A/N: Thank you guys for being awesome and keeping me motivated to continue on with this. You guys rock.
The next morning, Paige woke up to the sound of her alarm to get ready for her first official day at work – she had to admit she was pretty stoked about it. So much was happening to her and it all seemed to be working out in her favor, which made her apprehensive all at the same time. She had always believed that when things were going well, something was about to go to shit.
After a twenty minute shower, she dressed and made a pit stop by Seth's room to tell him goodbye – only when she let herself in after she knocked a couple of times, she found that his room was empty. Apparently he wasn't up for a chat about their conversation last night, which frustrated her. He couldn't just open up to her like that and then tell her to forget about it only to not be there the next morning.
Looking at the time on her phone, she realized she had more than enough time to make a stop by Dean's to talk to him about Seth. After Diane told Paige that she could use her car, the nineteen-year-old woman was at the shaggy-haired man's place in about five minutes, mostly abiding all the rules of the road along the way – there had been a couple of stop signs she ran when no one was around.
She was surprised when he came outside to greet her, hopping in the passenger's seat. "Seth is up there. He came by at four in the morning. He's a mess. Do you want to tell me what happened?"
"I don't know, to be honest. We were talking about baggage and then he dumped all this stuff about Lizzy on me, told me everything and then completely changed afterwards. He told me to forget what he said. Dean, I'm worried. I think he might be suffering from PTSD – I know because I've been going through it myself. Can you just talk to him?"
Blowing air out of his mouth, Dean covered his mouth with both his hands to try to digest everything – to his knowledge it had been quite a while since Seth had actually brought up Lizzy to anyone so learning this was a little flummoxing.
"What am I supposed to ask him, Paige? I know Seth and if I merely mention Lizzy, he shuts it off – you'd have a better chance of asking him yourself, to be honest. You two have been close lately."
"I would, but he's avoiding me. Can you just try? I don't care if you tell him I talked to you. But if we do nothing, it could get really bad. Come on, you saw what I did last week – I don't want Seth going down that road; the sooner we can talk to him, the sooner we can get this taken care of."
Right as Dean opened his mouth to speak, they were both taken aback when Seth came out of the apartment complex, staring at the vehicle parked a little down the way once he stepped foot on the sidewalk; unsure of what to do, they both ducked at the same time, trying to avoid the inevitable fight that was about to ensue. When they heard a knock on the driver's window, they were well aware that their cover had been blown.
Peeking up, Paige scrunched her eyes, hoping that he would go away once he caught on that she didn't want to talk to him. To no avail, Seth remained still, an amused look on his face. After a few seconds of clarity, she rolled down the window. "What's up?" It was a silly question to ask, but it was the only thing she could think of.
"You tell me. You're sitting here in Diane's car with Dean – now either one of two things is going on. One of them being that you two are having an affair or you're talking about me. Now I'm pretty sure it's not the first option so that leaves the second thing."
"Paige and I could be talking about Summer, Seth. Not everything revolves around you." When Seth didn't buy into it, the shaggy-haired man looked at the woman in the driver's seat and shrugged his shoulders. "I tried. And with that, good luck." He hopped out of the vehicle and went back inside the complex, leaving Seth and Paige to talk.
Upset by how Ambrose up and left her on her own in this situation, the woman took a beat to think of something to say. Seconds later she turned to the man leaning in through her window, trying her hardest to keep her cool. In most situations this wouldn't be an issue, but since Seth had a way of unraveling her simply by his stare, Paige was aware how much harder this was going to be.
"Please don't give me that look, Seth – I can take a lot but when you look at me like that the walls come down." She took her eyes away from him to stare at the steering wheel. "You're having PTSD and before you try to contest that, hear me out. I went through something terrible, something that still haunts me until this day and I thought I had dealt with it until last week when my mother calls me and gives me some news.
"It just kind of brought back everything I had worked so hard to put behind me – it was my way of not trying to deal with it all over again, so I tried to kill myself. But, Seth, if talking about it makes you feel better, don't feel ashamed and ask me to brush it off. I can't. I want to be there for you."
"Okay," was all he said, taking the raven-haired woman by surprise. She hadn't expected to win this argue so easily. Was he just humoring her by agreeing or did he actually mean it?
"Well now that I got that out of the way, I have to go to work. By the way, you never told me that Roman was the manager. Is this going to be a problem for you?"
It was only until this morning when she put two and two together about who her boss actually was – it never fully clicked in her brain when he introduced himself to her. But when she started questioning how he knew so much and Seth brought up Roman, it all became a lot clearer. She was going to talk to her boss about it later to make sure there wasn't a conflict of interest involved in why he hired her.
"I'm shocked you figured it out, to be honest. Truth be told, I thought you were a little naïve to take a job in a place where you hadn't intended to apply but I think it'll be good for you. I'm not thrilled about Roman going on a whim and hiring you for all the wrong reasons though."
"All the wrong reasons? What are you talking about?" Paige was curious by the remark.
"It's so obvious that he hired you to keep tabs on me. Just be on alert. If he starts asking you anything personal, don't answer. You're not required to divulge stuff like that to your boss."
A bit insulted by what he had been implying, Paige put her hand up to his face. "So you think he hired me because he wants to know about your life? It can't just be a thing of he thinks I'm qualified? You have a bigger ego than my ex." Rolling up the window on him, the woman didn't want to hear anymore of the shit he was going to spew out.
Abruptly pulling out onto the road and into the traffic, leaving a dumbfounded Seth Rollins alone, Paige couldn't believe his audacity – she knew she shouldn't have let it get to her, but the fact that it came from him made it all the more harder to hear.
Was that all he thought of her as? A way into his life? If that was the case she wasn't sure how long she intended to stick around. She fumed the whole drive over to the record store.
Bored now that Paige had taken up a job, Summer Rae went to the only place she knew she could go – instead of buzzing herself in, she rushed when she saw an elderly couple coming out and ushered herself through the door.
Making sure her phone was off this time so there were absolutely no interruptions, the blonde slowly but surely climbed the stairs up to his floor, not feeling as winded this time. Standing outside his door, she conjured up a reason as to why she was there, her claim being that she was in the neighborhood.
Knocking on his door, she heard his voice and someone else's—a female voice—on the other side of it and instantly second guessed her decision in swinging by. When Dean pulled open the door, wearing nothing but a towel and she was able to see the woman sitting on his couch, dressed in hardly anything, Summer looked down at the ground.
He came out, shutting the door behind him. Apparently he was trying to keep the two girls apart – probably because he was sleeping with the woman in his apartment and he was clearly attracted to the blonde in front of him, Summer assumed.
"I should've called. I'm so sorry. I was in the neighborhood and thought I'd drop by and now that I have, I will go now. I'm so sorry." She didn't give him the chance to say anything when she hurried away from him and rushed down the stairs.
"Shit," Dean said, stumped on what to do in this situation. It looked really bad, being cloaked in nothing but a towel and his guest in nothing but her undergarments. How was he going to explain this to her?
Once Summer appeared outside, she leaned against the side of the building fighting back all her tears; what the hell was wrong with her? There was a part of her that truly believed that they were starting up something, just at a really slow pace. Apparently, Dean didn't want the same thing she did.
Turning on her phone, she waited for it to boot up before making a phone call. With trembling hands, she waited for him to answer and when he did, her heart ached. "Don't date other people. I know you hate this distance thing, but I believe in our relationship and I believe in us. Dolph, I love you."
"I love you too. Paige was right when she said I was going to lose you if I continued being a dick."
"When did you talk to Paige?" Annoyed to say the least, Summer eventually pushed herself off the building and carried on in walking. Now that she had a direction to go in, the blonde was definitely in need of talking to her best friend about her butting into her relationship.
"A couple of nights ago – she called because you were upset when I told you about the girl I was seeing. Don't be mad at her. She obviously cares enough to speak up on your behalf. Why didn't you just tell me how you were feeling, babe?"
"I didn't want to come off as one of those overbearing girlfriends; you were so excited about testing the waters that I wanted to put your happiness before my own. But I miss you and I don't want to share you with anyone else. So can we just keep this exclusive?"
"Anything for you. How about we put a special time aside each night to Skype one another? I know I miss seeing your face. Hearing your voice isn't doing it for me."
"Okay, I would actually like that. When I get back to my temporary home, I'll set up an account. Text me later with a time." Hanging up, the blonde felt like a gigantic weight had been lifted off her shoulders. Now that she was officially back together with Dolph, Dean Ambrose was out of the picture. For the time being, anyway.
"What right did you have to go behind my back and call my boyfriend?" Summer was seething over the betrayal. No matter what reason there was for it, Paige still had no right to do that to her. "Paige, I trusted you."
"I'm sorry, but you were upstairs bawling your eyes out. I couldn't stand by and do nothing because you wanted to handle this on your own. Dolph needs to know that you're not going to be his convenience. Someone had to put him in his place."
Focusing on stocking the CDs she had been handed by Roman, the pale woman paid very little attention to how Summer followed her around. How many times was she going to have to apologize for getting involved in a situation that didn't concern her?
"Paige, can you please stop and talk to me for five minutes? I know this job is important to you and I support that, but I really think we should address the situation at hand. You went behind my back. I don't take that lightly."
Frustrated, Paige set the box on the ground and turned to face her friends, her hands on her hips. "I shouldn't have got involved. That you're correct on. But you can't tell me that you wouldn't have done the same had it been me." Lowering her voice, she continued on. "When I told you about my situation, your first reaction was to kill. It's not about betrayal, Summer. It's about protecting each other because we love each other."
"I'm sorry. You're right. I overreacted."
What was it with people giving up so easily today? Had there been some kind of memo that she never got in the mail or something? It was one thing for Seth to surrender, but Summer was a different story. She always believed she was in the right even when she wasn't.
With no more interruptions, the British woman carried on with the assignment, trying to get it done before the crowd came seeping in like they always did at this time everyday. "Summer, you know you're more than welcome to hang out here but why don't you go hang out with Dean? I'm sure it'd be a lot more fun than following me around for eight hours."
"I already tried. He had some girl over and it looked like they had just finished… you know, so I left. And I called Dolph and expressed how I don't want to see other people, how I want it to be just him and I. We're Skyping later tonight." The biggest smile curved her lips.
"What about Dean? I thought you liked him." Once again, Paige stopped what she was doing to pay attention to her friend. To say she was a bit surprised by Summer's bold move was a tad of an understatement.
"It doesn't matter. He just had sex with someone and I'm not going to wait around for him to get his head out of his ass. Besides, I love Dolph. He's my one and only."
"No he's not. And you know that. I don't even think you love him anymore or you wouldn't be this upset about Dean hooking up with some bimbo." When Roman came out from the back room, Paige sighed. She had to talk to him about what Seth had said. This had been a conversation she wanted to avoid.
The blonde's jaw dropped when the muscular man with the beautiful chiseled face and gorgeous long hair approached them. She had never seen such a God like this in her nineteen years. He smirked when he took in the way Summer was staring at him.
"Summer, this is my boss, Roman Reigns. He's also an old friend of Dean and Seth's." When Paige said his name, the image of that woman sitting on his couch in her bra and panties came rushing back to her. "Say, Roman, Seth said something interesting to me this morning. He said the only reason you hired me is so you can get updates on him. That's not true, right?"
Lightly chuckling, the built man kept his eyes on the leggy blonde, completely mesmerized. "It's definitely not true. I meant what I said when I said you can handle what this job entails. You're doing a good job so far."
Now she knew he was being patronizing considering she hadn't done much of anything and they had barely opened about a half hour ago. She appreciated the compliment though. Getting back to work, the British woman inwardly laughed at the way her friend and Roman were eyeing each other down.
Didn't her friend just make the ultimate commitment with her boyfriend? Sometimes Summer's logic completely flabbergasted her. This was not going to do anyone any favors. Interjecting, Paige grabbed Summer by the arm, "I need to borrow her for a moment." She gave a cheeky smile.
When Roman disappeared out of sight, Paige smacked her on the arm. "Promise me you won't make a move on my boss until you get things sorted with Dean and Dolph. I do not want to be involved in this sexual fairytale of yours."
"You're going to tell me that you haven't checked out your boss?" When Paige slightly blushed, Summer grinned. "You should go for it. I get that you're scared, but ask him out."
"I can't. He's my boss and it's illegal. Plus, I wouldn't feel right doing that to Seth." Seeing the confused look on her friend's face, Paige simply waved her hand. "It's a long story. Besides, I'm pretty sure Roman just spent the past five minutes checking you out." When they looked over at the man at the counter, they caught him staring at the blonde.
"I'm being tested. I will not stray in this relationship with Dolph. I'm not a cheater, but I really want to suck Roman's lips off. Does that count as infidelity?"
Putting a hand to her forehead, Paige simply glared at her friend. "Do not do anything until you figure out what you're going to do with both of the men in your life. Promise me, Summer."
She hadn't time to answer when Dean came barreling through the door, looking around for Summer. The minute she saw that, she ducked down, trying to avoid him. When he approached Paige, the blonde made her escape. "Do you know where Summer is?"
"I can honestly say I don't." Well at least it wasn't a lie. She always felt guilty when she had to lie to cover someone's ass. Summer was going to hear about this later.
"Fuck! I've been calling her for over an hour and she isn't picking up. It was a big misunderstanding that I need to explain." He was rambling so much that he started sounding incoherent.
"Okay, you two make absolutely no sense to me. If you like her, why not be a man and just ask her out already? I'm so sick of you two going back and forth. Summer likes you Dean – I don't think I've seen her so smitten."
After spending a couple of minutes thinking it over, Dean silently left the shop, saluting Roman on his way out – regardless of how he felt about the guy, they were close once upon a time. Of course he wasn't the one that Roman screwed over.
Today had been a strange one at that. Paige could only assume that tomorrow would be a lot better and that maybe Seth would stop being such an arrogant prick and just admit that he was jealous over her working with Roman. But it was still early and anything could change.