A/N: For some reason, this story seems to get lost in my brain so I'm pretty much just winging it as I go and I have no idea where it's going exactly, but thank you for the reviews for it, they actually do help me see what's good and what's not so good, so thank you. I hope you enjoy this chapter and if you want to review, I'm not going to stop you. Hope you enjoy. :)

"So just because she said you two would probably have sex again, you just bought into that, just like that?"

"Shh," Chris said, "lower your voice, dude, I don't need everyone on the bus knowing my business. It wasn't like that. It wasn't like I was buying into anything. There was nothing to buy into. I just…it's hard once you're attracted to someone to just stop being attracted to them."

"She wasn't around though," Edge said. "I remember, she left to go be with Paul. Did you guys just stop what you were doing? You didn't go to see her, did you?"

"No, I didn't go see her," Chris said.

"Hey," Stephanie's voice was low and it sounded like she was trying to whisper.

"Hey, am I calling at a bad time?" I asked.

"No, it's okay," she said, "hold on."

Chris could hear a shuffling and he bit his lip. I just had to hear her voice. It'd been three weeks since I'd last seen her, that night when I took her for coffee and she got a milkshake. I felt disconnected from her and it didn't feel right. I guess maybe I'd just become so accustomed to having her around, working with her. Two years we'd worked together, two years and she'd made me who I was. Somehow I didn't feel like Chris Jericho without her there. I don't want to say she was like my crutch, that whenever things weren't going the way I wanted, I could always just fall back into insulting her, but there was just something missing about me when I wasn't around her.

"Hey again," she said.

"I did call at a bad time, didn't I? Paul's there, isn't he?"

She laughed, more free than she had been a few minutes earlier. "No, Paul's not here, I'm actually at my brother's house right now. He and Marissa just moved to a new house and we're at a housewarming party. I just stepped out of the room."

"Oh, sorry, I'll let you get back to the party," I said regretfully. I really had wanted to talk to her, but I didn't want to interrupt her life.

"Chris, believe me, you're doing me a favor," Stephanie said. "Paul is in Alabama doing his monthly check-up and hoping to get clearance. I'm here alone and I'm bored out of my skull. So you calling me is like a godsend."

"Yeah?" I asked her, feeling a smile turn up on the sides of my lips.

"Yeah," she said. "I just said that this was an important phone call that I needed to take. They understood. They're all business types anyways. Well, Shane's friends, Marissa's friends are cool."

"I thought I was Shane's friend, I'm a little insulted that I wasn't invited," I joked, glad that she was able to talk to me. I really didn't want to hang up without talking to her. I don't know how I even lasted three weeks without talking to her.

"He would have if you weren't on the road."

"I'm off today, had the house show and everything. So you're in Connecticut?" I asked. I don't know what I was doing, but I just had to ask. I should've just not called her. It probably would have been easier that way. It probably just would have been easier if I could forget about her. She wasn't around, I had no business calling her like I was, yet here I was, in my hotel room, calling her when I should have been calling my wife.

"Well, I will be," Stephanie said. "Shane and Rissa moved to New York, they got this penthouse, but I'm going home afterwards to Connecticut, yes."

"That's cool, that's cool," I said, not knowing what else to say. I felt like an idiot.

"So congratulations on the title," she told me, "I knew you could do it. And I'm sorry I didn't call to congratulate you before."

"You don't have to congratulate me at all," I told her, "I have a feeling that it was someone's idea for me to get the title anyways."

"Are you suggesting what I think you're suggesting," she flirted with me. I couldn't help but smile at her tone and what I knew was going on. I'm not going to say she ever gave me preferential treatment, but I knew that she had a hand in it.

"Dude, I never even really thought of the perks, is that why you've won the belts and stuff? Because she told them to?" Edge asked.

"Well, I wouldn't say it was only that, I mean, I'm pretty good at this wrestling thing and I never asked her to give me anything."

"Paul does, I bet," Edge groused. "Man, when she throws him out in the cold, he's going to throw a hissy fit."

"We're going to try to ease the transition," Chris said, "at least that's what we've talked about. Things haven't ever really been good between the two of them. The timing, I mean, I'm surprised nobody ever really knew about the timing, never questioned it."

"The timing?" Edge wondered. "The timing of what?"

"Of everything in my life and Stephanie's lives."

"I don't understand what you mean."

Chris thought back to the last several years. For a long time, it had been like he and Stephanie were living their lives as a series of starts and stops. Whenever he started something, he'd move forward, leaving her behind and Stephanie, desperate to catch up, always did something to move herself forward. For a long time, they'd tried to deny the attraction as anything more than an affair, something on the side, someone to come to when you were lonely or mad or just wanted something more than you currently had. They knew it was love, they knew it deep down, but admitting love had taken time and courage.

"I mean we were always trying to stave off the hurt."

"Hurt?"

"Paul was a mistake on her part, a huge one, one that she'll be remedying soon enough," he said and he could not wait for that moment. The second this election was over, the moment those ballots were counted, win or lose, he was going to be by Stephanie and his girls. There was no turning back, the talks had been hashed out, the decisions made and whether Paul or Jessica approved was inconsequential. He was tired of living in the shadows of a life rightfully his and tired of being with someone trying to cling to something long past. Everyone deserved better than they were getting at the moment.

"Okay, so what happened when you were talking to her?" Edge asked, wanting to hear the rest of the story as Chris was telling it.

"I think I'm suggesting that you had a hand in it."

"I merely suggested that they give you the chance," Stephanie said. "Chris, you've been one of our top performers and you have consistently carried this company on your back while others have been gone, Paul, Dwayne, Austin, whoever, everyone, you've been there. You need to be rewarded for that kind of loyalty."

"I love when you talk business," I told her. There's something so sexy when she's talking business, like she really can rule the world.

"Is that all you love?" she asked. "Because I don't think you would have asked where I was if this were merely a social call."

"I miss you," I told her, just letting it out, but then retreating back a moment, "Is that weird?"

"No, I don't think it's weird, I admit I've missed you too," she told me, her voice going soft again.

"What's going on with us, Stephanie?" I asked, trying to make sense of what was going on. Not even three months before, I was a loyal and faithful husband, in love with my wife and planning a future with her. Then Stephanie swoops into my life and all of a sudden, it's in this total upheaval. Everything about Stephanie captivated me and made me want to know more. I wanted to know what her eyes looked like when she was upset, I wanted to see how her smile looked when she saw something pretty. I wanted it more than I'd ever wanted any moment with Jessica, but I tamped that down, thinking that it was simply because Stephanie was like a shiny new prize that I wanted to figure out all the gadgets to.

"Chris, if I could explain that, believe me, I would try," she said. "I've been trying to figure out why I've been attracted to you. I mean, with Paul…I guess it was convenience, like I told you, but wouldn't that apply to us as well. I mean, we worked closely together, we'd kissed before, twice."

"Yeah, I know," I said, kind of glad she at least thought the same way I did. "Can I come see you?"

"Chris, you guys are in like Pennsylvania," she laughed, probably thinking I was ridiculous for doing what I was planning to do.

"We're in Philly," I told her, "You live in Greenwich, right?"

"Stamford," she corrected.

"Okay, Stamford, that's not far, I know how to get there and if I don't, I can figure it out, it's only like a few hours, so you can stay at your party and I can go to your…house?"

"Condo," she corrected me again.

"Condo, even better, you don't need a huge space," I joked. "Are you going back there tonight?"

"Well, yes, I was planning to go back there."

"Not going to New Hampshire?"

"Paul's house is creepy," she told me.

"Sounds about right. If you can give me the address to your place…"

"Chris, are you sure?" she wondered. "I mean, don't you want to head home?"

"I need to see you," I told her, the pull towards her being almost gravitational. I could have been 17 hours away and I think I might have tried to make it there in 5 hours or less. I can't explain how much I needed to see her, but three weeks was too much.

She gave me her address, giggling at my impetuousness, but I didn't care, I was now a man on a mission. I threw my clothes in my suitcase, checked out, and I was on my way to Connecticut. I just told Jessica some lie about how I needed to go to Stamford for a meeting with the boss. She's never really cared about my wrestling so she didn't even question it. The world is foreign to her and she's always been content to keep it that way. I think that's one of the reasons I fell out of love with her. I wanted her to share in my passion, but she never did, but boy, she did like what it could do for her. The lavish parties, the flaunting of wealth; all of that was right up her alley.

I got there before her and sat in my car for a while, thinking about what I was doing. The first couple times, I could chalk it up to circumstance. We were both high on adrenaline, we needed release, the other person was there, there were excuses for what we'd done and maybe if I'd stopped it at that, it could been done with and just remained two isolated incidents of passion overflowing. But driving three hours to her house, waiting for her, I had to accept that maybe this wasn't just a fling, that those incidents were not merely incidents, but moments in a timeline that was to be dotted with different events.

When she pulled into her space, she looked over from her car into mine and smiled at me. We got out at the same time and she came over and hugged me. Nothing more, nosy neighbors and all that. I hugged her back and then she took me inside. I couldn't stand it more than a few moments before I had her pressed up against the door. There was no time to think and I certainly didn't want to spend the time talking. I lifted her up and took her upstairs. If you'd asked me what her condo looked like that first night, I wouldn't have even been able to tell you the wall color. All I saw was her. All I ever wanted to see was her.

I was falling and falling hard, maybe even fallen already. But I didn't want to believe that I'd made a huge mistake with Jessica, that I should have waited. I thought when I married Jessica that it was the right decision. You don't go into a marriage thinking that you'll fail. I didn't think I was going to fail with her. Yet, there I was, with another woman who was rapidly becoming, for me, the one I should have been with. It was a startling truth and one I tried to ignore for some time afterwards.

"You couldn't even stay away," she said against my neck, her voice tickling my skin, bringing me out of my thoughts and into her body.

"I couldn't."

I haven't been able to since.