A/N - Sorry about being so evil with this one but hopefully good things are on the horizon for our golden couple. Thanks to heather, Grits0205, Destiny, axxechikka, PaulluvsSteph, StephMcMahon21, dx-nodoubt-dx and of course Miss. Smokey lol. Btw, I hope that you guys are paying attention to the time frame in this fic as it is quite important to what's going to happen in later chapters. Just thought I'd throw that one out there for you as a small teaser of sorts ;-) Enjoy.....


"Steph you're definitely coming to the business dinner at the weekend right?"

Stephanie broke her reverie and turned to face her brother. She absently nodded her head yes before going back to her thoughts. Shane watched her with a concerned expression on his face. His sister had not been herself the past few days, even going so far as to write herself off TV claiming that she was not "feeling too great." But he had a sneaking suspicion that she wasn't "feeling too great" due to a certain somebody that stood around 6"4 and weighed in around 260 pounds. He rubbed a hand across his weary face. This function for their key clients was stressing the hell out of him considering it was up to him to get the whole thing sorted. It was basically just an excuse for the WWE to say thank you and invite all their partners out for a night of alcohol and ass kissing. He still loved them though, even if they were hell to organise. But he usually had Stephanie to help him out. This time around she wasn't interested in the slightest. All she ever did was mope around and it mirrored the actions of a certain WWE superstar too. Something needed to be done here or they were both going to end up making the biggest mistake of their lives. It was obvious to him that they loved each other. He'd had his doubts but this was nothing but genuine. They were both hurting and hurting bad.

"Steph? You are coming aren't you?" he asked once again.

"Yes, Shane. I'm coming," she answered with an exasperated sigh.

"Are you bringing anybody with you? You know, like a date or something?" He probed as an uncomfortable silence filled the room.

Stephanie finally turned around and looked at him. She rubbed at her eye as she thought about the person she would love to be going with her but that just wasn't going to happen. Not after what she'd did to him. "I don't know," she said softly before turning her gaze back to the floor.

"Steph...."he began but they were interrupted by a light knocking on the door. It opened and in walked Marissa. Shane smiled at his wife as she came to stand by his side. "Hi," he said to her as he kissed her cheek.

"Hi," she replied. "Hey Steph." She turned her attention to the woman sitting on the couch and sighed.

"Hey Rissa," Stephanie said and managed a smile. She lifted her head to find both of them standing there looking at her with sympathetic expressions on their faces and cringed. She couldn't stand it that everybody seemed to look at her like that these days. She got to her feet and grabbed her bag and papers. "Listen guys, I'm going to head to my office. I've got some things to take care of before the show."

Marissa turned to her husband as the door closed before them. "I sure know how to clear a room."

Shane snickered as he motioned for her to sit on the couch. "I'm still here. And that wasn't about you. I think I may have hit a nerve just before you came in." At Marissa's nod he continued. "Well I asked her if she was bringing a date to the dinner this weekend and it didn't go down too well."

"It didn't? I thought she was bringing Oscar. He said their date the other night went really well," she thought out loud.

Shane stared at her in confusion. "Wait a minute! Who the hell is Oscar?"

"I set her up with Oscar from the office and they went on a date," she replied. "Didn't I tell you about that?"

"No! Why would you set her up with somebody when you know she's not over Paul yet?" he asked as he shifted in his seat so he could see her better.

"That's the exact reason why, Shane. She was never going to get over him if she kept going the way she was going. Oscar really likes her. He told me they had a really great time and they are going to go out again. They've kept in touch."

Shane sighed and slumped back into the couch in defeat. His dad had mentioned something about Paul and Steph having a big bust up over something but wouldn't go into any more detail than that. He had a feeling that this is what it was all over. "This whole thing is so messed up. First of all they are oblivious to each other until everybody else calls them on it, then they get together and everything's going great, then Dad tells them to call it off and now they're moping around everywhere they go and if I'm right, they aren't even speaking to each other. Jesus!" He threw his hands up in frustration. "And what the hell with this Oscar guy huh? I can't believe you would set her up with somebody like that."

Marissa stared at him slightly annoyed at his reaction to Stephanie seeing somebody else. "What is your problem with the possibility of Steph seeing somebody other than Paul? It's as if you want them to be together, Shane. What about what you told me when they first got together? That they were making a huge mistake and the fallout was going to be horrific for both of them, especially Paul? What happened to that line of thinking? I thought you would be happy."

Shane sat there for a second and soaked in her words. Yes, at the beginning he had thought it was a terrible idea. Stephanie, nor him for that matter, was allowed to date the wrestlers, it was just......taboo. But then he saw how happy his sister had been, how she had a certain glow about her and he couldn't help but change his mind. At the end of the day it didn't matter who she was with as long as she was happy and Paul made her just that. Not to mention the fact that he knew Paul was a good guy and they were friends. Maybe he'd come to accept the idea of Stephanie being with Paul so much that anything else just wasn't good enough? "I don't know babe. I don't know what I'm thinking. But what I do know is that both of them are going through hell right now and it's starting to annoy me."

Marissa laughed slightly as she rubbed his arm. "It's starting to annoy you?"

He looked at her and matched her smile with one of his own. "Yes. For lack of a better word, it's starting to annoy me."

"There's nothing we can do Shane. It's up to them to find each other if they really want to be together," she said simply.

Shane nodded sadly. "I wish it was that simple. You know how stubborn Steph can be and Paul is just as bad."

"Love never is simple, Shane. Stephanie told me that when they first stopped seeing each other, Paul told her that if they were meant to be then it would happen for them and I believe him. If they are meant to be then they'll find each other. Meddling parents, family members and Oscar be damned!"

"When did you get so wise?" he laughed.

"What! I've always been wise. Although you could never tell being that I'm married to you and all," she joked and laughed as he turned his back to her. She hugged him and kissed his cheek. "I'm sorry, I was joking."

"You better be!" he huffed in response.

Stephanie decided not to head back to her office but instead to leave the arena for a while to clear her head. Raw didn't start for a good few hours anyway. She nodded at several people on her way to the parking garage and when she got there she was surprised to see none other than Oscar stepping out of his car. She immediately froze not expecting to see him there at all. Suddenly he turned in her direction and beamed at her. She couldn't help but smile back and gave him a little wave as he approached her.

"Just the girl I was looking for," he said as he came to a stop just in front of her and bent down to kiss her cheek.

Stephanie became flustered but mostly due to the fact that this was a surprise to see him standing there. "What are you doing here?" she blurted out before correcting herself. "I'm sorry. I mean.......well....what are you doing here?" she laughed.

He laughed along with her. "Well I was here on business and a little bird told me that this is where you would be today so I took a chance and it looks like it paid off. Where are you headed? You want to go for lunch or something?" He asked hopefully. While they had spoken on the phone a few times he was eager for more personal contact. He really liked Stephanie. She was beautiful, smart and witty. He'd absolutely loved their date and how she handled herself and he was determined to make the effort because in his eyes she was more than worth it.

Stephanie thought about it and decided what the hell. There were worse ways to relax than going out to lunch with Oscar. "That's exactly where I was headed actually and you're more than welcome to come along. Come on."

The duo turned and walked in the direction of Oscar's car. Unbeknownst to either of them however was the car that pulled in just as they reached the door of Oscar's silver BMW. Paul almost crashed his rental as he saw Stephanie standing there with the same guy she had been with the other night. He quickly did a double take as he parked the car and watched as she laughed at something he said. She hopped inside and a few seconds later they were gone. He sat there in silence, not quite believing what he just saw. A few days ago she was begging him to talk to her. Now she was riding off with some guy and it wasn't the first time. She was seeing him and was obviously over him. He closed his eyes as an overwhelming pain gripped his chest. This was really it. She was moving on. They weren't going to try and sort things out between them. His eyes slowly opened and he quickly wiped at the moisture beginning to form behind them.

"I guess we're not meant to be after all, Steph." His words carried into the wind as he got out of the car and made his way inside the arena.