Cristina Cannellucci sighed, leaning back against her seat. She no longer wanted to be inside of the airplane she was currently in, on a flight back to her hometown of Palermo, Italy. To see her mother Giovanna, her father Giuseppe and her brother Andrea, who missed her so very much. It had been around eighteen months since she had seen them, since she had left for Los Angeles, California, halfway around the world in America.
Her English had gotten better, though her accent was still very thick. It still made her just a little bit self conscious. Going home for a week would fix that. Sometimes people still had trouble understanding her, but she was pretty good at getting her point across. She worked as an interviewer for Kerrang! Magazine, one of the top hard rock/alternative/metal magazines in the world. Cristina loved her job; loved interviewing musicians that she completely idolized.
On the plane, she was reading the biography of Keith Richards from the Rolling Stones, dressed comfortably in her favourite black drawstring pants and a white wife-beater top that did nothing to hide the fact that her bra was hot pink. Her black hair was back in a high, sloppy ponytail; she wore not a stitch of makeup, but it didn't matter; she was still beautiful.
Beside her on the plane sat her boyfriend, Mike Mizanin, a wrestler for the WWE. He had finally gotten some time off to fly overseas and meet her family. They had been talking about it seriously for six months. He was reading about the rise and fall of some organization called ECW, his headphones loud in his ears. Cristina couldn't help but be a little embarrassed to hear House of Pain blaring in his headset. "Jump around, jump around - jump up, jump up and get down!" Cristina bit the inside of her cheek to suppress her laughter. She liked to pick on him about his love for early nineties hip hop, but she had to admit she was impressed with his German. He didn't know what anything he was saying meant, but he could sing to Rammstein right down to the letter.
Life had been a whirlwind of wonder, despair and surprise for Cristina in the past eighteen months. It was only sixteen months ago that she had found her soul mate - completely by accident - in the form of Mike, who had moved from Cleveland, Ohio to Los Angeles. He was a sweetheart, a nice guy with a heart of gold, with blonde hair, blue eyes. Mike was muscular, over-the-top and possessed a great sense of humour. He had spent time doing MTV reality shows before becoming a professional wrestler, and had even reached the pinnacle as champion for a few months.
When Cristina had met Mike, he had been in an eight month relationship with one of his co-workers, a woman by the name of Maryse Ouellet. Cristina had to admit that Maryse was beautiful, with white-blonde hair, exotic eyes and a rock hard body that would turn any man to mush. She was the trophy wife kind of woman, and her and Mike seemed to be trapped in a violent, possessive relationship that had benefited Maryse more than it had Mike, who had shelled out thousands on diamonds for Maryse every time she had gotten incensed with him. It didn't take long for Maryse to become jealous of Mike and Cristina's friendship, even though Maryse was the one cheating on Mike with multiple co-workers.
Not long after they had met, after their friendship had become more and more established, Mike had shown up at Cristina's apartment. He had been drunk, confessing to her that Maryse had been cheating on him. Humiliated, heartbroken and desolate, he and Cristina had made love, even though Cristina had been hesitant about doing anything with Mike in such a fragile state.
Things became weird after that. Cristina had been unsure where she had stood with Mike; he had more or less disappeared with her life to try and get himself in order. Six weeks after their night together, Cristina had discovered that she had become pregnant. The news had come as a severe shock to Cristina, who was terrified that Mike had abandoned her to get back together with Maryse.
Unaware Cristina had been pregnant, Maryse had tracked her down to tell Cristina that she and Mike were going to stay together. During the meeting, Cristina had suffered a miscarriage at the hands of Maryse. It surprised Cristina that the pain had still stayed with her, especially because she hadn't really wanted to become pregnant. Since her last scare a year before, Cristina was finally taking precautions, but it did nothing to ease her paranoia.
When the smoke had finally cleared with Maryse, Mike and Cristina found themselves together, much to the approval of their friends Alex Riley and Eve Torres. For the first time in her life, Cristina finally understood to feel complete soul-baring, heart-wrenching love that consumed her like a fire. Every day that passed, Cristina found herself falling for Mike more and more.
"What are you thinking?" Mike whispered to her. She peered over from her book.
"I'm sick of being on a plane. Excited to be going home. Andrea is going to freak out when he meets you, I hope you know." Mike laughed. Going to meet Cristina's family had made him nervous initially, but she assured them that they were harmless. The idea of going on a romantic getaway to Italy with Cristina was definitely something he had been looking forward to for a long time.
Sometimes, she came on the road with him. Everybody did a good job of keeping Maryse away from her. She had yet to meet Vince McMahon himself, though everyone described him as "larger than life". Natalya had introduced Cristina to Beth Phoenix, who had become another good friend to Cristina. Once a month, Natalya, Beth and Eve insisted on doing girl's nights with Cristina, where they fiddled around with Cristina's hair, makeup and gave her all sorts of advice about beauty things she didn't really pay attention to. Mike liked that she had been making friends. Everybody backstage felt that Cristina was a step above Maryse.
Mike leaned over and kissed the side of her head. "Only two more hours, Cristina."
"I think we should stop for pizza when we get off the plane. I'm starved."
"Real Italian pizza? I'm in."
"If it's food, you're in," Cristina teased, sticking her tongue out at him. Mike smirked. There wasn't a mean-spirited bone in her body. He loved that Cristina always had a smile. She was a true partner in every sense of the word.
After she had moved in with Mike, they had decided to move into a new place. To rid any reminder of Maryse out of their environment. They lived in a nice, two storey house with the white picket fence. Cristina had thought it was a cute feature. She had been so reluctant to give up her old little apartment, but Mike knew he never wanted to let her slip through his fingers. He had almost screwed up once; now he was going to hold on for dear life.
Thanks to Cristina's booking, they landed in Palermo in the daylight. The air was hot and sticky, but Cristina and Mike didn't care. They were just happy to get off of the airplane.
Vince McMahon was still sitting backstage at the Raw show, mulling over creative plans for people on the roster. His makeshift office was set up to keep him sated through the night, complete with a wooden desk, wheeled chair, a TV and catering. He raised his head when there was a knock on the door. "Yes?"
The door opened. It was Natalya, the company's first third-generation Diva, dressed in a white T-shirt and bell-bottomed jeans. Natalya was wheeling her suitcase behind her. She had just gotten out of the shower; her hair was wet. Her blonde and pink streaked hair was back in a high ponytail. She was putting on her denim jacket. "You're still here, Vince? It's two AM!"
"I could ask why you're still here. Do you not have a life or something?" He teased. Natalya laughed, closing the door behind her.
"Beth and I crammed in a last minute workout before going back to the hotel. I saw your light was on. Just wanted to check in." Vince smiled; sometimes his employees were quite thoughtful. Especially these days now that he was finally starting to show his age. She entered his office and sat down in the chair across from him. She slid a folder over to herself and opened it, her eyes scanning over the contents of the folder. Her face darkened incredulously. "What? Vince, you can't put Mike and Maryse together. Promise me you aren't going to do that. Do not let Hayes put them back together."
"Well, with R-Truth suspended and A-Ri out injured, I thought he could use somebody else. If you aren't thinking about Maryse, then who would you suggest, Nattie?"
"I don't know, but you've obviously been living under a rock. Mike and Maryse had a very, very nasty break-up a while back, and he cannot be in the same room with her still." Vince rolled his eyes.
"So do you have a better idea, Nattie?"
"Well, why not his new girlfriend?"
"Who's he dating now?" Sometimes he had a hell of a time keeping track of who was dating who backstage. He didn't really like the idea of people dating in their own backyard - his daughter Stephanie had fallen victim to that, much to his chagrin - but he knew that he couldn't control everything backstage.
"She's not in this business, Vince."
"Nat…"
"She works for Kerrang! Magazine. That's one of the biggest rock magazines in the country. She's also full-on Italian. Think about it - you may get some publicity from the magazine, plus you'd find a nice niche in the Italian market." Vince sat for a moment, contemplating what she was telling him.
"I'm impressed with your business acumen, Nattie. You may just be on the wrong side of the camera," he teased. "I guess I should give Mike a call when he gets back from Palermo and run it by him. What is his girlfriend's name?"
"Here." She dug into her suitcase and pulled out the past month's issue of Kerrang!, where Cristina had interviewed Evanescence's Amy Lee and Canadian death metal band Kittie. Vince looked at her picture.
"Cristina Cannellucci, huh? Very beautiful girl. I guess I will most definitely have to call him when he gets back. How has this thing stayed under our radar?" Natalya laughed, standing. "Thank you, Nattie, you fixed up one thing for my night. Drive safe."
"You, too. Don't spend all night here. Get some sleep." He nodded and she disappeared from his office. Vince leaned back in his chair. Yep, I'm brilliant.
Inside of her beautiful home, in her beautiful golden-tiled bathroom, Maryse Ouellet leaned back in her bubble bath, twirling a glass of white wine in her fingertips, thinking about how far her life has fallen in the past year. Since Mike had met the Italian bimbo. Cristina.
Things were falling apart for her and Dolph Ziggler. He was a "friends with benefits" kind of guy, nowhere near having a serious relationship. She had gotten her hopes up, thinking when he had left his girlfriend that he would get together with her. But he hadn't. He just wanted to screw around. She was pretty sure she wasn't his only one, but her "what happens between us, stays between us" rule was keeping her from demanding answers.
Backstage, her allies were even beginning to turn on her, especially when Melina found out that her boyfriend John, fed up with Melina's constant unfaithfulness, had taken up sleeping with Maryse. In front of the camera, Maryse's push had been seemingly stalled. She felt like she was starting to go nowhere, and was even thinking of taking up her modelling again just to fill up her time. Show Mike what he's been missing.
She preferred John in bed to Mike, but the reality was that Mike spoiled her. He was a nicer guy, easier to control and manipulate. He never liked to let her go to bed angry. Mike put up with her craziness and bought her diamonds and jewellery that she still absolutely adored. He hadn't even asked for any of it back after they had split.
Nobody was buying her gifts anymore. Maryse hated that. She stared at the diamond necklace on the bathroom counter. It had been the last gift Mike had bought her before he had Alex Riley spy on her. When he had found out about her and Chris Masters and Dolph Ziggler. An embarrassed blush burned her cheeks as she recalled seeing the pictures when she returned to Mike's house. He hadn't even wanted an explanation; he had just demanded that she left. Any excuse to go and be with her.
Now, Mike lived in a beautiful house with Cristina. They had moved out of the old house and into a new place where Mike didn't have to be reminded of her. Maryse couldn't figure out what Cristina's appeal was. The girl obviously didn't work out, didn't have any sort of volume to her hair, her brown eyes were dull, her breasts not as perky as Maryse's.
Maryse sighed in disgust. Everything sucked these days. She needed to figure out a way to get Mike back. She had been without him for over a year now, and it still bothered her to see him happy with somebody else. She wasn't ready to let him go. Of course, she knew she should. But she didn't want to. She definitely wanted to know what he saw in Cristina that he didn't see in her.
Leaning back further into the bubbles, she thought about what it would be like to prove to Mike that Miss Cristina wasn't as perfect as he thought she was. The music journalist; her name was starting to become known in Maryse's circles and she hated it. Spitefully, she would announce that Cristina had stolen her boyfriend, but nobody seemed to care. She wished somebody cared.
Eve Torres loved to gloat. She never liked the fact that her friend was dating Maryse anyway. Mike had ignored Eve, but the constant fighting between them had created a rift that Mike didn't want to stay around and repair. These days, he wouldn't even give her a second look. She wished he would. Maryse never thought in a million years that she would want him to acknowledge her so desperately.