Disclaimer: The characters in this story do not belong to me, the characters are owned by WWE, and the people own themselves.
A/N: Okay, so I probably shouldn't post anything new, but I've recently finished a couple stories so what the hell, right? I'm crazy and I'm just embracing that. So a few notes, this is AU, neither Stephanie nor Chris were ever married, Stephanie has never appeared on TV, and this takes place after his second return. You'll see how else this is AU once you read it, but I hope you enjoy, and reviews are the fuel of writing.
"Hi, Chris."
Chris looked over at Stephanie, who was standing in front of him. Her glasses looked smudged and were dangling precariously at the end of her nose. She had some kind of dark stain near her collar and he was pretty sure she had a seed stuck in her front tooth. He gave her a polite smile and nodded his head at her. Stephanie was a sweet girl, you couldn't deny that, but he wouldn't go so far as to call her attractive. She had a nice quality about her, but that was usually what people said about girls who weren't pretty. He wouldn't say she wasn't pretty, but…well, she wasn't very pretty.
Maybe if she combed her hair more. She'd stuck it into some kind of bun, but it ended up looking like she'd been electrocuted with her hair going in every direction all at once. She never wore makeup so when she had a zit, everyone and their mother knew it, and she was a little on the…chubby side. She wasn't fat by any means, but she was nicely…rounded would be the nice word for it. If she dressed in anything more than t-shirts and ratty old jeans, she might have a figure lost somewhere in there.
Plus, she was part of the Geek Squad, as everyone called the creative team. They were filled with the geekiest of the geeks and Stephanie was the head geek. He bit his lip to keep from laughing. "Hey, Stephanie," he said instead. He knew some people would just blow her off, but he wasn't the type of guy who could do that to her.
"You were great in your match earlier," she nodded and yup, she did have a seed stuck in her teeth.
"Thanks," he told her, "just doing my job."
"I know, I mean, yeah, it's your job," she told him, "but you do it way better than a lot of other guys. Just to let you know, you know, no big deal, but I just wanted to tell you that you were doing a great job."
He nodded his head, "I always appreciate hearing that from management. It means that I'm doing what I'm getting the big bucks for."
Stephanie laughed, "That was funny."
"Thanks," he said again. He shifted his weight from foot to foot and looked around, trying to find some sort of outlet, anything or anyone to get him out of this situation. He'd never had a real conversation with Stephanie before. They'd engaged in small talk or business talk, but never an actual conversation. He didn't think she had any conversations with anyone outside of her family and the Geek Squad. She wasn't exactly popular backstage and he couldn't imagine her being popular pretty much anywhere.
That was mean of him to think though and now he felt obligated to talk to her a little longer as his punishment for thinking so harshly of someone who was just trying to be nice to him. And that was just what she was doing; she was trying to be nice and friendly and he was basically thinking of her like some kind of wild beast who was hideous and hid from mankind. She was a person too and she worked here and the least he could do was be friendly.
Stephanie didn't really seem deterred by his silence or awkward answers. "We're thinking about putting the belt back on you."
"Really?" Now this kind of intrigued him.
"I think it should go back to you, I think you deserve it, you've definitely earned it, I mean, more than anyone because you're never gone," Stephanie said, "I mean, not that you can't take time off…oh crap, please don't take time off."
Chris actually laughed, "Don't worry, Steph, I won't leave and even if I did, I doubt anyone is going to think it's because you suggested it."
She pushed her glasses up and she blushed a little bit. It was actually a tiny bit endearing. "Thanks, I would hate what my dad would do to me if he knew that I pushed a wrestler out of the company. So you…are happy here then?"
"Extremely happy," he confirmed and she nodded again. Chris saw Barbie Blank over Stephanie's shoulder and he was glad for the distraction. "Hey, Barbie, what's up?"
He knew Barbie had a huge crush on him. Hell, he knew most of the divas had crushes on him. He was a good-looking, single guy. He had a bit of an ego, but he tried not to let it train-wreck out of control. He just liked to flirt with girls; that was all. He wasn't the type of guy to necessarily have one-night stands. The problem with one-night stands in the business he was in was that they never stayed secret. They always got out because chicks had loose lips and they would brag about it and the next thing he knew, he would have a million different girls throwing themselves at him.
"Hey, Chris," Barbie threw her hair over her shoulder with a quick toss. Unlike Stephanie, her hair was immaculately dyed and done, shiny waves cascading over her shoulders, not a hair out of place. She was also wearing makeup to accentuate her features while Stephanie kind of looked pale and washed out under the fluorescent lights. "Oh, hey, Stephanie."
She said it in a tone that conveyed that she really didn't care that Stephanie was there. "Hey," Stephanie said nicely, smiling genuinely at Barbie. "You look really pretty tonight, Barbie."
"Thanks, I know though," Barbie laughed, "so Chris, how much do I have to beg you to go out with the girls tonight? There'll be some guys there, but we can kick them all to the curb if you want."
"Tempting, Barb, but I'm not planning on going out tonight," he said, slinging his arm over her shoulder casually.
"That sucks," she pouted. "You never come out with us. All the other guys do and we could use a guy like you in our group."
"Maybe next time," he told her. Always keep them guessing and wanting more. It was how he played his game. "I better go, Steph, it was nice talking to you."
"Yeah, you too, Chris, bye, Barbie."
"Bye," Barbie said dismissively as she walked away with Chris. "What were you doing talking to her?"
"She came up and talked to me for a little while, no big deal," Chris glanced over his shoulder and saw Stephanie picking at her teeth while she looked at a script. He'd forgotten to tell her about the seed, but he was sure she'd probably gotten it out by now.
"Uh, yeah, big deal. I mean, she's weird," Barbie scoffed, "everyone thinks so. That's why her dad keeps her backstage, he doesn't want to let the beast out of the cage. He's probably so embarrassed to have her as his daughter."
"Not cool, Barb, not cool," Chris said. He may think that Stephanie was a little unattractive and weird, but he would never say those kinds of things out loud or in such a manner. She was still a human being after all and didn't deserve to be made fun of like Barbie was doing. She had feelings and if she overheard that, he would feel mortified.
"What? Everyone thinks it, Chris," Barbie said. "She's weird and she never looks like…I don't even know if she has like, any clothes or if she just borrows things from the Goodwill bin."
"Barbie, come on."
"I'm just saying what everyone thinks," Barbie said. "I'm not trying to be mean or anything. She doesn't even hang out with anyone here. I don't think she even has friends though, but that's just sad."
"Yeah, it is," he told her. "I think I'm going to go."
"Wait, are you sure you don't want to go out with us tonight? It'll be really fun. We're just going to have drinks, listen to the band that's there. It's going to be fun. Don't you like fun? Don't you want to have fun?" Barbie remained completely oblivious to the fact she was being a rude bitch and Chris didn't like it.
"Not tonight, thank you," he said, turning on his heel and wandering in the other direction. He felt bad now. He had been thinking things like Barbie had, but when Barbie verbalized it, it sounded so much worse than it had in his head. He needed to stop thinking about Stephanie McMahon anyways. She would just go back to her Geek Squad and he was going to grab a shower, get his things, and get the hell out of here so he could get some sleep. The reason he didn't want to go out tonight was because he'd been out with the guys last night and tied one on and he needed sleep and bad.
"Chris, hey again!" Stephanie said, waving again. "I guess we meet again."
Chris resisted the urge to roll his eyes, but the girl really hadn't done anything. "Hey…again."
"So I was going to ask you something when we were interrupted by Barbie earlier."
"Oh, you were?" he said. She smiled at him and she still had that damn seed stuck in her teeth. "Hey, Steph, before you ask, um, not to be rude here, but I wouldn't want anyone else to see it, but you've got a seed stuck in your front teeth."
"I do?" she asked, then laughed, "Oh my God, I've probably talked to like ten people already and nobody said anything. God, no wonder people were laughing. I'm an idiot sometimes." She turned around and then picked at her teeth and then turned back around, smiling widely at him. "Is it gone?"
"Nope, it's still there," he said, then pointed to his own teeth, "it's in that one right there."
"Oh, I was on the other side, thank you," she turned around again and then he waited as she furiously did something with her mouth behind her back. She turned around again and smiled again. "Now?"
"Yeah, you got it," he told her.
"I can't believe I was walking around with a seed in my mouth, that's what I get for having that strawberry-filled donut," Stephanie shook her head. "You always get a seed or something stuck in your mouth, like when you eat corn, I remember this one time, I was eating corn and-"
"Hey, Steph, you kind of wanted to ask me something," he reminded her.
Stephanie slapped her forehead. "Okay, I really am the stupidest person here tonight. Anyways, well, I was just wondering if you were doing anything tomorrow for breakfast. I know you said you were busy tonight when Barbie asked you, but since you didn't mention tomorrow morning, do you eat breakfast because I was thinking the two of us could grab something to eat."
She was asking him out? She was asking him out? He tried not to cringe, but there was no way he would go out with Stephanie. She wasn't his type; she was so far from his type that his type was a dot on the horizon. Stephanie was a nice girl, but that was the extent of it. He could not picture himself with her in this lifetime or any other lifetime and he may have felt bad for what he thought of her earlier, but he didn't feel bad enough to go on a date with her.
"I'm actually with someone right now."
It was a lie. He wasn't with anyone. He hadn't been with anyone seriously in months, but it seemed the easiest way to deal with the problem at hand. He didn't want to break her heart, but he didn't want to let out that he thought she was not pretty or interesting enough to go out with her. Plus, and this was selfish and shallow of him, he didn't want people seeing him with Stephanie on a date. He would never live it down. All the divas would laugh at him and the wrestlers, God, the wrestlers would have a field day. They'd call him the geek fucker or something equally embarrassing and the stigma would cling to him like a film. He had a reputation and Stephanie would do nothing but drag that down.
"Oh, really? I thought you weren't," she said, frowning a little. "Is it recent?"
"Yeah, really recent, just happened…recently," he said, not thinking of anything good to aid in his lie.
"Oh, well, I'm really sorry then," Stephanie said with a shrug, pushing up her glasses again. "I guess I'll let you go then. Thanks for telling me about the seed."
"No problem," he told her.
"See ya, I guess," she waved and he waved back.
He'd just dodged a huge bullet.