When Yara strolled into her office the next morning, she saw an envelope stuffed with paper across her keyboard. Usually her boss, James, didn't just plop things on her desk without warning her. When she sat down, she read the sticky note on top of it.

- READ BEFORE LUNCH!

Meet me at Tony's Salad Bar at noon

READ! -

Yara rolled her eyes at Laura's note. Laura had texted her throughout last night: 'Where are you?'; 'Did you leave with that guy?'; 'WHERE ARE YOU?'; Yara had ignored them all. She wanted to focus 100% of her attention to Colby, which she ended up doing. She'd had a great night with Colby, and she knew it would only get better from there.

When Laura wasn't at the office, Yara felt the most alone, but it was when she was able to get the most work done. Without the constant back and forth with Laura, Yara could actually focus on her writing. She wrote out her column and posted it to her magazine's website, informing her readers in her own sly way about the upper echelons of New York society. A mere five minutes after her post went live on the website, her desk phone rang. Her boss's number flashed across the screen

"Yo."

"Come to my office please."

"Okie dokes."

Yara let herself into James's office because she knew she could. Despite him being her boss, she and James were on good terms and were friends. She provided the online blog with a lot of hits, which meant a lot of advertising, which meant a lot of revenue. He couldn't not like her. She knew he'd already read her blog post, so she wondered if he wanted to talk about it – maybe he wanted some more information on the Richard Clarke gossip -

"Laura told me you spent eight thousand dollars for a WWE Experience," were the first words out of his mouth.

Yara's smirk told James all he needed to know. He wasn't necessarily mad; he was just astounded that Yara would do such a thing. Usually she was very sensible, and this definitely wasn't sensible; definitely not the Yara that worked for him.

"Word travels fast," Yara said.

"Eight thousand dollars, Yara?"

"I was sitting beside the representative from the WWE and he was explaining to me exactly what the package entailed, and the entire concept of the WWE Performance Centre in Orlando, where this thing is," Yara explained, lying, of course. She couldn't just tell her boss she did it to save Colby from another encounter with a creepy fan. "It really intrigued me. It's basically a developmental program down there, but they still televise it – it's like college football, but with wrestling."

James brought his hands in prayer position against his lips. "Yara, I know you only watch hockey, but it's not the same thing. How are we even going to spin this into a story for -"

"Remember, the company is still owned and operate by Vince McMahon," Yara interrupted him, knowing the question would come up. "One of the biggest wrestling promoters in history. He and his daughter Stephanie are quite popular around here. His son-in-law, Paul Levesque, spearheaded this whole Performance Centre and it's getting to be as popular as the stuff that's broadcast on national TV."

Okay, so maybe she had done her homework before she got to work.

James mulled over the information. Yara crossed her arms over her chest, awaiting the verdict from James. She didn't need to be nervous; she knew she was going to win. It was only a matter of time.

James sighed. "It better be a damn good column, Yara," he said, shaking his head at himself.

"It will be. It always is."

"When is this thing, anyway?"

"In about six weeks," she said.

"You're not flying business class," James revealed.

"I don't care," she said, spinning on her heels and opening the door of his office to leave.

James shook his head. "The things I put up with."

XXXXXXXXXX

Yara saw Laura on the patio of Tony's Salad Bar. She greeted the hostess graciously before pointing to Laura, the hostess letting her straight through. Yara peered inside quickly, only to see Candice Grange, the new socialite who would attend the opening of an envelope if she heard about it. Yara saw her everywhere – she didn't want to start to see her in her daily life too.

Yara had already lived in New York for almost five years before she met Laura, who had already been working at the New York Social and various other smaller publications throughout the city. James had seated them next to each other because they were the same age (Laura was barely a year older) and because he just somehow knew they'd click. They hit it off right away – whenever Laura was invited to events, she always brought Yara. Whenever Yara needed advice on a column, or didn't know whom to approach in a room, Laura was there to guide her. Yara had even lived with Laura for a few weeks, during an in-between-apartments period. They'd had more wine dates than Yara could remember. They'd had more nights out than Yara wanted to admit for two women in their late twenties. It had all made Yara's New York experience second to none. She loved her job because of Laura. She loved New York because of Laura.

Laura didn't bother to stand up when she saw Yara approach the table because she was too busy texting away on her phone – probably dodging an invite for later that night. She took a sip of her water and waited patiently as the waiter approached the table and immediately asked Yara for her order – naturally, she ordered the burrito salad and the waiter was on his merry way.

"So how was your morning? I heard news travels fast," Yara started the conversation, unfolding her napkin and placing it on her lap.

"Did you read what was in the envelope?"

"No, I was writing and didn't have time," said Yara truthfully, leaning over to retrieve the giant envelope from her purse. "What's all this even about, Laura?" she asked, grabbing her water with her other hand to take a drink.

"You know that guy you went out with last night? Colby Lopez?"

"Mhm."

"Wanna see his dick?"

Yara choked on her water, coughing as Laura cocked her head to the side, giving her a look. "Oh, you didn't know then? Apparently not," Laura said in a cocky voice.

"What the hell?" Yara demanded, finally opening the envelope and retrieving the first of many pages – articles – that Laura had printed out. Just as Laura said, there it was – two pictures of him nude, his manhood blurred for moral decency.

"He'd been with this girl named Leighla for years and she found out he was cheating on her with some chick in developmental – where you're going for that thing you bid on," Laura said in hushed tones. "Leighla posted nude photos of Colby and his sidepiece on his Instagram right before their show which goes live one night. Turns out that Instagram is linked to the WWE home page and every other social media he's on, so it showed up everywhere."

Yara couldn't believe what she was hearing, what she was skimming through in the article in her hand. Laura had clearly done the research, and she was right. Everything she was saying was true. Colby had cheated on a girlfriend he had, very publicly, with…well, an interesting looking woman. Looking between the two pictures of the women involved, Leighla and Zahra, Yara could see Colby apparently had a type – a type that she did not fit, at least physically. "Jesus Christ," Yara muttered.

"Mhhmmmm," Laura nodded vehemently as she watched Yara take out another article. "Not so likeable now, huh?" she asked rhetorically.

Yara knew Laura would bring up something like that. Laura was the master at finding one thing wrong with a person, then blowing them off immediately. She was like Jason Alexander's character in Shallow Hal who refused to date a beautiful woman because her second toe was longer than her big toe. Yara hated to say it, but Laura was a perfectionist in her love life. Yara was a firm believer that it was okay to have high expectations and to never settle, but Laura's expectations were above and beyond.

Yara shook her head. "He's still likeable," she admitted, knowing it would send Laura into frenzy.

"After everything you've been through, you think he's still likeable?" Laura asked. "Yara, come on."

"What? I can't help it," Yara said. "I've told you before and I've told you again, cheating is horrible. In most cases it's unforgiveable. But it doesn't necessarily make you a bad person."

"I can't believe you still take that stance," Laura shook her head. "You're a much better person than me, that's for sure."

Yara couldn't help but smile at Laura's comment. She knew that Laura was looking out for her and had her best interests at heart, and that's all that mattered. What Laura was saying and doing was, in her own way, out of the goodness of her own heart. "So whenever I need a private investigator, I know who to call. What else have you found out about him?" Yara asked.

"That's the biggest shit stain on his record…even though it's a pretty big shit stain. He's a pretty successful wrestler, I'll give you that," Laura revealed. "He got over a pretty bad knee injury not too long ago, so be careful when you ride him."

"LAURA!"

XXXXXXXXXX

"How was your trip to New York? Kiss a lot of corporate ass?"

Colby smirked at the question posed by his good friend Claudio Castagnoli as they finished their CrossFit workout. Colby had flown back home to Davenport on Saturday evening after the charity dinner, stopping in at his wrestling academy to teach some classes on Sunday, before he woke up early Monday morning to drive to Milwaukee for Raw. It had been a busy weekend, but a good one.

What made it even better was the constant text messages between him and Yara since he had left New York. He could practically hear her sarcastic tone and sense of humour through the words on the screen. Sometimes she even responded in memes, as if she knew the direct way to his heart. No girl he knew responded with memes. She was back at work today, just like him, so the conversation was a little lighter, but still ongoing. He wondered how long they could keep it up for. Sometimes, there was only so much fuel in the tank to keep something going, although Colby had an inkling there would be a lot of fuel for this fire.

"It wasn't half bad, actually," Colby admitted, grabbing a towel to dry his face of the sweat.

"A room full of corporate jerks and it 'wasn't half bad'?" Claudio asked. "Come on. Give me the details."

Colby pondered if he should tell Claudio, or if he should keep it a secret. By this point, Claudio knew something was up, so if Colby lied or didn't tell him, he'd only get pissed off. Colby didn't like a pissed off Claudio. Honestly was the best policy…even if he was going to meander to the point. "I just sat at a table with some interesting people."

Claudio waited for him to elaborate. When he didn't, he got frustrated. "…And?"

"And…I don't know. You remember that woman who buys the WWE Fan Experiences for her adult son, and then she came and flirted with you and Fergal as her son was doing the tour or whatever?" Colby asked. Claudio nodded his head. "She was there."

"Get the fuck out. Did she come up to you?"

"No, she kept a safe distance. But I mean, I was there to promote the WWE Fan Experience to benefit Connor's Cure."

"Tell me she fucking won it and we have to deal with that again."

Colby giggled at Claudio's obvious disdain for the woman. She was pretty infamous around the Performance Centre – some of the guys had created myths about her to scare the newer talent. "No, she didn't win."

"Thank the Lord."

"The woman I was sitting beside outbid her," Colby revealed slyly. "Paid eight thousand bucks to come over here."

Claudio's eyes almost popped out of their sockets when he heard the amount. "Who is this woman you were sitting beside?"

Colby smiled. "Her name's Yara Ghanbari."

Claudio couldn't quite put two-and-two together yet. "So this random woman beside you decided to spend a small fortune on a tour of the Performance Centre…but…why the hell would she do that?"

All Colby did was smirk. It didn't take long for Claudio to catch on at that point. "Don't fucking tell me."

"Nothing happened," Colby clarified. "But we had been talking the entire night, like, basically non-stop. After she picked up her prize we ditched the event and ended up wandering around New York until five in the morning."

"Are you serious?"

"As serious as a stroke."

"Did you get her number?"

"Absolutely."

"Was there a lot of talking or was there a lot of other things happening with the mouth?" Claudio asked, making mock kissing noises.

"Nah man, literally just talking. We exchanged numbers and kissed at the end of the night, but that's it. No…other business," Colby said.

Claudio nodded his head, knowing his friend was telling the truth. Colby told him about most of his escapades, so Claudio would know if he were lying or not. "Yara Ghanbari then…what does she do?"

"She's a reporter for this blog and magazine that writes gossip about the people of New York…you know, like the socialites," Colby explained. "So she's invited to a bunch of these events and she finds out information about these pretty powerful people and she writes about it."

Colby watched as Claudio's face suddenly turned serious at the mention of her being a reporter, and he understood why. Some reporters were hacks – okay, a lot of reporters were hacks, especially reporters that dealt with the wrestling business. They weren't exactly a wrestler's favourite person. "She's a reporter, huh?"

"Yeah, why?"

"So do you reckon she knows about your 2015?"

Colby swallowed hard. He hadn't thought about that. It wasn't something he liked to think about, if he was being honest, but it was a stain on his professional and personal life that he would never be able to resolve or get rid of. That was the problem with the internet. Now Claudio got him thinking. Did Yara know about it? He'd be an idiot to think she didn't know – she was a reporter, and just one google of his name and it would show up. She must have googled him after she got home, right? She must have seen and read the stories. She must have.

Yet she was still texting him. Still talking to him.

"You know she knows," Claudio said, snapping Colby out of his thoughts. "I mean not for anything, but one google of your name and it pops up."

"Thanks, tips."

"I'm not trying to be mean, I'm just being realistic. Has she texted you since then? Have you texted her?"

"We've been texting non-stop since Saturday," Colby revealed. "I mean…she hasn't brought anything up, but we're talking."

Claudio looked impressed with what he was hearing. For someone to know what happened and still brush it aside was definitely something. Not a lot of women Colby met after the incident could brush it aside so easily. "Well, that's a plus," Claudio said, shrugging his shoulders.

"What are the chances she didn't google me?" Colby asked.

"Slim to none."

"Right," Colby shook his head. "Well, I guess I'm just gonna have to deal with it, right?"

"Whenever it comes up. Don't be like 'Hey, by any chance, did you google my name and see my dick?', because that'll definitely scare her off."

"Again, thank you, tips."

"I'm just trying to help you. If I was around back then I would have told you not to send those dick pics," Claudio smirked devilishly.

"Can we not go there please."

Claudio shook his head in amusement. "Come on, we've gotta go shower before we head out for lunch. Can't go to Chipotle looking like a hot sweaty mess."