Chapter Eleven
Tara smiled as they finally got the last of the boxes and furniture into the house. It was a two story stucco built house, open plan kitchen and family room, master bedroom downstairs and the remaining bedrooms upstairs. The backyard was huge and, to Tara, it seemed to go on for days. It had been the thing that had convinced Tara it was right for them. Even though it was a long way off, Tara could just imagine children running around on it. She smiled – she could just see her and Jeff doing the whole marriage and children thing.
She had been glad of the distraction. Stacy Kiebler and Torrie Wilson had been driving her crazy with their shallowness and their resistance towards learning to take bumps ever since Tara had returned to the WWE. The arguments it was causing backstage were starting to stress Tara out. It hadn't helped that she'd had the stress of selling up and moving out of her own apartment to move in with Jeff. But now that they had moved in together Tara finally felt at ease and happy.
Tara put the last box down and took a deep breath. She suddenly realised how tired she felt. Maybe all the stresses in life and at work and the late nights had caught up with her. She was suddenly aware of a pair of hands gently place their hands on her shoulders. Jeff then started giving her a shoulder rub.
"You're exhausted Tara," he said gently.
Tara leaned back into him and enjoyed the feeling of her tense shoulder muscles easing up. "I know, I know, I work too hard. There's just been too much going on lately for me to relax."
"Well, now you have no excuse. We have a week to ourselves, so I will make sure you rest," Jeff replied, wrapping his arms around her waist and resting her chin on her shoulder. "And try to forget about Stacy and Torrie for for the next few days. I know they're both a pain in the ass but this is your time."
Tara turned herself around and put her arms around his neck. "Okay, I promise I won't stress about work, I won't stress about bitches and I won't stress about anything else that doesn't need worrying about for the next week – happy?"
Jeff seemed to ponder for a moment and then smiled. "Yes I think that's fair."
Ignoring the unpacking for that day, Jeff and Tara agreed on eating out. There was no way they were going to spend hours trying to find the kitchen utensils then find a store and then mess around cooking it all. The restaurant they found was sat near the beach which Tara loved. She had always loved being near the sea and put it down to being from Hawaii and being used to the sea and beaches.
Letting her mind wander back to her home island only served to make Tara feel down. Despite the bravado she missed her birth home. If only her parents hadn't been so been so hostile towards her she would've stayed there. Tara mentally shook herself and felt annoyed that she'd allowed her parents to bother her, especially as she hadn't thought about them in a long time and had managed get along with life. Tara made herself promise she wasn't going to let them get to her again. She had a new life; she was doing a job she loved, she was with a man she loved and, despite the drugs and gun incident, she and Brian were still getting along and close like they'd always been.
Screw them, I'm moving on now and I want to enjoy a nice evening with my boyfriend, she thought to herself. If they want to know me again then they know how to get in touch with me.
Jeff noticed her sudden shift in mood. "You okay?"
Tara forced a smile. "Yeah, I'll be okay. I was just silly enough to start thinking about my family."
Jeff reached across the table and held her hand. "I take it you don't get along with them..."
Tara reluctantly told him about how her parent, especially her mother, had always disapproved of her becoming a wrestler and how it had caused a rift between them; to the point where her parents had now stopped talking to her and Tara had given up and left Hawaii to move to mainland America.
It was only the third time since she had left that Tara had ever talked about what had happened. Apart from Jeff, the only other people she had ever told were Dwayne and Luna. She didn't even talk about the family with her own brother but Brian already knew her feelings about the subject so he never pushed her on it. For Tara, opening up to Jeff was a bit deal to her. It took a great deal of trust for her to talk about such a thing because it hurt far too much for her to even think about it; let alone actually talk about it to anyone.
Tara looked up at Jeff after she had finished telling him about her background. "That was really difficult to talk about. I don't tell people about it very often."
"I can see why. They don't seem like very nice people," Jeff replied.
Helping her to her feet, the two of them left the restaurant and headed back to their new home. Despite everything the thought made Tara smiled. Despite her disapproving family Tara had carried on and followed her dream.
Meanwhile, the rumours still persisted around the company of stars being involved with drugs and Dwayne became more and more concerned with Tara's safety. If it was true that Jeff was one of the stars experimenting with drugs, there was no telling what he could end up doing to her. But he knew full well that, if he said anything to Tara without hard evidence, Tara would point blank refuse to listen to him.
Sometimes he stopped to wonder at his motivations as to why he was so concerned about it but would then mentally shake himself over it. Dwayne wanted Tara to be happy and he really hoped that Jeff wasn't caught up in all of this; perhaps it was becoming a father that was making Dwayne so worried about Tara all of a sudden. He had become like that with a lot of the people he was close to, including members of his own family. All, at least, he would convince himself of that.
A few days after Tara came back to WWE, she was approached by Torrie Wilson. Tara was a little surprised at first especially as they hadn't gotten along initially. But deciding to give her a chance Tara listened to what Torrie had to say.
"I kind of get the impression you don't like us new girls," Torrie began.
Tara shook her head. "It's not that I dislike you personally. I just don't like those who don't pull their weight around here. Both myself and many of the others here have worked really hard to get where we are and that isn't easy in an male dominated world like wrestling."
They chatted for a long time and aired a lot of their grievances. By the time they were due to start the show, the two women were on better terms with each others and Tara apologised to Torrie for making negative assumptions about her as a person. All she asked was that she and Stacy made more of an effort. Whether or not they would was another thing altogether. But Tara didn't really get an opportunity to worry about the two Divas for very long as the WWE decided to split the brand in two, having RAW and Smackdown as two separate entities. Tara was disappointed that she shipped off to RAW, effectively splitting her character up from The Rock. Words couldn't explain how sad that made her feel. After all this time, their characters would be torn apart. Tara wondered how the creative team would get around this. Only time would tell.
