"Why aren't you going to tell me where we're going?" I asked Jensen.
"Because then it wouldn't be a secret." he countered.
"If you won't tell me, Harry will. Won't you Harry?" I asked leaning forward.
"I was specifically told not to tell you." Harry smiled back at me. "Else I would, Miss Amanda."
"Please Harry? Pretty, pretty please with a cherry on top?" I begged pouting.
Harry looked back at Jensen in the rearview mirror about to break.
"I'll give you a hint." Jensen said and I sat back in the seat excited about a hint. "Harry, can you please pull over for a moment?"
"Yes sir, Mr. …" Harry started.
"I told you to call me Jensen." he said as Harry pulled over. "We're friends, remember?"
"Yes,… Jensen." Harry said as Jensen exited the vehicle returning quickly and placing a rock in my hand.
"There's your hint." he smiled.
"A rock?" I asked.
"Yeah." he smiled wider as Harry resumed driving along the road to wherever we were going. I fiddled with the rock trying to figure out where we were going and what we were going to be doing. About two hours later, we pulled up to a very rocky mountain base. "It's a big rock of a mountain." he smiled holding his arms outstretched.
"I can see that." I said slowly smiling.
"We're going to climb up there." he pointed to the top of the mountain.
"Sounds like fun. I get to get in a workout today after all." I genuinely smiled even though I knew later I'd be very tired. We got to the top about an hour later. Both of us tired from the climb.
"How do you like the view?" he asked taking in the beautiful scenery.
"It's breath-taking." I answered wide-eyed taking in the beautiful mountainous landscape.
Jensen chuckled taking in the landscape as well.
"How did you…" I started in a normal tone.
"Shhh." he shushed me bringing his finger to his lips and whispered, "Don't disturb the natural silence of nature."
"How did you come across this place?" I asked in a whisper.
"As young kids my parents would bring my brother and me up here camping. My sister wasn't even thought of yet. I remember racing my brother to the top. He won because he had a height advantage, but it was so much fun here it didn't matter. We came back up here a few years later and my sister was already born, I won the race to the top." he smiled as he over looked the land reminiscing in a whisper.
"That's such a wonderful memory to have." I smiled at him and turned to look at the land when he turned to look at me. I looked back to him and he turned to look back at the land.
"Close your eyes." he said closing his own eyes.
"Why?" I asked.
"Just close your eyes." he peaked out of his right eye turning his head slightly to look at me.
"Okay." I surrendered closing my eyes.
"Breathe in deeply take in the scent to remember it." he said breathing in and I followed as he said to do. "Now, visualize the way the land looks, remember the beauty of it." he instructed I took a few moments to remember it. "Do you have it embedded in your mind?" he asked still whispering.
"Yeah." I whispered, slowly opening my eyes.
"Now you'll always have a happy place to go when you're not happy." he said in a normal tone facing me smiling. "This is where I like to imagine myself when I'm not happy."
I smiled, "I do believe that was probably the most honest and sincere anyone has ever been with me."
"That's because it was honest and sincere." he smiled bashfully. "Uhh, we should head back down."
"…Yeah." I said after staring at him for a moment.
We started back down the trail, but got to a huge rock that was easier climbing up and over, than back down.
"Here let me help you." he said reaching up and grabbing me by my waist. "Ready?" he asked and I nodded. "On three: one, two, three." I hopped as he guided me down to stand beside him. "You made it alright?" he asked smiling still holding onto my waist.
I was only able to nod being paralyzed by his gentle touch as I stared up into his beautiful gorgeous green eyes and he looked back into my brown eyes. I'm not sure if I was just imagining that something was there, but I felt there was some sort of connection that…was much deeper than just eye contact. He gently pulled me closer to him and leaned in for a kiss as I reached up for a kiss as well. Then I snapped out of my dazed trance pulling back.
"I'm sorry. Uhh, I, I shouldn't." I said shaking my head, then turned to head back down to Harry.
"Why shouldn't you?" he asked calmly.
I turned to face him, "…I said I wouldn't kiss you." able to force a decent smile.
"Why won't you kiss me?" he asked while he moved to stand beside me. I looked to him unsure of how to answer. "See you don't have a good reason not to." he moved a little closer once again leaning in for a kiss.
"I only met you on Monday." I finally managed once his lips were only a small distance from mine while pulling my head back a little from his face looking to the side of us at a nearby tree.
He pulled back fully, "Good reason." he forced a small smile. "Let's go." he motioned for me to go first. We got back to the vehicle with Harry and started the long trip back to the city. Harry instantly noticed the awkwardness between the two of us, but didn't mention it. He kept stealing glances back at us trying to figure out what happened. Nothing was said so the silence was annoying after the first hour, but I kept quiet. That is until we were about 45 minutes out of the city.
"No one spilt coffee on my phone." I said looking to Jensen.
"Huh?" he questioned confused.
"No one spilt coffee on my phone. Remember I said I'd call you after I thought about going out today. You said to not let any guy spill coffee on my phone. Well I just didn't get the chance to call." I explained myself.
He laughed under his breath, "Didn't think anyone did."
"Glad to hear the two of you talking." Harry smiled back at us in the rearview.
We both laughed lightly, glad the silence was gone. "Sorry. About back there." Jensen whispered.
"It's alright. We'll just forget about it." I wrinkled my nose nodding.
"We should get some dinner." Jensen suggested.
"Okay." I smiled.
"Know any good restaurants?" he joked.
I laughed, "…"
"Would you like to have supper at my place?" Harry asked. "My wife is making delicious and scrumptious roast."
"Uhh,…" I started about to politely decline.
"Sure." Jensen answered smiling sweetly. "If it's anything like her lasagna, you can count me in." Then turned to see me looking wide eyed at him. "Her cooking is unbelievable. Don't worry she cooks the healthy way."
"Yep, old ticker." Harry smiled back patting his chest where his heart is.
"Imposing?" I whispered to Jensen, then turned to Harry when Jensen shook his head no. "Wouldn't she be taken back by having two extra guests for supper?"
"Nah, she cooks enough for an army." Harry smiled. "We had six children, all grown up now; so she'd be more than happy to have a few extra guests over for supper."
"See no biggie." Jensen smiled.
"Alright." I smiled weakly nervous about going into someone else's home to have supper.
"Supper at my place then?" Harry asked to make sure.
"Yes, Harry." Jensen beamed happily up at him.
"Miss Amanda?" Harry asked.
"Yes." I said nodding. Jensen and Harry went on to tell me about the first time Jensen went to Harry's place for supper with Jared when all of Harry's children where home for one of their birthday's. Apparently she does cook like one would for an army. Everyone took home plenty of leftovers and Jared was extremely happy for the rest of the week.
"Wow, Mrs. …" I started.
"Please call me Claire." she corrected me.
"Claire this is…the absolute best roast I have ever eaten." I exclaimed. "And everything else is…yum!"
"Thank you." she smiled happily at the praises.
"There will be plenty of leftovers for all of your wrestling buddies to enjoy." Harry joked.
"Harry." Claire lightly backhanded his arm with a small, but meaningful glare. Jensen and I both looked at each other and shared a hidden laugh, while trying to hid a smile. Harry looked scolded and reminded her that she did cook a lot of food. "Not enough for the entire roster." she explained to him quietly.
"I said buddies not every single one of them." Harry smiled at her.
She looked at him and couldn't stay mad at him, so she smiled in surrender.
"This food wouldn't last with them around anyway. They would eat a grocery store out of existence if you let them." I smiled at them. "Then you'd be stuck with about 40 wrestlers over for all meals of the day."
"We'd be able to feed all of them with the way Claire cooks." Harry said to me while smiling at Claire.
"Harry." she said again, bored this time around.
My phone rang just as Harry was about to say something. "Oh, I'm so sorry." I said frantically reaching into my pocket for my phone to quiet it. The screen told me that it was Charlie calling. "Excuse me, I have to take this." I said kindly. Then stood up and walked to the backyard to answer my phone. "Yeah." I answered.
"What took you so long to answer?" she asked ticked off.
"I was kind of busy having supper with so…" I started, but she cut me off.
"Okay. Anyway Cody wants to talk to you." she said, then her voice was suddenly in the background. "Talk to her."
"No." Cody said arguing with Charlie.
"Do it." she demanded him.
"No." he shot back angrier.
"If no one is going to talk to me I'm going to hang up." I said loudly.
"Talk to her!" Ted demanded shouting from farther in the background.
"No, I don't want to." Cody replied firmly.
"Okay hanging up." I said closing my phone and started to walk back in from the end of the large closed in back yard. About half way back my phone rang again, Charlie. "Is someone going to actually talk this time?" I asked annoyed.
"He won't…" she replied angry and grunted.
"What the hell was that for?" Cody said in the background shocked.
"That's for being an ass." she told him still angry with him.
"You didn't have to punch me for it." he snapped back.
"You deserve a lot more than a simple punch on the arm." Ted retorted.
"Talk." I demanded annoyed.
"Cody's sorry for his childish behavior from earlier and…" Charlie started.
"No, I'm not!" Cody shouted ticked off now farther in the background. "I want my hoodie back too!"
"Do you see what we mean by childish?" Charlie asked him, then mocked him. "I want my hoodie back too!"
"Tell him he is more than welcome to have it back after he grows up." I said getting angrier by the second.
Charlie relayed the message, "He said he's grown up, but he's…" she started talking normally, then shouted at him, "in denial about everything!"
"Whatever I don't need this!" he shouted back, then I heard the hard slam of the door.
"I'll get him." Ted said his voice growing distant, then another hard slam of the door.
"He admitted he was sorry for acting the way he did, but refuses to talk to you." Charlie explained.
"Alright, thanks. Don't make him talk to me if he doesn't want to. He'll come to talk to me when he's ready." I said. "Let him ride out his anger. Thanks for trying though."
"Not a problem. Besides he needs his ass kicked every once and awhile too. Not just Ted all the time." she said making light of the situation.
"How are Ted and Cody doing with one another?" I asked worried about them fighting.
"Ted's really pissed at him and Cody's pissed at everyone. Ted was ready to knock him out." Charlie explained.
"Great, that's all we need. Two big macho dudes getting into a fist fight with no refs around." I sighed.
"We should let them fight it out. It'd be good for both of them to get their anger out." she stated level reasoning.
"True, but then it will come to that point where they'll both be pissed with one another and me and you will have to play the role of breaking up the fight and basically babysitting them until they get over their anger." I countered.
"Ugh, you're right." she groaned. "I better go make sure they didn't decide to have a no holds barred match in the lobby or wherever they are. Talk to you later." she hung up.
I sighed wanting all this unnecessary drama to be over, then walked back inside.
"Everything okay?" Harry asked looking up from the conversation that the three of them were having.
"Yeah." I lied so easily it wasn't funny, everyone bought my simple lie. "Just a reminder about next week. That's all." I smiled sitting down again.
"Where will you be next week?" Harry asked interested with Claire and Jensen interested too.
"Chicago." I answered. "Jerry Seinfeld is the host next week."
"What is he is promoting?" Claire asked.
"A charity organization. I don't quite know what for exactly, but they're raising money for sick children in hospitals." I explained.
"It's wonderful that at least some business's care about our future." Claire said whole-heartedly, but saddened at the same time. "Excuse me." she said leaving the table in a bit of a hurry.
I turned to Harry worried, "Did I say something wrong?"
He looked as Claire left, then turned to me with a weak smile, "No. Excuse me for a moment." he followed after Claire into the kitchen.
"They lost one of their sons at a young age to cancer." Jensen explained.
"Oh,…I didn't mean…" I started.
"It's alright, you didn't know." he said comfortingly.
A few minutes later Harry came back into the room, "Should get the two of you back to the hotel." he smiled grabbing his coat off the back of his chair.
"Good idea." Jensen said standing up as well.
"I'll send Harry to work with some leftovers for both of you tomorrow." Claire said from in the kitchen.
"I have off tomorrow honey." Harry said turning to face the kitchen door.
Claire came to stand in the doorway with slightly puffy eyes, but smiling. Putting on a happy face to be in a better mood. "You could always swing by the hotel and drop it off for them."
Harry smiled to make her feel better, "Anything for you darling."
"Get this sweet couple back to the hotel and hurry back." Claire smiled cleaning up supper.
"Thanks for the superb supper." I smiled at her.
"Yeah, it was great." Jensen agreed.
"Anytime you are in town stop in and bring your friends along." Claire demanded slipping back into the kitchen.
Fifteen minutes later we were back at the hotel and the drama kept on rolling. We walked into the lobby to see Cody and Ted arguing near the restaurant. They were shouting at each other causing a scene and Charlie was standing nearby upset with trying to keep up with their argument. Ready about to just explode on both of them.
"Uhh, I gotta do some damage control, so uhh, I'll see ya." I said quickly to Jensen before starting over to the drama.
"Wait,…" he said grabbing hold of my hand, "I like you."
I looked back to him, "Yeah," I said slowly, "talk to you later." Then successfully made my way to the situation.
"Don't even talk to me." Cody glared at me before I reached them and stormed off in anger.
Ted was about to chase after him, "Leave him be. He'll get over it eventually." I said stopping Ted.
"And if he doesn't?" Ted yelled angry at the back of Cody.
"Then he doesn't." I said sadly. He's a great friend and all, but if he couldn't get over something so simple as me being upset with what happened yesterday and not wanting to take on more than I could handle that was his problem, not mine. "All I know is when he's ready he'll come running. He always does."
"What is that supposed to mean?" Ted asked.
"Anytime he has a problem or something is bothering him he comes to talk to me." I explained.
"Why haven't I ever heard of this?" he asked ticked, but calming down some.
"I never told anyone because I didn't want to offend him by telling anyone else. I don't know why he didn't tell you. I don't want to try to formulate an answer as to why either." I said.
"Let's just get upstairs." Charlie said noticing that paparazzi were gathering outside. Someone must've tipped them off.
Once upstairs Ted and Charlie went to their rooms I walked to my room and heard the other elevator open up to our floor. I looked back and saw Cody step off of the elevator, he looked down towards my room and I just walked into my room. If he didn't want to talk to me that's his decision, I wasn't about to try and make him, again.