A/N: Thank you for the kind reviews so far. I'm glad so many people are reading and enjoying this.
Stephanie stood watching Chris, her eyes expanded and emotionless, as he leaned over and had a brief discussion with Paul. After exchanging a few words, Paul handed his car keys over, and Chris relinquished them and tugged on Stephanie's hand to jolt her back to reality as he led her through the crowd of swarming bodies. The air was thick and hot, as it often got when an entire army of people were packed into such close quarters, and when they made it off the dance floor, Chris noticed a small, lit hallway leading to the club's restrooms. When he turned back to check on Stephanie, she still clutched the mass of dry clothing Trish handed off to her earlier, so he led her to the start of the hallway and pointed.
"There are the restrooms, go get changed."
"Chris, I didn't mean to do—"
"Shh," he shushed her softly and swooped in to kiss her cheek. "It's okay, Steph...I mean, it's not entirely okay, but we have time to sort this out. Just go get changed and we'll talk in the car."
"Okay," she nodded multiple times but never made a move to actually leave him, too fearful to let go of his hand.
She feared he might vanish if she turned away for too long, and with as many people as she managed to push away in her short lifetime, Chris wasn't someone she was willing to toss aside. He urged her forward with an encouraging nod of his head, and that effectively snapped her out of the trance she was in. She released his hand and spun around, giving Chris his first real glimpse of the aftermath of the contest. Her shirt was soaked and clung to her body closely enough that he could easily conclude she wasn't wearing a bra, and he spotted the outline of her panties, but it was clear they didn't cover much skin.
She was about as close to disrobed as a person could be without actually going fully nude, and he shook his head as she pattered away from him and disappeared behind the door of the women's restroom. The problem with Stephanie was that she was too damn lovable. Even when she fired him up enough that he wanted to stand two inches from her face and give her a real piece of his mind, Chris couldn't find it in himself to do so because, more than anything, she needed guidance. If he raised his voice, it would only make her shrivel up even more inside the hardened shell she had built around herself for protection, and yelling wasn't exactly Chris's style anyway.
If he sat her down and spoke calmly, making sure to let her know how the events of that evening had hurt not only her, but him as well, she would grasp onto the error of her ways and possibly take measures to change her actions. He briefly wondered if Vince had ever gotten through to her when he tried to call, but figured he hadn't, because Stephanie had probably been too busy preparing herself to show her body for all to see. He cringed and mumbled to himself when the thought back to the sight of her. Stephanie was a beautiful woman who had it all, and Chris would never understand why she continuously threw all that away and sold herself short for a cheap thrill.
Chris waited with his back against the wall and closed his eyes, not bothering to reopen them until he made out the low squeal of the door hinges on the women's restroom, indicating someone was exiting. He glanced over to find a bashful Stephanie back in her street clothes and with nothing else in her hands. "What happened to that wet shirt?"
"I threw it in the trash," she announced.
"You don't want to keep it as a souvenir?"
"No," she answered softly, staring straight down at the floor.
"Well, first things first," Chris said as he shuffled towards her. Stephanie raised her head with a start, and her eyes flashed with uncertainty the closer he grew. She expected the worst and was imagining all the horrible routes he might take to sever ties with her in perpetuity, but, instead, he snaked his arms around her waist and pulled her close, nearly hugging the breath right out of her fragile body. When Stephanie unwound in his arms and laid her forehead down on his shoulder, he hunched over and murmured in her ear, "Tomorrow's a new day, and there's always room to do better. You're not stuck just because of one bad night, babe."
"You called me babe," she mumbled against his shirt.
"That's because you are my babe."
"So you're not breaking up with me?" Stephanie pulled away just enough to look him in the eye and was met with an astonished expression from Chris.
"Why would I break up with you?"
"Because of tonight," she frowned, as if it should have been most obvious to him. Chris cupped her left cheek with his right hand and swished his thumb over the top of it.
"What you did wasn't detrimental to our relationship. I would prefer you didn't do it again, but it's not something we can't work out. There's not a single thing in this world that could take me away from you," Chris told her, guiding their bodies closer to the wall when a heavily-tattooed young man walked up behind them and darted around so he could get to the restrooms. "Come outside with me so we can sit in the car and have some privacy while we talk."
"Okay," Stephanie agreed.
Chris led her away, casting a final glance at the thumping dance floor, flooded with wriggling bodies lit only by the neon lights running across them overhead. He took notice that Stephanie didn't bother looking back, probably because she didn't want to be reminded of what had taken place earlier, and Chris wrapped his arm around her more snugly to shield her from the pain of it all. He gave the car keys a few light tosses in his hand as they stepped out of the club's front doors and into the chilled night air, and when they arrived at the car, Chris opened the back door so they could sit right beside one another in the backseat. He motioned Stephanie in first, and she paused to kiss his cheek before climbing inside.
A smile played on his lips as he slipped in next to her, and Chris shut the door and reached for her hand, holding it protectively inside his own. Stephanie gazed out the opposite window, so he took the initiative to begin their discussion. "You know, a wet t-shirt contest isn't the worst thing in the world, but it's not exactly something you should strive to be in. Can you tell me why you did it?"
"No," she mumbled.
"You have to talk to me if we're ever gonna get anywhere with each other. There must have been some sort of payoff for you if you entered, so what was it? Did you want guys whistling at you like at Mardi Gras?"
"I told you—I just like the attention."
"I understand that part of it, but you've got me now," Chris pointed out as she turned to face him. "You were in my locker room right before you left the arena to come to this place, so if you were after attention, you could have easily told me. How hard would it have been for you to let me know you needed my undivided attention? I would have given it to you in a heartbeat."
"You were about to go out for your match though, and I didn't want to interrupt you. You were, like, jogging and doing all your warm-up stuff and throwing practice punches into the air, and I couldn't just barge in and ask you to sit with me."
Chris sighed and ran a hand over the top of his hair, "I get what you're saying, but you could have told me you needed to talk as soon as I finished my match, and I would have been up for it. Why couldn't you have stayed in the back, waited for me to come back, and then talked to me? Why do you always insist on showing your breasts as a form of enjoyment for anybody willing to watch?"
"I needed someone," she shrugged.
"No, Steph, that's a cop-out. You could have gone to sit with Vince and Shane or, hell, you could have went to Trish and Amy and told them you needed to talk. They would have gladly kept you company until I made it to the back and was able to be there for you," Chris said. "I know how much it hurts to feel alone, but you can't keep making excuses for this crazy stuff you do. What I watched you do tonight was...you're just so much better than that."
"If I was better, I wouldn't have done it."
"You're looking at this all wrong."
"I don't always need support, but whenever I do, it comes on quickly, and I have to respond to it right then or else it eats away at me," Stephanie responded.
Her admittance was the most open she had been with Chris in a long time about her feelings, and he was glad she was growing comfortable enough to open up to him in that way. Stephanie had been hurt for a long time, and the great majority of her pain would have been preventable had someone taken the time to sit her down and get inside her head. That wasn't to say he blamed her parents or Shane, but Chris wished someone would have put in the effort to get her talking. It was the only way she would ever have a fighting chance at the life she dreamed of living.
"I'm only trying to make you see there are other ways of getting the attention you need when you feel that urge. Instead of saying, 'Hey, why don't I go flash my breasts to a bunch of strangers?', why don't you start saying, 'I'm going to do something great at work today to impress everyone'?" Chris countered. "If you want to be recognized, you have to command that. You can do it with a bunch of negative crap, but wouldn't you rather do positive stuff to be noticed for?"
"Yeah."
"Then why don't you?"
"It's hard," Stephanie admitted, leaning forward and resting her forehead against his shoulder for the second time that night. Chris reached up and raked his fingers lightly over her scalp, repeating the action as a soothing mechanism. He cleared his throat as he mulled over what to say next. Chris had a clear opinion on the matter, but he felt he had to come up with a way to voice his thoughts to Stephanie that wouldn't make her feel bad about herself or get the urge to rebel and do the opposite of what he suggested.
"I know this isn't easy, but you've gotta start at least trying to do better."
"I have been!" she exclaimed defensively as her head shot up from his shoulder. "I try all the time, and everyone is always telling me I'm not good enough."
"You're good enough to me, and that's why I want better for you," Chris replied. "When you were asleep this morning, right before Trish called and invited us to breakfast, I whispered some stuff to you. I knew you needed to hear it when you were awake, but I said it while you slept because I just felt the urge to say it out loud."
"What did you say?"
"I told you I didn't want to change you, but that I hoped you would start treating yourself better. I still stand by those words."
"Nobody understands exactly how I feel though—not even you."
"Then tell me."
"I can't," she shook her head. "There's stuff that happened in my life that you weren't there for, and I can't make you understand just by talking about it. You would have had to be there to get it. I'm still really mad about a lot of stuff with my parents, and some days it gets to me more than others. If I think about it and get upset, my only release is to do something that makes me feel better right away, even if it's not really good for me."
"You want instant gratification, but I've already told you there are more positive ways of getting that."
"I don't want to talk about this anymore," Stephanie crossed her arms. Not wanting to push the subject, Chris gave into her reluctance and ceased his line of questioning.
"That's fine, we don't have to talk about it right now, but I hope we can revisit this in a day or two. I want to help, but you have to let me in so I can do that."
"It's so scary opening up, Chris. I don't normally trust people, and I know I can be honest with you, but it's like...I guess I'm not ready to talk about everything."
"You don't have to be ready right this second. Just know that you're really important to me, and I'm always rooting for you no matter what," he replied before grabbing her chin with his hand and tilting her face so she was looking at him. He ran his thumb over her lips gingerly and added, "Also, these lips are mine to kiss, okay? I don't like seeing other people making out with you, even when it's just an innocent girl-kiss."
"I didn't know she was gonna do that," Stephanie's eyes widened. "She just grabbed me before I could get out of it."
"It's okay, I'm not mad. I just want to make it known that the only mouth that belongs here," he pressed his index finger against the center of her lips, "is mine."
With that, Chris pulled Stephanie towards himself and brought his lips down gently on top of hers. She moaned her consent and placed her exploratory hands on his arms, squeezing his biceps as she leaned forward to deepen the kiss. Chris cupped her cheeks and tilted her head, guiding it slightly diagonal as he slipped his tongue inside her parted lips and flicked it coyly against hers. When Chris tugged Stephanie forward, she climbed the short distance onto his lap, her breathing rising rapidly as their mouths mingled together a short while longer before they each pulled away.
"Now didn't that feel good?" Chris smirked.
"Yeah, it really did."
"I thought so too. We should do that a lot more often," he grinned, awarding her a final, soft peck before lifting up in his seat and sliding his cell phone out of his front pocket. "Your dad needs to talk to you, Steph. Did he call you earlier tonight?"
"Um...yeah," she hesitated.
"And did you guys talk?"
"I didn't answer."
"Oh, why not?" Chris asked. His question was innocent enough, but an expression of guilt spread across Stephanie face with all the rapidity of a raging wildfire. "Uh oh, what's that look for?"
"I saw that he was calling, but I was getting ready for that contest, so I didn't answer."
"That's okay. I was thinking I could bring you over so he could talk to you face-to-face, because we need to tell him we're together anyway. You want to head over there with me?"
"Yeah, but everyone else might not be ready to go," she pointed out.
"It's okay. We'll go in and ask, and if they're not ready, we'll call a cab so we can get to the hotel. No big deal."
"I want to go then."
"All right, well let's start by going inside and finding everyone. I've gotta give Paul the keys to this car, and we'll go from there," Chris directed. He reached for the door so they could let themselves out before he thought better of it and placed his hands on Stephanie's hips. "Is there anything else you wanted to talk about, or are we all good here?"
"We're good. Besides, I get to share a hotel room with you all the time now that we're dating, so we'll be able to talk whenever we want. I love being with you."
Chris patted her cheek adoringly and left her with a final response before they exited the car, "I love being with you too—wouldn't trade it for the world."
