Happy Thursday! Happy reading! My dearest Amnbama- I hope you are healing up and feeling better!

Thank you for the follows and favorites and the PMs! I'm always around to chat or answer any questions! And always always thank you for the reviews!

Chapter 10: In My Head

Katherine walked towards her office in a determined fashion. Eyes ahead, head up, two Venti peppermint mochas from Starbucks balanced in one hand and a bag with two chocolate chip scones in the other.

She smiled when she got close to the door and Shelby looked her direction. Her red headed friend's eyes widened with surprise and her mouth dropped slightly.

"Happy hump day, Shelbs," Ren said, holding the hand with the drinks towards her. "I come bearing gifts."

"What are you doing here?" Shelby asked as she stood. She took the drink from her friend and then hugged her. "Didn't your flight just get in? I figured you would just chill at home today, do some recovery!"

"I considered it," Ren sighed and held the bag up for Shelby. Shelby took it from her and Ren moved to her desk chair. "I'm plum tuckered but…I needed to come to the office today."

"Katherine, I know you're a media goddess but we could've functioned without you. You should be napping and…relaxing. Google that word if it's foreign to you."

"Ha ha," Ren dryly responded to her friend. "I'm not a narcissist. I'm fully aware that this whole place could function without me. I needed to come in today, though. If I went home I would just end up moping on my couch, eating Cheetos and watching shit day time TV."

"If you're trying to bad mouth Maury and Judge Judy I'm going to have to kindly ask you to vacate this office."

"Just eat your damn scone," Ren laughed.

"Thank you for these," Shelby smiled.

Ren nodded and inhaled deeply and surveyed her desk as Shelby opened the bag and peeked inside it. Ren had been back on Tennessee soil for maybe an hour. She had swung by her house after landing and trekking to the long term parking lot, changed into some fresh clothes, dry shampooed her hair and then headed downtown to the arena and her office.

"So what's…?" Shelby had to pause to chew and swallow her bite of scone. Ren gave her a questioning look. "What's up? I thought things were great and dreamy with the boy? Why are we moping?"

Ren bit her lip and sat back in her chair as she turned it towards Shelby.

"Fuck, the sex was bad wasn't it?"

"No."

"It was good?" Shelby exclaimed. "You slut."

"We didn't have sex, Shelby. Jesus…and things were- are- great and dreamy with the boy. That's why I need to be here doing things and being busy. Having to say goodbye to him at the airport and send him home to Iowa was complete shit."

Shelby frowned at her friend. "Rennie…"

"Ugh, this is the shit I never bothered to stop and think about. You go on a date with someone and if you really like them you can just call them up the next day and say 'let's get lunch' and boom there they are. You can stop by your boyfriend's work or spend the night or have breakfast- any time you want. Not when they live 543 miles away. You spend three days with someone and you really like him and you can call him up and say 'let's get lunch' and you can get lunch but it'll be in two weeks." Ren had her elbow propped on her crossed legs and she let her head drop into her hand, her hair falling around her. "I have so many feelings, Shelby, and I don't know what to do but I'm sad."

"I'm sorry, Ren. I know it has to suck."

Ren made a disgruntled noise from behind her shroud of hair.

"Okay," Shelby said firmly. She sat her cup of coffee down and rested her hands on her legs. "I'm clocking out of here and we're going to get something stronger than coffee. It's almost eleven; somebody will be serving brunch somewhere which means mimosas. Or some whiskey on the rocks; whatever is going to help."

Ren raised her head and looked at her friend. "I just became 'that girl' didn't I?"

"Bitching about having a sexy as hell boyfriend? Yes, you did. But I still love you."

"I'm sorry…I'm tired and I'm PMSing and once I landed here it all just kind of crashed down on me. I…I'm sorry."

"No wonder you didn't bang him," Shelby winked. Ren rolled her eyes at her friend. "I'm going to let this slide, this one time, because this is all new but after this you're gonna have to put your big girl panties on and handle it."

"Fair enough," Ren smiled, "thank you."

"Now come on, let's get out of here before you get sucked into actual work."

Ren sighed and stood from her chair without any further hesitation and followed Shelby through their office door. She mentally realized she had left her Starbucks behind on her desk, frowned, and briefly contemplated turning back to retrieve it. She hated to leave it behind.

"Katherine?" the make voice sounded from behind her and interrupted her Starbucks musings.

Shelby stopped walking in front of her and they both turned at the same time. "I'm just here for like five minutes, Jon, I needed to grab something for tomorrow. I'm still on vacation."

"What's your excuse?" he nodded at Shelby.

"Lunch break," Shelby replied.

"Hmm, ok, but Ren come with me for a minute," he said, not bothering to wait for any response from her, he turned on his heel and started striding for his office at the end of the hallway.

Katherine groaned and looked up at the ceiling. "Why? Why did he have to see me?" she muttered to herself and quickly followed after him.

"Seriously, Jonathan, I'm just here for a few minutes," Ren started as soon as she crossed the threshold to his office. She leaned against the back of one of the chairs that sat in front of his desk. "God you really do have nice furniture in here. In case I haven't mentioned that lately."

"I'm not trying to get you to do any work, I just wanted to ask about your trip and I figured I shouldn't do that in front of the whole office floor," he replied, giving her an amused look. "And thank you, that's a perk of being the person in charge. I get nice things."

"Yeah, and I had to bring my own lamp from home," she mumbled and then sighed. "What about my trip? I went and I'm back and I'll be here bright eyed and bushy tailed tomorrow morning to get back to my job."

"What about the guy?"

"What about him?"

She and Jonathan faced off across his desk for a few moments. Both of them had equal looks of annoyance on their faces.

Ren finally sighed loudly, "don't you and Kent gossip? You two are attached at the hip…I figured you would know this already know everything about him and us. He is a good guy, he's really sweet and I really like him and this is super awkward to be talking about right now."

"Do we get to meet him sometime soon?"

"Hopefully," she shrugged. "Right now the plan is for him to be here in a couple of weeks. He'll be at the hockey game with all of us; bless his heart. You and my brother can interrogate him then but it would be nice if you didn't and you could just act like the wonderful gentlemen that you are."

"We're just looking out for you; that's what we do. I just…want you to be careful, especially under the circumstances; long distance, he's an athlete…"

"Moments like this I regret that I agreed to come work for you," Ren countered, frowning at him.

"Do you really want to get into the specifics of that right now?"

"No, I do not," she stood up straight and gave him a serious look. "I appreciate the whole 'big brother' concern or whatever but I got this. Just be my boss, ok? Let Kent handle the other stuff and you just be sure I do my job."

He blinked a couple times. She could see his jaw tighten and he took a pause before he responded to her. "Go to lunch. I'll see you in the morning."

"Thank you." Ren bowed her head in a goodbye and quickly exited the room.

Shelby was standing next to the corner of the hallway, leaning against the wall and focused on her phone. She looked up at Ren's footsteps and Ren gave her an exasperated look. "I need to find a new job…"

"Take me with you if you find one," Shelby muttered and fell in step with her friend.

The girls had made their way to the Tin Roof near Music Row. They knew it wouldn't be particularly crowded on a Wednesday afternoon, even with it being lunch, and they knew it had a decent brunch menu and drink selection. That was all they needed; good food and a good drink.

Katherine had been pleasantly surprised when Amber had appeared in the doorway to the bar/restaurant and spotted them across the room.

"I called in reinforcements," Shelby smiled.

"Hi you, I can't believe I missed you at the house," Amber said, leaning down to hug Ren before she took a seat next to Shelby.

"I was in and out pretty quickly," Ren shrugged.

"I had Cash out at the park since it was kind of warm today. You didn't even text me," Amber shot her roommate a small glare.

"Ren was having a crisis," Shelby stated.

"I'm not having a crisis; I just had a small moment. I'm fine."

"A boy crisis?" Amber asked. All three girls looked up at the waitress when she stepped up to their table and took Amber's drink order and asked if they were going to order any food. It was a familiar place, they didn't really need to look over the menus, but they asked for a few more moments to decide anyways. Amber shimmied out of her jacket as the waitress walked away. "You've seemed perfectly happy the last couple of days. I'm still disappointed you haven't reported back to me about his abs yet, though….but what happened?"

"She caught feelings…" Shelby interjected.

"Don't make it sound like I need a strong dose of antibiotics or anything," Ren frowned at her friend.

"You might!"

Amber nudged Shelby and tried to hold back her own laugh. "Did you get any pics with him? Please tell me you did."

Ren unlocked her phone and slid it over to her two friends.

"It was great. He is great. He's wonderful," Ren said; a wistful smile forming on her lips as her two friends looked at her pictures from her days with Seth and the rest of the WWE crew. "It was very normal and natural like that wasn't the first time we had spent more than two hours together. He's…he's great. I don't know I can't find another word to use…"

"You two are super cute together," Amber said.

"It's very hard to get him to smile for pictures," Ren said. She accepted her phone back and looked at her two friends who were giving her looks like they were waiting for her to continue. "Oh you want me to keep talking?"

Shelby rolled her eyes and threw the small cardboard coaster sitting in front of her at her friend.

"We're waiting to hear the problem, bitch!"

"I don't know…I was great up until we said goodbye this morning. His flight left before mine so he kissed me goodbye and told me he would let me know when he was home and disappeared onto his plane and then I had 45 minutes to kill in the airport."

"And you got in your head," Amber sighed. "I knew this was coming."

"That's what I do!" Ren defended. "I'm programmed to over think and be in my head!"

"You programmed yourself to over think, Katherine. There is nothing to over think. I guarantee you he probably sat on his flight home just as sad as you were."

"I concur," Shelby added.

"He did tell me he missed me already…"

"See! You gotta stop this…" Amber responded.

The waitress brought their drinks and took their food orders. The three girls took the moment to let a silence fall over them for a minute. Ren watched the people pass by on the street outside and randomly thought about how empty downtown is during the winter, at least during the day. She looked back at Shelby and Amber and sighed.

"I just feel like now I have to sit back and wait for the other shoe to drop."

"It won't," Shelby said. She lowered her head slightly, making sure to catch Ren's eyes and have her focus on her. "A few days ago you were fighting me when I was asking questions, go back to that."

"I really like him and that scares me a little in hindsight. I can't help but think-"

"Don't," Amber interrupted her. "As your best friend I know you're about to say something about he who we do not talk about and I'm telling you don't. Seth is not him; nobody is him. So give it a chance."

"And in the mean time you have us and Jack Daniels to keep you warm until you see him again."

"He's going to try to get a free weekend from shows and come down here in two weeks- the weekend before Christmas."

"Is he bringing single friends?" Shelby grinned.

"Shelby, I swear you are worse than a cat in heat," Amber looked at her.

"To be fair, Amber you have no room to talk about her seeing as how there is a diamond on your finger and all you want to know is how cut his abs are in person," Ren told her friend.

"Ha!" Shelby turned to Amber.

"Shut up."

Admittedly, after the first few hours of being home in Nashville, Ren's melancholy had started to fade. Maybe it was just the PMS; maybe it was the couple of beers she had shared with Amber and Shelby; maybe it was the nap with her dog and long run, but it wasn't bad as she had psyched herself up for it to be. She would have gladly traded the phone calls and texts for being in the car and hotel room and holding his hand, oh and his kisses, but it was better than nothing.

Work had kept her busy, as well, and Thursday night she had 'kidnapped' her niece for an impromptu girl's night of ice cream and Christmas shopping.

It was Friday evening and she was sitting in her office, alone, her lamp in the corner providing a light glow in the small room. Her phone started to ring on her desk next to her hand that was resting on her mouse and her eyes darted to it.

Seth was Face Timing her.

She answered the call and propped her phone up against her large, flat computer screen.

"Hello boyfriend," she smiled.

"Hi beautiful," he replied. Ren couldn't help but smile at the fact he wasn't fully focusing on the screen; he had his eyes focused ahead of him and he was throwing glances at her. In fact she was getting an almost profile view of him. "What are you doing? Are you still at work?"

He squinted at the screen.

"Yeah I'm still here."

"Alone?"

"Jonathan is still hanging around and 17,000 people are making their way in for the hockey game tonight so I'm not completely alone. I have to go across the street to the Ryman in a little bit and I knew it was pointless to fight traffic to go home just to turn around and come back. I snuck downstairs to the barbecue concession stand and got some nachos."

"That's my girl."

Ren chuckled lightly. "What are you doing? Did you Face Time me just so I could watch you play a video game?"

"No, I'm saving it, I promise. I Face Timed you because I missed your smile. I'm waiting for the madré to get here. I'm taking her to dinner. Her birthday is on Sunday but since I won't be here, she and I are celebrating tonight."

"You look nice," Ren replied sweetly.

He did look nice; what she could see. His hair was pulled back tightly in a low knot and he was wearing a dark v-neck shirt.

He turned his eyes on her and she could tell he was sitting the controller down. He leaned forward and rested his arms on his legs after he reached out to readjust how his computer was sitting.

"Thank you, I figured I could clean up a little bit for my mom."

"Are you going somewhere fancy?"

"No, I tried. I try to treat her as much as she'll let me but she just wants margaritas."

"My kind of woman," Ren grinned. "You know we have Margaritaville here, it's like just across the street from the arena, and they have a margarita that has a shot of Jack on top of it."

"Please don't tell her that," he gave her a curious look through the screen. "Baby, what are you listening to?"

"Oh! Um…that is Debussy; La Fille aux Cheveux de Lin."

Seth blinked a few times and gave her a blank look.

"I have a tendency to listen to classical stuff when I work late…sometimes. It helps me focus. My mom was a pianist; she instilled it in us…" Ren cleared her throat lightly and shrugged. She nervously tucked some of her hair behind her ear and glanced down at her desk.

"I keep learning new things about you," he smiled, "do you play?"

"I do a little bit. I'm not anywhere as close to as good as she is but I can manage."

"Will you play for me? Do you have a piano at home?"

"I do; I will. I'll have to practice."

"My little nerd."

Ren rolled her eyes and made a face at him. "Says the guy who carries around a gold briefcase with him everywhere he goes."

"It's so embarrassing," he laughed lightly. "I hate it."

He dipped his head for a moment and scratched his beard before he looked at her again. "So I did have a real reason to call you, I have some news."

"Good or bad news? I can't read that look."

"I just got off the phone with Carano and I'm getting my weekend off."

"Really? It was just that easy?" she replied.

"I will probably have to make up for it somewhere down the road but yeah it was that easy. If you'll still have me…I'll go ahead and get tickets and figure shit out."

"I'll have to make sure that my other boyfriend isn't scheduled for something that weekend but I think it'll be fine," she quipped, grinning at the look he leveled at her.

"You aren't funny at all." His eyes darted away again for a second and then back to her, "my mom is here."

"Is she coming in?"

"Probably…"

"Let me say hi to her!"

"Katherine."

"I'm serious! Let me say hello and wish her a happy birthday."

"I didn't exactly want for you to meet my mom for the first time via Face Time."

"Well…it's a modern age, babe, you gotta get with the times," she smiled. There was a teasing glint in her eyes and she could tell by the look on his face that he was about to give in to her.

"Fine," he said.

Ren smiled again and sat up in her chair as she watched him disappear to, she assumed, open his door to let his mom inside. She could somewhat hear them greet each other and she could hear Kevin's high pitched bark and then she heard Seth tell Holly that she wanted to say hello to her. Ren laughed quietly to herself when she heard a somewhat surprised reaction from Holly.

She sat down on the couch where Seth had been sitting just a moment before and greeted Katherine with a warm, genuine smile.

Katherine returned the smile and waved at her, "Hi! It's good to kind of meet you!"

Holly laughed warmly. Katherine could see traces of Seth in her and it warmed her heart a little bit. "I never thought that I would be meeting my son's girl friend through a computer but I'm always up for something new. So this is Katherine."

"This is me. He was just telling me that your birthday is on Sunday so I just wanted to say hello and wish you a happy birthday. Make sure he treats you like an absolute queen tonight."

"He always does, and thank you, that was very sweet of you. I'm sorry I interrupted your conversation…"

"Do not apologize; I have to go do some work anyways and him having margaritas with you is far more important."

"Well I hope you have a good night and you don't work too hard, and thank you again for the happy birthday wishes."

Seth sat down on the couch next to his mom, appearing back on the screen with her. Katherine had no idea where he had disappeared to for the few moments; she imagined he was doing something with Kevin. She caught his gaze and smiled at him.

"You're very welcome. You two have a good night! Have an extra margarita for me."

"I will," Holly laughed.

"I will call you later," Seth jumped in. "Be careful."

"Always," Ren replied enthusiastically. She blew him a kiss and winked at him before she reached for her phone to end the call.

Holly was giving her son an amused but sweet look as he closed the lid to his laptop. He looked at her and just offered her a shrug and a smile.

"So that was your girl?"

"That was her…"

"She's very sweet; very bright. I like her."

"I'm glad, I do too. But I do not want to talk about my relationship right now. We're celebrating you…you can do this whole mom mode thing later once you get a little liquored up."

"You be sure you treat her like a queen, too," Holly said, "that's the last thing I'm saying right now."

Seth smiled, "I will."