Katie is stuck in a loveless relationship with John Cena for two reasons:
It's what's best for business. She is the only daughter of a living WWE legend and The Authority thought it would be best for business if their poster boy was in a serious, monogamous relationship with the only daughter of their best merchandise seller after Cena—Stone Cold.
They paid her a quarter million dollars up front to start dating him, and at the end of their two year 'courtship', she will be paid the remaining three quarters.
Katie is a shallow girl and loves material things. The salary of being an ordinary administrative assistant didn't really allow for her to have the things she really wanted in life—a nice car, a fancy wardrobe with the latest fashions, cute shows that hurt her feet (but damn, didn't her legs look great), and a two bedroom apartment on the respectable side of town. Maybe she should have listened to her father and gone to the university after high school like he had suggested. "Katie, you could be a great politician someday. Nobody is better than trying to win an argument than you, darling'", her dad had said over and over again. Katie hadn't wanted to spend four years at a stuffy university doing stuffy homework about political science. She wanted to go out with her friends at night and party. So she did just that.
Until she ran out of the money that daddy dearest had given her for finishing high school. "Darling, it's time for you to get a job," dad had said as he tried his hardest to be stern with his only child. "You're in the real world now, time to be an adult."
She didn't like that idea at all but really had no other choice. In high school she had taken a few typing and computer software classes, combined with her charming personality and bright smile, she had wormed her way into a job as a receptionist at a construction company in a suburb of Dallas. Not the most glamorous job in the world, but it kept her from having to move back home and live with her dad, who was retired and restless. He was currently in between wives and had the tendency to turn his attention to his only child. Steve was caught between wanting to protect his baby girl and give her whatever she wanted and doing the right thing (what her mother would have wanted him to do in this situation) and make her do it herself.
Katie grew up with the business. During the summer months she had traveled from town to town with her dad's current wife and watched her dad make history. The daughter of Vince McMahon was the same age, if not a year or two older, than Katie and also traveled with the company when school was out. Katie and Stephanie formed a friendship. They liked the same things—nice clothes, fancy cars, designer purses and the most important thing of all—power.
Years went by and their friendship grew. Every once in a while, when Katie needed a break from real life, she would call up her friend and fly out to visit her for a few days. Stephanie admired Katie's attempt at trying to support herself. "It's good that you want to try to support yourself, Katie, but why don't you just go back home and live with your dad? Then you wouldn't have to work," she said to her one day as the pair made their rounds backstage.
Katie wrinkled up her nose. "Stephie, I'm twenty five years old. I am not going to move back home."
"But then you wouldn't have to work in a yucky office," her friend pressed.
"I would rather do something yucky than live with my old man again. He isn't seeing anyone right now and hunting season doesn't start for another few months. I would be the center of his attention, and you and I both know that having Stone Cold's full attention is never a good thing," she giggled. Stephanie laughed along with her; she knew that about her friend's father all too well.
"So….." Stephanie said after a few minutes of silent walking. "I've been talking with Paul."
"Yeah," Katie replied, not sure where this conversation was heading. Once upon a time, Paul had suggested that Katie join the company as a diva. She declined before the sentence was completely out of his mouth.
"He came up with a kinda great idea to help you out…."
"I'm not going to be a diva," Katie spat out.
"No, no, nothing like that. He's going to be at the arena at four, let's meet up with him then and then you can hear him out. I think you'll like his idea," the brunette smile widely.
.
.
"So what do you think," Paul said slowly as he tried to gauge Katie's reaction that what he had just proposed to her.
Katie scrunched up her nose. "Are you asking me to prostitute myself for a quarter of a million bucks?"
Paul laughed. "No….Well, yeah I guess that's what it sounds like, but, we could really use someone like you, Kate. Cena is our guy. He's our main attraction, but he's losing interest with our older viewers."
"So…Cena needs a girlfriend in order to get over with grown-ups?" This whole conversation didn't really make too much sense to Katie right now. But the promise of money, and eventually not having to rely on daddy or that yucky job, was alluring.
"His divorce was messy and public. Not really good for his image. It's been a couple of months now, and we think that maybe if he's "paired up" with a nice, wholesome girl—" he was interrupted with giggles from his wife and Katie—"that maybe his new relationship would grab the attention of our adult viewers. So, what do you think?"
Katie bit her bottom lip. How desperate was she to get out of having to work for a living? "How much did you say you would pay me?"
"Quarter million up front, the rest when you two tragically break up in two years."
"Do….I….do I…." she stuttered as her face turned red.
"You don't have to sleep with him," Stephanie answered her friend's question before she could get it out of her mouth. "All you have to do is hold John's hand in public and, well you know, make him look good."
Katie's head was swimming. Did she really want to do this? She did like money and her up-front payment would definitely afford for her not to work anymore. And it's not like she was actually dating Cena. It couldn't be that bad. She had met him a couple of times, surely he was a decent guy.
"I'm in," she said with a small smile as she started planning out a day at the spa and a new outfit with her recent earnings.
"Great…." Paul said as he stood up. "I'll go find Cena and we'll all sit down and go over a contract."
"A contract?"
"Well, yeah, Kate. You didn't think that we would just give you a chunk of money and not have you sign anything?" he chuckled as he placed a hand on her shoulder before he left the room to go find Katie's new "boyfriend".