Sasha woke Monday morning to a gentle knock at the door of the guest bedroom.

"Hmm?"

"Hey you decent?"

She laughed and sat up in the bed, putting her glasses back on.

"Yeah c'mon in Brandon,"

He popped his head in, "sorry to wake you, I didn't want you to freak out if you heard me."

"That's alright, you taking Kevin?"

"Yeah, and I'll feed him so you can sleep."

"Thanks,"

He nodded and started to leave, but then stopped with the door halfway closed.

"Hey," he pushed it open again. "You wanna do dinner tonight?"

"Uh okay, sure."

"Pizza?"

"Sounds good."

"I'll be back after 7."

"Alright,"

"See ya,"

She glanced over at her phone, there was a text from Seth already. He was probably up early to go for a run. Hey hope you're enjoying sleeping in. Love you. She chuckled a bit, at least he was trying to make her feel better about being home while he was performing. Did he also stick Brandon on her to make sure she was eating? Or was that just Brandon's own idea? Seth had mentioned a couple weeks ago that he'd broken up with the girl he'd been seeing. He was probably lonely.

In the evening, the front door opened and closed again. It sent Kevin running and barking to the front door.

"Yes, hello Kevin, yes I'll pet you in a minute," Brandon chuckled as he emerged with a pizza box in the entryway of the kitchen.

"You need help?"

"No no, I'm okay. He'll calm down in a minute." He placed the pizza down on the island, "he been like this all day?"

"Off and on. I don't think he's figured out yet that I can't run around with him."

He scooped up Kevin and fluffed his fur.

"How was your day?" she asked, unsure what else to talk about with him. They were friends, but not like that.

"It was fine. We have this big client that wants a huge audit by the end of the week. It's been a nightmare."

"Sorry to hear that, thanks" she took the paper plate from him.

"I'm sure you know all about work stress," he said, sitting down next to her on the couch.

"Yeah, you could say that," she took a bite, "the appearances and press stuff is a lot. The wrestling isn't work though, it's just…"

"Just wrestling?"

She nodded.

"Yeah, Seth said the same thing."

There was a moment of awkward silence. They'd texted back and forth a few times since she started seriously dating Seth, but never had to hold a conversation with him.

"So um, how's…you know, everything else?"

He chuckled, "well,"

"Sorry. Forget I mentioned it."

'It's okay. Whatever, break ups suck right?"

"Yeah, they do suck."

"I take pride in handling my shit a little bit better than Seth."

She laughed, "he's not that bad-"

"I walked in on him leaving you one of those desperate voicemails. It was brutal."

"Yeah alright, I'll give that to you."

"He is so whiny."

"It's sweet."

"Hey, I guess it worked. Here you are after all."

"Here I am. So what happened?"

"With Sarah? I'm 28. Seth might be trying to outrun his thirties, but I'm ready for them, and I would prefer to be married. She didn't want the same thing so, we called it quits."

"I get that. Better to know now."

"Yeah exactly, it was peaceful. I still bump into her at work sometimes but she's all the way up on legal so."

"Didn't Seth want to be married? I mean, he was engaged…"

Brandon sighed, realizing the can of worms he'd opened up here.

"Seth wanted the perfect ending to his romantic comedy. He spent so long chasing after Jenna, that I think he ended up falling in love with who she used to be. And who he used to be. Look I'd never justify the affair, I believe in the sanctity of that promise and if you're not going to keep it you should not get down on a knee and pretend that you will."

"But?"

"But, I think meeting her, the other woman, she made him realize how much he'd changed since the first time he kissed Jenna under the bleachers. His life was just completely different, and so was hers honestly. He shouldn't have been a coward about it, he should've called it off the second he realized it wasn't going to work and he didn't. He let it explode because he was afraid of pulling the plug on something he spent so long wanting, and he kept hoping that he'd wake up and feel differently."

"He's pretty attached to his youth huh?" she asked after a moment.

"I swear it's gonna get him killed one of these days."

"Yeah, probably."

"But you know, I think you help him see his future."

"Yeah yeah, let's see you try to retcon this."

"I'm serious Sasha. You, and everything the two of you accomplish together, I think that helps him see past tomorrow. Act a little less reckless."

"Just a little."

"That's enough. He slowed down when he started seeing you, stopped seeming like he was outrunning something."

She laughed, "you really think he'd settle down?"

"I think he already has. Was that lasagna in the fridge?"

"Okay, fine but-"

"He loves you. He's gonna go to the ends of the earth to prove it, believe me."

"Tell me honestly," she met his gaze, "should I trust him not to bolt?"

"Yeah. He won't make that mistake twice."

She nodded and let the silence fall over them again. It was probably best not to push things with them. USA played out the end of an episode of Modern Family, and the Raw opener started playing. He looked over at her for a moment before saying anything.

"Am I supposed to be letting you watch this?"

"Do you really think I let Seth tell me what I can and can't do?" she retorted sharply.

"Nope, fair point. I used to have to literally wrestle the remote from Seth when he was injured. That's how I got this bad boy," he pointed to a short faded scar on the top of his left forearm."

"You wouldn't dare,"

"No I think wrapping your brother's girlfriend up in a Crossface is considered impolite."

She laughed, "girlfriend…that still feels weird."

"Nah it doesn't. Wife, now that'll take some getting used to."

"Do you know something I don't?"

"I know my big brother. I know when he's ."

"Speaking of our boy," she nodded to the screen where Seth's music was playing and he was making his way to the ring.

"I love watching him wrestle," Brandon said.

"Yeah, me too."

"Ew," he teased, and she threw a pillow at him, laughing. "It's fun though, watching him do what he loves."

"Yeah, it really is."

XXX

Her ankle was getting restless a month or so into the whole ordeal. Next week was her appointment, and if it was healed then she could get the cast off and go down to the Performance Center to rehab. She didn't want to admit it to Seth, who had, in all fairness, tried really hard to make this work for her, but she was ready. Not just because she wanted to wrestle again, though that was always in the back of her mind. There was a part of her that felt like his beautiful house was a prison. It wasn't fair, she knew it, but she couldn't help but feel stuck. His brother helped a little.

As it turned out, she and Brandon actually had a lot in common. Maybe that had to do with the fact that he was so much like Seth in all those little ways that had brought the two of them together in the first place. It didn't stop her from missing Seth as soon as he kissed her goodbye on Friday mornings, or from finding herself all over him once he returned on Tuesday nights. It did, at least, fill the space in between a bit more. The rest of her friends were busy on the road, even Finn was back now. So at least she could look forward to spending Monday nights eating dinner and watching Raw with Brandon. She was pretty sure he was sending status reports back to Seth but it didn't matter, she enjoyed his company and he seemed to enjoy hers.

They were lounged on Seth's sofa Friday night, laughing as Sasha swiped on his phone.

"Oh definitely her," she said on the profile of a pretty blonde girl, tall and statuesque.

"Her? Sasha, do the men in my family really strike you as going for Barbie types?"

"I've seen Seth with plenty of women like her, and you shouldn't judge, look she's a lawyer."

"Think I've had my fill of lawyers. You can't win an argument."

"Which way do I swipe again?"

"Right."

She did with a flair of her finger. "Hey look! You matched!"

"Wait really? With Courtroom Barbie?" he took the phone back and looked at it. "That's crazy."

"Why is that crazy?"

"I dunno, just is. You done Tindering for the night?"

"Yeah I suppose."

"Wasn't Tinder a thing when you were single?" he asked, cleaning up the two empty beer bottles on the coffee table.

"Yeah but I didn't really get back on the horse until Seth happened."

"Gotcha. So now you wanna play Tinder on my phone."

"Exactly," she laughed.

"Hey so, I know you were so looking forward to eating microwaved dinners and watching wrestling on Monday,"

"I was, actually,"

"Well a couple of my friends invited us out to O'Maley's, they just started doing Trivia Night on Mondays. Could be fun."

"Oh I don't know,"

"C'mon when was the last time you left this place?"

"Yesterday, for grocery shopping."

"That doesn't count. You can meet some of Seth's old buddies from high school, they might tell embarrassing stories about him."

"Alright, I'm in."

"I'll pick you up normal time. We can leave whenever you get tired."

"Thanks," she smiled at him, "Sounds fun."

XXX

"Hey Sash, you ready?" he called into the house as he closed the door behind him.

"Yeah," she hobbled in from the guest room in a tshirt dress and a short boot on the foot that didn't have a cast on it.

"Hey you clean up pretty okay,"

"Thanks, you look like a CPA."

He nodded, "touché. Here," he helped her down the steps of the house and into his car before placing her crutch in the backseat.

"Who's there tonight again?" she asked as he pulled out of the driveway.

"Chris, that's one of the guys we used to do wrestling moves with when we were kids. He had a trampoline. Christine, she's one of my old girlfriend's best friends. They're dating now, it's confusing."

She chuckled, "alright,"

"Dave, he played football with Seth that first year until Seth got cut from JV. Class president, you know the type."

"Uh huh,"

"And Maria, her and Jenna used to be on track together, that's how we know her. Haven't heard from her that much recently but she's in town for a few days."

"Got it."

"They know who you are, by the way."

"Who I am?"

"Who you are to Seth, I mean."

"Oh, okay."

"So if they start asking about you and him or anything, they mean well."

They pulled into the parking lot of the bar and he helped her out again. The pub was musty and dimly lit, it smelled like cigarettes even though it had been illegal to smoke inside for a decade. Seth had told her about this place, it was their favorite in college for reuniting. They mostly carded at the bar, not the door, so they could get away with the oldest of their friends buying drinks to go around. Looking around it now, there were a couple groups of college-aged kids back for the summer who were probably doing the same thing.

"Hey!" Brandon waved to a tall stocky guy and lead her over to their table.

"Hey kid!" The guy shook his hand and then looked over at her, "you must be Sasha,"

"That's me."

"Dave, good to finally meet you," he looked her up and down once and smiled, but then realized her ankle was in a cast. "Oh, is this gonna be okay? I didn't think about that…"

He gestured to the high top table.

"Once I'm up it should be fine…"

"Okay, one, two, three," he lifted her up by the waist like it was nothing and settled her on the barstool.

"Whoa, alright, that works," she laughed.

Brandon took the chair on the other side of the table and started talking to Dave about what he'd been up to. Sasha leaned in on her elbows and listened to their conversation. A couple that introduced themselves as Chris and Chris joined them. The female Chris tried to strike up a conversation with her about what Sasha's career was like, though she didn't seem to know much about what Seth did for a living. Sasha asked what she did, and sipped her drink, nodding her head as Chris told her about running a local bookstore. Suddenly, Brandon made a funny face, looking over her shoulder.

"Hey guys…why didn't anyone tell me Jenna was coming tonight?" he asked.

Her head snapped back, seeing two women made their way across the bar, one of them she recognized from that fateful visit to Davenport.

"I didn't know Maria invited her," Dave said, he looked over at Sasha, "I'm sorry-"

"It's fine," she shook her head and downed her drink.

The two women came up and Sasha put on a smile while they settled in. Jenna sat next to her and her eyes caught on her, and she gave her a sympathetic smile.

"I heard about your ankle," she said after a moment, "that must be tough."

"Yeah, but," she shrugged, "it's alright. Did Seth tell you about it?"

"No, I watch the show sometimes. He's uh…he's not speaking to me right now."

"Right," she nodded her head, trying not to resist the urge to say Jenna deserved it. She'd done pretty well at staying out of that part of Seth's life, not wanting to get involved. It would still take a few more drinks before she really felt comfortable hanging out with Seth's ex-fiancé.

"Another round, guys?" the other Chris asked as a waitress came by to take orders. Brandon had warned her she might be in for a boozy night. "Thinking juice yeah? We'll have a round of tequila."

Oh, great.

She went along with it, figuring they wouldn't drink much once the game started. His friends chattered, talking about what they would name their team. Finally, they started going, and Sasha mostly sat back and let them argue over what the correct answer was. Brandon wasn't kidding about them being a boozy group, ordering another after every other round of trivia. She was feeling hazy by the time they went into the final round, though she'd turned down multiple offers from Brandon to ditch out early. The group was cheering as they came in third place and got a percentage off the tab. Brandon helped her down and back to the car, she could feel herself hobbling more than usual.

"You alright Sasha?"

"Yeah I-I'm good" she giggled, "did he tell you I was a mess when it came to tequila?"

"Nah it's not in your user manual," he joked, opening her door for her.

"I'll be-" she stopped, feeling a rumbling in her chest and stomach.

"Oh god-"

"I'm alright!"

"Okay, it'll be just a few minutes, then you can barf all over Seth's pretty little house, alright?"

"That's not funny!"

"It's pretty funny, I think," he laughed zooming down the empty suburban streets.

She closed her eyes and focused on just not throwing up all over her future brother-in-law's car. Maybe she'd tried to keep up a bit too much with his friends and to forget how uncomfortable it was to be just chilling with the woman who almost ruined her relationship.

"Okay, C'mon," he helped her out of the car and up the steps again, she was even more woozy from the car ride home. "You're good, I've got you,"

He helped her into the guest bed as she pulled off her shoes and collapsed back on the pillows.

"Ahh this feels soo good," she pulled the comforter up to her shoulders.

Brandon looked at her with a concerned expression.

"I don't know how I feel about leaving you right now…"

"I'll be okay."

"Do you still need to throw up?"

"A little."

"Well, I don't want you running to the bathroom with that thing on your ankle."

She laughed, "you sound just like Seth."

"Yeah, runs in the family," he sat next to her on top of the bedding. "I'm just gonna stick around for a few, okay?"

"Alright," she yawned, "goodnight."

"Night, Sasha."