Phil was befuddled when he returned to his dressing room to find it empty. It was completely unlike Maria to flat out leave without any explanation. He checked his phone for messages from her. His screen was blank, so he decided to call her. It went straight to voicemail. His eyebrows furrowed, wondering if he had done anything to upset her. Maybe she had seen someone that would have upset her? Immediately after he had completed that thought, did he see small hands attempting to cover his eyes from behind him.

"Guess who?"

Punk knew by the sing-song fashion of that rhetorical question that it was none other than one person.

"AJ," he breathed, instantly irritated, as he faced her.

"Hey, you peeked," she replied, frowning.

"Have you seen...? Actually, never mind," Punk said, about to leave.

"Maria?"

Punk froze in his place.

"She left during your match. To where? I don't know. Guess she isn't as supportive of you as I am," she stated, holding his hand.

He squirmed his hand out of hers, and looked at her curiously.

"You don't know her like I do. And no one knows me like she does."

AJ flickered her eyes in jealousy. She watched him scurry off hurriedly in the distance, obviously in a frantic worry.

"Oh, I wouldn't be too sure of that," she muttered under her breath, chuckling to herself.

Maria was upset and bothered. She accepted the fact that she was never over him. Punk was a one in a lifetime kind of man. He truly cared for her and put her first. He ignored the WWE Universe, the WWE management, and all of those in the locker rooms. He made her feel like she was the only one in the world to him. They were utterly dependent on each other, because they had seen the darkest parts of each other's lives.

His face occupied her mind's eye. His grin. His not-so-pearly whites. His soft eyes. Maria's heart was branded with affection for him. No matter what relationship she was in, her mind had always fluttered back to Punk. CM Punk. Phillip Brooks.

Why hadn't he told her right from the start? Why couldn't he have been straightforward and told her the truth about him and AJ? At that moment, she recalled all the little moments they shared after the fiasco at the bar. He must have felt the certain type of way that she had been feeling.

Confused.

The only way for her to relax, was to have a drink. She walked over to the nearest bar. As she walked in, she saw many heads turn. All of the faces she saw were unrecognizable to her. Sometimes, she liked the feeling of walking into a room and having people not know who she was. She waited for the bartender to hand her a drink, scouring the room. She began to feel awfully lonesome, and let out a sigh. When she received her drink, she guzzled more than half of it down. Another and another she drank, until she was feeling light and free. Maria slammed the glass down hard enough for the man next to her to take notice.

"Something bothering you?" the man asked, somewhat concerned.

Maria gave him a blank face and continued to sip her drink.

"Let me guess," he trailed, staring at the way she drank. "It's about a guy," he stated.

Maria had drained her glass and had already asked the bartender for another.

"So?" she mumbled.

"Do you want to talk about it? Maybe I can help," the man added, actually sounding interested.

"It's my ex," she started. "I just found out that he is supposedly with someone, but he never told me."

"And you obviously still have feelings for him," he finished her thought.

Maria looked down at her new drink. It was that obvious. On another note, something about this guy looked familiar. She met his gaze and they locked eyes for a brief moment of silence. Those eyes. They reminded her of Phil. Maybe she was just a little buzzed. This guy was nothing like Punk. Strangely enough, she felt a strong attraction to him.

"Hey, I've been there. It sucks. The same thing happened to me. I wanted to tell her how I really felt, but I never owned up to it. She moved on to her ex. And that was that," he said, chugging down his drink.

"Are you saying that..." she trailed.

"You should tell him. It's easy as that. Tell him that you still have feelings for him. If he doesn't get back with you, forget him. His loss."

Maria grinned. Sometimes hearing things you already know from someone else helps.

"Thanks."

"No problem. And if it doesn't work out with him, I'm all yours," he winked, handing her his number on a wrinkled piece of paper.

She giggled so high-pitched, that the man, named James, blushed beet red. He wondered if he should drop her back home. As he was about to ask, he noticed that Maria's phone was ringing. He motioned for her to answer. She took one hazy look on the screen and waved her hand dismissively. James looked over his shoulder to the entrance of the bar, and noticed a man making his way over to them. The hooded man was none other than CM Punk himself. Once James had realized this, he became flustered and told Maria that it was getting late and that he should be heading home. Maria asked him to take her with him, but he respectfully declined, noticing that Punk was nearing.

"'Ria."

His voice snapped her back to reality, wiping off the hazy smile that had formed on her face.

"I'm so glad I found you."

"Oh really?" she questioned, turning to face him.

He reached out for a hug, but she slapped his embrace away.

"I know about you and AJ. You lied… You lied to me!" she hollered, slamming her fist into his chest.

"What are you talking about?" he replied. "You're drunk. Now, come on… Let me take you home."

"I'm not going anywhere with you," she slurred, causing people to look over in interest at the commotion.

"You're making a scene. Please Maria, let's go," Punk begged.

The next thing he knew, he saw vomit all over his shoes. Sighing, he signaled for help, asking the bartenders to guide her to the restroom. When she returned, Punk stared at her gloomily. Maria lowered her dejected gaze to the floor, embarrassed. He didn't say another word. Punk grabbed her hand and led her to his car in silence. When they arrived home, they both went into their separate rooms and fell asleep quite easily out of weariness.

They had no idea what tomorrow would hold.