The One That Got Away
Chapter 10
Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. None of it really happened. Though, I think it'd make for an interesting real life story. But that's just me…hoping everyone else has a complicated life. Wow. I'm not a nice person. Jeeze. Anyway, London is mine, seeing as I made her.
A/N: Thank you to nattiebroskette and alibob687, two of my most loyal reviewers :) I'm glad that so far, you guys are seeming to enjoy this. I can promise, I have plenty more fun in store here. Please, let me know what you think, and leave a review! Love you guys! XoXoXo
"Come on, London. You have to come. You can't just tell me no," Nattie begged her friend over the phone. It had been just over a week since they had hung out at the house she shared with her husband, and Nat had brought up the idea of London coming to New York again. But her friend was still resisting.
"I wish I could, Nat. But I really can't do that."
"It's your birthday. You need to have fun."
"I will have fun."
"Sitting in your house, watching the Lifetime Movie Network, and eating ice cream is not the kind of fun that I'm talking about. Don't even try to play dumb with me. You know exactly the kind of fun that I'm talking about, lady."
"I'm not. You're talking about going out and getting shitfaced, and making a complete fool out of myself," London replied with an eye roll.
"You need to party at least once in a while. You don't ever have any fun, London. You're turning thirty. That's a milestone. Enjoy it."
"You're married. Aren't you supposed to be tamed and domesticated now?" London asked her friend.
"Oh to hell with that crap. You only live once. Married or not, we all need to go out and have fun with our friends. And you practically never have any fun. You're boring now. And you need to go out and live a little. At least for your birthday. Before you know it, you're not gonna be young and beautiful. You'll be old and wrinkly."
London laughed. "I'm old already."
"Hello? I'm older than you. And I don't consider myself old at all. Come on, Lon. Please? I don't see you as much as I want to. And you're one of my best friends in the whole wide world. Just come visit, and have fun with me. You haven't visited your WWE friends just for fun. The only time you did, it was for business."
"Listen, being away forever isn't long enough. I don't need to deal with that."
"Of course. You don't want to deal with the Wade drama. But you love me. That's why you'll do it. Come on. Stop being difficult. I want to have a birthday party for you. It'll be so much fun. Pretty please? I haven't been able to really party with you. I can't fly to Florida for you. I would love to, but I have a show. Just come to New York and hang out with me. We'll go a little crazy for your birthday. Come on, Lon."
"Nattie, I would. But I can't."
"No. You can, but you won't," she replied. "I get it. You want to avoid Wade, but eventually, you'll see him again anyway. Or you're gonna silently miss him and pretend that you're over it," she said.
London hated that Nattie was right. She remained silent for a couple of moments. "Alright. What's your plan?" she gave in.
"Well, if you fly here tomorrow, you can come to the live show at Madison Square Garden, and we can go out either afterwards or on Saturday because we have Raw on Long Island on Monday. So, we have the whole weekend to have fun," Nattie explained.
"Alright. I'll book a flight and a hotel."
"Funny story about that…I already took care of that yesterday."
"How? What if I said no?"
"I wasn't planning on letting you say no. You should know me better than that. I was ready to make myself cry to get you to come."
"You bitch," London breathed.
"I know. Your pride in me is felt, even over the phone."
London laughed. "Thank you, Nat."
"Of course. Thank you for not making me force myself to cry."
"I love you."
"And I love you. That's why I promise, I'm gonna make sure that you have the best birthday weekend ever. I'm so excited. You have no idea. I've been planning this thing out for the last month and a half."
"Are you serious?"
"Of course I'm serious. For my thirtieth birthday, you and TJ planned an amazing surprise party. You thought that I'd let your part just pass on by?"
London chuckled. "Well, I'd hoped…"
"No way in hell. You should know me better than that by now. Now, you have to go pack…like over-pack. We're gonna have so much fun together. I'm so excited. I'm gonna have TJ pick you up from LaGuardia airport."
"What time is my flight?"
"I booked you a flight at ten in the morning."
"At least it's not an early flight."
"Yeah, well thank my husband for hat. I was going to book the six-o'clock flight. He yelled at me not to do that."
"I'll have to remember to thank him."
"Well, I'm e-mailing you all of the information. Now, go pack your stuff because in about sixteen hours, we'll finally be together again…but in New York."
"I can't wait to see you."
"Good because I'm gonna make you party. Bring some sexy clothes, too. Don't even try to avoid it."
"I promise, I will."
"Good. Alright, almost birthday girl. I'll see your beautiful face tomorrow."
"Yes, you will."
"Goodnight, Lon."
"Nighty night, Nattie."
The call ended. London looked at her phone and shook her head, a smile playing on her lips. She wasn't really surprised that Nat did this for her. But she appreciated it very much. Her close friend was making her feel special. It was something that meant a lot to her.
London sat on the plane, completely regretting that she ever agreed to do this. That meant she would have to face Wade again. That didn't give her quite the fuzzy feeling in her stomach. In fact, it terrified her. The last three years, she had managed to avoid crossing paths with the man that she had loved so deeply. And in two weeks, she was going to see him again. She hadn't heard from him since their last encounter, in her hotel room. And she was more than okay with that. But here she was…on a plane that would be bringing her back into the same vicinity as him.
However, London knew that Nattie had worked hard to plan a wonderful birthday weekend for her. And she wasn't going to let anyone ruin that for her. She was determined to enjoy herself and not deal with any of the drama that she'd be walking into…either from Wade or his crazy girlfriend. She was going to have fun and hang out with her friends, who meant a lot to her. Besides, she really needed that.
London's self-assurance that she wasn't going to deal with Wade didn't help assuage the anxious feeling that resided in the pit of her stomach. She was still nervous as hell about seeing him again. She knew that she really needed to calm down and just focus on having some fun and letting loose. But it wasn't really that simple. She hated how she had worked so hard to put her life back together, and in a matter of one weekend, Wade went back to being front and center in her mind. She really wanted to punch him for that. She wished that it had been much easier to just let him go and forget about what they had had.
As the flight attendant came to London and asked her for her drink order, she decided a glass of wine would be most helpful. Sure, it was only ten-thirty in the morning. But hey…it was her birthday weekend, and she needed to relax her nerves. Maybe drinking so early was frowned upon, but it was five-o'clock somewhere, right? Besides, the last thing that she wanted to do was see Nattie and seem ungrateful for what she had done for her, by freaking out about Wade. That wasn't fair to do to her friend. A glass of wine would be perfect to make her feel a little bit better about the weekend she was about to embark on.
So, one glass turned into two. Two quickly turned into three. And by the time they had stopped serving drinks on the three hour flight, London had managed to down six glasses of Reisling. Though it was probably not the best idea to arrive at her destination drunk, she certainly felt more confident and a lot less anxious than she had when she started the trip.
As London deboarded the plane, she had her bag slung over her arm and was rolling her carry-on suitcase behind her. She had her large sunglasses covering her eyes and wore a pair of black sweatshorts with a grey t-shirt on. Her hair was messily piled on top of her head. She looked like a celebrity of sorts. Truth be told, she was just happy that she could walk straight-ish without stumbling or walking into anyone.
Quickly, London spotted TJ and headed over towards him. He quickly pulled her into a hug. "I'm happy you're finally here. Nat wouldn't stop talking about how excited she was for this weekend. I barely got any sleep."
"Aw. Well, I do appreciate you picking me up…and for convincing Nat to book a ten-o'clock flight, instead of an earlier one."
TJ chuckled. "Of course. I told her that if she made you take such an early flight, you wouldn't be able to stay awake to go out tonight. So, she was convinced by that point alone."
"You have no idea how grateful I am for that. I'd probably be a zombie or something," she replied.
"Eh. Don't mention it. If I don't save you from my wife, who will?" He paused for a moment. "Are you drunk or something?" he curiously questioned, a smirk on his face.
London gave him a guilty smile, pulling her sunglasses down the bridge of her nose. She nodded slowly. "I figured Nat would be happy to know that I had some wine on the plane to kick off the big weekend. But some wine turned into six glasses of wine, and now, I'm drunk," she explained herself. "Probably not my best idea."
"To be fair, I think she'll be even happier to know that you had so much."
The brunette thought for a moment. "Come to think of it, you're probably right about that," she agreed.
"Did you overpack, like my wife requested?"
"I checked two big suitcases."
"Thank God. I was praying that you would. She went on and one about that for a good hour this morning."
"Hey…I know better than to not follow Nattie's directions."
TJ laughed. "Smart lady." He paused for a moment, thinking. "Alright. Let's go get your bags and, then, we can go see Nat. She'll lose her shit, if she has to wait longer than necessary to see you," he said.
"Sounds like a plan to me," she agreed. The two headed towards the luggage carousel. With TJ keeping a close eye on the fairly intoxicated guest of honor. He was happy that London was here. He how much his wife loved her good friend and how excited she had been to throw a birthday party for London. And TJ loved Natalya very much. He just wanted her to be happy. Besides, the closer that London and Natalya had become, the better friends that London and TJ became. He grew to really like having her around. TJ just hoped that this weekend would be full of fun with minimal drama. He did not want London upset during her time in New York, and he didn't want all of his wife's hard work to go to waste because the guest of honor was upset, thanks to her former lover.
But he had a really good feeling about how their time in New York would play out. He was confident that it would be a complete success. TJ knew that London loved Nattie too much to let Wade ruin the weekend that she had planned out. He hoped that if he maintained positive thoughts, it would turn out better. And he was certainly keeping his fingers crossed that he was right.