"Dude, watch the corner of that wall!" Matt Cena called out.
It was too late. Sean Cena slammed into it, half with his massive bicep, the other half with a large box marked fragile.
"Sorry," Sean grumbled.
"Dude, what the fuck? You're gonna smash my shit," Matt reprimanded, his New England accent thick and heavy.
"Yeah, that's right, key word, your shit so that means you should be the one carrying it."
"I'm directing traffic," Matt proclaimed. "Supervising is what I do best."
"Well, you're about to see my best upside your big head," Sean threatened.
And just like they had done hundreds of times during their childhood, a playful roughhousing match began that ended with the two brothers abandoning the task at hand. They laughed as they tried to overpower each other. It was the day Matt was moving into his Tampa apartment and he had enlisted the help of two of his four brothers.
"Guys, come on," John entered the front door and shook his head.
"I'm just schooling this little bitch," Sean laughed. "He wants to yell at me for damaging his fragile items. What the fuck? Are you a man or what? What the fuck do you own that's so fragile?"
"Grandma Catherine gave me some dishes, asshole," Matt said as they began grappling again.
"Alright, you two, cut it out," John used the end of his shirt to wipe the sweat from his brow.
"As soon as I finish beating the hell out of this wimp," Sean laughed an evil laugh.
John's jaw tightened.
"I said cut it out. Damn! You two act like we're still in grade school or something. We've got work to do. Half this shit is still out in the truck. I came over to help, wasting my valuable time for you two to just act like idiots. I don't have all goddamned day."
Matt and Sean stopped what they were doing.
"What's eating you, bro?" Matt asked.
"Yeah?" Sean reiterated. "You've had a stick up your ass all day. What gives?"
"Nothing," John grumbled. "I just wish you two could be serious long enough to get this shit over with."
Matt laughed out loud.
"Somebody wants to hurry up so he can go home and get some ass," he snickered.
Sean nodded in agreement.
"If I was married to someone as fine as Ava, I'd be itching to get home and get some too."
John kicked at a box.
"Look, if you guys are gonna be dicks, I'm out of here," he turned to walk away.
Right way Sean and Matt knew something was wrong and it had nothing to do with being tired, in a bad mood, or mad at them for horsing around.
"John, dude, come on," Matt grabbed his arm. "We were just playing around. Calm down."
"Yeah. You okay?" Sean asked.
John closed his eyes and sighed.
"Sorry. Look, I didn't mean to go off like that. Let's just get this over with."
"Something's wrong with you, man. We can tell. What's up?"
They were right. They were his brothers and knew him perhaps better than anyone.
"I just…I got some stuff on my mind. It's personal. It's cool."
"Obviously it's not," Matt spoke up. "You've been acting weird the last few days. Is everything okay? Is it Ava?"
John shook his head.
"It's nothing."
"John…"
They weren't going to give up that easy.
"It's not Ava, well, not really."
"You guys have a fight?" Sean asked.
"No. Ava is great. We don't fight. The most heated discussion we've ever had since we've been together is, is it gonna be red or white wine with dinner."
"Then what's up?"
John took a seat.
"It's this chick at work, one of the Divas. She's new to the company. Aspen."
"The one valeting for Teddy?"
"Yeah. That's her. Her real name is Jacey."
Matt grinned.
"Have you seen the rack on her? She's hot."
"She's crazy," John interrupted.
"What are you talking about?"
"She's been trying to hook up with me ever since she got hired."
The other two brothers rolled their eyes.
"Poor Johnny," Sean pretended to sympathize. "Has to go to work, make millions of dollars and beat the hot chicks off with a stick. What a horrible life."
"I'm serious, guys," John spoke up. "It's more than just flirting and stuff. Something is wrong with Jacey. Everywhere I go, no matter how random or spur of the moment, she's there. She's always trying to throw herself at me. I blew her off. I told her I wasn't into it, that I'm a married man and she needs to have some respect for herself and put some ice on it."
"What did she do?" Matt asked.
"Showed up at my hotel room in the middle of the night in a trench coat, drawers and not much else."
"Damn," Sean smirked. "That's bold. Would be a really cool story except for the fact that you're happily married and you already told her to back off. Dude, what did you do?"
"I told her to get out. It's not just what she did, it's how she did it. It's like stalker status or some shit. She wouldn't leave, just kept smirking and trying to egg the situation on. She even described to me how she wanted to do Ava."
"Sweet," Matt grinned.
"Fool, I'm being serious," John threw a pillow at him. "I'm telling you, it was weird. Jacey is crazy. Anyway, I threw her out, told her to leave me alone or I'd see to it that she gets canned."
"You did the right thing," Sean assured him.
"I know, it's just that she keeps looking at me and…she's just a nut job. I haven't told anybody else but it's really bothering me. From the jump, Randy warned me she would be trouble but I didn't listen. Now I think he may be on to something. Anyway, it's just been getting to me."
"Why, man?" Matt looked at him. "You can't help that she's psycho. You didn't do anything wrong."
"I know I didn't. It's not like I told her to come to my room, it's not like I wanted her there or invited her there but…I, I just didn't know what to do. And I guess I feel guilty because when she took off her clothes, I stood like there like a dumbass and just watched. And…damn, when she was talking about a threesome with Ava, even though I just wanted her to get the hell out of there, I popped a woody."
"You pitched a tent?" Sean asked in disbelief.
"Did she see it?" Matt questioned.
John nodded sheepishly.
"Damn!" the brothers said in unison.
"Thanks for the support," John rolled his eyes.
"It's okay," Sean tried to analyze the situation. "Just a natural, physiological reaction. Doesn't mean anything."
"Damn right it doesn't," John agreed. "At least not to me but there's no telling with her unstable ass. I will never get close enough to her again to let anything like that happen again but I feel bad. I didn't do anything wrong but it feels that way. I've been thinking about telling Ava."
"No!" Sean and Matt chimed in again.
"Come on…"
"No, you come on," Matt shook his head. "That is not a good idea. In fact, it is a very bad idea."
"Ava is my wife. We're not supposed to have secrets. Didn't Mom and Dad teach us that honesty is the best policy?"
"True but Mom and Dad also taught us to eat all our carrots, not to say swear words and stay pure until marriage," Matt protested.
"What that moron means is that you're not exactly lying," Sean offered. "You're just not giving up info that is only gonna piss off your wife and cause a shit load of headaches you don't need. You're not into this girl and you're not cheating on your wife. Just let it go, man."
"It's bad enough that you're on the road all the time. You know Ava gets lonely and when women get too much time on their hands, they start to thinking. Pretty soon she'll be spazzing out about every female fan and co-worker. Just don't tell her. Handle the crazy bitch but stay mum with the wife," Matt advised.
John nodded and closed his eyes. His brothers were right. The truth would do more harm than good, besides he had it all under control.
"Alright. You're both right. I shouldn't tell Ava."
"Tell me what?"
A pin dropping could be heard as three pairs of eyes fell to the open front door. There stood a smiling Ava with a large plastic container of ice cold lemonade.
"Babe…" John swallowed hard.
"I figured my three favorite guys would be working up a sweat working hard but I get here and you're hardly working. What's up with that?"
John walked over to her.
"Hey babe."
She pecked his cheek.
"What's going on? What are you three up to and what are you not telling me?"
John opened his mouth to speak but no words came out.
"That he's looking at adding another car to his collection but now he's busted," Matt piped in to save the day.
"Another car, babe?" Ava frowned. "I mean, it is your hobby and your money so I don't have a problem with it but we're starting to run out of space."
"You're right," John forced a smile. "I don't know what I was thinking."
"We'll talk about it later. I brought you guys something to drink. I squeezed the lemons myself and Matt I came here to offer my assistance. Don't mean to intrude but I have the perfect color scheme for this place."
Matt looked at John who cut his eyes.
"Sure, sis. Um, you're the expert. Why not?"
"Awesome!" Ava clapped her hands together. "Now I have the prettiest shade of blue in mind, pretty but masculine…"
Brother and sister and law linked arms and walked hand in hand down the hall.
"Dude, that was fucking close," Sean said through clenched teeth.
"Too close," John muttered.
"Just remember what we said. Ava is a good woman, she's understanding and she loves you but you better keep this one to yourself."
"I will."
"And tell that psycho slut to go kick some rocks barefoot."
"Okay. I've got it under control, man."
John took a deep breath. It was all going to be okay. He had the situation under control…or at least he hoped so.