It's been another crazy week, but I wanted to make sure I got an update in before the Elimination Chamber PPV...Thanks so much for the eight reviews, twelve followers and five favorites just with this story and for everyone who has started going back through and reading my other stories :) Things are just getting started with this story, and starting this chapter it'll start to get interesting...thanks for the continued feeback and support, I'll try to update again later this week...Enjoy!
Melissa parked her car in the same spot as always before getting out and adjusting her dress making sure she looked perfect. She sashayed her way into the building with her head held high and a smile on her lips. Catching a glimpse of herself in a mirror by the elevator, her smile grew; despite the fact she was approaching her 30th birthday and had been through the labors of child birth, she could still pass for 25 easy.
Upon exiting the elevator, she was on the move to her small corner office noticing she had twenty minutes to make sure everything was perfect for her interview. The land of advertising could be cut throat, but she loved what she did putting her creativity to use coming up with catchy slogans and campaigns.
Five minutes before the interview that could possibly change her life, her office phone rang; expecting it to be a work related call, she was quickly thrown into a panic.
"Hello,"
"Miss Marser, this is Mrs. Golding, the school nurse. I'm calling in regards to Brooke Marser." Melissa moved to the edge of her seat suddenly forgetting anything else, her mind running wild with scenarios.
"Is she okay?" Mrs. Golding noticed the panic in Melissa's voice and quickly tried to calm her down.
"She should be fine; unfortunately she fell in gym class and it appears she injured her ankle. I put some ice on it, propped it up and made sure she was comfortable, but I think it may be broken." Melissa let out a sigh of relief that it wasn't anything life threatening.
"I'll be right there to get her and take her to the ER." Melissa didn't even wait to hear anything else from the nurse quickly hanging up the phone and grabbing her purse. On her way out, her assistant Alexis stopped her.
"Where are you going? The big guys are ready for you…"
"Shit…" Trying to hold herself together and focus on what was important, Melissa attempted to regroup. "Listen see if there's anyway they can reschedule my interview. I just got a call from Brooke's school; she fell in gym class and might have broken her ankle, so I need to get her to the hospital."
"Seriously Mel, there's no way you can reschedule last minute! If you leave right now then you can forget about this promotion; isn't there someone else that can deal with Brooke?" Melissa pursed her lips; Alexis was a good person at heart, but she wasn't a mom. As much as it broke her heart to pass up the opportunity, she knew her only child was more important.
"Well if they're not willing to reschedule, then I guess it wasn't meant to be." Melissa chose to take the stairs as she did her best running down them in her Payless heels. By the time she reached the car, she was in full meltdown mode; hitting the steering wheel she cursed the fact that she'd never be able to do anything for herself. She flipped down the sun visor in an effort to clear away the tears and caught site of Brooke's school picture. Even though being a mother was never intended to be her main job in life, she felt she was doing one hell of a job.
Brooke hobbled into the house on crutches, an ace bandage wrapped around her ankle. After six hours in the emergency room, the doctor had concluded she suffered a hairline fracture. The only upside was the crutches were only temporary, something Melissa was grateful for as she watched Brooke almost fall for the fourth time.
Once she got Brooke settled on the couch, she headed into the kitchen with the intention of making dinner. Grabbing the few ingredients she needed for spaghetti, Melissa had just put the water on to boil when her phone rang.
"Hello,"
"Hey Melissa, it's Alexis…" Melissa could tell by the tone of her voice that this call wasn't a good one. She'd hoped the executives would understand her family emergency and just reschedule, but also knew it was a long shot seeing executives had flown in from all five US agencies.
"It's not good news is it?"
"I'm sorry Mel; I explained the situation to Dave and he honestly tried to pull strings, but no one was budging." Melissa swallowed back the tears.
"Well thanks for trying, but like I said it just wasn't meant to be. Brooke comes first in my life, before any promotion, interview…she comes before anything."
"It doesn't have to be that way; nanny services are available and what about her dad?" Melissa glanced into the living room seeing Brooke still settled in on the couch.
"It's pretty much been just the two of us since day one and I like it that way. Thanks for trying; hopefully I'll be in tomorrow, but Brooke has an appointment with the orthopedic specialist at 8, so I'll see what he says and go from there. Good night Alexis…" Melissa hung up the phone losing the urge to cook as she turned off the boiling water. She walked into the living room taking notice that her daughter was watching Raw for the third time that week.
"Hey kiddo, what do you say to pizza for dinner?" Brooke gave her mom a look unsure if she was feeling okay.
"You never want to order out; between the cost and the ingredient list you always shoot me down!"
"Well I'm not really in the mood to cook, so do you want pizza or not?" Brooke smirked as she stretched out on the couch.
"Sounds good to me mom…" Melissa turned toward the kitchen to get the takeout menus when Brooke's voice grabbed her attention. "Hey mom,"
"Yes baby,"
"I'm really sorry about your interview today. I told the nurse not to call you, but she said she had to." Melissa tried her best to smile back at her daughter.
"It's okay; there's always next time right?" Brooke smiled making Melissa happy to have such a good kid.
While usually Melissa put up a fight to watch anything but wrestling, she left it go as she and Brooke ate dinner in front of the TV. As the third hour set in, Melissa looked over to see her daughter in a deep slumber bringing a smile to her face. After quietly reaching over and grabbing the remote from Brooke's side of the couch, Melissa had every intention of turning off wrestling and putting on something else, anything else, but the sound of his voice stopped her.
Taking a deep breath, she felt her heart speed up like it did every time she saw him on television. Despite being 34 years old and spending the last twenty years getting beat up everyday, he still looked just as good as he did the last time she'd seen him.
Two months after their first time, Melissa sat quietly in the passenger seat of his car. They'd gone out for their usual date night, dinner and a movie, but he noticed how quiet and timid she'd been the whole night. He expected it was the beginning of the end; in a months time he'd be on the road with the WWE and she'd be at school. While neither of them wanted to admit it, they knew it would never work out.
He stopped the car, shutting off the engine as he went to get out and open her door, but she stopped him grabbing his hand. He looked at her noticing the urgency on her face and the appearance of tears in her eyes.
"Hey, what is up with you?" He turned her face so that she was looking at him, wiping the fallen tears away; he hated to see any woman cry, especially Melissa. "You know you can tell me, we'll fix whatever it is." Melissa started to cry harder knowing there was only one way to fix this problem.
"I'm pregnant…" His face went pale as he turned away from her resting his hands on the steering wheel.
"Are you sure, did you take a test?"
"I took five, all five were positive and a doctor confirmed it this morning. " Her voice was quiet as she wiped away the excess tears that had fallen. "You don't have to worry about it though; I have an appointment tomorrow morning to take care of it…" He looked at her again and she immediately took notice of the irritated look on his face.
"What do you mean you're taking care of it? You've already decided? Don't I get any say in this?" Melissa couldn't believe what he was saying; for the last six months all she'd heard about was him heading to the big time and he actually thought there was a way for him to wrestle and raise a baby? She wasn't about to be a full time mother sitting at home with a screaming baby; she had other dreams and a full scholarship that was slated to start the next month. Now wasn't the time for a baby, with her career plans she wasn't sure there was ever going to be a time.
"Are you kidding me? What exactly are you going to suggest?"
"I don't know, but I can't believe you're just jumping to that. We could do this, raise this baby together…" Melissa shook her head; he was clearly delusional.
"You mean I could raise this baby! If you haven't noticed our relationship has been deteriorating already and seeing I start school next month and you're hitting the road, I don't see there being an us, so your vision of a family is delusional. I'm 19; I don't want to be saddled down with a kid explaining to him or her why daddy isn't around." Before he could say anything further, Melissa got out of the car and ran into her house never taking a minute to look back.
Melissa paused the TV so that he was standing in the middle of the ring, smirk planted on his lips. She tried to silence her sobs as she remembered him going to her house the next day, but she'd refused to see him. Her mother, under the assumption that they'd had a fight, brought a bouquet of flowers into her room setting them on her nightstand.
"Melissa, I think you should call him…he seemed very upset…" She never did call him because she couldn't bare the thought of seeing him again. Despite making the appointment and paying the money, she backed out of the procedure at the last minute. Even though it would've been easy to call him and tell him she hadn't gone through with it, she knew how hard he'd worked to get to the level he was at and didn't want their mistake to ruin that for him. Instead she spent the next few months hiding her pregnancy from everyone she knew, until she reached her third trimester. Telling her parents brought forward the consequences she'd expected; while her mother looked willing to help, her father kicked her out of the house and she hadn't seen them since. Luckily she'd planned for that scenario and made arrangements to live with her Aunt Rita in California. Aunt Rita had vowed to help as much as she could as long as Melissa enrolled in school and made something of herself. As hard as going to school full time, working and caring for a newborn was, she never regretted her decision and knew she'd never have a run in with Phil Brooks again.
Brooke woke up noticing the TV was paused on the image of CM Punk and her mom was crying. She rubbed her eyes wondering if she was seeing things wrong, but upon a second glance, she saw she was right.
"Mom, are you feeling okay?" Melissa heard Brooke speak and started to wipe at the tears on her face using the sleeve of her shirt.
"Yeah sweetie I'm okay…why don't we get you to bed?" Brooke sat up crossing her arms over her chest.
"I'll go to bed when you tell me what's wrong." Melissa managed to laugh at just how stubborn her daughter was; just like someone else she knew. "Why are you sitting here staring at CM Punk?" Looking into Brooke's hazel eyes, the one physical trait she shared with her father, she knew it was now or never. Leaning forward, she pulled Brooke close to her draping an arm around her before taking a deep breath and letting out the whole story.
How will Brooke react to finding out the truth? Will it lead to a reunion or will the secret remain? If you're watching the Elimination Chamber PPV, enjoy it, I know I will...Already chose Mr. Punk to take the title back and I hope it happens b/c I'd love Punk to be in the main event at Wrestlemania and get to see it in person! :D