Once again I want to thank everyone who reads and reviews this story, it's almost reaching the big 100 review and I really hope to get there soon (silly goal of mine). So if you like or even hate let me know, it's nice to know what you think about this.
CHAPTER 14
The first thing Maryse noticed when she opened the door that lead to the corridor of the five star hotel she was staying at was that was Phil standing there, resting against the wall opposite to her room as his arms crossed up to his chest.
Of course, she knew he was going to be there and that her eyes automatically fell on the olive green orbs of his own eyes was of no surprise to her, after all he told her he was going to be out there when they talked on the phone.
But still, as she stood under the doorframe of the open door she couldn't help but to quirk her lips at the sight of him; seeing him standing there as she scanned her over made her feel a little antsy and if everything else failed at least she didn't want him to think he was going to have it easy with her.
"Come in." She said coldly, turning around and walking back into the room.
Phil followed her, she knew because she heard the door being closed behind her and when she turned around to sit in one of the two lounge chairs in the living room she saw him already in, standing several paces away from her with his half his face hidden underneath that cap he seemed to always wear around.
The French-Canadian pursed her lips and looked up at him; he towered over her even when she was standing so now that she was sitting he seemed taller than what he really was, and as he stood there, somber and with his hands buried into the pockets of his hoodie she couldn't help but to feel his eyes glued to her as they had been outside.
She didn't mind, before opening the door she made sure to look as presentable as she could and even when time didn't allow her to put on a little make-up she did change into a white turtle neck sweater that covered her until mid thigh and black leggings. Sure, it was not the sexiest of outfits but it looked good, it was warm and most importantly, it was safe to wear around a man she wanted to stay mad with.
"You can sit; I won't charge you for it."
Phil ran his tongue over his lip ring and sat on the chair facing her. For a moment he didn't say anything and after a few seconds of complete awkwardness he took off his cap and ran his fingers through his hair, tussling it a little. "You know," He said, forcing a smile as he lifted his head so his eyes could search for hers. "I have a flight back home in a few hours so I wasn't sure about coming here."
Maryse nodded. "I wasn't expecting you to come."
The Chicago native blew out a breath and pushed his body forward, sitting at the edge of his chair as his finger laced together. "It's not that I didn't want to come because did; I wanted to come and talk to you face to face. What I wasn't sure about was what to say; I'm not really good with this stuff."
All of a sudden Maryse got it, he didn't come to her to fix things or talk about the misunderstanding, he just wanted to break things up and he wanted to do it in person. It all made sense; she should have gotten her clue when he blatantly ignored her at the arena that day.
Taking in a deep breath she looked down to her lap and licked at her teeth.
Yeah, getting dumped wasn't the best experience in any woman's life but because she didn't want him to know it affected her in any way she put up the Ice Queen role people embossed on her and flipped at her hair. Then, in a tone that bordered in annoyance and irritability she addressed him.
"Just say what you have to say, Phil… or if you don't want to say it then don't and leave, we'll just act like this never happened." It didn't have to be a big deal, yeah she was a bit bummed about it but she was going to do just fine.
Phil furrowed his brow and stared at her through half closed eyes. "No, I told you we were going to talk about it so we will." He said that with a shrug before going on. "Look, I don't like leaving unresolved issues hanging up in the air and because I know I was wrong I just wanted to you know, apologize and stuff."
This time Maryse was the one furrowing her brow, the last part of Phil's sentence was told in a quick mumble but she caught on it just fine, he was apologizing to her.
Apologizing, not breaking things off…
"I won't apologize for what I did to Ted because honest to God that I don't regret that, but I didn't mean to imply you had ulterior motives for not wanting me to do what I did. It was just that I was mad and when I get mad I say things without thinking on them and I really, really didn't mean it."
Maryse blinked, part of her was feeling content that this was not what she thought it was but at the same time she wanted to let out the things that were bothering her; she knew things could complicate with her talking but now that they were discussing the situation there was no way she could keep her thoughts to herself.
"I didn't like what you said; I've been honest with you since the beginning so that you would even imply that was completely uncalled for."
"I know." He said, lifting a hand to scratch behind his ear.
"And as if that wasn't enough, today you walked by me and completely ignored me. I didn't like that either, at all."
Dragging his hand down his neck and then to his chest he looked at her and nodded. "Then I apologize for that too; but I won't lie, today I was still mad about the whole thing and I wasn't going to go to you and talk out of my ass just to screw things up even more. I know me, from time to time everything that comes out of my mouth is complete diarrhea and I wasn't going to risk it with you."
"But mad at what, Phil?" Maryse asked loudly, "You just told me that what you said about me and Ted was a thing of the moment and now you say that you were still mad today. Make up your mind because I'm not following you."
"I wasn't…" Phil began to say but Maryse cut him off.
"I didn't do anything to make you get mad at me, on the contrary, with what you said and did I was supposed to be the one getting angry and somehow you inverted the papers to your benefit."
Phil took in a deep breath and shifted in his chair. "I wasn't mad because of you and Ted, I was mad at the situation and I was mad because you wanted to go out and rant me over management. Do you even know the implications of that? What I did I was doing it because I couldn't let him get away with that he did to you and even when you knew that you walked there and threatened me with management." He said his little rant through clenched teeth and Maryse could tell that he was still mad about it.
"I just wanted to make you stop, you were not listening to me and I wanted you to stop. It wasn't like I was going to do it."
Phil shook his head and sucked into his mouth his lip ring. "You should have let me beat him up real nice, he laid his hand on you and he deserved it."
"I'm not saying that he doesn't, but if I have to put in a balance you losing your job versus Ted getting a beating, I rather have Ted unharmed. And in the arena, Phil, did you lose your mind there?"
"I told you I was going to get him whenever and wherever I saw him." He said without taking his eyes away from hers.
Maryse watched him, he was looking rather uncomfortable sitting there and she wondered if it was because he was still mad or because like he said he wasn't very good with the apologizing/talking things over.
Whatever it was he was already there so she was going to finish talking to him.
"I talked to Ted today." She said and Phil eye's bore into hers. He clearly didn't like that she had contact with the other man but as far as she was concerned he had control himself or else he was going to be forever mad; after all she worked with Ted and she couldn't just go to Vince and demand a change on storyline because of a personal vendetta. "I told him that if he tells anyone what you did then I'm going to do the same with him. He's not getting you in trouble unless he wants some for himself."
"I don't like that he still get to be near you."
"I don't like it either, but if you really want things to work between us you will have to trust me."
Phil didn't have anything to say about that and for several minutes the two of them remained in their place, submerged in total silence. On her part Maryse was wondering what was on his mind and if the talk they were having could make things between them get better.
There was no way to know by looking at him, his face was set into a stoic mask and she didn't know how to read it. "It's not that I don't trust you, but sometimes I don't really know what's in your head. Yeah you tell me things to a certain extend but there's so much more you keep to yourself; you are cryptic most of the time and I'm honestly at a loss with you."
Taking in a deep breath, the blonde Diva ran her manicured fingers through her hair and looked at him, her hazel eyes delving deep into his green ones.
She wasn't good at this talking stuff either so she just decided to let whatever was in her mind to come out. "I'm not good at opening up to others, I have this kind of trust issue and I usually keep people at a distance; it's just how I do things and I guess we can say I'm not people oriented. But I don't know, when I'm with you things are different; I really like you, I like being with you and I don't want to be at odds with you because of Ted. So I don't know, how about if you put more faith in me and I work on letting you in."
"I like that." Phil replied with a faint smile. "I mean I don't know if you noticed but I kind of like you too and I don't want to lose this that we have."
"You kind of like me?" She asked arching an eyebrow, smiling because after her little ramble his features softened and his tone was easy going; she liked him acting like that much, much better. "You sure fooled me because I could have sworn that you liked me a whole lot."
"I wouldn't say a whole lot but you are so and so. Okay let's be honest, at first I was just playing along because something is better than nothing, right? But with time I started to really get into you, just a little, mind you."
"Funny, but I thought I was the one playing along with you."
Phil chuckled and extended one hand as an invitation for her to go to him. "So are we good?"
Maryse rolled her eyes and tapped at her lips with her fingers. Part of her wanted to go to him and tell him that yes, that everything was fine; but at the same time a deep part of her wanted to make him work harder than that.
He made her feel bad for no reason whatsoever and if she still was the Maryse everyone thought her to be she would just give him the boot for that.
But because she was not acting by what was expected of her she shrugged, looked at him and quirked her lips. "I don't know, I think I need to be convinced."
"Convinced, and how does one convince you to do something?"
Maryse shrugged again. "Think about it on your way home, you have a few days to figure it out." God, that didn't come out as she wanted to and by the look on his face he probably thought she was kicking him out.
She wasn't, she meant the comment to sound lighthearted but the way she said it sounded anything but.
Before she could fix what she said Phil nodded, then after taking in a deep breath he got to his feet and grabbed his cap. "I'll do that; I guess I should be going now."
Blinking rapidly, Maryse got to her feet and watched him walk to the door. She followed him on bare feet, and when he turned around to say something she took a step towards him, rose on her tip toes and hugged her body to his.
Phil hugged her back, his arms circling her waist as his nose buried into her hair. Yes, up until that point in their short relationship they've had more contact than that and definitely more intimates ones, but even though she found that moment to be sweeter than any previous encounter. So wanting to hold on the moment a while longer she closed her eyes as her arms circled his neck.
He felt comforting, and as she stood there in his arms she couldn't help but to feel more than nice. Feeling him so close was agreeable, the scent of him treating her nose was great and it all made her feel like spending the entire night just tangled in his arms.
"Come with me to Chicago." He whispered.
"What?" She asked in a whisper without letting go and opening her eyes as her lips brushed against the fabric of his hoodie.
"I want to take you home. It doesn't have to be until New Years but it would be nice to have you there for a day or two. Then I promise to put you in the first flight to wherever you are heading to."
Maryse bit on her lips and grinned, liking the feeling of his hand sliding down her spine to rest at her lower back. "Admit it, you just want to show me around."
"Why, but of course, nobody back there believes I have a girlfriend and Cabana said he was going to clean my place for a whole month if I proved him wrong."
Maryse pulled her face away from him and looked at him in the eyes. "Girlfriend?"
"Well yeah, right? Unless I have to convince you about that as well."
The blonde Diva hummed and rolled her eyes. "A few minutes ago you called me your better than nothing so maybe you should convince me."
Using his free hand to grab her chin, the tattooed Chicago native lifted her face and brought it to his; then once he had her close he leaned forward and kissed her.
It began as a soft lingering kiss, but as soon as Maryse felt the hand on her back running up her spine she parted her lips and allowed him entrance. He obliged to her silent request, sliding with ease his tongue inside her mouth so he could sweep it over hers.
But then after several seconds into it he pulled away and resting his forehead against hers he grinned. "Did I convince you?"
"Hmm, not yet…"
"Then wait, I swear I can do better." He said before kissing her again. This second kiss was much like the first, the only difference was that it lasted a little longer and the intensity of it grew a bit. It even started to get Maryse into a very nice and dangerous mood and she removed her arms from his neck to place them over his chest. "What about now?"
"Keep trying." She breathed out against his lips and once again he began to kiss her.
With the third kiss his hands lowered to her behind and he pressed her hard against him, even lifting her up a little in the air without breaking away from lips.
Maryse kissed him back, matching his intensity and all because in all honesty she liked his kisses more than she should, but when it was evident that things were about to get out of control she pulled away and opened her eyes, placing a finger against his lips to stop him from attempting another kiss that could make her falter.
"That was comme ci, comme ça, but if you really want to convince me you need to step up to the game. But it's alright, you still have time, I'm going with you to Chicago and we'll see what happens there."
TBC