A/N: I'm glad people are liking this story. It's one of my favorites and these two definitely are crazy in it, they have such a hard time away from each other. Hope you enjoy and reviews are awesome, so leave one, please. :)


"At some point, you know, I'm not going to come with you."

"But you're my security blanket," Chris said, hugging Jessica close to him and holding her tightly. "I don't want to go anywhere without you."

"Yeah, but haven't you been making friends here, and don't you already have friends here?" she asked him playfully.

"Yeah, but I don't want to necessarily kiss any of those guys," he joked. "That's why I need you here for the moral support."

"You've been here for just over a month, and you make me come with you every Monday, when do you think that you're going to be weaned off of me."

"You need to just move to Florida so that I can be with you all the time," Chris said. "But no, you have to live in Minnesota. What's so great about Minnesota anyways? It's cold, it's way up north, there are no beaches, come on…that's lame."

"Again with the insulting my home state," she said, reaching up and grabbing him by the collar. "How many times do I have to tell you that those are fighting words?"

"Are you going to beat me up?"

"I'm thinking about it," she told him, trying to sound intimidated. She kind of bumped her chest against his like she wanted to go right now and he just laughed at her and tried to look tough. "I don't think that I'll come back next week."

"Oh come on, it can't be too boring," he pouted.

"It's not, but I do have a job!"

"You're freelance, you barely have a job, it's so flexible," he whined.

"Still, you love what you love, and I love what I love. So you're going to have to get used to being on your own every week."

"But how are we supposed to stay strong when we're apart. We've been together for four and a half months and that's hardly enough time to really get to know you," he told her. "If you would just come with me…hey, maybe you can be my assistant!"

"No," she answered immediately. "I'm not going to be your assistant. Haven't you ever heard of not mixing business and pleasure? If I were to become your assistant, you'd end up hating me, and I'd end up hating you."

"I hardly think that's true," he told her. "I think it'd be great. I'd pay you if you want."

"Oh, that's nice, make me feel like a hooker," she told him, rolling his eyes.

He gasped and pretended to act shocked. "A hooker! You think that if I paid you to do a job, a specific job that you would feel like a hooker? But it's not like you'd be assisting me by standing out on a street corner every night in whore clothes."

"Well, no, but I'd be sleeping with you and working with you, and the line would blur itself."

"Then you could refer to me as Mr. Irvine when you're on the job and Chris when we're not on the job."

"No, absolutely not," she said. "Look, I'm just going to go find my seat and get out there and you do your own thing. So it will feel like I'm not even here, okay? So next week, when I'm really not here, you won't feel so weird about it."

He sighed, "Fine, if you must."

"I must," she said, leaning up to kiss him. "Good luck tonight, I know that you'll knock everyone away."

"I've got a crappy match," he said. "It's just to further the storyline, so if I don't impress you as much as usual, that's my excuse."

"Uh huh, you just suck and you know it," she told him, making a funny face as he leaned down for another kiss. She wrapped her arms around his neck and he lifted her off the ground a little so it was easier for them to kiss. She pulled away and smiled at him, "You're so damn cute, Chris Irvine."

"Well thank you, Miss Jessica," he said as he put her down. "Now get your cute butt out of here before I make you stay back here with me for the rest of the night and then I'll make you be my manager and you'll start your own wrestling career and it'll be all over for you."

"Shut up," she shoved him as she went to the curtain to get into the arena and go find her seat.

Chris smiled to himself as he turned around. Life was pretty damn good right now if he did say so himself. He was finally starting to settle into the WWF and he was figuring out all the nuances. Vince was right when he said they ran a tighter ship around here. The shows were so organized and well-put-together that he never really felt lost in the shuffle. There was always somewhere for him to be and something for him to do.

His personal life was going pretty well too. He and Jessica were still going strong and she made him really happy. He wasn't just trying to be funny when he had suggested her moving down to Florida. If she wanted to move in with him, he'd have little to no problem with that. He really liked being around her. She felt like the perfect woman for him, and he had never really felt that way before. Usually there were girls that he was with that he liked, but they found that they would run out of things to talk about because they just didn't have that much in common.

It was different with Jessica because they had so much in common. She was almost like the female version of himself, hell, if she was a wrestler, he really would think that she was the female version of himself. They just never ran out of things to talk about and it was so refreshing to be with someone like that. Plus she was just so damn sweet. When he was feeling down about something, she'd make him brownies or cupcakes, and she would just bring a smile to his face. They hadn't yet told each other that they loved each other, but he could feel it coming soon.

He walked down to his locker room, intending to get his ring tights on now so that he wasn't worrying about them later. He passed by Stephanie in the hallway and she looked up and smiled and nodded at him. He gave her a small wave and a smile as he passed her by. Neither one gave another glance as they went to their desired destinations. That had been pretty much their relationship since he entered the company.

It wasn't animosity or anything that was lingering between them. They just didn't have that much to say to one another. They would have short conversations every now and then, but it was usually filled with small talk and business talk. They were acquaintances, he wouldn't go so far as to call them friends, but they were able to talk every now and again. He just didn't really think he had anything to talk to her about and she must've felt likewise. He had introduced her to Jessica a couple of weeks ago and there had been no tension at all.

She must've just been one of those things that you can't explain. The reason for him sleeping with her twice was just one of life's little mysteries. Maybe there had just been some lust between them that they needed to get out. Or maybe they had both been having a drought and they just needed to fuck someone. It was just out of their system, he knew that now and they had both moved on, and it was fine with him.

Later that evening, he walked back from his match, getting a towel from someone and wiping his face off. He looked ahead of him and saw Stephanie again and she was talking with Jeff Hardy. She was laughing at something he was saying, and she had her head tilted a bit to the side as she nodded and continued to laugh. Jeff started laughing too and her eyes lit up at that. He stared at her for a moment, just watching her laugh and talk with Jeff.

After a minute or two, Jeff left to parts unknown and Stephanie turned her back to Chris to write something in a file on the desk in front of her. He walked over and as she stood up, he leaned in a little, "I thought you didn't date guys in the company."

Stephanie jumped a little bit and turned to look at Chris. "Geez, Chris, you scared the crap out of me."

"Sorry," he said sheepishly.

"What's this about me dating?"

"I thought you didn't date guys in the company," he repeated.

"Who said I was dating anyone in the company?" she asked, confused as to why he would say something like that. She wondered if perhaps rumors were spreading about her dating one of the employees. She looked around, almost accusingly, to see if there was anyone who looked suspicious around her.

"Nobody, but you were just flirting with Jeff Hardy," he told her.

Her jaw dropped as she said, "You've got to be kidding me. You thought that I was flirting with him, you thought that was flirting?"

"Well, what was it then?" he asked.

"Talking," she told him. "It was talking, kind of like what you and me are doing right now."

"Oh, so what does your flirting look like?"

"It usually involves me taking my clothes off and you complimenting my underwear," she replied quietly with a saucy wink to top off the statement. Chris rolled his eyes as he chuckled. Man, she really was quite bold. "You like that?"

"You're something else, Steph," he told her. "You're really something else."

"Yeah, I'm so something else that you thought I was flirting with Jeff Hardy of all people. I mean, let's be honest here, I think that I can do a little better than Jeff Hardy. I'm not really one to want a guy who puts stockings on his arms."

"Well, you never know who you're willing to break that whole code for," he pointed out.

"Yeah, if and when I do decide that dating a coworker is right for me, believe you me, it won't be for Jeff Hardy. I guess it would just have to be a guy that I would be willing to risk it for you know?"

"No, I don't know, what do you think risking it is?" he asked as they took a seat on a stray trunk. He didn't even realize they had been walking casually until they found themselves far from their starting point. He barely remembered sitting on the trunk, but there they were.

"Just someone that I know that I'm going to want, someone I know that I can trust. Love is so fickle, you know, it's always changing and people fall in and out of love on a whim. If I were to date a guy here, I guess he'd just have to be…permanent."

"Oh, I get what you're saying," he said. "And you see no potential?"

"No, I guess not, I haven't really looked," she confessed to him.

He looked over at her as she focused in on the file that she was reading over. He scooted a little bit closer to her and looked down at the sheet of paper. It was the current lineup for the Pay-Per-View that they were having with some scribbles on it commenting on what matches they were going to setup that evening. His shoulder ended up leaning against hers and somehow the touch was electric, but they both tried their best to ignore it and just chalked it up to the close proximity.

"Do you know where on the card my match is going to end up?" he asked, his head right next to hers now.

"No," she told him. "Haven't decided the order yet, but I would say that for you…third or fourth match."

"So what's going to happen with you and Andrew?" he asked. "Let me in on the scoop."

"As of right now, the wedding is going to happen and Paul Levesque is going to interrupt it and he's going to feud with my family for a little while and then we'll move on, annulment and all of that junk."

"Wow, sounds like you're going to be working it."

"Working what exactly?" she asked.

"I don't know, but it sounds like you're going to be all over the show, are you excited for that?" he asked.

"I don't know, it's a big storyline," she said. "I've never really talked to Paul before and I'm going to have to kiss him probably, and it's just going to be uncomfortable for a while, like it was with Andrew. I just hope that Paul doesn't end up thinking we're really married."

"Well, that might be hard. Do you have a boyfriend now or something?"

"I've been seeing a guy for a few weeks now," she answered. "It's nothing big, very casual since I've been out on the road for this entire time, but it's…something, at least, you know, a good meal every now and then."

"So you're just out for a good meal."

"If I were just out for a good meal, don't you think I would've made you take me out for a good meal?"

"Hey, I gave you something better than some food."

"Oh, is that what you think?"

"It's what I know," he said cockily and she nudged against him as he stuck his tongue out at her. They looked at each other for a long moment. His eyes went down to her full lips which were stained with the slightest hint of lip gloss. He caught himself staring at them for a long moment. He looked back up into those blue-gray eyes of hers, the ones that had first caught his attention months and months ago.

"Why the interest in my love life, huh, Chris?" she wondered, breaking this tension that was starting to build between them. She tilted her head just the tiniest bit, but he noticed. He guessed she really did just talk with her head tilted.

"No reason."

"Are you jealous?" she asked jokingly, pursing her lips together as she widened her eyes at the question. "Because if you are…"

"Ha, ha, ha," he told her, "why would I be jealous? I've got a girlfriend, remember."

"Yeah and she seems nice," Stephanie said, getting off the trunk. "Well, until we meet again, Chris Irvine, stay cool."

Stephanie wandered off and she saw someone that she needed to talk to and jogged to keep up with them. It was one of the production guys, a young one, short brown hair and tall. Stephanie squeezed him on the arm as she talked to him, going over something that he couldn't hear because he was too far away. His smile faltered a little bit as his mind wandered. He found himself wondering what little message her underwear was telling today. Realizing what he was thinking about he shook his head and hopped off the trunk to find his intended destination.

"Chris!"

He turned and saw Jessica. "Oh, hey, Jess."

"'Oh, hey, Jess?' That's all I get, what, no, 'Hello, most beautiful girl in the entire world'? I've got to say, you need to work on your greetings."

"Sorry," he said. "I was just distracted for a second there."

"With what?" she asked.

"I don't really know," he lied. He had been thinking about Stephanie. She was such a nice person that he didn't know why they weren't friends. Maybe they should become friends or something. He might like that. She was definitely spunky and it might be nice to have someone to go to that he could rant to if Jessica insisted on not coming anymore. "It was nothing."

"You sure?"

"Yeah, come on, let's go back to the hotel."

"And have some fun?" Stephanie saw them again and waved at the two of them. He stared at her a little too long.

"Yeah, lots of fun."