Saturday March 26th, 2016.
Francesca pulled her vintage truck into the driveway of the palatial Tampa estate. She marched up to the large door and peeked through the window cut-out before she rang the doorbell. A few minutes later, she was greeted by her sister.
"Ahh! I'm so happy you're here! I soo need your help," Nikki wrapped her arms tightly around Frankie, nearly knocking them both over carefully. Frankie hugged Nikki back before she took her shoes off and followed Nikki into the house. The girls made their way into the kitchen and Nikki grabbed another glass from the shelf. She grabbed a margarita pitcher from the fridge and poured Frankie a drink, before the two headed out for the pool, drinks and pitcher in hand.
"Muchas gratzi," Frankie said as the two clinked their glasses together along with John's, who was waiting poolside.
"I should be thanking you for coming over on such short notice for this. I just wanna get some behind the scenes shots of my fitting," Nikki said as she sat next to John, with Winston running around their feet.
"You sure you're gonna have a steady hand after Nicole's margaritas?" John asked as he noticed Frankie enjoying the cocktail.
"Come on John, this is Frankie we're talking about, she's not the little kid she was when you started way back when," Nikki joked as she nudged her boyfriend.
"She's right," Frankie responded, removing her oversized denim jacket carefully to reveal her new tattoo, a dreamcatcher, on her left shoulder.
"I guess so," he said, admiring her new artwork. "Guess 'Frank n' Beans' is all grown up" he teased, using her childhood nickname. Soon enough, the doorbell rang again, and Nikki jumped up to answer that.
"That's either Sandra, or the production team," she said as she headed back into the house.
John looked over at Frankie and finally noticed how much she had in fact grown up. Her thick, blonde hair was well past her back, held back in a loose low bun. Her green eyes glistened as she tossed her phone on the table in front of her.
"What's with the look Cena? Come on, I know you…"
"Just thinking about how much you've changed. You're not the same kid who used to fly around backstage on her skateboard."
"Those were good times," she said thinking about her youth. John clenched his jaw and shifted uncomfortably before continuing.
"I don't know if you knew about the rumors back then… but even after you left, I never partook in any of that locker room gossip."
She looked over at him and smiled. John had always been like a big brother, so it was no surprise that he wouldn't talk about her behind her back.
"Well for that I wanna thank you... you've always been a good guy." She smiled outwardly, knowing damn well that the rumors back then had been true all along.