takes the opportunity to ask him to do an internship in his furniture store (he just wants someone to move his furniture for free). Geoff agrees, perhaps to make a good impression on the man since despite having been with Erica for years and has been friends with Barry for even longer, Murray does not seem to remember his name.

Geoff appreciates the work at the furniture store and Murray points out that if he doesn't want to be an ophthalmologist his father can't force him. When Geoff tells him Lou freaks out and complains about it to Barry (wanting to become a doctor he has been a trainee in Lou's office), and he promises to get Geoff to reason. Geoff, however, does not pay attention to him, and indeed calls himself the new leader of the JTP. Barry then asks Erica to talk to him, but Geoff immediately understands this and tells her that he no longer intends to be anyone's doormat, not even Erica's and that he will stop trying to please everyone, including Erica. Erica, however, finds Geoff's new strong attitude sexy and kisses him passionately, then tells Barry and Lou that she has no intention of helping them change his behavior again and that she loves the new Geoff.

Geoff continues in his rebellious behavior and even goes so far as to heavily insult coach Mellor the gym teacher. When he is punished for this he calls Murray and not his father Lou.

Murray is somewhat annoyed by this and when he tries to make Geoff understand that his father only wants the best for him, the boy loses patience with him too. Eventually Murray goes to talk to Lou and lets him know that he can't force Geoff to go the same way as him. The latter returns to behave as usual and Erica tells him that even she has no idea what she will do in life: she can only follow her heart and she loves that Geoff is starting to do the same.

Geoff would love to go to the Halloween prom with Erica in a couple costume, but she doesn't want to know and finds all of Geoff's proposals stupid (and indeed they are).

Erica takes Geoff to school one morning and one of the teachers convinces her to talk to the students as an ex-pupil. Erica remembers how popular she was in high school, and decides to relive her glory days by going back to school every day, much to Geoff's embarrassment. Geoff tries to kindly explain it to him, but Erica doesn't listen to him and tries to organize a party by bringing beer to the students, failing miserably. Eventually Geoff loses his temper and blurts out that Erica's behavior puts him ashamed. Erica retorts that she too was ashamed to date Geoff at the beginning of their relationship, because she was a popular and Geoff was Barry's shy friend, who had followed her like a puppy in love for ten years until she relented.

Geoff gets very angry and offended and leaves the young Goldberg who is devastated. On Halloween night, Erica puts on one of the couples costumes Geoff wanted and goes to his house. Erica tells him that she feels embarrassed, yes, but for herself: she has realized that she has reached the top in high school. Geoff replies that saying these things doesn't fix everything, but Erica replies that she knows, and that she hopes to solve everything by going to the prom with him. The two go to the party together and have a lot of fun.

Geoff takes a test of the college entrance test and scores very well. Rather than being happy and proud of him Erica panics when the boyfriend says she intends to go to college in Los Angeles not wanting her boyfriend to go away from her, she decides to sabotage Geoff's preparation for the real admission test to prevent him to go as far as her mother did with her despite it making her very angry and Beverly herself begs her not to make the same mistake as she did.

When she notices Beverly warns Geoff, but when Erica denies her Geoff immediately says he believes her because their love is based on trust ... leading Erica to admit what she did. Surprisingly, Geoff is happy and flattered that Erica loves him to the point of taking such an infamous action to keep him close to her, and says he would like to have her come to California with him. This is more than feasible because in Los Angeles Erica has relatives who could make her work in writing advertising jingles. Erica eagerly applies, but Beverly doesn't want her to move to California and sabotages her test recordings. Eventually she confesses what happened but Erica has already sent some absurd jingles to her cousin Marcy. Erica goes mad with rage, but luckily the jingles have been appreciated (they were probably believed to be an original way to get noticed), so Geoff and Erica's project remains viable.

The Dropouts (the band of the two Erica and Lainey) decides to participate in the Star Search program and Lainey proposes a song that he dedicated to Barry. Erica initially likes the song, but when she discovers that Lainey has dedicated it to her brother (who already knew it) Erica is disgusted and categorically refuses to sing it. Lainey doesn't like being talked about badly about both her boyfriend and her job and her insistence, the other Erica, and Barry himself eventually force Erica to accept.

Erica complains to Geoff and he replies that Erica should sing songs about him, not Barry. When Erica has the opportunity to record a demo herself, Geoff supports her and pays the registration for her (it must be said that the price is not high at all). This leads Erica to quarrel with her bandmates and decide to debut as a soloist. Barry starts filming Lainey and young Coolidge's audition but Erica gets angry when she finds out that the two want to sing her own song. Geoff initially supports her, but later admits that since they cover Queen, Lainey and Erica Coolidge have the right to sing it as much as his girlfriend.

Geoff goes to his concert (she will sing at the mall), but the girl falls flat out and eventually Erica returns to the band. When the holidays come, Geoff spends a lot of time at the Goldberg house and spends Hannukah's first evenings with them. When the Goldbergs throw a surprise Christmas party for the Lewis, Geoff is there and he and Erica kiss under the mistletoe.

Sometime later, Barry and Lainey realize they are not ready for the wedding and decide to break off their engagement. Lainey later moved to Los Angeles to pursue her dream of becoming a rock star. Barry is devastated, but Erica also takes it very badly and Geoff tries to help their father cheer them up.

The anniversary of the first kiss between Geoff and Erica arrives and to celebrate he decides to take the girl to the Poconos. Seeing that his father would not give him permission, Geoff plans to tell him a lie, but Erica is skeptical as Geoff is a mess to lie. In the end, it is the girl who trumps Lou Schwartz and the two go off to the mountains. Unfortunately, they get out of the car forgetting to put the brake on, so the car crashes into a van.

Erica tries to pass another lie to her parents and Lou, but Geoff lets the truth slip, but Erica decides to take all the blame. At that point Lou decides that Erica has a bad influence on Geoff and declares that she will no longer allow Geoff to go out with the young Goldberg. Erica tries to make her boyfriend's dad change his mind by showing him slides of all the good things he's done for Geoff ... too bad she lets it slip that she thinks Geoff clumsy, and that her photos show that she made him drink beer, that she had him skip school to take him to minigolf, and that she organized a surprise party for him at his home, taking advantage of Lou's absence.

Lou's decision to keep Erica away from her son is strengthened, but Geoff loves her so much that he tries to secretly see her. Erica tries to unleash her mother on Lou, but it turns out that her parents agree with him and that they judge a good student like Geoff, too much for a slacker like Erica. The girl falls into total depression, like when Geoff was dating Evelyn and collapses on the bed looking at her hole with Geoff. Erica admits that she loves Geoff madly, but that in fact it is possible that the boy deserves better than someone like her, with no job or prospects, even if all she wants is to be with him.

Erica: ''Look, I know I get Geoff into trouble and force him out of his comfort zone and have him throw parties in your living room. But there is not a slide show in the world that will make you see just how much I love your son. Even though I'm selfish and moody and have so much growing up to do... You still love me. So, yeah, I'm not nearly good enough for a guy like you. But you make me wanna do whatever it takes to prove I can be.''

Lou: Maybe they do bring out the best in each other.

Beverly: ''No maybe, Lou. They just do.''

Seeing her daughter's pain, Beverly is moved and collects her by pushing her to take back Geoff. Bev is ready to go wild on the ophthalmologist, but there is no need as Erica says she loves Geoff more than anything and that it is the only thing that drives her to improve even if she is not worthy of him at the moment, and Lou admits that Erica and Geoff bring out the best in each other. Without Lainey the band is not doing very well and Geoff offers to help Erica find a replacement even if his girlfriend is not very convinced. Eventually Geoff succeeds and Erica is very grateful to him. Evan the new guy in the band is very handsome and Barry fears he might take Erica away from Geoff and barking at him that the only time it was his passion and jealousy that got Lainey, and that the only time he was acted like Geoff she left for Los Angeles. All the other JTPs agree with Barry and cause Geoff to panic, so he ends up making a scene that convinces the new guitarist to walk away in Erica's anger. When she finds out that the boy was jealous, Erica tells him that he is the only constant in his life, and asks Barry what has crossed his mind after Geoff says he was the one who influenced him. Barry replies that Lainey leaving broke his heart, and that he didn't want his best friend to suffer as much as he did.

Realizing how sad he is, Geoff, Erica, and the JTPs all gather to keep him company in the evening, and the group goes to a concert having a great time. When Barry begins to fear that after high school the JTP will stop being friends, even Geoff panics despite the fact that he is dating Erica, he will at least remain tied to Barry. This implies that all sum Geoff does not has unlimited trust in his relationship with Erica. Curiously, when the JTP fantasize about the class reunion ten years after graduation, Geoff seems confident he's still with Erica by that date. For the school, Adam has to create a video game and is inspired by his run-down family. Erica doesn't want to be there, so to make fun of her, Adam creates a character named Eric a good-for-nothing slacker who is served and revered by his girlfriend Geoffina. When Geoff tries the game he likes the character of Eric, but is offended when he discovers that Geoffina is based on him even if in fact the representation is very faithful.

Geoff manages to secure a good deal for Erica's band ... but he only succeeds thanks to a demo sent when Lainey was also in the band, which makes Erica doubt. Geoff still manages to convince her to participate. Geoff's nervousness infects the others and the boy runs away just before the concert. In the end, however, he comes back and the concert goes well. Erica then goes to Geoff and tells him that she is thinking of going back to college but only wants to tell him until she is sure, which Geoff really appreciates. It is worth noting that even when Barry argues with Erica, Geoff usually supports his friend as well.

Geoff gets the highest grade and then gives his graduation speech and it terrifies him because he hates speaking in public. When he finds out that her boyfriend has been planning graduation summer minute by minute, Erica is shocked. Due to graduation and pressure from his family, Geoff is a bundle of nerves and constantly thinks about the future in which he sees marriage and children with Erica.

Geoff arrives to get the Shingles and Erica appears worried about him. When her mother notices that Geoff does this because she wants to keep her Erica she worries about her by declaring that she does not want her husband to be reduced to a wreck from stress. This implies that Erica also believes that she and Geoff will get married. Erica realizes that Geoff needs to relax and she decides to accept Matt and Ruben's invitation to join the Grateful Dead tour, and he gladly accepts. Erica's parents are not at all thrilled with Erica's decision, but Linda and Lou find it a wonderful idea. Beverly tries to sabotage their vacation by scaring Geoff, and Erica is furious that it would harm Geoff. Eventually Beverly realizes that Erica was right about her and blesses her on their journey.

Season 7
Upon returning from the tour, Beverly decides to take a family outing to Disneyland. Erica invites Geoff to come with them, but he refuses because he still wants to follow the band. Before leaving, Geoff tells his girlfriend that they need to talk when they return. Erica is very worried about what Geoff told her, and Barry tells her that Geoff wants to ditch her, and Erica is instantly convinced and the thought terrifies her. Erica begins to freak out, so much so that she comes to express her worries to a saloon bartender, self-confident that Geoff wants to ditch her. Erica tries desperately to get in touch with the boy, and panics more and more.

Fanon
Gerica is a very popular ship, in The Goldbergs fandom. There are videos, fanfictions and gifs dedicated to this ship. However, the fact that it has never been more than a side detail in the second and third seasons, to then become one of the central themes of the fourth, has led some to prefer Blainey which has had a slower and more constant evolution. In the fifth series Gerica replaces Blainey, as the main couple of the show.

Fandom
FAN FICTION
 * Erica/Geoff on FanFiction.Net

Notes and Trivia

 * Erica is based on Eric Goldberg, Adam Goldberg's older brother in real life. Geoff Schwartz is a real person, but in real life he and Eric Goldberg have never had a relationship.