Chapter 1: The Breakdown and the Storyline

Natalya walked into her locker room after her singles match against Tamina. She couldn't believe that she lost, again! She always kept her personal life separate from work, but somehow, they had been intertwined. Everything in her life had been crumbling down. Her cousin was released from the company, now wrestling in Japan. She and Tyson have been fighting nonstop, and now her career has hit a serious snag. She had all of these emotions bottled up inside and with her recent loss, she couldn't take it anymore. As soon as the door closed behind her, she slid down the door, pulled her legs up to her chest and just cried.

After several minutes, the Canadian beauty was finally able to get ahold of her emotions. She wiped away remaining tears and just sat with her back to the wall, pondering. What should I do now? She knew that there was nothing she could do to bring Harry back to the WWE; she just had to play the role of the supportive cousin. What should she do about Tyson? In their decade long relationship, this is the most that they have fought. It was usually over stupid stuff, like him forgetting to put the toilet seat down when they were home or her paying way too much attention to Gismo. And she figured that since her personal life was in the drain as of now, that is why her career was too.

A firm knock on the door brought her out of her thoughts. She quickly stood and rushed over to the mirror.

"Who is it?" she called, frantically working on fixing her makeup.

"It's Justin." Justin Gabriel replied back in a thick accent.

Shit! She forgot that he was supposed to come to her locker room after her match to work on their upcoming storyline together.

"I'll be right there. Just give me a sec!"

She quickly fixed her makeup and sprayed on some body mist. After her grueling match, she was pretty sure that her deodorant had failed. Once she thought that she looked presentable, she crossed the room and opened the door.

Standing there was a tanned man who stood just over six feet tall. Seeing as how he was half a foot taller than she was, Natalya actually had to look up to him. As she did so, she felt her heartbeat start to pound faster as he smiled at her, revealing those adorable dimples he possessed.

"Hey." He said still smiling.

"Hey. Come on in." Natalya motioned as she stepped out of the way.

"So, where do you want to start?"

"Excuse me?

"Where do you want to start in the storyline? We are supposed to start this thing next week and we've barely even started."

"Oh, yeah. Sorry, my mind has been in a different place as of late."

"Is everything okay? Anything you want to talk about?"

Natalya contemplated telling Justin about her and Tyson, but she didn't know if she was comfortable telling him something intimate since she really didn't know him. She finally decided that she would save all of her relationship babble for when she would meet up with The Glamazon, Beth Phoenix later for a girls' night.

"I'm fine. Just have a few things on my mind, but it's nothing that I can't handle." Natalya replied as she plastered a fake smile on to her face.

She hoped that he bought her lame ass excuse and would just drop the subject.

"Alright then, let's get started, shall we?" he asked as he crossed the room and sat down on the couch.

She let out a quite sigh of relief and then followed him over to the couch.

"I've got to admit, the whole idea of them wanting us to start an on-screen relationship is a little weird. I mean, the only time we have shared screen time was when you were a part of The Nexus and I was still managing The Hart Dynasty. And at that time, you attacked my boyfriend, cousin, uncle and almost me! How is this going to be explained?"

"From my understanding, we are going to be shooting a backstage scene that shows us stealing looks as we pass each other or something like that."

"Really, that's it? I figured that they would have one of us win our match, only to end up getting beaten down afterwards and the other one coming out to make the save."

"You would think so! I guess they have over used that idea and decided to go with something else. I guess it is up to us now to convince the WWE Universe that we have taken a liking to each other."

"Well this ought to be fun!" Natalya said, laying on the sarcasm.

Justin couldn't help but to laugh. They spent the next two hours going over their scripts. It wasn't until Natalya's phone rang that they realized how late it really was.

"Hello?" Natalya answered the phone.

"Hey girl, you were supposed to meet me in my room half an hour ago to go out tonight! Where are you at?" the voice of Beth Phoenix asked.

"Oh, shit! I'm still at the arena. I've been going over my upcoming storyline with Justin since the end of my match."

"Girl, that's been almost three hours ago. That must be one hell of a storyline, especially since it isn't supposed to go down until next week."

"I know we've been tweaking it along the way to make it more believable."

"Well, are you done yet? I really need to get out and have a drink."

"Yeah, we just finished. I still have to shower and get changed though. Give me another half hour to get there and I will buy your first round of drinks to make up for it."

"Fine, but hurry up!" Beth sighed into the phone as she hung up.

Natalya had been looking forward to going out, but in the time she had spent with Justin, she didn't quite want to leave his company.

"Sorry about that. Beth and I are supposed to go out tonight and I was supposed to be there already."

"Don't worry about it. I'll leave you alone so you can get changed. I will see you later, Nattie." Justin said as he stood, smiled, and then left her alone in her locker room.

She couldn't stop herself from staring at his ass as he walked out of the room. She decided that his was way better than Tyson's! Shaking dirty thoughts out of her head, she grabbed a towel and jumped in the shower.

After taking a quick shower, doing her makeup and hair, she changed into a sparkly pink strapless dress and then slipped on a simple pair of black pumps to finish off her look. Taking one last look in the mirror, she grabbed her duffel bag and headed out the door.

Walking at a brisk pace down the hallway towards the parking lot, the only thing that she heard was her heels clicking loudly. Natalya didn't notice that Justin had jogged up behind her.

"Hey Natalya!" he hollered as he finally caught up to the blonde haired Diva.

"Jesus, Justin! You really know how to scare a girl don't you?" Natalya said as she whipped around to face the high flier from South Africa.

"Sorry I didn't mean to. I was actually waiting for you."

"And why were you waiting for me?" she asked as she put a manicured hand on her hip.

"I went out to my rental after I left your locker room earlier and when I tried to start it, the damn thing wouldn't turn over. I left my cell phone in my hotel room, so I was hoping that you might give me a lift back?"

"I suppose I could do that. Which hotel are you staying at?" Natalya teased.

"Thanks! I'm staying at the Western Knox Hotel. Do you know where that is?"

"Actually, I do. That's where I'm staying."

"Awesome!"

They exchanged smiles and then walked out of the arena together.