Bayley had spent a lot longer in the shower than she usually did, using the time under the powerful jets of hot water to think as well as to try and relax. She knew what was going to happen as soon as she came out of the bathroom. Seth, having already taken his own shower, was going to want to talk about what had happened the previous night, to talk about them, whatever 'they' were at this point. That was the main thing that they needed to figure out, she knew that, but actually talking about it was going to be a very awkward thing for her to do, given her lack of experience in relationships. All she knew was that she was attracted to him, and that when she had woken up beside him in bed this morning it had just felt right in a way that she would struggle to put into words.
Sitting on the couch in the hotel room, after folding up the bedding that Bayley had used on there and moving it out of the way, Seth had similar thoughts going through his mind. Getting into bed with a woman at the first hint of an opportunity definitely wasn't his style, but then he hadn't been the one who had gotten into bed with Bayley. She had come to him, wanting his comfort, wanting him to hold her, to be there in her time of need. What did that mean? When he added that to the fact that he had seen her blush around him more than once, he got the distinct impression that she was attracted to him, as he was very much attracted to her. But how could he put that into words and talk to her about it? That was the real stumbling block. Finding the right words to say in that kind of situation just didn't come naturally to him like it did to some people. The biggest fear he had was that he might somehow make a fool of himself, either that or end up saying something that embarrassed Bayley. When he heard the bathroom door open, he decided that there was nothing else for it, he was going to have be honest and tell her that he sucked when it came to talking about this kind of thing, but at the same time try and tell her how he felt about her. If nothing else, at least he would be being honest. Girls respected that kind of thing, didn't they?
Forcing herself to get past the bout of nerves that attacked her as she walked out of the bathroom, Bayley managed to look Seth in the eye and say, "I think we should, uh, can we talk?"
"Yeah, I think we should," Seth said, giving her a smile that he hoped was reassuring as he moved over to leave half of the couch free for her to sit down beside him.
"I really hope you don't mind that I got into bed with you last night?" she began as she walked over and took the empty space. "I just, I don't know, I didn't want to be alone. This whole heel turn thing is just too much right thing, especially now they want me to take on the character outside of the ring too. God, Seth, I'm dreading it so much."
Seth didn't bother asking her if she'd thought about turning the idea down, knowing perfectly well what the score was in regard to that kind of thing. Career suicide wasn't something that he was going to encourage. No, tough as it was, Bayley had to get used to the idea of playing WWE's top heel, which was obviously where this whole thing was heading in the long term. Right now though, WWE's creative plans were not what he wanted to talk about. "Bayley, I'm uh, I suck at talking about things like this," he managed to say, sounding every bit as awkward as he felt.
"Well that makes two of us," she replied, looking down at her hands as she nervously picked at one of her finger nails.
"I didn't mind you getting into bed with me," Seth tried. "Honestly, I'm glad that you felt you could come to me. I'll can tell how much you're struggling with this heel turn thing, so I'll do whatever I can to help."
"Why?" Bayley asked softly, still without looking at him.
Inexperienced or not, Seth knew the reason that she'd asked that question. This was where he was supposed to tell her that he liked her, but what if he was reading it all wrong somehow? What if he told her that he had feelings for her and she freaked out? But that didn't make sense, did it? Why would she have been acting the way she had if she didn't feel something for him too? Sitting there second guessing himself and then second guessing the second guess meant that he left a longer silence than he should have. Bayley looked up, and he saw in her eyes the confirmation that she wanted him to say that he felt something for her. "Because it hurts me to see you upset," he admitted honestly. "I don't know if that's weird? We hardly know each other, but, how can I put it? I feel like there's something between us, like we've connected somehow."
'Nice job, asshole,' he silently raged at himself. 'Could you have sounded any more like a stupid prick if you'd tried?'
Contrary to how little he thought of what he'd said, Bayley was both relieved and happy to hear him try and explain what he felt, even though he had sounded uncomfortable doing so. She could hardly blame him for that. What had been obvious since they had first started talking was that they were similar people in a lot of ways. She had been dreading trying to put her thoughts into words, and at least he had tried. The least she could do was try and do the same. "I feel that too," she managed to say, wondering if her hands were really shaking or if she was imagining it. "Remember when you kissed me last night, in the ring? I've never felt like that before, Seth. I've been with guys before, but I've never felt the way that kiss made me feel. It's just, I can't explain it," she finished, shaking her head in frustration.
Summoning all of the courage he was capable of, Seth took her hand, looked into her eyes and said, "I'd like to kiss you again."
Bayley found herself longing for exactly that. She didn't even want to say anything, she just wanted to kiss him, so she gripped his hand a little tighter and leaned forward a little, encouraging him.
Considering himself lucky that Bayley had beautiful, expressive eyes, Seth saw that she wanted the kiss as much as he did. Tenderly touching her cheek with his free hand, he leaned forward and allowed their lips to meet.
As it had in the ring on Raw, the kiss felt amazing to Bayley, and she was once more unable to prevent a small moan of pleasure escaping her.
Even as he felt himself hardening, in response to the moan as much as the kiss, Seth told himself not to try and force anything and go too far. Bayley was a shy and reserved person, as was he. Trying to take it further this earlier in whatever this thing was between them wasn't the way it should go. Whatever it was that had them feeling this way about each other so quickly, it wasn't because they wanted cheap sex with each other, that was for sure. Again, as they pulled apart slightly, there was the seemingly ever present problem of trying to put what he was thinking into words in a way that wouldn't upset or offend her. "Bayley, I, I don't want to take things too quickly here. Whatever this is between us..."
"You're right," she said, giving him another small kiss. "I don't want to rush either, but I, I want to see where this could go."
"Me too," Seth smiled, finally feeling comfortable with something that he wanted to say. "What I'd like to do is take you out for dinner tonight after the show. We could get to know each other a bit better and talk about..."
"Us," Bayley finished for him. "Is it wrong for me to say that?"
"Not from where I'm sitting," Seth said softly before leaning in for another kiss.
"Where were you this morning?" Roman asked when Seth walked into their locker room. Not bothering with a greeting was nothing out of the ordinary for them. "I called you when you weren't at breakfast to see if you wanted to hit the gym."
"I didn't stay at your hotel," Seth replied simply, having already decided to string his friend along a little before telling him what had happened with Bayley.
"Oh?" Roman raised an eyebrow. "Where were you then?"
"I traveled last night and stayed in a hotel here instead," Seth replied, deliberately sounding offhanded about it as laid his case down on the floor and opened it up.
"Traveled? You and Bayley? Wait, did you end up in her room?"
It was typical of Roman to quickly figure out what was going on, Seth thought. What he didn't want was for his friend to get the wrong idea though. In fact he wanted to have a proper conversation about the whole thing and maybe get some advice. Leaving his things in his case for now, he took a seat on the bench and looked at Roman as the conversation turned serious. "Yeah, actually I did. Dude, no fucking around, I could use the chance to talk about the whole thing with you."
"Alright man, you got it," Roman said. He had already been in the locker room for a while before Seth arrived, and had already unpacked all of his things, including two bottles of water. He tossed one of them to Seth and opened the other for himself.
"Thanks," Seth said when he caught the bottle. Although he knew that he could talk seriously and in confidence with Roman when needed, that didn't stop him from feeling awkward at the prospect of talking about his feelings for Bayley. That sense of awkwardness was something that he was starting to get used to by now. If only he could actually get used to putting what he felt into words instead, things would be so much easier.
"Come on then, what happened?" Roman prompted him. "Don't worry, I'm not going to go call Dean and start running my mouth as soon as we're done here. Seriously, just tell me about it."
"Okay, from the beginning then," Seth said, taking a deep breath. "I'd arranged to travel with her, starting last night, as you know. After her match, I asked her if she wanted to ride back to the hotel together, thinking she would be booked into the same one that we were, but it turned out that she's one of the 'travel right after the show' crew. So I said I was fine with traveling right after the show, I could just get a room at the hotel she was booked in."
"And when you got there, they had no rooms?" Roman guessed.
"Got it in one," Seth said, taking the top off his bottle of water. After taking a healthy drink, he went on with his story. "I was pissed off as you can imagine, thinking that I was going to have to go hunting around other hotels for a room, but then Bayley offered me to stay on the couch in her room. We went up there and I said something about how the couch would do nicely, then she told me she wanted me to have the bed and she would go on the couch. She said it would've made her feel guilty if she invited me to stay in her room and they made me sleep on the couch. I didn't want it to end up with us both in the bed in case something happened. She'd been upset about the heel turn and, well, it just wouldn't have been a good idea for a whole bunch of reasons if we'd ended up sleeping with each other, so I told her I'd flip a coin to decide who got the bed."
"Good idea not to potentially rush into something you both would've regretted," Roman nodded, glad that his friend had thought carefully about how to handle the complicated situation. "I don't know Bayley well, but you can tell she's not that kind of girl."
"She's not. She's such a sweet, kind-hearted person," Seth said. Roman noticed that his voice drifted slightly as he spoke, a sure sign of the real feeling behind the words. "That's why it was so hard to see her crying. All I wanted to do was make her feel like it was going to be okay, that I was there for her, you know?"
"Wait, back up a bit. You jumped from tossing a coin for the bed to Bayley crying. What happened there?"
"We chatted for a bit after we got in the room, then we settled down to sleep. It was late. I think I must have drifted off quickly. I'm not sure how long I'd slept for when she woke me up. She climbed into bed with me and put her arm around me. I turned around and saw that she had been crying her eyes out on the couch. It was horrible, man. I really hated seeing her like that."
"So what did you do?" Roman asked delicately, hoping that Seth hadn't tried something, or even slept with Bayley. That wouldn't have been good, not in those circumstances.
"I just told her it was going to be okay, then I held her until she fell asleep. Go on then," Seth sighed, "You can have a good laugh at me now."
"I'm not going to laughed at you," Roman promised his friend. "Look, I've seen how Bayley looks at you, and I've seen the two of you talking. She really likes you. It's pretty obvious you really like her. She's seems like a great girl, so I'm pulling for you. I think you did exactly the right thing last night, and I'm sure she appreciated it."
Seth watched Roman down some of his water while he thought that through. It was obvious to other people that he and Bayley had feelings for each other, yet they were struggling to talk to each other about it. Maybe Roman could help? "What do I say to her? How do I get across that I really feel something strong for her, even though I don't even know her very well? I mean, does it even make sense for us to feel something so soon?"
"The heart wants what it wants," Roman shrugged. "There's no set time period on it. If you guys like each other, good for you. How did you leave things with her this morning?"
"Before I get to that, we talked after we'd had our showers this morning and I tried to tell her how I feel. I made a bit of a mess of it, but she kind of lead me into it. She wanted me to say I find her attractive or I want to be with her, whatever. I kissed her. We kissed each other, I mean. Twice, actually. I offered to take her out to dinner tonight so that we can talk some more. Then we went and hit the gym. Sasha was in there, they got talking, so I left them to it."
Roman smiled broadly. "For someone who thinks he doesn't have a clue, you're not doing badly at all. The only advice I can give you is stop trying to think of the perfect thing to say. Say what you feel. Be yourself. Bayley likes you, not some alternate version of you that you might be able to show her. Just talk to the girl. Apart from work, what else have you talked to her about so far?"
"We had a long chat about video games in catering yesterday."
Roman facepalmed theatrically. "You went full nerd on her? Jesus Christ. Just when I thought you were doing well."
"Actually, Bayley's a nerd too," Seth took pleasure in informing him. "She enjoyed talking about games just as much as I did."
"Really?" Roman asked, raising his eyebrows. "Well then, you just gave me an idea."
Earlier that day
"You kissed him already?" Sasha asked, not even trying to hide her delight. They were in the locker room at the hotel's gym, finishing up the process of changing after their workout and subsequent shower.
Blushing, Bayley added, "He's a great kisser too. I couldn't help myself making this kind of moaning sound. It was so damn embarrassing."
"It's not embarrassing to let him know you enjoy kissing him," Sasha said, a huge smile on her face. "I'm sure he liked that a lot."
"Then he invited me to dinner with him after the show tonight. I said yes, but I'm so nervous about it. You know me, you know how I get. I can see me just sitting there and not saying anything in case I make myself look an idiot. I hate being shy sometimes."
"You just need to be yourself, girl," Sasha said. "I wasn't going to say anything, but Charlotte and I saw you guys talking yesterday, in catering. You both looked so happy, it really gave me the feels. And do you know why you were both so happy?"
"Why?" Bayley asked frustratedly as she checked that she had taken all of her belongings out of her locker. All of this was so complicated, and the news that other people had been watching them talk wasn't exactly welcome.
"Because you weren't worrying about what you might think of each other. You weren't worrying about what he might think about what you said. That's how you need to be with him. He likes you the way you are, Bayley. You don't have to worry about trying to force it."
Bayley knew that Sasha was right. That chat in catering had been the only time she had talked to Seth without over thinking every single thing she'd said, and the conversation had been more enjoyable as a result. What was lucky was that Seth's personality was similar to her own in a lot of ways. Her shyness wouldn't frustrate or bore him, but having said that, she still wanted to get past being shy around him. That was the only way anything could develop between them. Was it weird to already be thinking like that? She didn't even know the answer to that question.
"Sash, is it weird that I'm thinking about this maybe turning into something? A relationship I mean."
"Thinking about it? No," Sasha said, picking up her gym bag. "You ready to go?" Bayley nodded, picking up her own bag, and they left the locker room as Sasha continued answering the original question. "There's nothing wrong with thinking about it. Don't actually say anything like that to Seth yet though, that would seem strange. Too pushy, you know?"
Bayley nodded. It made sense. "So tonight I just get to know him better? What if he wants to come up to my room after dinner?"
They walked out of the gym and over to the bank of elevators. "That doesn't sound like Seth to me," Sasha said. "But if he does, you make him wait. The most he gets tonight is a kiss and a goodnight."
"I hoped you'd say that," Bayley said, relieved that her friend had confirmed what she had already been thinking. "Anything else I should do?"
One of the elevators arrived on their floor. Its doors slid open and Sasha lead the way towards it, looking back at her friend with another smile as she did so. "Yeah, you need to come with me. We're going to go buy you something to wear tonight. You're going to blow his mind."
"I hope so," Bayley replied shyly as she walked into the elevator.
"Trust me."
