Cesaro hadn't expected the knock on his hotel room door. Who could it be at midnight?
"Nattie-" She smiled up at him with sad blue eyes. "What's going on?"
"I just need a friend, Antonio. Can I come in?" He stood aside and let her in the doorway before she took a seat on the edge of his bed. He sat beside her and pulled her hand into his lap, a familiar gesture the two shared between them often.
"TJ's not talking to me." He knew already. He'd gotten the other man's frustrated texts earlier in the night. He drew in a deep breath, ready to referee yet another fight between his friends. TJ gets mad, Nattie falls apart, Cesaro would put her back together, and she'd eventually go back to TJ. That's how this whole frustrating scenario worked every time. There was so much Cesaro wanted to tell her but he wouldn't dare toe that line.
She threaded her fingers between his. "You've been drinking." He observed.
.
"I may have had a few shots." She replied. "I'm just so damn frustrated. Am I really that hard to get along with?"
"You're perfect, Nattie. He's just taking you for granted. As usual." To hell with his friendship with TJ, it was the truth. Nattie regularly bent over backwards for the man and all he knew how to do was keep on taking from her. The man had a lot of growing up to do. TJ is a good friend, but Nattie deserves so much better.
"Truthfully, I'm having feelings for someone else." She stated, laying her head on his shoulder. He inhaled sharply. This had been hanging between them for weeks, but neither had dared to speak a word of it.
"The question is, do you have those feelings because that person is convenient and you're lonely? Or something stronger? Nattie, I feel it too and I don't know where to go from here. I know I can't do anything behind TJ's back. But you do deserve so much better."
When she didn't reply he realized she'd fallen asleep. He gathered from her flushed cheeks that she may have had more than just a few shots. With a sigh he picked her up and moved her further up the bed, tossing the covers back so he could lay her under them. He removed her shoes and tucked her in proper. He crawled into bed next to her, laying over the covers, and laced his fingers beneath his head. In the morning she wouldn't know a word he'd said, and she'd go right back to TJ. He lay there for the next few hours wondering just how he got himself into this mess.