Romeo Smith
Todd Romeo Smith (2009-2013)
Luke Mitchell
Episodes: 4939–5713, 5858–5859
Parents: Jill Carpenter
Sibling: Mink Carpenter
Marital Status: Indi Walker (2011-2013)
Occupation: Surfing Instructor, Student, Lifeguard, Boat Charter Skipper, Surf Shop salesman, Gym Owner
Todd “Romeo” Smith was first seen when he arrived in Summer Bay after hitching a lift with Liam Murphy, explaining he was in town looking for his little brother. He headed down to the beach for a swim and to engage in some half-serious flirting with Martha but his attention was soon drawn to Annie, who was walking nearby, and when they spoke briefly at the Diner it was clear there was an attraction between them. He then went to the caravan park where it was revealed that his brother was Jai; they had been in the children’s home together before Romeo was placed in foster care but he had left as soon as he was old enough. Miles agreed to let him stay on and when Jai told Romeo about his recent break-up with Annie he offered to help him win her back, only to get a shock when he discovered she was the girl he had met before.
Romeo began trailing the area for a job and spent a day trying to track down the manager of the fish market only to find he’d already given the job to Ruby. He took a job with Liam, helping him convert the old restaurant he had bought, and when he learnt about his past he told him he deserved a second chance. When he was offered an interview for a surfing instructor job, Liam told him to go for it since the restaurant needed more work than he thought. The interviewer was John Palmer, who wasn’t charmed by his jokes, but when Romeo approached him afterwards and insisted he’d do a good job he agreed to give him a try. He was shocked when Annie turned out to be one of his students but quickly began flirting with her and giving her some very hands-on tutoring. He helped Jai build his confidence by getting him to chat up another girl in the Diner, having deliberately annoyed her to set him up, and encouraged him to send Annie anonymous love poems. However, when he realised Annie thought the poems were from him; he wrote a poem himself and gave it to her in person, reinforcing the belief.
Romeo felt guilty about the deception, avoiding Annie and feeling too uncomfortable to give Jai further advice. When Jai told him he wasn’t interested in Annie anymore, he thought the road was clear for him until he discovered the only reason he said that was because he’d realised what Romeo was up to. After he and Annie argued during a lesson, Romeo tried to explain the situation but Annie told him that if he liked her he should meet her at the Diner. After wrestling with his conscience, Romeo raced to the Diner to find Annie had already left. He then learned Jai was going on an exchange trip to Japan and Jai pointedly remarked he was getting away from his so-called friends. When Romeo realised Annie wanted to go on the trip as well, he spoke to the other exchange student, Rebecca, and, on learning she was no longer keen, persuaded her to drop out so Annie could replace hereafter Jai told her of his part in it, Annie met Romeo on the beach to say goodbye, giving him a farewell kiss and promising they could explore things when she got back.
Romeo began hanging out with a newly single Xavier and together they accompanied two girls, Ali and Rosie, to a supposedly haunted house they were planning to use for a Halloween party. Instead they found Bambang, who they took to Martha. With the house cordoned off by the police, Xavier persuaded Romeo to let them use Liam’s vacant house for the party. Romeo agreed so long as they kept it to a small gathering with no alcohol and was annoyed when he arrived late to find a large drunken party in full swing. Liam came back early and ordered the party wrapped up, escorting his dodgy friend Ned Re from the house when he realised he was on drugs. With Xavier having left to walk Rosie home, Romeo was left to handle things alone but accidentally drank from a glass that Ned had spiked with drugs. He collapsed and tried to ring Nicole for help but got through to Aden instead who rushed him to hospital. After spending the night in emergency, he recovered and argued with Liam when he learned he had failed to call an ambulance for him because he was worried about getting into trouble. They later exchanged apologies and Romeo revealed he had never touched drugs or alcohol because he’d seen the dangers of getting out of control. When Liam asked him if he was talking about his family, Romeo clammed up and was later seen looking at a photo of himself as a boy with his mother and older sister.
As a result of his stay in hospital, Romeo missed giving a lesson and when he couldn’t give a proper account beyond that he was ill, John fired him. He later offered him the job back after a lecture from Gina but Romeo refused, saying he wouldn’t work for a bully, and continued to refuse even though he couldn’t find a job elsewhere. He warned Xavier about Gina and Johns growing closeness and was annoyed when Xavier ultimately decided it was Gina’s choice. He left the house when he saw John there and told Xavier that his mother had got involved with a bloke she thought she could handle and paid the price. After she and Gina had spoken about his lack of qualifications, he went to see her at school and asked to enrol but she told him to think about it first.
Romeo spent the next few weeks advising Miles and VJ over their encounters with the Radcliffes, being the first person to realise VJ was being bullied and persuading him to speak up about Riley attacking Miles after telling him he was bullied himself when he was younger, and helped Xavier to rid himself of his unwanted girlfriends, including a spot of role play where they were interrupted by a confused John as Romeo was pretending to be Xavier’s girlfriend. At the end of year Christmas party, Romeo made a failed attempt to find Miles after he left drunk then he and Alf agreed to help Xavier check out some shipping containers he felt were connected to Hugo leaving town. This resulted in them finding the refugees. After Hugo’s assumed death, Xavier confided in him about the money he had been left behind. They tried to donate some of it to the refugees’ collection but after spending the day chasing the package around town they found it had ended up in Gina’s bag back at the house.
Romeo was pleased when his sister Mink turned up but not so pleased when she proceeded to thump John Palmer and steal some of Xavier’s money, worrying about her self-destructive behaviour. When Xavier learned Mink had gone to juvenile detention for killing his step-father, Romeo claimed she had been protecting their mother from a beating when in fact he had been the one being beaten. It was then revealed Mink had actually been covering for their mother and Romeo persuaded Xavier to keep it to himself before defending her when Ruby claimed she always got away with things. Mink asked him to join her on the pro-surfing circuit as her manager but Gina reminded him of his previous plans to go back to school and after talking with Nicole, who was in a similar situation, he decided to enrol. He acted as a confidante to Liam when he worried Martha was pregnant. After he had argued with Mink over her sabotaging a sponsorship deal, she reminded him that he never visited her in detention, meaning she had to cope with being stabbed on her own, and had dropped out of school while she was locked up only to go back when she needed him. Afterwards, Mink told him she didn’t want them to part on bad terms and, when he admitted he felt guilty about letting her take the blame, asserted that she had a better chance of surviving jail than him. However, when he saw her crying on the beach later, he didn’t feel able to comfort her. Later, he was giving a uniformed Angelo advice about Charlie when Mink saw them together. He was relieved to find that, thanks to Gina’s intervention, Mink had calmed down and wasn’t angry with him but was disappointed when she left town just as they were back on friendly terms.
No sooner had Mink gone than Annie re-entered his life. He was pleased to see her back but less so when she revealed she would be returning to Japan in six weeks unless he convinced her otherwise. After giving Nicole some advice about her internship, he agreed to join Annie in trying out for the school play of Romeo and Juliet and won the lead roles with Romeo playing Juliet. He wasn’t thrilled about the idea, suffering from stage fright which Annie helped him through by arranging for them to rehearse without an audience. He was delighted when Annie kissed him on the beach but was thrown into a panic when he saw the fairy costume he had to wear and quit the play until Annie offered to help him deal with his nerves. Annie and Ruby helped him get in touch with his inner girl by persuading him to spend a day at school in the girls uniform, after which he and Annie shared another kiss and he admitted he’d been thrown by her chasing him instead of the other way round. When they found the drama hall closed for refurbishment, they ended up breaking in to rehearse in private and he confided in her about his family history. Afterwards he arranged to borrow the school hall for a romantic dinner with her, then told her that he loved her and wanted her to stay. He was disappointed when he instead overheard her telling Irene that she didn’t think he was enough to give up Japan for. After settling on enjoying their last few days, she told him straight after the play that she was leaving the following morning. He rushed to catch the car as she left and whispered his real name to her as they said goodbye. He was upset to hear Annie had been in touch with Irene but not him and ended up throwing his phone into the sea in anger. He was rescued slightly when Liam convinced him to write a short story to cope with his feelings and when Martha and Xavier arranged for him to help out on the farm.
After he and Nicole had helped get Miles his job back by arranging a student demonstration, another female re-entered his life in the shape of his mother Jill, who was both rich and alcoholic, right after he’d received the latest in a long series of letters that he’d written to her only to have them returned unopened. He was initially resentful of her for abandoning him and Mink, especially when he found out shed been living it up on his stepfather’s life insurance, and fed up that he was once again required to clean up after her mess when she got drunk at the surf club and Alf and Marilyn had to bring her home. Jill offered him a cheque for $50,000, aiming to do the same with Mink, but he ripped it up and gave it back to her, saying it was too late for her to make things up. After talking with John, whose own father had drank himself to death, and Irene, he agreed to give her a go and she moved in with the family but he was annoyed when he found her hung-over with John and told him to stay away from her. He was pleased to see Jill with an AA card, unaware Irene had practically forced it on her. He wrongly assumed shed been drinking when he found her with John and reluctantly invited John to dinner; when the tension between John and Tony, who had also been invited, spilled over, Romeo blamed Jill. He was unhappy with her relationship with John, feeling it would give her a relapse, and pushed him and Gina back together instead, causing him to fall out with Xavier and get into a scuffle with him at school which landed them both in detention. He spent time with Jill in order to give John and Gina time alone together but was upset when Jill found out what he’d been doing and started drinking again. Meeting Indigo and Dexter and learning Dexter had been in contact with Annie only added to his unhappy mood. Nicole and Indigo encouraged him to have hope and he was pleased when Jill promised shed go to an AA meeting but when he got up the next morning he found she had left town.
Romeo was quizzed by both Miles and Indigo about the possibility of Nicole still liking Sid and he and Indigo bonded over their similar family histories. When he saw Penn with another girl, he told Nicole he thought he was cheating on her and went to confront him when he saw him with a different woman, only to find he’d actually been trying to persuade her to withdraw a theft complaint against Colleen. He also told Marilyn that Sid, who shed arranged a date with, had slept with Veronica. He was thrown when Marilyn suggested he should date Indigo and Dexter revealed shed been having dreams about him, stressing again he wasn’t ready for another relationship. He organised a group of friends to help fix up Angelo’s restaurant and spent the event playing a game of 20 Questions with Indigo. Romeo continued spending a lot of time with Indigo but was reluctant to give her surfing lessons because it reminded him of Annie, until he caught her asking another guy for lessons and changed his mind. However, when Marilyn pointed out how much time they were spending together, he panicked and started avoiding her after Indigo complained he just wanted a pseudo-girlfriend to spend time with without making a commitment, he took the plunge and kissed her. However, he was nervous about how the relationship was progressing and admitted to first Nicole and then Indigo that he was a virgin. She was quite happy to wait however, although he was embarrassed when Miles, Marilyn and Sid ambushed him about it.
He managed to get his lifeguard job back at the surf club and gave advice to Xavier about the people smuggling money and to Liam about Bianca. When he lost his voice, Sid suspected he was allergic to something, which turned out to be Indigo’s new lipstick. He told her he wanted to sleep with her that night and asked Mitzy if he’d regret it. She told him it wasn’t a mistake but it wasn’t ideal either. Miles also told him not to go through with it if he wasn’t sure and, after they both felt uncomfortable, they decided to hold off. He was thrown when Dexter claimed Indigo loved him and Indigo admitted it was sort of true and broke up with her, saying they needed to be in the same place emotionally. After a conversation with Nicole, he accepted he’d been expecting to feel the same with her as he did with Annie and told her he did love her a bit. He later distracted her so much while she was working at the Diner that he ended up working in the kitchen for free, partly to make up for it and partly so they could hang out.
When Indigo queried him about his mixed signals, he suggested they sleep together, only for her to run off in tears in the middle of the foreplay. He was upset that the relationship was over and ended up having a go at Bianca for getting engaged to Vittorio when she was meant to be seeing Liam, but was relieved when Indigo admitted she wasn’t comfortable with sleeping together either and just wanted to take things slowly. She also admitted she hadn’t come to terms with what happened between her mother and her ex so Romeo suggested getting back in touch with her mother. When Alf mentioned he’d given Indigo a letter from Annie to pass on and she said she’d just forgotten about it, Romeo was worried she was up to something. He was furious when she admitted to steaming the letter open and reading it but eventually admitted that he loved her. When they went on a double date with Dexter and Graves, he realised he was being surreptitiously interrogated and was annoyed when Indigo instead got jealous and thought Graves was chatting him up.
Romeo was shocked when Liam’s new girlfriend Nina flirted with him but Liam told him they were just casual. Romeo shared the information with Bianca. He helped organise an informal formal for the Year 12s.When Indigo began to panic that she’d failed her exams, Romeo revealed he’d deliberately failed his own exams so they could repeat Year 12 together and admitted he didn’t know what he wanted to do and wasn’t ready to leave the Bay. At Bianca and Vittorio’s wedding, he punched Vittorio when he tried to drag Bianca back to the altar after she refused to marry him, unknowingly attracting Ruby’s attention.
Romeo supported Ruby after her adoptive father Ross death, helping her say goodbye to him by lighting candles on the beach. The pair later joined forces to try and coax Xavier out of his depression over April’s absence by setting him up with Summer and Romeo also provided Xavier with advice over his worries April was up to something. He agreed to help tutor Ruby but stood her up to comfort Nicole when she admitted she was giving her baby up to Marilyn and Sid. He felt he and Indigo were drifting apart as she attended uni, especially when he organised a special dinner to celebrate her first day only to have her turn up drunk and fall asleep, leaving him to spend the evening with Ruby. He also tried to surprise Indigo with a visit only to be left chatting to Dexter while she spent the evening with her uni friends.
He received an intimidating visit from the Braxtons over Miles pressing assault charges against Heath and responded by warning Casey they weren’t scared of him once they were alone. He clashed with Casey but, when Romeo covered for him and they ended up in detention together, they seemed to find common ground. When Dexter went missing, Romeo realised Casey knew something about it and insisted he tell Charlie. John told him to keep an eye on the River Boys while acting as a lifeguard and he tried to smooth things over by giving them a talk, only for John to undo all his hard work by laying down the law with them. He had to leave his post to stop Xavier getting into a fight with the River Boys and VJ nearly drowned as a result. He accompanied Casey to his home to help him with his schoolwork and was uncomfortable with the lack of support Casey received from Heath and Cheryl. He was concerned when he saw Casey kissing Ruby and advised her not to get involved. He then got into a fight with Casey and ended up on detention.
When Indigo told him she needed to see him later, he thought she was going to break up with him and went to see Ruby instead, where she told him she loved him and they slept together. He then found Indigo wasn’t planning to break up with him and had actually been planning for them to sleep together. He turned down the offer to spend the night with her anyway and admitted to Miles that he was torn between his different feelings for the two girls but after receiving a video message from Indi he met Ruby and told her it had been a one-off. When Ruby began bombarding him with threatening text messages and Liam told him he needed to be clear with her, he went to her house and told her that even though it was his first time it was just sex and didn’t mean anything. When Ruby ended up in hospital after messing up her blood sugar levels, he was dragged to see her by Indigo and worried he was to blame. He agreed to join Indi for a romantic break to consummate their relationship and asked Ruby to keep quiet but she ended up telling Indi during an argument and she broke up with him.
He went to the house and apologised to Indi, saying he knew he’d ruined things between them. He was then punched by Casey, who believed he was responsible for a video sent to most of the students about Ruby’s antics, and tried to apologise to Ruby, who rejected him. He asked Indigo to go on a picnic with him but, although they seemed to get on fine, she told him she couldn’t get past what happened between him and Ruby and they shouldn’t go on any further dates. He accompanied Xavier to a party Xavier’s new friend Miranda Jacobs had invited him to and was annoyed to see Indigo there chatting with another student, Kieran Monroe, who he reacted jealously to. When Xavier encouraged him to move on, he kissed Emily Logan in a classroom and got into arguments with Miles and Gina that led to him dropping out of school.
He insisted he’d get a job and ended up arguing with Nicole and Indi. He slept with Emily, who offered to get him a courier job with her dad, but when he found out she had him listed as her boyfriend on Facebook he told her it was just a bit of fun, leaving her in tears and leaving Indigo disgusted with him. As a result, he lost out on work at the surf club because Emily’s dad was one of their sponsors and insisted they didn’t hire him. He spent some time helping Colleen and Keith at the homeless shelter where he initially seemed preoccupied with his own woes but eventually accepted he had to sort himself out. He started up surfing tutor lessons but had a poor first day when his only clients turned out to be a boy who’d been dragged there by his mother and a teenage girl who just wanted to flirt with him. Morag asked him to do some work cleaning up the Blaxland and he ended up taking Nicole and Angelo out for a short cruise, prompting Angelo to suggest there was money in the boat charter business. He asked Morag to let him run a boat charter business from the Blaxland, inviting her and Roo along for a trial and hiring Billy McVeigh as a deck hand when he realised he didn’t know about fishing. Even though Billy turned out to be responsible for the recent attack on Elijah, it convinced Morag and Roo to give him a go.
He was annoyed to see Kieran still spending time with Indigo and warned him off, saying she wasn’t interested in him, only for Kieran to curtly dismiss his claims. He responded to Indigo’s distressed phone call when Kieran chased her through the bush and stopped Kieran dragging her into his car, taking her home. However, Sid warned him not to take advantage of her gratitude and he turned down her offer to spend the next day together. He spent time with Indigo when she helped him with his surf business but backed off when they seemed about to kiss and told her what Sid had said.
He helped Xavier train for the surf carnival and helped Summer Bay to victory by winning the main event. He gave advice to Dexter over Xavier and April getting back together and arranged to meet Indi. He agreed to take her college lecturer and some of her friends out for a divorce party and struggled to cope on his own with a group of drunk middle-aged women, one of whom he had to rescue from drowning when she fell overboard. He tried to help Liam over his drug addiction by taking him to the hospital and got back with Indigo. He spoke to a journalist Roo had arranged to publicise his surf business and was annoyed when Sid saw them together and thought he was cheating on Indi. He and Indi slept together for the first time on the Blaxland only to be sprung by Sid.
He began experiencing discomfort in his groin and was even more uncomfortable when he had lunch with the Walkers and Sid quizzed him about Emily. He understood the reason for both when Emily came to see him and revealed she had Chlamydia and may have caught it off him. He went to the hospital to get tested but pulled out when Sid was the doctor. However, when he confided in Miles and Elijah, they pointed out he was risking his and Indi’s health so he went back and, on being tested positive, started treatment. He tried to contact Ruby to tell her but she ignored his calls and he ended up being punched by Casey when he found out the truth. He visited Ruby and they finally cleared the air over what happened between them and talked Casey into convincing her to get tested.
His business began to suffer when bookings were cancelled and he was tempted when Casey gave him a down payment from Heath to take some of the River Boys out. He returned the money to Heath but still had engine difficulties and ended up being suspended from his lifeguard job when someone nearly drowned after he was distracted breaking up a fight between Casey and some River Boys who had been harassing Indi. He agreed to let Roo repair the engine before taking Morag and some of her friends out on a trip but the engine stalled just a few yards out of harbour. He went back to Casey and accepted the booking in return for payment up front. When Heath didn’t turn up, he took two of the other River Boys out only to be stopped by the police and arrested when it turned out they had drugs on them. Romeo was released without charge but was unable to give evidence against Heath since he’d had no direct dealings with him. Afterwards, Morag wanted to stop him using the Blaxland until Roo offered to keep an eye on him.
He received another telling off from Sid after Indi had stayed over with him without letting anyone know where she was, after which Roo invited him to accompany her on a business trip to Hawaii. He arranged for Indi to accompany them and asked her to marry him. They arranged a quick ceremony the next day, with only Sid and Roo in attendance, and afterwards assured her he’d support her.
On their return, the couple decided to move in with Roo and her friend Laura. He ended up reluctantly advising Dexter when it came out he had been seeing April behind Xavier’s back and trying to calm Indigo down when she objected to Sid and Roo getting together. He also reluctantly accepted Casey as a new housemate when Roo and Laura moved out. He was hired by Roo to take her and Sid out for a picnic but she had to cancel so he took Indi instead. The incident inspired him to start up a personalised picnic service. He was hired out by Sid for him and Roo but Alf suggested he invite Indigo along so they could all sort things out and the event was a disaster. Afterwards, he told Indigo he thought she was being too hard on Roo.
He set up the Blaxland for one of his trips but returned to find it had been vandalised. When another boat captain, Harvey Ryan, took his clients out instead, Romeo suspected he was responsible and told the police, only to find out Harvey was innocent. He tried to apologise to Harvey but the latter reported Romeo and Alf for not having a mooring license. He failed to make it to a council meeting to discuss the issue because he was busy keeping an eye on Indi, who was worried about a visit from her mother. After losing the mooring, he was forced to ask Sid for the money to pay their rent and became increasingly annoyed about the house becoming a River Boys hideout when Heath turned up injured and punched a wall through in anger. When Indigo learned what was going on, she decided they needed to move back in with her family. He had an awkward first meeting with his new sister-in-law Sasha when she flirted with him while trying to get a job with Marilyn.
When he and Alf learned Harvey would get the mooring, which Alf had installed, they removed it. He was unhappy having to rely on Sid and tried to take a job taking Dennis Harling, the head of a new development, out to look at his site only for Alf to refuse to let him go out in a storm. When Harvey took Roo and the others out anyway and the boat sank, he and Alf went out with a rescue party. After Roo and the developers were found, Romeo stayed to look for Harvey on his own and saved Harvey’s life by finding him and getting him to the hospital. Afterwards, Harvey offered them the mooring and his client list in exchange for being part of the business and Romeo agreed. He soon began to tire of the arrangement, however, when Harvey cancelled a client to make room for one of his regulars who didn’t turn up and left him with the clearing up because he had a date with Roo. He was annoyed again when Harvey gave him and Indi the boat for the day only to turn up at the last minute with a client.
With Alf refusing to intervene, he ordered Harvey to do his share of the clearing up and Harvey agreed but later claimed Romeo was supposed to do it, making him look bad in front of Alf. He was worried when he learned the development was going ahead and Harvey was planning to get his own boat and go in for it. When Harvey roped him into taking him and Roo on a picnic, Romeo unsuccessfully attempted to warn her about him. He was annoyed when Harvey rejected his idea of whale tours. He went to see Dennis to ask about the job at the resort and Dennis told him he was first choice but wouldn’t give him anything in writing. Romeo was about to take the boat out when Harvey noticed there was spilt petrol on the carpet, which the engine would have ignited. When Liam told him Harvey had been on the boat during the night, Romeo realised he had spilt the petrol deliberately and told Alf but Liam wasn’t around to confirm his story. When he heard Alf was planning to sell the boat to Harvey, he insisted he wouldn’t work for him and ended up quitting the business. He dismissed Harvey when he came round to threaten him after Alf backed out of selling.
He began to raise funds by giving surfing lessons to the schoolies crowd and was annoyed when Indi acted as a model for a photoshoot for the development, trying to talk her out of letting the photos be used. When Mink returned, she told him she needed $2,000 to pay off a debt. Indigo felt they couldn’t afford it so Romeo agreed to give Mink the money behind her back. She told him shed pay him back with the money from her next surf comp but he learned shed been a washout on the tour and she nearly drowned during the competition, with Romeo having to save her. He believed a story that she had a drink problem only to learn that she actually had Ménière’s Disease, meaning she couldn’t surf anymore. He asked her to join him at the surf school but she left town without saying goodbye. He tried desperately to cover up their money shortage with Indi, including getting a job at the juice bar. He was approached by a man named Peter, who said he wanted information about the development to make a tender. He stole information from Indi to give to him, only to learn Peter was working for Harvey who used the information in his election campaign. He admitted the truth to Indi but refused to apologise for helping Mink, prompting Indi to go and stay with her mum.
He tried to support the rest of the family when Sid was charged over assaulting Sasha’s abusive boyfriend Stu Henderson and helped Dexter understand why Sasha had kept quiet about the abuse. Indi forced him to take a job as a salesperson with Dennis to support them. He took his first client, Adrian, surfing and was frustrated when it worked and he got a sale. He took on the role of Liam’s best man at his wedding to Bianca and organised a card game at Angelo’s as a bucks night. When Harvey began scheming to close down the development, Romeo was worried when he overheard John and Dennis planning to get rid of him and then saw Dennis moving a body at the development site. Indi originally advised him to keep quiet but when the body turned up at the caravan park he told the police. However, this resulted in the development going bust and Romeo not being paid for his work.
When the body turned out to be Stu and the Walker farm was searched by police investigating his death, it brought back painful memories for Romeo who stormed off. He was then questioned by the police until Sid took him away from the station. After chatting with Liam about following your dreams before settling down, he decided to make a living surfing and enter a local competition. He won, qualifying for the next round, which he decided to proceed with despite returning to find Sasha had been charged over causing Stu’s death, and Ruby asked to go with him. After going to one tournament together, he admitted the truth to Indi. Indi was unhappy about the idea and made him sleep on the couch so Romeo first asked Ruby to drop out then withdrew himself before Indi reluctantly gave her blessing. He supported Ruby when she was upset over receiving Charlie’s life insurance and pulled out of a surfing competition. Although Indi was preparing a romantic meal for them, he went round to check on her and by the time he returned she had gone out with her friends.
While he and Ruby were away at a competition together, they ended up having to share a room, with Romeo sleeping on a camp bed. However, when Indi turned up at his room to surprise him and found him in his underwear and Ruby in bed, she got the wrong idea. Although he put her straight, after Logan Meyer, the brother of Indi’s uni friend Lindsay, had attempted to intervene in their argument, she admitted their marriage was in trouble. Ruby told him shed seen Indi out with Logan but the news encouraged him to return home and try and patch things up with her. He pushed Ruby towards another surfer, Steve Carmody, even though he was worried Steve was a drug dealer. He was annoyed when Ruby had a go at Indi after he pulled out of a competition to support her at Sasha’s trial, especially since Indi didn’t know about the competition. When the trial ended earlier than expected and Sasha was acquitted, he accompanied Ruby and Steve but stayed with Ruby when she was arrested for drug possession, realising Steve had planted something in her bag. Indi was annoyed that Romeo gave up the competition for Ruby after all the fuss he’d made and Romeo told Brax what was going on when he questioned him. When April saw Indi with some expensive earrings, she admitted to Romeo that they were from Logan and shed kissed him. Feeling they’d married too young, Romeo ended up walking out on her.
After coming back from a competition, he asked to rent a caravan but Ruby suggested he stay in the house and Roo agreed. He then proceeded to get drunk and kiss Ruby before falling asleep. He then found out Indi had slept with Logan. He initially tried to distance himself from Ruby but after Indi continued seeing Logan and he saw her accepting presents off him, he admitted to Ruby he had feelings for her and began seeing her. He gave John information about Harvey tricking him into giving information on the development when John was trying to prove he was corrupt. He was embarrassed when Ruby had to pay for dinner for them and wanted to get on the international circuit to earn money. Roo suggested he get a sponsor and he had John arrange a meeting with Terry Kosla, the owner of a surf shop in Yabbie Creek. Although Terry initially agreed to the deal, Romeo injured his knee when he was hit by Steve’s car and learned he would be out for at least two months. He then needed to go into surgery again and mumbled Indi’s name when he came round. After learning Ruby had sent Indi away while he was asleep, he spoke to Indi but they accepted their marriage was over.
Ruby wanted to start up a surf shop and gave him $10,000 to buy stock but he gave $8,000 of the money to Indi to pay off her debts. Logan confronted him about the loan, telling him not to hurt her, and Ruby overheard. He assured Ruby he wouldn’t take her for granted then tried to arrange a meeting with Indi, only for her to tell him they had nothing to do with each other anymore. He was reluctant when Ruby suggested they move out after Lottie moved in and, when he tried to talk to Indi, realised Ruby had told her to keep her distance from him. He tried to end things with Ruby after Alf helped him realise he’d never be able to love her but she told him she was pregnant. He was uncertain about standing by her, even though they moved into a caravan together, and insisted they needed to abandon their business plans so he could get a steady job. He made a half-hearted attempt to end things and seemed uncertain about the physical side of things but after getting a job as a salesman to support them, despite Liam and Indi trying to talk him out of it, he removed his wedding ring and resumed his relationship with her.
When he returned from a seminar, Ruby told him there was no baby and he initially believed she’d miscarried. When she admitted that she had lied about being pregnant, he walked out on her and proceeded to get drunk at Angelo’s and tell Brax and Indi what had happened. Indi supported him and let him stay on the couch at the farm. When Ruby saw them together on the beach, she was furious and accused Romeo of using her. He then told Indi that he had been using Ruby, since he’d never got over Indi, and tried to kiss her but she pulled away and asked him to leave. When he returned, she told him she’d moved on and he needed to sort things out with Ruby. Up until then, he’d been ignoring Ruby but they met and both stated their side of the situation before he went to stay with Leah. Since he was no longer going to be a father, he planned to quit his sales job but changed his mind when Indi congratulated him on sticking at it. He began visiting her at Angelo’s, where she was now working, and she gave him hope they could get back together but when Ruby saw them chatting she kissed Casey in front of them. He accused Ruby of using Casey, which caused Indigo to wonder why he was so interested. Indi then discovered he’d been keeping his distance because Sid warned him off and was annoyed that he’d let that stand in the way. He asked her to meet him on the beach but she failed to turn up, going off with Liam instead.
He became increasingly jealous of her friendship with Liam when he found out, angrily abusing them both at Angelo’s and being thrown out by Liam and Brax. He asked Liam to stay away from Indi and was furious when he found out Ruby had had a go at her; he later made peace with Ruby but ignored Sid’s request to stay away from Indi, leading to further arguments and Indi telling him it was over between them. When he learned Dexter had been in a car crash, he went to the hospital only to find that Liam and Indi were together. He had a go at them but was halted when Indi presented him with evidence that his actions had caused Ruby to cut the brake lines in her car, causing the accident. Romeo confronted Ruby, who told him she did it for him. When Indi confirmed she had feelings for Liam, he moved out of the house where Liam was staying and back in with Alf and the others. He supported Indi and Sasha during Dexter’s stay in hospital, telling Indi he still loved her, although he remained at odds with Liam. Liam told him to stay away from Indigo rather than go on confusing her and he advised Harvey to go after Roo when she went to the city on business after an argument. Liam later admitted he’d been wrong and Indi needed Romeo so Romeo told them both they should all try and be friends. He cheered Indi up after a visit to Dexter by taking her surfing but reacted with disdain when Indi broke up with Liam after only a few weeks.
Wanting to be in control of something in his life, Romeo tried to compete in the surf carnival. He trained hard despite his knee injury but aggravated it. Although Sid advised him to rest, he told VJ not to let others tell him what to do and continued training. His knee was so bad that he couldn’t swim when he fell off his board and nearly drowned, with John having to save him. However, he refused to see a doctor and instead began buying steroids off Heath, causing him to behave increasingly aggressively. When John got sick of Romeo badgering him about the surf carnival and cancelled it, Romeo tried to punch him and punched Liam instead. He berated Liam when he tried to reason with him and asked Indi for help, but she told him he had to get better on his own, prompting him to continue using. He then collapsed from the abuse and was taken to hospital where Sid told him to stay away from Indi if he kept using. Instead, he and Indi told each other they still loved each other and kissed. They had a first date back together, which was somewhat awkward but reinforced their resolve to make it work. He organised a picnic on the pier where they had their first kiss, after which they talked over what they were willing to compromise on to make their marriage work and slept together. When Alf and Roo asked him to attend the reinstated surf carnival as previous winner, he felt he needed to compete and began training again but after talking to Indi and Dexter’s physio Lisa Flemming he decided to pull out and settled for helping Indi look after the nippers.
He and Indi began consolidating their marriage and he moved back into the farm. As a symbol of their new start, they renewed their marriage vows in front of their friends and family in a private ceremony. He did his best to look after Dexter for a day and, when Dexter unknowingly wet himself, pushed him into the sea to stop a couple of girls seeing. When Casey came to the farm to see Sasha, Romeo acted as a go-between for them and learned Sasha might be pregnant. He supported them both as Sasha took a test which came back negative. He then told Indi he wanted to start a family, which initially infuriated her although she later agreed she wanted it in the future. He was shocked when he returned from being away at work to find Indi had been threatened by Neil Flemming, Lisa’s abusive estranged husband, and felt the family should stay away from Lisa. He picked up on Dexter’s seizures and took him to hospital. Since Dexter wanted to keep it quiet, Romeo had to come up with excuses to explain his overnight stay to Sid and Indi, saying they were going to stay at a hotel and watch boxing. Indi realised he was hiding something and he told her not to ask him what it was, doing his best to keep an eye on Dexter. After the information became public knowledge, he managed to weather the fallout and continued to be close to Indi, joining her in congratulating April on getting into university.
He offered to give Maddy Osborne surfing lessons but she backed out when she learned she’d have to pay. He joined Indi at the Palmer house where she was babysitting Jett and realised Jett resented his presence and was trying to sabotage his and Indi’s relationship. He accused Jett of having a crush on Indi but Jett denied it. When John asked him to talk to Jett about girls when Jett was supposed to be spending the evening alone with Indi, Jett responded by stealing his wallet and throwing it into a shed, then locking him in when he tried to retrieve it. Romeo then managed to overbalance and hit his head while trying to climb out. He managed to attract the attention of Spencer and Maddy and was finally released by Alf and Harvey who took him home so he could explain the situation to Indi. He was made redundant from his sales job and given six weeks’ pay as compensation so decided that he and Indi should use the money to buy the surf club gym. They went to see the bank but their vague business plan and lack of capital saw them rejected. However, when Sid offered to invest half the money as a silent partner, the bank agreed to lend them the rest. They found themselves overwhelmed by the amount of work to be done and were inundated by suggestions from Alf, Irene, John, Roo and Harvey until they made a stand and said it would be done their way. They managed to get it up and running despite Romeo blowing a fuse doing a sound check for the opening and when Indi told him he needed to start making decisions Romeo gave Casey a job, telling Indi that no-one else would employ him while he was in periodic detention so he’d stay loyal to them. Even when Casey was unable to make his start date after being stabbed, Romeo insisted they keep his job open and hire casual labour in the meantime.
Sid ran some checks on an injured shoulder and a mole on his back turned out to be cancerous. Heath offered to cover Casey’s shifts at the gym but Romeo dismissed the idea. However, when Sid wanted him to go to the city for further tests, he told Indi he was going to a conference and went back to Heath. When Heath turned him down, he refused to close the gym in order to make his appointment but Heath changed his mind and Romeo headed off for the tests. When the results came through, Sid told him he had stage four cancer. Romeo repeatedly put off telling Indi, instead suggesting they sell the gym and then offering Heath a full-time job, and when Sid confronted him about it he tearfully noted he would have to break his promise to Indi not to leave her. When Natalie told him Liam had disappeared and Kyle admitted he’d been fired for stealing from the restaurant, Romeo tracked him down to a cliff edge and confided in him about his condition, convincing him to return to town. He decided to discontinue treatment so he wouldn’t have to hide the effects of chemotherapy from Indi then decided to halt treatment entirely after Liam confided in him that he was leaving town. He took Indi away for a weekend, telling Sid he’d tell her while they were away but making a point of speaking to Alf, Roo and Sid for the last time before he left and making sure Heath could look after the gym. He arranged a romantic time in a tent and a hot air balloon and told her to remember the feeling. He then left while she was asleep, leaving a note simply saying he couldn’t be with her, and met up with Liam, leaving the area with him.
Some time later, Indi received a letter from Romeo’s solicitor saying he had signed his share of the gym over to her, but giving her no information as to where he was or his condition.
Six months after his disappearance, Indi received a phone call from Liam telling her that Romeo had died. His ashes and belongings were returned to Summer Bay and Indi and her family scattered his ashes on the clifftop next to the lighthouse. However, Indi continued to have recurring dreams where Romeo returned to town cured, prompting her to decide she needed to put him in the past and leave Summer Bay.