Chapter 9
So here they were. Sitting in a little Italian restaurant not far from the arena. It had been a nice walk, arm in arm, laughing and chatting about anything and everything, even nothing at all. Lydia had calmed down a lot, and Morrison had hoped that it was his charm that had put her ease, and not the fact that he was boring her. He sneaked a glance at her across the table. She'd picked a nice place to come. It was private, but not overly romantic. It had old wine bottles plugged with a candle that never sat quite straight, no matter how hard you tried. Residue of old wax suggested they were recycled quite a lot.
God she looked beautiful, it was almost an ethereal beauty in this light. The soft diffused glow from the candles bounced off her blonde hair, making it shimmer, while her eyes, although dulled slightly by the lack of light, still held that hypnotising beauty that first got his attention.
Lydia looked up and caught Morrison looking at her. She blushed slightly, darting back into the safety of her drink. She wasn't used to a man looking at her in the way Morrison was, with a longing, almost hunger like look in his eye.
"Can I ask you a question?" She looked at him earnestly
"Sure" he looked at her quizzically. "What do you want to know?"
"Why me?" she asked so quietly, it was barely above a whisper
Morrison sat forward, straining to hear her properly "Why you?" he repeated, not sure if he'd heard right
She looked at him with those deep blue eyes. "Yeah. I mean why did you choose me?" She'd been afraid to ask such a direct question, scared of what the answer might be, but curiosity had got the better of her and she had to know.
"Well..." he sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "I don't know." he shook his head. "I mean, it wasn't a conscious decision for me to go out and find myself a woman on this tour if you know what I mean." He took a sip of his drink.
"I mean, I just saw you laughing with your friends and I..I don't know what came over me. I HAD to know you better. Does that sound crazy?" he looked straight at her.
Lydia shook her head, remembering all the times she'd dreamt about Morrison. " I know what you mean. It's like we were meant to meet you know?" She swallowed hard. " I've never told anyone this but I used to dream about you. I know I sound like a whack job, but it's true. I never told anyone because I figured they'd just laugh at me." She made a huh sound before looking back down at the table.
Morrison reached across the table and took her hand. "I don't think your crazy. If you're crazy then so am I. I knew I'd seen your eyes before, I just didn't know where. I've seen you before in a dream too. I just tried to forget about it. After Melina..." he sighed sadly
Lydia squeezed his hand, making him look up at her. She smiled at him. "It wasn't your fault John. If it helps any I think she's crazy. Giving you up for Batista.." she rolled her eyes, making him laugh a little "Besides, it left the way open for me didn't it?" she looked at him coyly.
He nodded "Yes it did, and I couldn't be happier about that" he took her hand and kissed it, making her blush all over again.
"Why do you do it?" she asked him
"Why do I do what?" he wasn't sure where the conversation was about to go
Lydia giggled "I mean, why do you do what you do. Personally being beaten up day in and day out isn't my idea of a job"
"It wasn't mine at first either." he replied. "I studied film making at college. I wanted to be a director or producer or something cool like that. But after College, it wasn't what I expected. A friend introduced me to wrestling. I went along to watch and thought it was cool as hell. My dad was upset that I didn't follow the family career as a lawyer, but he respected my decisions and let me do what I had to do. He's proud of me now of course" He laughed
Suddenly Lydia looked serious. "I know this is none of my business, you don't have to tell me, but what really happened with you and Melina? I only read what was on the internet so at least 90 of it was probably bull"
Morrison shrugged " I don't know. I thought we were going great together. There hadn't been any problems and we weren't arguing. We were together all the time on Raw, I mean all the time. We travelled together, we hung together, we slept together. Maybe that was part of the problem" he sighed. "Too much of a good thing and all...Anyway I don't even know how she found the time to have an affair, considering we were together so much, I guess it was when we moved to Smackdown, plenty more time and opportunity. They both came in to tell me. I knew something was up because she'd been avoiding me all day. If I went some place that she'd be, she'd go somewhere else. Every time I tried to talk to her, she said she had some things to do and would catch up with me later" he ran a hand through his hair in frustration. " I didn't even think of an affair, it was the last thing on my mind. So when they both told me, it was like someone had punched me in the stomach and slapped me in the face. I didn't know what to do. My first thought was to go for Batista, but he saw me coming. I eventually shut out all women from my life, and built walls to protect myself. I didn't want a relationship if that's the kind of hurt they caused. And nobody came close to breaking through, until you today. How did you do it?" he wanted to know.
Lydia shook her head slowly " I don't know that I did anything John. Just being myself I guess"
The waiter arrived with the bill. John put down his card and signed the debit off. The night was coming to an end, he couldn't let that happen. As Lydia got up to put on her coat, he grabbed her arm.
"Stay with me tonight. Don't go home. I want more time with you. What do you say?"
