The woman at the front desk looked about as tired as he felt. What he saw of her, anyways. Paul felt like his eyes were close to falling out of his head and it hurt, honestly, to focus on anything for too long. He only collected the room card Steph had left there for him before venturing off, for the elevator, his lone suitcase feeling far heavier than it had the entire trip.
Though, he would admit that he felt a bit better, as he keyed into his room, just from the thought of his wife on the other side. His reasoning for it only being a bit was simply because, as he'd figured, she was understandably asleep in bed as he entered. Which meant he only was quick to shut the door behind him, fearful of the hotel's hall light awakening her.
Nothing did though, not even as he tripped a bit, on his way in. His eyes felt better, at least, as they adjusted to the darkness, and he could just make out her sleeping form, over on the bed. It made him jump a bit, admittedly, when her phone buzzed in that moment, lighting up as she got a late night text. The glow was enough to highlight her features and as he breathed out deeply, he smiled some, just from the sight of them.
He'd missed her.
A lot.
Which considering it'd been close to two weeks, it made sense. The two of them were absent often from home, but typically only for days at a time. Over a week was just unfair. Especially if wherever they were, they weren't together.
Men talked a lot, or at leas tit was assumed a lot of men, that they were better out without their wives or at east enjoyed any and all time away from them. For the most part, Paul had to agree. Stephanie was fucking exhausting. Even on their rare vacation days. The woman just never knew how to shut up. How to do anything, really. Other than stress about everything and whine about everything and gosh, had she told him the same story eight times yet? He clearly didn't understand it if she hadn't said it at least eight times in a row.
She could get more than a bit aggravating.
It went without saying that he enjoyed time away from her. He was sure, to some extent, she enjoyed it just as much when he was gone (maybe; honestly, he couldn't say for sure). But not for long. Definitely not. He didn't see her much, up at work, and some nights would come home and they'd both be too tired to do much else other than spend time with their kids and pets. Those were the kinds of days he thought of, as time away from one another. Just enough time to give him some space to breathe. Just some space was night. A day away from one another at most.
Anything more was fine, of course. He was a grown ass man. But… It was just better when they could be together.
Paul dropped his bag by the foot of the bed before heading over to the little desk in the corner and dropping into its seat. He wanted to join his wife, of course, but bed had to wait just a bit longer. He had a few more texts to answer and emails and if he could just...just...not fall asleep…
If he could just…
When he snapped awake, it felt like no time had passed at all and, yet, he was nearly certain much had. His phone was blank and his mind felt much the same. It was time for bed. There was no other option.
Body pain was all he could think about as he stood and stretched. Everything hurt. Everything always hurt. But his eyes at the moment too precedence over all.
A minute or so was lost as he dug out his phone charger in the darkness before plugging it in beside where his wife had hers, beside the desk, before going to grab the woman's phone from where it still laid beside her sleeping head on the bed.
She did blink an eye open though, when he snatched it up, and he didn't think she was even truly conscious (he felt that, honestly), but still he spoke.
"I'mma put this on the charger for you, babe. Okay?"
There was some sort of groan or moan out of his wife in return that didn't offer up much, really, but he smiled sleepily down at her regardless.
The phone lit up, when he plugged it in, and over his shoulder, he called out to her that time, "You got a message, you know, Steph."
"Mmmm."
"I'll check for you."
She didn't seem to care (or hear, really) and keyed in her password rather easily. It's not like he expected anything interesting. Even with such low expectations, he was still super disappointed to find it was one of her stupid female friends just replying to Steph's own message that was totally a lie about being all caught up on some television show they were watching together. She'd have had no time, he knew, to get caught up and her vague agreeing that she had was no doubt to save herself from this admission.
Paul wondered if that was the true disappointment. That even when his wife was lying, it was so dang boring.
He wondered briefly, tiredly, what he would even do in that situation if the text had been something she wouldn't have wanted him to see. Knowing Steph, at best, that would probably just mean it was some sort of conversation she was having with someone she knew, about what present to surprise him with on Christmas, but if it were actually something of substance, something serious, well…
He would have been angrier at himself, honestly, for discovering it when he was dead tired. Worst timing in the world.
Stripping down was a necessity, but a toil. The reward, however, was finally being able to fall into bed. Typically, when he did this, he would be careful of his wife and jump through hoops to be sure not to wake her. This wasn't the case that day, whoever, and as he fell into bed, maybe he kind of did wanna wake her. Kind of. Just a little.
They hadn't spoken in two days. Well, they'd spoken, of course, but only through texts. They'd been in different time zones, leading up to this moment, and for the past two days just managed to miss one another with calls. It wasn't a big deal, of course, as both were very good about responding to one another's texts (it helped that so many of them were work related and time sensitive), but it was just another thing that made him miss her, when they couldn't directly speak to one another.
She didn't wake up though, not even as he kicked down his side of the covers, perhaps a bit more noisily than he would have otherwise, but still nothing. She didn't even move. So he gave up, hunkered down, and planned on going to sleep.
"G'night, Paul."
His eyes popped back open at that though, glancing down at his sleeping wife. She was facing him and, though she hadn't opened her eyes, she had shifted a bit closer to him (for the warmth, no doubt). Grinning sleepily, he shifted onto his side.
"So you are awake?"
"No."
"Are you gonna ask me about my day?"
"No."
"You're not even gonna tell me how much you missed me?"
"No."
"Stephie."
"If I talk to you," she grumbled, still not opening her eyes, "then you're gonna try and turn it into something. And I'm not up for that. I wanna sleep."
"And I don't?" he griped right back. "Some assumption, on your part."
"I'd wager on it."
'You'd lose."
'So if right now I-"
"Well, if you instigate it," he complained, not even needing to hear her words to know the truth in them, "that's different."
"You think me looking at you is an instigation."
"You and your bedroom eyes."
"I'm tired."
He sighed some then. He was as well, obviously, but he could lay there forever, talking with Steph. Well, joking with Steph. Actual conversation? He'd be the one begging off. But it was nice when he and his wife were able to drift off together, snickering and giggling at one another's quips.
Her already having been asleep, however, kind of put a damper on that idea.
"Can I at least give you a kiss goodnight?"
"No."
Paul frowned some before, finally, leaning over some. Not to press a kiss to her lips or cheek though, as she'd clearly told him not to, but rather to press his lips to her her left hand, where it laid between the two fo them. Specially her bare ring finger, missing it's typical adornment which sat, as always, beside the bed. She had the slightest of tan lines leftover from the missing ring and, though he couldn't see them in the dark, he'd always found his wife's near obsession with the jewelry to be amusing. An intimation of their love and relationship.
When he lifted his head he found that her eyes were open, bleary as they were, and she was only watching him.
"You're so," she accused as he grinned, truly grinned then, "stupid."
But she was giggling, at least, as she turned from him then, giving the back her back and protecting her hands from any further attacks. Paul only settled out again, on his back once more, breathing out softly as he considered the green, blinking light of the smoke detector in the corner of the tiny hotel room.
"I love you, Steph."
She hummed in response, because she was so close to being gone, but he knew she returned the sentiment.
Just something short for the day.
Littletayy reviewed Bad Day and asked about the podcast where Steph kind of mentioned the same basic stuff from the story and yeah, I think I heard parts of that one (I kind of just jumped around in it, since it was so long), but the idea kind of stemmed more from my annoyance over fans near Constance insistence that Steph is the worst McMahon (I mean, Vince is literally a racist who's been accused many times of sexual assault, at the least, but okay) while Shane, who always seems disjointed in interest for the company, Vince, who's just an old asshole (but a visionary, sure) just both kind of get passes for being apart of the same company with the same awful practices as her. Or the near constant God-like love people shower Trips in. I like the guy too, but they're are awful, rich, powerful people who's only gradual interest in female empowerment has been monetary from the start (if not Trips just trying to clean up the company a bit due to him having daughters who might one day be interested in). I dunno how much Steph, in real life, actually gives a shit about public opinion (I doubt much; they all seem a bit into themselves and in their own, fantasy world), but the slander she gets over the three guys for literally being the exact same as them is a bit much. Sorry for the rant, but I felt like that was more my tone in that one-shot, more than anything else.
But yeah, I'm always kind of interested in Steph's psyche. All three of the McMahons have very obvious quirks and ticks. They're all interesting, from their own standpoints. Steph just shows hers more often.