You Know I Think About It All The Time

-July 21, 2014; Miami, Florida-

Tessa liked being a heel; she liked being the heel that ran her mouth and got on everybody's bad side. There were things she could say in the ring that she would never even think about saying out of character and it was exhilarating.

She had driven from Tampa to Miami with Dolph, Summer and Zack Ryder and the four of them had discussed the possibilities for the newest on-screen relationship. They all agreed that there was a lot that could be done and a lot that could be achieved – they just had to hope that Corporate would be on board for them.

They all entered the arena together, Summer and Tessa immediately heading for the locker room. Tessa knew that she would need some help getting into Tia's new character and she wanted to get it out of the way as soon as possible.

"We're changing up Tia," Summer told Nikki when she and her sister entered the locker room.

"Oh, I can see that," Nikki said with a knowing smirk. She winked when Tessa looked up at her.

"What do you mean?" Tessa asked, frowning a little.

"I have never seen you wear that shirt or those sexy black shorts."

"Shut up," Tessa said as a blush rose to her cheeks. Summer laughed along with Nikki. "The girls down at NXT helped me out with a new wardrobe. It's no big deal."

It had taken a discussion with Dusty Rhodes to make Tessa realise that Tia couldn't be the same character upon her return; Girl Next Door Tia would not date Dolph Ziggler and he would not date her. It required a large overhaul of her wardrobe and a few lessons in confidence and being sexy from the NXT Divas.

"Better tell Dolph to watch out or he won't just be fighting Sami back," Nikki said with another wink causing Tessa to roll her eyes and shake her head. "You doing okay?"

"Yeah. Why wouldn't I be?" Tessa asked, forcing a smile as she rose to her feet.

"We talked about this: I can tell when you're lying, Tessa."

"If I'm ever not okay, I'll talk to you." She turned to Summer and said, "And I'll talk to you. Both of you need to stop with the questions."

Summer raised her hands to show her surrender while Nikki raised an eyebrow and stared at Tessa. Tessa stood to her feed after fixing the buckles on her shoes and shooed Nikki from the room, walking closely behind her.

"Did someone down at NXT say something to you?" Tessa asked when they were walking the halls. "Because I thought I was taking it well."

"That's why I'm asking. You know that you don't have to be okay, right?"

Tessa's acting skills had definitely been put to the test while she was getting in extra training at NXT. Although she had handled the whole situation a lot better than when it had happened back in 2008 – she couldn't really run back off to Japan, anyway – she still made sure that nobody at the Performance Center saw her in any mood other than happy.

Live on Monday Night Raw

Tia made no effort to even knock as she entered The Authority's office with a fierce determination not yet seen by the WWE Universe.

"Tia," Stephanie said tersely, "What can I do for you?"

"I want my title back," Tia responded without hesitation. "I never lost it, I was stripped of it because of an old injury. I deserve to get my title back."

"Your title? Paige won that title fair and square, I can't just take it from her."

"Sure you can, you're the boss."

A smirk appeared on Stephanie's face. "I'm not going to do that for you, Tia. You aren't the number one contender."

Tia faltered, clearly having expected that she would be immediately given back the Divas Championship. A split second later she squared her shoulders and spoke, "Give me any of the Divas in a match and I will prove to you that I am the best this company has to offer. Having anyone else but me as the champion is not what's best for business, Stephanie."

Stephanie laughed a little as her own tagline was thrown back at her. "I'll tell you what, I'll give you a chance to become number one contender. All you have to do is beat every single Diva on the main roster and you'll get your title shot."

"All of them?" Tia's shoulders fell as she thought over what that would really mean.

"That won't be a problem, will it?"

Tia shook her head. "No, no problem at all. I can do that. I've beaten most of them before, right?"

"Wonderful!" Stephanie said jovially. "Next Monday you'll face Cameron."

Significantly less concerned, Tia smiled and nodded at her boss and left without any pleasantries. Dolph Ziggler was waiting for her outside the door. He extended his hand for her to take and they walked down the hall.

"We're the kind of couple who holds hands, then?" Tessa asked when they were free of the cameras.

"I noticed that you and Sami never really held hands, so this can be our thing, you know?"

Tessa retracted her hand from Dolph's as he finished speaking. Her lack of hand holding had been brought up on multiple occasions by multiple different people and she never really had an answer.

"I guess we're the kind of couple who holds hands," she agreed, knowing that things needed to change between the two relationships.

They were next on the card – well, Dolph Ziggler and Sami Zayn were next on the card – so they quickly made their way towards Gorilla. Rami was already there and Tessa tried her hardest to smile at him, no matter how soft and unconvincing it might have been.

Tessa knew that she didn't have much to do at ringside – just to be there and smile and wave sarcastically – so she hadn't been present when they were fine-tuning their match. She didn't even know who was going over.

Tessa walked into the back only moments after Sami did but he was still nowhere to be seen. She couldn't blame him for his quick disappearances, she just knew that she had to talk to him before long.

Dolph was right behind her, letting his championship hang by his side, and Tessa turned around to talk to him. He froze.

"What did I do now?" he asked slowly, his eyes widening a little.

"The thing. At the top of the ramp!" she clarified, obviously exasperated, when he shook his head in confusion. "You've got to warn me!"

She was referring to his usual entrance – the gyration at the top of the ramp – and the fact that he had pulled Tessa so that she was standing directly in front of him as he did it.

"You did well," he said, his confusion morphing into a confident smirk. "I like surprising you, it's more fun that way. More natural."

Tessa stomped her foot a little, the sound echoing in the small area. They were ushered off at that moment and left with Tessa pushing at Dolph's side as he playfully kept trying to tug her towards him.

a/n what's this? An update?! No way! Super sorry, but life has been not too great lately. I've finished uni, though, and things personally seem to be looking up so I'm gonna try to keep this up. Except that I've started writing original fiction and plan on engaging in nanowrimo so I can promise no regular updates. Also this is really short but at least it's an update?

Thank you to absolutely everyone who is still here!