Stephanie was looking through wedding books, trying to figure out what she could possibly want for her wedding. She had no idea where to even begin, knowing this was going to be a long process. She couldn't wait though, couldn't wait for this wedding, couldn't wait for everything to start with Andrew. She wondered if he wanted a family, and if he did, did he want a small one or a large one? She didn't really want a huge family, but a good-sized one would be the perfect fit.
"So Princess, what're you looking at?" Chris said as he pulled a chair from the table, turned it around and plopped himself down on it.
Stephanie pulled the book a little bit closer to her as if trying to protect it, "Nothing, none of your business."
"Oh come on, you're out in the open and that means you're fair game, and I promise not to throw it again," he said, and off Stephanie's suspicious glare. "I swear, and I'm good for a swear, I assure you."
"I don't trust you," Stephanie told him, "what makes you think I'm going to take your word for it?"
"You're just going to have to take a great leap of faith Princess."
"Would you stop calling me Princess," Stephanie said, irritated now. "That's my father's nickname for me, and since you're not my father, I don't think that you have the right to call me that."
"I'm glad I'm not your father," Chris said, "It would make it hard for me to be so attracted to you."
"Now you're just lying," Stephanie said with disgust. "There's no way you're attracted to me. I mean, please, you just want to tease me and string me along. You don't think I haven't seen you with those girls outside the arena, or in the arena for that matter."
"So you've been checking me out."
Stephanie looked indignant, but he just smirked to that. She had been doing it inadvertently. It seemed that wherever she was, he was there. She didn't know if that was something that he planned, just to irk her and make her all the more hateful towards him, and it was probably something he would do. She didn't know Chris all that well, but he was so smarmy and she knew that type. She knew that type well.
"Maybe you're the one checking me out, following me around and all of that," Stephanie said snidely. "Maybe this all falls on you."
"What falls on me Stephanie? This attraction that you're fighting to deny? I've seen the way you look at me, you really can't deny it beautiful, you're attracted to me. It's ok, we can let down that buffoon of yours easily. He'll make it through, as long as he sees you happy with me."
"There is no chance in hell of that happening," Stephanie scoffed. "I'd rather have my fingers and toes cut off than have anything to do with you. You are not getting anything of me, nothing."
"Are you sure that's not going to happen?"
"Never," Stephanie said, "Never, never, never."
"Have a stutter?" Chris asked playfully.
Stephanie just about screamed in frustration. "Why do you love to single me out? I've seen you with other people and yeah, you're an ass, but you're not as much of an ass. I mean, you told me that my boyfriend was going to propose to me! Who does that? Who in their right mind does that?"
"I was trying to give you a heads up in case you wanted to bolt. I wouldn't have blamed you, looking at Test," Chris answered. "I mean, really, I would think a beautiful woman like you would have higher standards."
Stephanie slammed her book shut and stood up. "I do have high standards, and I certainly know well enough not to get mixed up with you. And I think that I'm ahead of the game in that one. If only people knew the real you, they would hate you so much."
"You don't hate me Stephanie," he said to her, quite plainly and without hyperbole. She stared at him for a moment, not saying anything, but she didn't know how to respond. She didn't know why she couldn't answer with something crass, but he was so earnest in saying what he was saying that she literally didn't know how to respond.
"Just leave me alone, or I'll have my brother and my fiancé on it, ok," Stephanie said. "And I mean it, and you've seen the way my brother has been, you've seen the way he acts toward me."
"I thought you hated that."
"I do, but with you, I can make the exception."
"I feel so special," Chris said, placing his hand over his heart. "You're making exceptions for me and everything."
Stephanie clutched her wedding books to her chest and walked out of the room, leaving a smiling Chris behind. She was so easy to rile up and she never showed anyone that side of her, nobody outside her family anyways. She was fiery and passionate, and the image she put out was so wholesome and really quite boring. Everything about her was boring, and Chris admitted that he liked seeing the flashes like he had just seen. He wish they would come out more.
Stephanie's breathing was labored as she walked out, puffing out angry breaths. He made her so very angry that she didn't know what to do with herself. She walked back to Test's locker room and threw down her books, not even wanting to look at them right now. She didn't even want to talk to anyone right now, she just wanted to be alone.
She knew that the best way to get rid of Chris was to just ignore him, but it was so difficult when he was always around, when he was always in her face with that stupid smirk of his, that stupid smile and that stupid gleam in his eye that teased her, that teased her and made her so angry, so angry she almost slammed her fist into the table.
"Hey babe," Test said as he walked inside. Stephanie quickly composed herself as he walked inside, not wanting him to see her angry. It would do no good and she didn't really want to see Test get into a fight with someone so beneath their level. Chris Jericho certainly wasn't worth it.
"Hi," Stephanie said sweetly, patting the seat next to her. "Where have you been?"
"Just hanging around," he responded, looking at the table. "You've been looking at wedding stuff?"
"Just trying to get an idea," Stephanie told him. "My mom and I are really going to talk about it this weekend. I'm just so excited for it, and I hope you are too."
"I am," he assured her, wrapping his arm around her. "Have I told you how much I love you lately?"
"Well I haven't exactly been counting the minutes, but it does seem like it has been awhile and I would sure appreciate it if you would say it right now, just to reassure me of course," said Stephanie coyly.
"I love you," he told her, kissing her gently. Stephanie let herself forget about Chris as she fell into the kiss with Test. Chris Jericho was a peon, a cog in the system and why would she even need to think about him when she had the perfect man.
Her and Andrew were going to last, she could feel it. She felt like she had found the one. She knew that she was kind of young, but that didn't matter because she just knew. They always say you know when you find that one special person that you know you can't live without and she knew that Andrew was that person. He was kind and funny and gentle with her, and he had so much talent, which pleased her father.
She hadn't dated around too much in college, just enough here and there, but nothing that was ever solid like she and Andrew were. He was her first serious relationship, and he would be her last she knew now. As she pulled away, she stared at the ring he had given to her, and smiled again. This was all hers, he was all hers and she felt like she couldn't have made a better match if she had tried.
"I love you too," she whispered genuinely. "You make me so happy, I know that we're going to be happy for the rest of our lives."
Stephanie knew she was getting mushy with him, but she was in that mushiness stage of her relationship. She just wanted to be around him all the time, to touch him and see him and just be there with him. He was her everything, everything. And she wasn't going to trade that in for all the Chris Jericho's in the world. He could go step on a bomb for all she cared.
"I think so too," he smiled, running his fingers through her hair. "I've got to for my match, you wanna come?"
"Of course, but I don't feel like going out with you, is that ok?"
"Sure, you can just walk me over there," Test replied.
He took her hand and they stood up off the couch. He could feel her ring pressing into his hand and he brought her hand up to his lips and kissed her ring finger. Stephanie giggled and sidled up closer to him as they exited the room. They spent the walk there being all lovey-dovey and kissing every now and then. They got to the gorilla and that's where she saw him.
Stephanie turned away from Chris's smirk, that maddening smirk and leaned up to kiss Test, giving it a little extra zing, making sure that Chris saw. She didn't know why she had felt compelled to do it, but it must've been her unconscious need to show Chris that she was for real, that her threats and her words were not merely for his benefit, or her benefit, but that they were real.
Chris could say that she was beautiful all he wanted, but it didn't matter, it held no weight with her. Andrew's words held weight with her, anything he said, she would hear and love, but not from Chris Jericho. His words were like bitter fruit, nothing she wanted a taste of, nothing she wanted to try. She would turn away his words. Then she saw Chris walk over and she narrowed her eyes and scowled.
"I don't think that I got to congratulate you," Chris said, acting polite for once, or for the first time Stephanie thought to herself with a silent chuckle.
"Thanks man," Test answered, thinking he was being for real. He nudged Stephanie and she reluctantly turned to look Chris in the eye.
"Oh yes, thank you so much Chris, I know that you mean that from the bottom of your heart," she said with the slightest twinge of sarcasm in it, just enough for Chris to pick up on it, and for Test to not pick up on it.
"I do Stephanie, I really, really do," he told her, responding in almost the exact same way and she gave him the fakest smile that she could give him, all her teeth showing, like she was a wolf ready to strike.
"I know you do," Stephanie said, "And I appreciate it."
"I know that as well," Chris said, tilting his head and smiling.
"Well…I've got to get out there," Test said, looking funnily between the two of them before giving Stephanie a parting kiss. She slipped him a little tongue, to Test's surprise. She wasn't one for blatant displays of affection. He didn't turn her away though.
When he was gone, Stephanie turned to Chris, "And here you are again…following me?"
"Never," Chris said, "I have a match coming up."
"Uh huh," Stephanie said, not fully believing him, even though she had no excuse not to. "Thank you for being so cordial, but you're such a liar."
"So are you," he said coolly. "Were you trying to make me jealous or something? I mean, that kissing, was that to make me jealous, because it seemed like it was to make me jealous. I didn't want to assume, but the signs were all there."
"Nope, I was just enjoying my fiancé, is all," Stephanie answered. "I can't help it if you love to stare at me."
"I don't LOVE to, but I could learn to love to," Chris told her.
"Oh, yeah, I'd like to see that happening," Stephanie told him. "Try and win me Chris, I would love to see you go about doing that, I would love to see how you would plan on doing that."
"Is that a challenge from the fair Stephanie?"
"I guess it could be, if that's what you want it to be," Stephanie said, with challenge permeating her voice.
"I would love to take a challenge from you, but how do I know this isn't you setting me up?"
"I wouldn't bother going through the trouble," Stephanie answered. "I wouldn't go to so much trouble. At the very least, I'd make my father do it. And he really doesn't like you Chris, not after everything you've said about him, you're subordination is only going to bring you pain."
"Now that sounds like a threat," Chris said. "So which is it Princess? Are you making a threat, or are you making a challenge? Let me know."
"What would that challenge be exactly?"
"I don't know," Stephanie said, and laughed. "I don't know anything with you, I just know that you're a horrible person and I'm still mad you told me I was going to get proposed to."
"Get over it, geez, take a joke."
"Fine, then you have a challenge Chris, you have yourself a goddamn challenge."
"Has anyone ever told you how much fun you are when you get mad? I don't think anyone has because you never let that part out, and you really should because it's way more fun than the little Princess thing."
"So change me," Stephanie said. "I dare you to try."
"You DARE me?"
"Uh huh, you want to act like a child, I'll treat you like one, so I double dare you. In fact, I triple dare you."
"Fine," Chris said, "You've got yourself a challenge."
"I eagerly await your first move."
"Oh you just wait Princess, I'll give you one hell of a first move."