Growing up

A mess of papers covered the bed as Dave struggled to look for a place to sit. She was at it again, going over ever inch of her contract renewal with a fine toothed comb. He dared not disturb her, not when she was in the zone. He stood there, watching her. She sat Indian style, nervously chewing on the end of an ink pen. Her hair was pulled up into a messy ponytail on the top of her head, but dozens of wavy black tendrils fell around her face and tiny Guess glasses, that she should have been wearing to read the contract, were perched on top of her head. Yup, it was going to be a long night and truthfully, he wasn't up for it.

He stayed in the shower a little longer than normal. Secretly he hoped that by the time he got out, she would have put away all of the offending documents. But no, it was too much to hope for. Britain was upset about whatever she was reading and unfortunately for him, he was going to hear why.

"Can I lie down?" He asked noticing that she never looked up at him, but instead nodded her head. Carefully placing his towel in the hamper, so that he wouldn't have to hear her yell at him about that too, he turned back to the bed. She had made no attempts to move her millions of papers over so he could get in. He stood there for a minute; she never moved, instead, she grabbed a highlighter and started to trace over a passage in the text.

With a sigh, he began to collect the papers on his side of the bed and arrange them in a neat pile.

"Look at this." She said leaning over his side of the bed, still preventing him from getting in. "They want to limit me to only four shows a year. Four fucking shows! Why the hell am doing shit if it's only four shows?"

He shrugged; he wasn't getting caught up in this conversation again. Every time they had it, he managed to say something wrong. "I'm sure it's not that bad. Maybe they'll be the biggest four there are." He was hopeful that his answer didn't sound stupid, but that look on her face said otherwise.

"You know what this is? This is there way of telling me I'm too old to do this anymore."

He had to tread lightly, or he was going to be sleeping in one of the girls' rooms tonight. "Since when is 30 old?"

Her mouth dropped open as if she couldn't believe what he had said. "I am not 30. I still have another month and even then I've decided that I'm going to stay 29 for the rest of my life."

Ok, so maybe reminding her of her age wasn't a good thing. She really hadn't been taking it well lately.

"That's it…my career is over. I'll be 30 and too old to do this anymore. Oh God, I'm old…"

"I'm 41, how the hell is 30 old?" He asked moving her out of the way so he could finally get in the bed. With no effort at all, he scooted her over to her side and she really didn't seem to notice.

"You are old." She said dismissing him. "Besides, men grow in character, women just become hags. I'm a hag, I'm an old hag. Did you know that? How could you let this happen?"

He knew she was taking it overboard, but really what could he say? She had her mind made up; she was old; and somehow, it was his fault. Without words, he gathered the rest of the papers scattered on the bed and the ones in her hands and added them to the pile on his night stand.

Finally, he could lie down. He stretched his body out and nudged her again, so he could pull up the covers. And although the conditions for sleep were optimal, he knew that as long as she was upset about her age, he would never get any. Dave turned to Britain and lovingly kissed her cheek. "Babe…you're not old." He spoke slowly and sternly, more like he did when addressing his daughters. It seemed to be effective on them, so what the hell…it may just work on her. "You're beautiful," he moved his kisses to her ear. "You're wonderful," he now kissed her neck. "You're perfect. And no matter how old you get, I will always want you." He could feel himself start to press harder against her body. It was something about those damn curves of hers. All he wanted to do was go to sleep, but no; her body had to be so warm and soft.

"Yeah…you say that shit now; but just wait. Before you know it, my boobs will start sagging."

"They already do," he said as he moved over to her throat and slowly let his leg reach across hers.

"Then my ass will get all big."

Moving down her neck with is tongue, he paused. "You might wanna hit the tread mill."

She was too busy rambling to notice his advances. She honestly didn't notice that he was now completely on top of her or that his hand was slowly trailing up her undershirt. She talked to him animatedly, drumming her fingers on his back and hitting him in the arm when another idea came to mind. "Just watch, my hair will turn grey."

"It'll match your eyes."

"And then I'll need hip replacement surgery."

"We have Dr. Meadows on speed dial."

"No wonder I can't get pregnant. My eggs are old. My fucking eggs have expired. Do you know what means?"

Dave looked up at his rambling wife and laughed. "Baby, there's nothing wrong with your eggs. And you are not old. You're young and beautiful and you have an amazing body."

She rolled her eyes and drummed his back again. "Enjoy it while you can, because pretty soon, it'll be all over."

"I'm trying to, but you won't shut up." That comment got him a swift swat to the back of the head, which made him smile. "I love you and I don't care if you were fat, with boobs that hung to your knees and you could write my name with your ass because it trailed behind you. You will always be the most beautiful woman I have ever seen." Britain looked in Dave's eyes and knew that he meant every word he said. "But if your teeth fall out... well, you'd have to go."

She held his face in her hands and took in his handsome features. "I love you, you know that?"

He leaned into her and kissed her again. "Prove it."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Thump, thump, thump. The heavy baselines filled the club so hard that John could feel his eyes batting with each thump of the music. But no matter how much his eyes blinked involuntarily, he couldn't take his eyes off of her.

He watched as her blonde hair clung to her face with sweat, the way the mid-drift top clung to her body, the way her hips moved to the music. Her brown eyes were dark and haunting him and her pouty lips moved to the words of the song.

Say my name baby

Loud and clear

Say my name now baby

Say it so I can hear your voice

All I want to do is get next to you

All I want to do is get next to you

It was as if the song was written for him and she was singing what he was feeling. All he wanted to do was get next to her, on top of her…inside of her. He watched her lips move again, she was feeling that song.

Hear my name

Doesn't anybody want to play?

Hear my name

Can anybody find away?

I can find a way baby. Somewhere in his fantasy, he noticed a tan hand reach out and touch her stomach and then a smile cross her face. He saw her eyes close as she turned around and pushed her ass into his pelvis. He could feel his jaws tighten as his friend leaned down and whispered in her ear.

"She only doing that shit to piss me off." John said as he took a bitter hit of Southern Comfort.

Randy laughed. "Why don't you just go dance with your girl?"

"Naw…she mad at me again."

Randy shook his head. He couldn't figure out the dynamics of his best friend's relationship. "So, cause she's mad, you gonna let Carlito's nappy ass dance with her? Fuck that dude." Randy regarded his friend's face and felt a little sorry for John. "What'd you do this time?"

John shrugged. "I can't figure her out. She got pissed because I asked her to move down here."

Randy almost choked on his beer. "You fucking asked her to move in with you?"

"NO! I asked her to consider moving to Florida." John corrected.

"Well I'd be pissed too." Randy could tell by John's expression that he didn't see a problem with it at all. "X lives in fucking California. You ask a girl to move to the other side of the country, but you don't ask her to move in with you…you don't see a problem with that?"

For the year that John and X had dated, their relationship had been about boundaries. John wanted Christina to be his girl, but with limitations. For example, when he was in town, she was with him…period, they weren't allowed to sleep with anyone else; but he could still flirt. The conditions were fine with X, except the no sleeping with other people part. They didn't have a commitment or anything and truthfully, neither of them knew if that's what they really wanted. Christina lost the love of her life and she'd be damned if that was going to happen again. So, she put up walls that John constantly tried to scale. While he on the other hand was afraid to give up his hoochies, hoes and strippers; because as much as he cared about X, he was afraid that he'd lose her.

"She wouldn't do it anyway."

"Why are you still messing with her?" Randy motioned to the waitress for another beer. "If you're shit's this unstable, maybe you should just find some new ass."

The thought turned John's stomach. "Yeah, but new ass ain't look like that. Look at her…that tight little body…" He never took his eyes off of X as he spoke. "Besides, new ass ain't gonna snuggle up to me when I go to sleep, new ass ain't gonna smile at me in the morning, new ass ain't gonna smell strawberries all the fucking time..."

Randy's laugh made John turn his gaze away from Christina. "Holy shit! John Cena's fucking in love. Where's the playa card? I'm fucking revoking that shit."

John couldn't stop his blush. "Fuck that. I ain't in love. Playas don't fall in love dude. I'm a pimp…"

"She's the fucking pimp; you're a whipped ass bitch." Randy laughed at his friend. "So did you tell her?"

How could John tell her that he was in love with her? She made it perfectly clear on several occasions that she was not going to fall in love ever again. She had told him about Miklo and how he died. No, X couldn't love John, not like she loved Miklo. And he'd be damned if he would be second to a ghost. It was better for all parties involved if he and Randy kept it to themselves.

"Hey, you ready?" Christina walked up to John and plopped herself on John's lap. "I wanna leave."

And though he wanted to go, he couldn't let Randy think that he was getting soft. "Nah... I'm stay with my boy Orton for a few. Why don't you dance some more." His tone was sarcastic and he meant it to be that way.

"John, I'm fucking tired, I'm ready to leave. Can you please take me to your house?" She didn't fly all the way from California to put up with his bullshit. She could've stayed home for that. This was the main reason that she would not solidify any type of relationship with him. He played too many games; always trying to look good in front of his friends.

"I'll take you." Carlito said smiling at Christina.

"Thank you, Carly." She turned around and looked at John, who by the look of it did not like that idea. "I'll see you later then." Without waiting for a response, she grabbed her purse off the table and headed out the door with Carlito.

"What the fuck is wrong with you? You know he's gonna try and hit that." Randy said in disbelief. "You just let your girl get in a car with fucking Carilto and you're sitting here with me."

John shrugged and tried to act like he was unphased.

"Carlito. You know, afro, big brown eyes, Latin lover type; girls' panties come right off when he gives them that accent?"

John suddenly felt the bottom of his stomach fall as he turned to the door. It was too late, X had left with Carilto. Why the hell he allowed that to happen, he wasn't quite sure.

For once in his young life, Randy was the voice of reason. "You need to fucking grow up and tell your girl how you feel."

John looked at his friend and then back at the door. Without saying anything to Randy, he left his seat and went after Christina.

Lyrics – Hear My Name by Armand Van Helden featuring Spalding Rockwell used without permission