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AJ giggled as Dolph stuck his finger in her face. She leaned over and sucked the peanut butter off his finger. With his other hand, he streaked some jam on her cheek then leaned over to lick it off. She squealed and tried to pull away when he pulled her closer, but he was too strong and he buried his face in her neck, pressing his lips repeatedly against her skin.

"You're perfect," he whispered to her. He still couldn't believe he was able to actually say the words to her without fear of her rebuff. He hugged her tighter, just wanting to feel her body next to his. Somehow, all the losses, all the work that went unnoticed, the struggle for relevance melted away in the knowledge that he had her to lean on and vice versa.

"You're crazy," she told him, running her fingers through his hair. "You like me way too much."

"Not possible," he mumbled.

"And you're a sap," she told him, pushing him away so she could kiss him. "Come on, make your sandwich because we need to hit the arena if we're ever going to be able to make the show tonight."

"You know what would be funny?"

"Your face?" she asked, and he sarcastically laughed. "Okay, tell me…wait, don't you have that interview today, oh my God, we have to get there! I completely forgot about you doing that—"

"Because I was doing you," he told her, and she groaned. He chuckled as he slapped his two pieces of bread together and did the same with her sandwich. "Two sandwiches for the road. There's chips in the cupboard if you want to grab a bag. "

"Okay," AJ said, going into the pantry to grab a bag of chips. She ducked her head into the living room after that, calling out, "E, do you want a PB&J?"

"Sure, that'll be like my appetizer before catering."

"It would be," AJ said. "Dolph, one more for the road?"

"Already on it, do I have to cut off the crusts for our son or…"

"I think he'll be fine," she said, setting the bag on the counter. "Do you think the interviewer guy is going to ask about us?"

"Yeah, I mean, we are together onscreen, and I think everyone is pretty jealous that I get to make out with you. I was kind of jealous of myself for getting to make out with you if we're being honest," he told her, glancing at her again. He couldn't stop looking at her because every time he did, he got to remind himself that this was his girlfriend now. She was his girlfriend, and he got her all to himself. She walked over to him, pressing her hand to his cheek.

"You okay?"

"Yeah, great," he shook himself from his reverie and finished with E's sandwich. They grabbed the food and quickly got their things since they were running late. "Hey, Mom, we're leaving, text me when you get there so you can come backstage!"

"Okay, bye, we'll see you later!" Kelly yelled at them. "Drive safely."

As soon as they were in the car, E was on them with the questions, "So when did this really happen? Because I've been sitting in a car with you for months, and there was no boinking going on."

"Boinking?" AJ covered her face and blushed deeply.

"Mom, don't worry, I've heard the talk. I know about the birds and the bees, how the birds get it in the bees, I still haven't figured out yet, but I've got some theories," E told them, "so unless you two were very, very good at hiding things, you two finally told each other what I've seen for weeks."

"None of your business, son," Dolph told him, giving him a stern look in the rearview mirror. "What happens between your mother and I is between us."

"So last night."

"No," AJ said, shaking her head, but then realizing she essentially just told her adopted son when she and his father hooked up. She blushed again. She turned forward so E wouldn't see her face, but he was already laughing, and he was quick and clever so he could deduce what happened fairly quickly. She just hoped that he was the only one since he spent so much time with them.

"Are you kidding me?" E managed to say through his laughter. Dolph looked proudly forward and shrugged his shoulders. "So you two…this morning? This morning, with everyone in the damn house awake and moving around, and you two…are you kidding me?"

"Okay, we can stop this now," AJ said, trying to deflect the conversation. "We don't need to talk about this anymore. We have a show to focus on, and Dolph has an interview that he should focus on, and we're not going to talk about our love life anymore."

"I expected it though, you know," E nodded his head sagely. "I never said anything because I knew it wasn't my place, but I was willing to make bets on you two getting together. In fact, me and Kaitlyn do have one going, I said it was going to be within the next two weeks, so it looks like I won. She took the over on that, she didn't think that you would confess, AJ."

"I didn't confess."

"So you, Dolph?" E asked.

"It was more a mutual thing, I mean, sure, she threw herself at me a little bit, but when you look like me, that's pretty expected," he said then grunted as AJ slapped him in the chest. "Okay, okay, she didn't throw herself at me."

"Thank you, now really, it's not even a big deal."

"Not a big deal! This means I might even get a little brother or sister," E exclaimed excitedly. "I've always wanted a little brother to teach to weight train. I could buy him his own mini dumbbell set and everything."

"Wow, way ahead of the couple who have been together for a day there, dude," Dolph said. "Actually, more like half a day."

"I'm sorry, my excitement took over. This is what it feels like to not be a bastard child anymore," E pretended to wipe a tear away. "So what's the plan for tonight? Kick ass, go home, or to the next city?"

"Something like that," Dolph sent a sidelong glance to AJ, who smiled at him. E could tell something was up, but at this point, he wasn't sure if he wanted to know. There was something different now with them. They were a couple so they were speaking their own language, and he now envisioned himself being the eternal third wheel.

"Maybe we should start riding with Kaitlyn," E suddenly said, making Dolph and AJ glance back at him. "She's been telling me how she's been riding alone and wanted to start driving with someone, and we've got the extra seat."

"Yeah, sure, I don't see a problem with that, the more the merrier," Dolph said, looking to AJ for approval, which she readily gave in a nod.

"She's my best friend, I'd love to have her," AJ said, and E felt like he'd dodged a bullet. Now they could be a foursome (not in that way!) instead of a couple and him as the third wheel tagging along. Also, maybe this way, he might avoid some PDA, which he had yet to see, but it was too early to tell what kind of couple these two would be.

They arrived at the arena in one piece, and Dolph and AJ split from E for a little while. Dolph had to catch up with Chris, the guy doing the interview with him, and AJ headed to the women's locker room to get her stuff situated. Dolph found Chris by the entrance, and they headed to a quieter part of the arena to conduct the online interview. There was a camera to set up so there were a couple minutes before the actual interview could start.

Dolph chit-chatted with Chris for that setup time, and then they started the interview. Dolph knew Chris from a few different interviews they'd done together, so the interview had a casual, informal air about it that let Dolph just be himself. About halfway through, he could see AJ walking over and watching the interview. She was already dressed for later in her jean shorts and his shirt, but she was wearing a hoodie over it.

He smiled over at her as she watched, and he felt even more encouraged. When it was over, he walked over to her and hugged her gently. He knew Chris was still right there, but he didn't care who knew he was with AJ, this was a new start for him, and he was going to revel in it for a while.

"So I got the wristband," AJ told him as they walked back to the area where all the locker rooms were. "They had some in the merch area, so I grabbed one. Do you have a box or anything?"

"Yeah, I grabbed this watch box I had at home in my closet, luckily I spotted it last night when I was putting some stuff away."

"So we're going to do it before your match, right?"

"Yup, right before, I'll propose, and…"

The words hung there for a moment under the realization that they were now a couple, and while it was still early, in time, proposing might be an actual thing that happened between them. They let it sit there because it was way too heavy a topic to bring up right now. But then they laughed and mutually decided to just leave them there for now to be revisited maybe in the future.

"I'll pretend like it's real," she said, "sounds like a plan."

"Sounds like a plan."

"What do you think you'll say?" she asked, just out of curiosity.

"I mean, just a bunch of cheesy stuff, you know, the usual proposal stuff that you hear guys say. I've never understood that, I mean, yeah, maybe you're caught up in the moment, but why not be realistic, you know. I hate hyperbole."

"You hate hyperbole?" she wondered incredulously, thinking back to all the times he said he was amazing and a show stealer and all the other stuff that was very exaggerated and definitely a lot of hyperbole and self-primping.

"I mean in that situation. I've always felt like…I mean, this is stupid, this is also a little bit of a weird area given that we just started dating," he admitted to the words that still hung there between them.

"Yeah, but I'm curious, I mean, you do want to get married someday…not that I'm asking for me or anything, but you know what I mean."

"Yeah, I do, I just think that a proposal should be…it should be real, you know, like it should be something real and meaningful and not a cliché."

"So tonight, you're going for the cliché?"

"Tonight, I will be the king of clichés," Dolph told her, "I will sound like every dumb asshole guy who proposes to his girl and thinks he's the most original person because he says he cannot live another day without her or that he wants to make her happy for the rest of their lives or that he'd be the happiest man alive if he could be her husband."

"Maybe the girl likes that though."

"Would you?" he asked in all honesty. "Would that be what you want?"

"We really are getting into some weird territory here."

"I know, right?" he said. "Maybe we should just go out there and do our thing, whatever comes naturally to us, how about that?"

"Yeah, that sounds good," she said as they moved away from the topic, but she was going to just bring it back around again. "Oh, and well…"

"Yeah?" He looked over at her, and it was enough to make her cheeks flush. She shrugged her shoulders a little, bringing them up, but not really bringing them back down into a full shrug.

"I would want real and meaningful any day."