"I'm serious."
"I'm aware of this, that's what makes it so horrible." Zack laughed as he rolled over and tucked his hands under his pillow."
Kaly took her pillow and smacked him on the head, which made him sit up and they engaged in a pillow fight, followed by giggling as he grabbed her hands playfully and she breathed in his face, causing him to playfully nip at her mouth, for more of her kisses.
They shared another kiss before she got up on her knees and crawled over top of him to get to the bedside table, where her phone was going off. She picked it up to read the message. "It's Vickie. She's texting me telling me to meet her for breakfast."
"Tell her you are too tired." Zack was behind her, pulling her hair up from her neck, exposing the nape. His lips came down onto it, and she lost her thought for a second.
"Tempting. But we both know, she'll scream her head off at me if I don't go."
"Yeah, that's true."
She turned around to face him, and the face that greeted her when she turned around, she couldn't help but tilt her face upwards to kiss him. His hands flew to her hair, grabbing the back of her neck, pulling her deeper into their kiss.
They pulled away from each other, and smiled. Both wondering what to say, if they should even say anything. They left it at casually smiling at each other, sharing glances and little touches here and there while they were getting dressed to go downstairs.
She left the room first and headed downstairs, spotted Vickie at a table and sat down. A few moments later, Vickie's on screen bf, Edge, come walking over with one of his guys, Curt Hawkins.
"Curt, have you heard anything from Zack yet this morning?" Edge asked.
Curt looked over the table at Kaly who was staring down at a waffle, trying to put on her best 'overdramatic young girl painstaking' face. "No, not yet."
Almost perfect timing, then Zack emerged from the elevator wearing shades and a hoodie over a white tank top halfway zipped up. Revealing an amazing tan, no doubt, Kaly noted. He looked for Edge and Curt and saw that they were sitting at the table with Vickie and Kaly. He took a seat across from Curt, leaving a chair vacant between him and Kaly. He reached over to grab the menu.
"Could you not reach over my waffle? Damn." Kaly's voice sounded kind of harsh. But he knew the truth. She acted like she hated him. They had to keep that going. Any change in her snarky remarks would send off red flags, and being that last night was only the first night that anything had happened, not that, but almost so close, it was scary.
"Ya know, I'm sorry about your bad morning. We should still be able to get along, even though you're clearly…uhm, suffering now from a monthly deviant."
She cut him a look and scoffed. "Morning Ryder. I'm glad you're having an amazing morning." She shot him a sweet, yet sour, smirk.
Edge looked at the two. "Kids, please. The adults have to talk." He motioned for Vickie to walk with him to another side of the café area.
Kaly noted the body language between them. Chummy lately. Perhaps she herself wasn't the only one who was mixing business with a little pleasure.
Curt looked between Zack and Kaly. "Oh, okay. I see what's going on here." He scratched his upper lip. "Nicely played"
"What are you talking about?" Zack asked.
Curt smirked. "Bro, I know. The secret is safe." He looked over at Kaly. "I've actually been waiting for this to happen between you guys."
Kaly laughed. "You're delusional, Curt."
Curt looked at them both. "The longer the two of you deny you have anything there, the longer you waste time. You two should just…admit your feelings. Admit you enjoy giving the other hell, because you're both screwed up individuals."
Kaly and Zack both look at him, then at each other. Then back at him. Kaly's eyes go back down to her plate on the table.
Zack looked at the menu, eyeing Kaly out the corner of his eyes, who was eyeing him out the corner of her eyes while she ate her fruit and waffle. They both knew there was truth to what Curt had said. Neither one of them, however, would admit this to each other. Or out loud for that matter. Sometimes, things were best left unsaid.
Kaly awoke from her dream in a haze. She hadn't thought about those days in a very long time. It seemed so far away. It was so far away. Because she knew something in her did care about him at that point in her life. That's why she ran. She had to. She knew she'd only hurt him. Or he'd hurt her. Someone would get hurt, either way. And no feelings needed to get involved.
Yeah. Leaving was the best thing for both of them. She guessed that he moved on with his life. Possibly got with some cute girl and forgot all about her. Which was exactly what he needed to do. As hard as she had tried, she hadn't forgotten him. A part of her probably never would. That was the most alive she had ever felt. Defying rules. It was almost like playing Russian Roulette. Only playing with your own heart. Knowing that you could fall..but not believing you ever would. Believing you were beyond falling. You weren't capable of falling for someone. Because that's not you. Being so centered in yourself..thinking that you couldn't fall.
Staring back at her in the mirror were her own two eyes, deep hazel, outlined in smoky eye shadow, not too heavy, but enough to make them pop. Light eyeliner, a skinny line on the eyelid, just near the lash line. There. She wore her hair in a bun right now, but when she took it down, it would be wavy. She swore by this bun for the past few weeks, loving the waves created by it in her normally straight hair. She didn't want to do straight though. She wanted waves, just not to the point where it was so much heat involved; therefore, this was perfect for her normal pickiness. Giving her makeup a once over, she was pleased now. It didn't have the appearance of being gangbanged by crayons, which pleased her very well. She hated the look of being too overdone. It bothered her to no end, which was humorous, considering she used to do bright pinks and purples.
Looking in the mirror once more, she took her hair out of the bun holder she bought online. She raked her hands through the waves, making them loose. Deciding the looked decent enough, she settled upon spraying them with hairspray. 'I can't believe I'm even here, why am I even doing this?' she thought to herself, giving her dress a once over, cringing because it was too short for her liking. She wanted to go find a pair of black leggings quickly, but, as Vickie told her earlier, "Do me this one favor, and you can have whatever you want."
Bleck. Vickie. She snarled at the thought of her god mom's voice ringing in her ear. Sometimes she really let the position she held go to her head, and Kaly knew this wouldn't be an exception.
'Oh sure, Vickie, I'll put on a fake smile and give you three hours of my life, or however long your lame ass party is going to last. I'll pretend that honey drips from your voice, and you are the sweetest person in the word. I'll help pass out hors d' oeuvres- in a cocktail dress- to all of your fancy company people. At the end of the night, though, it'll all be worth it. I'll get your beach house for my weekend of solitude, a weekend of my choosing, and not have to hear your voice.' Honestly, if Kaly thought about it enough, not having to hear Vickie's voice for two days would be music to her ears.
Given, Vickie wasn't always the worst person to be around. She had moments when she could be really easy to talk to, just not within the last two months. When her onscreen career was kerplunkering, and perhaps this shingdig would breathe some sort of life into it.
Kaly walked into the kitchen area where the party treats were. She started rearranging them on serving plates, putting the bacon-wrapped cheese squares onto their plate, sticking toothpicks into them to make it easier for them to be grabbed by party goers.
The sounds from the other room of Vickie's laughter allowed her to know that the party was about to be in full swing, and her hell was about to start. 'And 3, 2, 1…fake smiles!' she thought to herself as she made her way into the dining area where everyone was mingling.
'What am I even doing here? I may be on the roster, but they hardly even utilize me anymore, at least not on screen.' Zack could remember the last time he was on screen, and he got pushed, right out of the ring.
He could hear Vickie's obnoxious laughter coming from the house and thought immediately about turning around and hiding in a bush until she would decide it was just kids playing a prank by knocking on her door, and heading back to his car and blowing this whole lemonade stand, to head back to the hotel bar and enjoying a nice Bud Light Lime. The thought made him smile, and as tempting as it sounded, he knew he couldn't do it. He had promised his cohorts he would make an appearance. Honestly, what was the worst that could happen?
Vickie opened the door, half-smiling at Zack. "Cardona! I know I invited you, but I really didn't expect you to show up! It's good to see you though. Come on in."
Zack looked at Vickie and smiled, "Well thanks, Vickie," he said, stepping into the doorway, holding his hand up to wave at coworkers as they waved back at him. One of his guy friends, Nic Nemeth, known to fans as Dolph Ziggler, walked up to him to bump fists.
"Hey man. What's good with you?" Nic said, handing him a beer. "I don't know if she has any Bud Light Lime on hand, but she's got beer," he says, lightly chuckling.
Zack takes it into his hand after Nic offered him the beer. "This will be fine. I don't really plan on drinking that much anyway." Zack takes a swallow of his beer, and smiles. "Pretty smooth, even though it's not my Bud Light Lime."
Nic laughs, and then makes eye contact with a few of the Divas. "They look like they're having fun, huh," motioning to where some of his lady friends, were hanging out, dancing with their significant others in the middle of the big dining room area.
Zack looks up and seeing them and all of the other Divas dancing around, and nods. "Yeah, they do." He looks around the party, seeing a few others standing around, talking, or laughing. A platter walks by, being held by a guy in a white button up short sleeve shirt, accented by a black button down vest. "Whoa, do you think Vickie paid these guys enough to wear these crazy clothes?"
Nic shrugged, taking a small brownie shaped ball, dipped in white chocolate and toffee chips, and pops it into his mouth. "Oh, man. That's actually pretty good. Wonder who made those," he wondered out loud to himself. He motioned to Zack, who looked at the platter, and took one popping it in his mouth as well.
"Whoa! Those are good! Bro, did you make these?" Zack asked, looking at the man holding the platter. Given, he'd tasted some great party favors in his lifetime, but the taste combinations in his mouth at that very moment, were amazing.
"No, that hateful ass wench in the kitchen made everything. She's such a sarcastic skank," said the guy before them, causing a rumble of laughter in both Dolph and Zack. "I've never met someone so terrible in my life."
"Vickie isn't giving you a hard time, is she? We can handle that plate you have." came the reply from Zack. He knew she could be a total bitch at work, but he thought that at least she would have a little bit of kindness at home. Of course, as appearances seemed right now, it's a good thing he didn't get paid for thinking.
"No. Oh no. Are you kidding? She wouldn't fix anything; all she wanted to do was hire a caterer. No; the other one. Oh, and if you do end up running into the other one, tell her Jeremy said really nice things about her all night." Jeremy walked off, disappearing into the kitchen.
"Wow. Someone worse than Vickie? I can't imagine that," Dolph said as he clinked a beer with Zack as they laughed.
So far, the party looked like it'd been going fine, watching everything from a distance. People seemed to be marveling at the delicious foods being passed out, Kaly noted.' Hmmmph, maybe next time she'll have faith in me about making treats for her next shin-dig', she thought to herself. Looking over at the party guests, she pretty much saw everyone she'd expected to see. Vickie never gave her a precise amount of food to prep, she just said there would be a lot of people; therefore, Kaly fixed a lot of food. Walking around with a new platter of red velvet cake pops topped with hardened milk chocolate, she past a group of Divas that didn't look like they ate at all, going for the ones that looked like they did.
A caramel complexioned Layla spoke up. "Hey, what do we have here?" Her dark eyes looked over the the plate, grabbing one, biting into it. "Mmmm, wow. That's great. Who made these?"
Kaly smiled. "Guilty." She stood there for a second to see if the Diva in front of her would grab another one, and wasn't surprised when she did. This chick looked like someone she could get along with, she appreciated desserts and sweets, no matter how much work may have to go into working calories off. "You can have a third one if you want; your secret is safe with me."
Layla laughed. "The idea is really tempting. Really tempting," She motioned for some of her friends to come over, and a red headed small girl walked up. Kaly immediately fell in love with the shade of red.
Victoria smiled at the two. "What's up? Oh, what are those?" she picked one up and popped it in her mouth. "My God. My mouth is having a foodgasm. Ariane, Trinity, get your asses over here right now." Two other women ran over as Layla and Victoria handed them one a piece.
Trinity bit into hers, closing her eyes. "Oh wow. This is amazing. Ariane, we have to get Dolph and Zack over here to taste these." She motioned for the two guys to walk over, who just looked at each other and trudged over through the small crowd.
Momentarily being in her own little world as she stared at one of the other waiters standing at the kitchen door who was trying to get her attention, Kaly paid no attention to the fact that the ladies in front of her were about to empty her serving tray clean or pay attention to the two guys that they motioned over to help clean the tray. She had more of these bad boys ready to go in the kitchen; she didn't mind peddling cake pops or any type of food goodies to any of the party guests.
"What are you ladies doing over here?" Zack asked. He noticed a girl with a serving tray wearing a pretty charcoal gray cocktail dress. For the moment her head was turned, he reached over to the serving tray in her hands and picked up a cake ball, popping it in his mouth. "Oh my God! That's actually pretty good. How do you make these?"
The question called Kaly back to her company from her own mind. 'Aw, I'm such a terrible host. I hope they don't think I was rude for that.' She looked up to the direction the question came from, and made eye contact with the man in front of her, and froze. Honestly, she believed they both did. For that second it was like they were lost in a moment.
Zack swallowed the lump in his throat, feeling like he needed fresh air immediately. "Uh, Kaly. H-How've you been?" Shit. He wasn't supposed to do that. He was very sure that the company around him in the small circle picked up on something, as the eye darting between the two of them began. "It's been a long time since I saw you." Her hair was longer, darker than he remembered. She still had those eyes that held him in that moment years before. If he stayed here long enough, he was sure they'd get lost in that moment again, and neither one of them could afford that a second time around.
'Kaly. Talk. Cough. Do something,' she thought to herself. She could feel herself getting flushed. Talk about a blast from the past. Zack had changed, and honestly, if she admitted it to herself, looked damn good standing in front of her. "Cardona. Wow, look at you. You look nice." She thought to herself, 'Nice, that's the best you can come up with? And Cardona? What the hell are you thinking right now? That's going to give something away more than anything!'
Zack was taken back a bit. Suddenly it was years ago. The first time they jokingly referred to each other on a last name basis, the first time she actually hung out with him and his partner in crime Brian Meyers all afternoon (granted, not by her choice at first) but that was only short-lived that time between the three had to be forced. Pretty soon she came around them enough to just annoy Vickie when she would come around. Possibly, why Vickie never really seemed to want to have her around work like she did at the beginning of the whole kayfabe.
There they were. Looking into each other's eyes, and it was like they both knew that the other was thinking about the old times, and both had to look away, Kaly pushing hair behind her ear nervously.
"Excuse me!" came a shrill voice from the middle of the room. Vickie was clinking on her glass and demanding attention on her. "I would just like to thank everyone for coming out to my party tonight, and I hope everyone enjoys themselves the rest of the night. "
She seemed like she would drone on for hours, but surprisingly she didn't. She happened to make her speech shorter than her speeches when she was GM, Zack thought. He looked around the small circle to make a joke about it, and stopped. Damn. Funny that even though time had passed between them, she was still good at disappearing when she didn't want to talk about something. He mumbled under his breath, but when Dolph went to ask him what he'd said he brushed it off as nothing.
Kaly was sorry that she'd walked away again. Honestly she was. She couldn't help it though. He looked like he was uncomfortable by her presence, she justified to herself. She took Vickie's speech as the distraction that she needed to be able to walk away. Moments later after her Houdini, she found herself in the kitchen drinking, or nursing, the champagne glasses she'd grabbed before they made their way out the kitchen door.
Jeremy walked in, noticed her and moused his way over there. "You don't look like you're in the best of moods, little girl. You need me to cheer you up?"
Kaly blew her breath. "No, I actually need you to fuck off," she said, never taking her eyes off of her shoes.
Jeremy huffed. "Well then. I saw a very cute guy in here, earlier. I think he may be your type. I would be nice enough to go out there and introduce you to him if you wanted."
Kaly thought about it, then said, "What the hell, it'll get my mind off of the nightmare blast from the past I ran into earlier. Let's have a peek-see." She walked haphazardly to where he was standing gleefully. "Alright which one is he?"
Jeremy opened the kitchen door and peeked out, scanned the crowd and caught a glimpse of the person he picked out earlier. "There he is."
Kaly walked over to the door and peered out. "Where? I don't see this person you speak so fondly of."
Jeremy motioned in a direction, and Kaly froze and turned around, letting the door slam when she turned around and pushed Jeremy backwards, catching him off guard. "No, no, no. That won't be necessary."
Jeremy looked at her puzzled as she made her way over to the champagne glasses and took a big gulp of it, then grimacing from the aftertaste. "Okay, he may not be the Batman type, but he looks like he'd be your kind-"
"NO," she exclaimed, causing a tap on the door a few minutes later.
"Is everything okay in there," Vickie peeked her head in the kitchen and spotted Kaly and Jeremy in the kitchen and couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at the fact that Kaly's eyes met hers with a glare. She motioned for Jeremy to go out of the kitchen long enough for her and Kaly to talk. Jeremy left out the kitchen as Vickie was walking in.
"You didn't tell me he was coming," Kaly noted blankly.
Vickie looked at her for a second, puzzled, then she walked over to Kaly. "Well we do work at the same place, why wouldn't you think he'd show up?"
"For one, you hardly ever had anything to do with him before, and I thought you were more of a Heel, or those people you represent." Kaly said, almost spitting the words out like they were poison in her own mouth.
Vickie gave her a stunned look. "I didn't know it would bother you. In all honesty, I didn't think he'd show up. I thought he was just a play thing for you to get on my bad side. I didn't know it was ever really a concrete thing between you two."
"It wasn't. It was never concrete." Kaly paused, reeling in the truth of her words. In all honesty, it never was concrete. It was fun. She cared about him; yes. Sometimes you just have to let things go to get what you need. And that's exactly what she did. She needed to leave. Leaving was the only answer at the time. Even if neither of them understood the question..if there even was a question asked at that time in their seperate lives.