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DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own WWE, NXT or any of the Superstars and Divas from either roster that may appear in this story. Names and locations are used for story purposes only.
*Roman's POV*
Making sure that everything was in place before Cassandra came, my phone rings and I smile seeing that it's one of my cousins, Jimmy. We grew up together and we were like brothers. We were always together doing all sorts of things, especially sports.
"Hey." I say with a smile when I answer the phone after turning the car off.
"Hey, Uce. How's it going?" He asks.
"It's going good, I can't complain. I'm just going to spend some time with my girl tonight. We're going to stay in and watch a movie." I say. "How's things for you? And what's Jey been up since we last talked?"
"We're doing good. Just spending some time with Naomi Jey's spending time with his little ones now that he's home a little more because of his injury." He says. "How are things with you and your girl, though?"
I smile, thinking about her. "It's going really good. It's been about a few weeks and I can't complain one bit. Cassandra's amazing and she's incredibly good to me. I don't know how I got so lucky. She treats me so damn good and it's the little things that she does like making sure I'm okay and with the way that she treats me that shows me she cares. You know what happened in my last relationship, so to have a woman as good as Cassandra, I'm not letting that go."
"Don't let that go. Just be careful though, okay?" Jimmy asks. "I don't want you to get hurt again."
"I am. It's just not as easy as it sounds when you're starting to get feelings that are deeper than just an 'I like you'." I tell him.
"Have you...you know." He asks.
I can hear the smile in his voice and I shake my head, knowing what he was talking about. "No, we haven't. When you see her though, you're going to ask why I haven't even tried. Cassandra's gorgeous."
"When me and Jey go out there, you have to introduce us to her. We have to see her." He says.
"I'm being serious." I tell him with a smile.
"I know you are." He replies with a chuckle. "Ro, you've been through a lot in the last year and a half. But things seem to be coming together for you. You got a job, you got friends. A roof over your head now. And you got a girl. Who would have thought that Roman still had game."
"Shut up." I said jokingly as we both laugh.
We end up talking for a few more minutes before we hang up and I hear the door knock. Looking through the peephole, I see that it's Cassandra and so I open the door. She smiles when she sees me as she wears jeans with a grey shirt. Her long hair was neatly put into a French braid that rested down her back.
"Hey, handsome." She says as she walks in, seeing me in a navy blue shirt with jeans and sneakers with my hair in a ponytail.
"Hey, baby." I reply, giving her a kiss and closing the door behind her. Grabbing her hand, we go to the living room where she puts her purse on the couch. "How was your day?"
Cassandra wraps her arms around my waist and looks up at me as I wrap my arms around her. "It was good. I got to spend time with my mom today, which I liked because I missed spending time with her. How about you?"
"It was really good." I reply. "Dean and I hung out today."
"The two of your are inseparable." She says.
It makes me smile and I kiss her nose. "Yes, we're like brothers. But don't forget that you're my girlfriend and I won't mind giving you a lot of attention."
"You better." She tells me playfully before giggling when my facial hair tickles her neck. "What movies do you have?"
I walk her over to where I have my movie collection, which is next to the television. I've had a lot of these movies since before I came out here to Texas, so I'm glad that I still have them. "I have Insidious, The Fast & The Furious movies, all three Mummy movies, Think Like A Man and Think Like A Man Too, the Madea movies."
"Can we watch a Madea movie?" Cassandra asks.
"Sure. Which one you want to see?" I ask, letting her go through it. She picks Madea's Witness Protection and hands it to me while she puts the rest away. "What would you like for dinner? I have two menus on the table."
Cassandra goes to check and looks through them both while I set up for the movie. I take a seat next to her with the remote in my hand.
"Want to try Spanish?" She asks.
"Yeah. What would you like?" I ask.
Looking through the menu again, we choose what we want and we call to make the order and for delivery. When we settle down again, we start the movie and I wrap my arm around her shoulder. The food came and we paused the movie while we got our food together. Cassandra took yellow rice with red beans and stewed chicken and potatoes that she shared with me while I took white rice with beans and fried plantains that I shared with her.
"I talked to my cousin before you got here." I say after we take a seat at the table. "Jimmy is the one I talked to, today."
"Yeah? How is he?" She asks.
I take a bite out of one of my plantains and look over at her as she eats. "He's doing good and so is Jey. You already know he's out on injury until October, so it's just him and Naomi traveling until he returns."
"You really miss them, don't you?" She asks when she looks up at me.
"Yeah." I say softly as I nod. "I don't see them a lot unless we talk on Skype. I'm just glad that I at least get to talk to them on the phone. They'd like to talk to you one day."
She looked at me surprised. "Really?"
"Yeah. I've told them about you and they seem to like you from what I've told them about you." I say. "If you'd like to talk to them, I could let them know so that the next time we talk on the phone, or Skype, you can talk."
"That would be cool. I'd like that." Cassandra tells me with a smile.
"Good." I say with a soft smile. I lean over and give her a kiss before we take our time finishing our dinner while we talked. After dinner, we shared some ice cream as we went back to watching the movie.
"When I decided to coach football, I wondered if it was the right choice." I say.
"How come?" She asks.
I thought about it for a moment. "A career in professional football didn't really work out for me after I graduated. So I always thought that if it didn't work out, that I would use my degree in Business Management. Deciding to coach football instead, I wondered if there was a part of me that was hoping I could, someday, at least get a taste of the big time. Even if it's as a coach."
"Maybe you can." She tells me. "Who knows, maybe the next step after high school football could be college ball. And maybe after that, it could be the pro's. You never know."
"Who taught you how to be so optimistic?" I ask with a smile.
Cassandra smiles up at me. "My parents. I learned that you can't expect anything positive if you're always thinking negative. It's hard sometimes to think positive so I do have my moments, like everybody else."
"It's a nice change though, having someone who's optimistic." I say.
"Like I said, I do have my moments." She tells me with a smile. "I think everyone does, at some point."
A few days later...
Hanging out with Dean, we go grab a bite to eat for lunch we're both having a pretty good day. Dean had just gotten a promotion two weeks earlier for the Assistant Manager position and he was as happy as can be. He was proud of himself and so was I.
"I've never seen her around here before." Said Dean as he looked past my shoulder at something in the distance. "That girl with the blue shirt."
I turn around to see who he was talking about and everything just froze and dread filled the air for me as I recognized the woman that he was referring to. Long, brown hair with brown eyes and tanned skin. Her body still the way that it was, the last time I saw her. Slim and fit from her years of doing track and field in college, with a bit more curves now. "Um, I don't know."
"What is it?" He asks while looking at me with his blue eyes.
"Nothing." I reply.
He looks at me seriously. "The look on your face when you saw who I was talking about doesn't say that you don't know."
"Dean..." I start to say in an effort to protest against talking about it, but I knew that I couldn't with someone I considered my brother. "She's my ex-girlfriend."
"Wait, what?" He asks. "That's your ex? We're talking about the same girl, right? The girl with the blue shirt?"
I nod. "Long brown hair? That would be her. I don't want to see her."
"Why not?" Dean asks.
"It's because of her that I'm here. We didn't end on the best terms." I say to him.
"Well, get ready to see her because she's walking this way." He says, trying to look somewhere else.
I let out a groan, hoping she wouldn't recognize me. Trying to not look when I noticed that she was walking by, but I couldn't escape her view.
"Roman?" She asks in the same voice that I remember from the last time we ever spoke to each other.
"Megan...hi." I say, looking up.
Looking at Dean, they introduced themselves and I could tell, by the look on his face, that he was uncomfortable as well as noticing that I was as well.
"It's been a while since we've seen each other." She says. "You look good."
"Thanks." I simply say before the waiter comes with our food. "I didn't know you were here in Houston."
Megan smiles as she looks at me. "I just moved here a month ago. I didn't know you were here, either."
"Yeah, well here I am." I say as I take the first bite of my food.
"I'm sorry about things ended between us." She said.
I shrug. "We can't change the past. I'm over it."
"I am, too. But I'm really sorry though." Megan replies.
"You put me through hell, Megan." I said to her. "I already forgave you, though I can't forget the bad you've done."
"Can we meet up one day and catch up on things?" She asks. "And we can probably get over that bridge of what happened in the past?"
I let out a sigh. "No, and I said that I'm over it because I really am. Besides, that wouldn't be a good idea."
"And why not?" She asks.
"Because I have a girlfriend." I tell her. "Things are going really good for me and I'm not going mess that up, especially with my relationship. If you're doing good in your life, than congratulations for the good that you're having."
I go back to my food as silence fills the air around us. Dean keeps paying attention to his food, though I know he's listening in on what's being said.
"I'm glad you're doing good, too." Megan tells me. "So this is it? The last time we'll ever see each other?"
"Yeah, I'm guessing it will be." I say without any emotion towards her, let alone behind any of the words that I had just said. "Have a good day."
Seeing her leave, I take one more bite before I put my fork down and sit back in my seat. Dean stops eating as well and silently asked if I was okay.
"I'll be fine. I just thought I'd never see her again and I was okay with that." I say. "She really hurt me and I feel like that pain that she caused me, changed me in a way."
"Are you going to tell Cass?" He asks.
I nod. "I have to. I don't want her to be taken by surprise if they end up running into each other."
"They don't know what the other looks like, though." Dean says.
"Yes, but what if Megan sees us together?" I ask. "I'm not trying to have Cassandra mad at me and feeling like I tried to keep something from her. This may seem like something simple, but it's something that I should probably tell her."
*Cassandra's POV*
"How is everything going between you and your boyfriend?" Asked my dad as we stepped aside and watched our family enjoy themselves. We were spending time with my brother, my little sisters, Michelle who is my dad's wife, my mom and her husband, Mike.
"It's going good." I reply with a smile. After our first kiss, we went out another two dates before Roman and I made it official after realizing that we really wanted to have a relationship with each other. "Dad, don't worry. We did start out as friends before we started dating, you know."
He gives me a soft smile. "I know and that's a good thing, Cass. He sounds like a good guy, from what you've told us about him. We just don't want to see you getting hurt again."
"Daddy, he's not like the last guy." I tell him. "I know we just started dating a few weeks ago, but I can't keep myself from falling for someone else so that I won't get hurt again."
"I get that, but it doesn't mean that I can't want to make sure that you're okay and that you're happy." He says. "I understand that you're an adult, but you're still my daughter and I love you, Cassandra. I want you to be happy with whatever you do and with whomever you're with. It wasn't easy forgiving him for what he did to you, and I'm not the one he did it to."
I look down and try to wiggle my toes in my shoes. "I think the two of you could have some things in common. Maybe. I don't know."
"Like what?" He asks. "I'm a wrestler and he comes from a wrestling family, what more can we have in common?"
"Daddy." I say, pouting. He softens his expression as I go wrap my arms around his waist and rest my head on his chest. After Roman and I both found out exactly who our dad's were, we were able to understand each other a little more because of that lifestyle that we grew up in.
I feel his arms go around me as he rests his cheek on the top of my head. "I want to make sure that he's not with you because of who I am. I know he comes from a wrestling family, so he's bound to know about me, but still."
"Don't scare him off, now." I say, giggling.
"I'll be my normal self. If I have to go American Badass on him, then I will." He says, though I can tell the smile in his voice.
I take in his scent as I feel him kiss my head. "Is it wrong for me want to be careful, even if he's a good guy?"
"It's normal to want that, especially after the last guy." My dad says. "That doesn't mean that you have to let it keep you from being happy because you get so worried and occupied with not wanting to get hurt."
"I know. I don't want to scare him off or push him away because of it." I say.
He kisses my head and gets me to look up at him when we pull away. "I'm sure you won't. If he does walk away, that's on him, not you. You're an amazing young woman and I'm proud of you for everything you've accomplished."
I smile and I kiss his cheek before I hook my arm through his when I stand next to him. "I love you, daddy."
"I love you, too, darlin'." He says, giving me another hug. "I always will."
I hug him tighter, not wanting to let him go. Hesitantly letting him go, we join everyone else to finish bowling. I have to admit, even though I'm a mama's girl, I'm also very much a daddy's little girl. As I got older, we were inseparable as was I with my mom. During my time in college, we strayed away from each other a bit and had our differences that kept us away from each other, but after all was worked out and we were able to move pas t everything, my dad and I were able to rebuild our father/daughter relationship.
"Your birthday's coming up in a few weeks." Said my mom as we make our way from the ladies' room. "What would you like?"
"I honestly don't know." I reply. My mom stood at 5 foot 10 with long blonde hair and blue eyes. Her oval face was smooth with neatly groomed eyebrows, plump lips and a strong nose with a strong jaw line. "I'm okay with what I have."
"We're still spending time with you anyways on your birthday." She says.
I smile at her and wrap my arm around her shoulder. "I know and that will be a very good time because I love spending time with your guys."
"Good because you can't get rid of us." My mom says. I laugh softly as she smiles.
"I don't want to get rid of any of you." I say, giving her a hug as we walk. My mom has always been someone that I could talk to about anything. She would listen and give me the best advice in the world. Even though being a mother came first to her, which I loved, we were still good friends.
A/N: Are you surprised that Roman and Cassandra decided to give a relationship between them a try? What do you think of her relationship with her parents? Would you say that her dad is protective of his daughter? What do you think happened in each other their past relationships? Why is Roman's ex-girlfriend in Texas? Why do you think she moved all the way out there? How do you think Roman handled seeing her again? Should he tell Cassandra about it?
