What it Takes to Love Again
Michelle Jones- twenty-five year old, just moved from Minnesota with her best friend, they are house flippers, doing quite well, after a bad experience with her ex-boyfriend, she has swore off serious relationships.
Colleen Marshall- twenty-nine years old, dumped at the alter by her fiancée, still trying to mend her broken heart, moves to Florida with her best friend to start their business and life over.
Scott Hall- Former professional wrestler semi-retired. Lives in the same neighborhood as Michelle and Colleen, he meets the girls when his teenage son goes to work for them.
Mark Callaway- Semi retired professional wrestler- meets Collen when she goes to his house by mistake, thinking its Scott's house.
Cody Hall- Scott's teenage son, who meet the girl when they hire him to help with their work.
Summary- Can two broken hearted girls, and two hard headed head strong wrestlers learn to love and trust again. Michelle has serious trust issues, but a blazing attraction to Scott Hall, can they form a lasting relationship.
Colleen Marshal still suffering from a broken heart, meets her favorite wrestler the Undertaker, he has no interest in her, but she develops a huge crush on him.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Colleen flopped down in the chair exhausted. Flipping houses was hard work, her and her friend Michelle , had moved to Florida, a month ago from Minnesota.
While the housing market was better here, that was just one of the reasons they had chose to move.
Colleen had been engaged to Ben Jolson for a year, they had been living together, in love. Colleen had thought she was happy, that he was happy. The day of the wedding he had left her standing at the alter in front of two hundred guests, she still flinched as she remembered the look on his face as he backed down the isle, telling her he couldn't do this, that he didn't love her.
Colleen had cried so many tears, she thought she might drown herself, but then she smiled as she remembered Michelle chasing him down the isle and beating his ass.
If it hadn't have been for Michelle she might have overdosed on Ben and Jerry's ice cream, thats what she had done for the first month, sat in her apartment in a bathrobe watching wrestling, crying and eating Ice cream or any other thing that was chocolate , until Michelle had barged in her apartment and jerked the ice cream from her hands and shoved her in the shower.
"He's not worth it girl, now get your ass up and come back to work before you gain two hundred pounds." Michelle had said.
Colleen had done just that, she still had her bad days, but her best friend helped her through those too. Michelle was her biggest cheerleader and she was Michelle's , even though she was a few years older than Michelle, they had grown up in the same neighborhood, life long friends.
Colleen's parents had been against the move, but she was glad she had now, they had found a duplex in a nice neighborhood, that way they could be close enough to each other to visit when they wanted, but still have some privacy.
Colleen got up and started some coffee opened her sliding door that led to her deck, well the joint deck that the duplex shared. "Michelle coffee!" She yelled.
She went back to the coffee maker and poured two cups and sat them on the table along with a plate of cinnamon rolls.
She smiled when her friend came through the sliding door. "Ever heard of the phone?"
Colleen just laughed. "You live a skip away, why would I use the phone?"
Colleen looked at her friend, she was beautiful. She was 5'10 with curly black hair, dark green eyes, that fairly crackled when she was angry, sparkled when she was happy, tan skin due to her Indian heritage . Michelle had a nice curvy body that men drooled over, but she was constantly exercising and watching what she ate the exact opposite of Colleen.
Colleen loved to eat, she ran twice a week and left it at that. Colleen herself was shorter than Michelle. She was 5'4 with short curly chestnut colored hair, she had blue eyes, deep ocean kind of blue that changed with her moods, her body was curvy, she wasn't thin, but had a classic hour glass figure and the running keep her toned, but she didn't obsess over it, the truth was she didn't care if she gained a few pounds here and there, her work was physical, so she lost whatever she gained, it all seemed to even out so she didn't worry about it.
Michelle had left to come here for many of the same reasons Colleen had agreed to start over, her ex boyfriend Matt had been a habitual cheater, when he had cheated with Michelle's mom, that had been the straw that broke the camels back, Michelle had finally dumped him for good and also pretty much disowned her mother, Colleen didn't blame her, her mother was a bitch.
So the two of them had packed up and moved to Florida to start over, and so far things were going great, they just needed to hire someone to help them with some of the heavy work involved with flipping houses.
Michelle sat down and picked up the coffee. "Girl put those rolls up."
Colleen rolled her eyes and picked on up and started eating it. "Michelle you're not fat, quit obsessing."
"I will be fat if I eat stuff like that." Michelle said sipping the coffee.
Michelle looked closely at her friend. "You been thinking about that worm again, You always bake something when he's on your mind."
Colleen shrugged. I loved him, I think about him, I cant help it. Don't you think about Matt?"
Michelle sighed, her friend was different from her, she was easily hurt and she wore it for a while, she saw the hurt still floating in her friends eyes. "Yea, I think about shoving my foot up his ass and kicking his balls off."
It had the desired effect, Colleen burst out laughing and Michelle joined her.
Michelle was just as affected as Colleen, but she hid her pain and buried it, vowing to never trust another man again, sex, yea she was open to that, but no man would get past her defenses again.
Colleen looked over at Michelle grinning. "I still get the giggles every time I think about what you did to Ben at that joke of a wedding."
Michelle grinned. "Hey he fucked with my best friend, what did you expect, it felt good to kick that worms ass."
Colleen reached over and squeezed her friends hand. "I don't say it enough, but thanks for that, and well getting me off my ass and getting me to move her, it was the best thing I ever did, getting away from there."
Michelle smiled at her friend, Colleen was the only family she had, now that her mother was on her shit list, Colleen wasn't that close to her parents, so the girls really only had each other. Colleen was four years older than her, but that hadn't kept them from being best friends, they had grew up in the same neighborhood and had always been around each other and even though Colleen was older, Michelle had been the protector, Colleen was a kind hearted soul, who in Michelle' opinion, let people take advantage of her, she loved easily and was easily hurt.
"Okay enough of this mushy crap, we need to get some help." Michelle said.
"I put an add in the paper..I have a young man coming for a interview in the morning at nine, his name is Cody, he sounded like a nice kid, polite and all." Collen said.
"Good, I'll come over at nine and we'll see if he's going to work out, I hope so, I'm so damn tired, my hair hurts." Michelle said.
Colleen nodded. "I know, but we're doing good down here, I'm glad we moved and the beach is a plus..I'm having a ball."
Michelle nodded getting up for more coffee. "It is a great place to live, now we just need some boy toys, nothing serious, just for some hot sex."
Colleen closed down immediately. "No thanks, I don't want sex or anything else from a guy, I loved Ben, I'll never be able to feel like that again."
Michelle looked at her friend worried. She needed to get over that little worm, but it wasn't happening. She supposed Colleen just needed more time. She decided to change the subject. "Want to go out to dinner?"
Colleen grinned. "No way, its wrestling night..I got a date with the Undertaker."
Michelle rolled her eyes. "Girl you need some help..You and Matt with that wrestling obsession, and that Undertaker dude is seriously weird."
Colleen just laughed. "Hey he's the only guy I'm interested in, but its just a fantasy, its not like he going to come knocking on my door."
Michelle laughed at that thought. "Okay then, I'm going to grab some takeout and bring it back, I'll web surf while you drool over that freak."
Collen grinned. "Sounds like a winner."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Both girls sat on the floor in front of the coffee table eating. Colleen watched wrestling, in between bites, screaming at the TV for her favorite wrestlers, while Michelle had her laptop beside her looking for new houses in the area that they could get for a good price.
Michelle had learned a long time ago to tune out wrestling and she didn't pay it the last bit of mind as she ate and looked at real estate.
Colleen's cell rang and she flipped it open. "Hello."
"Leave me alone." Colleen said and flung the phone across the room, Michelle looked up as Colleen ran from the room. She went over and picked up the phone checking the caller id and felt her temper fly loose. "Fucking bastard."
She called the number back. "Listen you fucking prick, leave her alone or I'll fly back to Minnesota and kick your ass again."
She didn't wait for a reply and flipped the phone shut and laid it on the table and went upstairs to Colleen's bedroom, where she found her friend crying on her bed.
Michelle sat down on the bed. "How long as he been bugging you?"
Colleen turned to look at her friend. "A few weeks."
Michelle sighed. "You should have told me."
Colleen sat up wiping her eyes. "You have you're own problems, I don't want to drive you crazy with mine."
Michelle shook her head. "We're best friends, we help each other right? Tomorrow we get your number changed, what the hell does the dirt bag want anyway?"
"He wants to explain why he couldn't marry me, he says I wasn't good in bed and that sex was important to him, but he said he was willing to give it another try, I just want him to leave me alone, its like everything is my fault." Colleen said tearing up again.
Michelle looked at her friend. "Look he's full of shit, he's working with that short ass dick, no wonder you couldn't enjoy it, so fuck him, okay, don't let him fill your head with crap, he's a loser."
Colleen looked up at Michelle. "I guess, I just wish I could forget about him, I loved him, and he turned out to be such a asshole, how could I love someone like that."
Michelle sat back on the bed beside her friend. "How do any of us love jerks like that, hopefully we live and learn from the experience, now stop crying over that pile of crap, and go back downstairs, your man Taker is up next, you don't want to miss him, huh?"
Colleen smiled. "Yea you're right...thanks."
Michelle grinned and got up. "Hey thats what I'm here for."
Colleen impulsively hugged her best friend. Michelle hugged her friend back, it would be a cold day in hell before she let some other man hurt Colleen again, herself she could protect, she would never trust a man again, but Colleen, when she fell she fell hard, Michelle would make sure no jerks got under her radar.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The next morning Michelle showed up at Colleen's door at eight-thirty. She rolled her eyes as Colleen pulled coffee cake out of the oven. "You're not going to happy till I'm fat are you." She said taking a small sliver of the coffee cake and a cup of steaming coffee.
Colleen rolled her eyes. "You are not fat girl, damn have you seen the ways guys look at you, now me I'm short and plump, but I don't give a damn." She said grinning and taking a huge piece of the coffee cake.
Michelle nibbled on the coffee cake. "You're not plump."
"Ha..see I weigh more than you, I know I do, that means your not fat either." Colleen said laughing.
Just then her door bell rang and the girls went out to the hallway to get the door.
Colleen smiled as she opened the door to the handsome young man, he had dark curly short hair and big brown eyes, he was young, eighteen he had said on the phone, but he was tan and built like he had spent a lot of time outside.
"Hello Ma'am. I'm Cody Hall." He said politely.
Colleen smiled and pulled him in the house. "I'm Colleen Marshall and this is my partner Michelle Jones."
Cody shook hands with both of them, then Colleen pulled him in the kitchen and started feeding him. Michelle had to hide her smile, Colleen had to mother everybody and it was obvious she had already hired the boy and taken him under her wing.
Cody smiled up at Colleen slightly dazed at her niceness."Thank you Ma'am." He said attacking the coffee cake.
Michelle and Colleen sat down and asked him questions, they found out this would be his first real job, but he was willing to do anything they asked and was eager to learn and he was so polite and well mannered.
Both girls liked him and agreed he could start today. "Great, thank you so much for giving me a chance."
Colleen just smiled. He seemed like a sweet well mannered boy. "You're welcome, now you come back at noon, and you can follow us to the house we're renovating, okay."
Cody nodded and got up thanking them once again for the food and the job. "Oh, I live in the house on the other side of you, through the woods, my dad is well, kinda over protective, I'm sure he'll drop by at some point to check you guys out and ask about the job." He said looking embarrassed.
Colleen patted his arm. "Thats fine, he's a parent, its their job to worry, tell him to drop by any time."
Cody looked relived, thanked them again and left. "Isn't he a doll." Colleen said.
Michelle laughed. "We're not adopting him, we're employing him."
Colleen just grinned. "He's a sweet heart and he's going to work out great."
Michelle had to agree, he was a nice kid, things seemed like they would work out fine and he lived close by.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By the end of the day the girls were in full agreement, Cody was going work out great, he wasn't afraid of getting dirty and he insisted on lifting anything heavy, stopping the girls several time, when they had been gutting out the old house. They stopped work at seven and Cody agreed to meet them back here at ten in the morning.
The girls went home and each went to shower and changed, and they met back on Michelle's side of the duplex, to have a dinner of chef's salads. They were just sitting down to eat when Michelle's door bell rang. "I wonder who that could be, we haven't exactly had time to meet anyone yet?
They looked at each other, they both had on nothing but long sleeping shirts, Michelle's was just a plain black shirt that was mid thigh and Colleen's was of course a large Undertaker shirt that went to her knees.
Michelle shrugged and her and Colleen went to the door.
Michelle tried not to let it show, but the man was handsome, beyond handsome, with long ink black curly hair, deep brown eyes and in need of a shave. He had on well worn denim jeans and a black form fitting T-shirt. He was checking Michelle out too, his eyes roaming over her every curve. "I'm Cody's dad.." But he was cut off by Colleen.
"Oh my God, it's Scott Hall." Colleen said pushing in next to Michelle. "God I'm like a huge fan."
Scott looked at the little girl with some amusement, she was right cute, in her too big Undertaker shirt and her short hair curling wildly all over her head.
Michelle however was not amused, just what she didn't need, some dumb ass wrestler living right next to her, but before she could stop Colleen, she had pulled the big man right past her into her house.
Michelle sighed, her long day was getting even longer.