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Friends.
What a word.
It seemed so inadequate for what he had with Stephanie. Friends? Just friends? It just didn't seem right to call her just a friend. It didn't seem like that was the title they should have for each other. It was wrong. It just was wrong and still, he couldn't put his finger on why it felt so wrong. He'd moved on from the feelings he had for Stephanie, but to just settle into being her friend felt awkward and stilted. They'd been so much more than friends, how could they possibly regress back to friends now, after everything they'd been through together?
Chris had been the one to take her virginity, for God's sakes, that meant something. She'd given it to him willingly and with love and he'd been the first man she'd ever loved and she'd been the first woman he'd ever loved. How could they just go back to being friends after that? Maybe it was a mistake, this thinking they could be friends. Maybe he had been wrong to suggest it. Maybe it was just too long, too much, too everything for them to be friends again. He was making a mistake being her friend. They could never go back to being friends.
"Hey, stranger," Stephanie said, running her hand along his back as she sat down next to him. "How are you liking the company so far? We've really changed since you left, don't you think?"
He thought to her, not to the company. The more he talked to her, the more changes he did see in her. She was more confident now. Though she still blushed occasionally, mostly, she was confident and in control. She commanded a kind of respect. It wasn't respect like she expected the hallways to part for her presence, but more like she knew she was good and expected everyone to recognize it. He liked it on her, he liked the way she wore her confidence. She still retained everything he'd loved about her though, the sweetness, the sense of humor, everything was still there, just in this new, grown-up package.
"Yeah, you've really changed."
"Huh? Me?" she asked, smirking at him.
He shook his head, "Sorry, I meant the company, things have definitely changed around here, for sure."
"Wait, let's go back to that other thing," she said, picking up on what he'd said and wanting to run with it. "You think that I've changed? Really? Now you'll have to tell me what has changed about me, I'm very curious now."
"No, I meant to say the company," he told her.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, you meant to say it, but you didn't say it, so come on, obviously you were thinking about the ways in which I'd changed so please tell me, Christopher, how have I changed since you've last seen me, I'm anxious to know."
"I don't think you've changed too much."
"But what about me has changed, you just said I've really changed," she said, nudging him in the shoulder. "Okay, if you don't want to start, I'll start. I think that your hair has definitely changed, it used to be so much lighter than it is now. It's more yellow now and you're definitely more tan than you were. I think you've discovered a way to make you look more muscular."
He laughed and looked at her, "You think my hair is more yellow?"
"Yeah, you obviously have dyed it," she said, picking up a piece of his hair and twirling it around her finger. "Its definitely dyed, either that or this is your natural color and you bleached it before, did you bleach it before?"
"I did," he told her. "This is still dyed, but it was bleached before."
"I should have known," she said, still twirling his hair around her fingers. "I like it now though. I think it looks good. It's less curly than I remember though, maybe because it's not in such a fetching mullet anymore."
"We're all allowed our one hair catastrophe," he told her, "remember the bangs that went to the ceiling."
"You liked those bangs," she pouted. "Is that one of the ways I've changed?"
"Yeah, definitely," he told her. "I like your hair now though. You like to keep it straight like this most of the time?"
"I do, it's easier to handle," Stephanie said, finally pulling her finger from his hair. He'd barely even noticed her doing it. It was something she did all the time when they were together. He'd gotten so used to her twirling his hair around her finger that it had barely even registered with him even now, years later.
"Well, you're not using fifty cans of hairspray on it anymore," he joked.
She laughed, "Neither are you."
"I did not use hair spray, that was only during my hair metal band love days and you only saw pictures of that," he told her, laughing as well.
"Yeah, but still," she said, "you're definitely better in the ring, I think we can establish that right now. Despite my obvious heartbreak and subsequent desperation over you leaving--"
"Desperation?" he wondered.
"I practically threw my naked self at you," Stephanie laughed. "I mean, does it get more desperate than that?"
"That wasn't desperation."
"Okay, it wasn't, but like I was saying, despite me being upset over you leaving, I think it was for the best. You're amazing in the ring now, even if you had never been with the company before and my father had not extended an open invitation for your return, he definitely would've sought you out, I think. You've gotten that good and I think that traveling did wonders for you."
"Thanks, would you say I'm the best wrestler you've ever seen?"
"I'm biased, so yes, I would, but that's solely based on the fact that my lips have touched places on you that they've never touched on another wrestler," she winked.
"You're more confident," he told her, getting to the bottom of things. "You're so much more confident now, like, you came out of this shell that you had."
She beamed at his compliment, like she'd been waiting for someone, anyone, to tell her that particular word. "You really think so?"
"Absolutely. I look at you now and you're just, you're so in charge of yourself. Not to say you were insecure when you were younger, you weren't, you were a lot bolder than most girls, but there's this maturity in your confidence now."
"It's all because of you," she told him, leaning her elbow on the table to her left and then leaning her chin on her hand.
"Me? I highly doubt that."
"It was, I don't know, the courage you had to go out there and leave something familiar and easy to go after something really difficult, it was like you were a role model for me and I wanted to go out there and do the same thing. You were always telling me I was going to be something great and I never really believed you, but when you went out there to be something great, I knew I had to follow suit and I like to think you were right about me."
"I was definitely right about you. I always believed in you."
"Yeah, you did, I never got to tell you how much I appreciated that," she told him warmly, her eyes sparkling with thanks and gratefulness. "So thank you."
"Yeah right, don't thank me," he said, "you did that all on your own."
"Well, partly," she joked. "Okay, now that we've established that we're both obviously incredible and the compliment party has gone on and on and on and on, what do you think about how the company has changed?"
"It's gotten incredibly huge."
"I know," she said excitedly. She always had a flair for the business side of things. "I'm just so impressed with where my father has taken the company. It'll all be mine someday and I am going to rule everything."
"What about Shane?"
"Well, Shane's good and everything, but I'm going to take over," she told him, giving him that smirk of hers. "I'll let him keep his job though."
"Okay, adding one, you're much more ruthless now," he told her.
"You have to have that killer instinct," she said, growling for effect. "I'm just kidding, I know it's going to go to both of us, but I don't really have an official spot on the corporate side of things yet so I joke around with Tim that I'm being bred into the President since there's no other spot for me right now. I occasionally do work for the accounting department, but that's only when they need the extra help."
"You joke around with Tim about being President?"
"Or CEO, one of the jobs my parents currently hold."
"You seem happy with Tim," he said offhandedly. "He seems like a really nice guy."
"You jealous?" she joked.
"Yeah, I am, I would definitely date him, he's totally my type, how did you manage to snag such an amazing guy?" Chris said, but he wondered about what she'd said. Jealous, could he be? No, he was happy with Jessica, Stephanie was obviously happy with Tim, there was nothing to be jealous about. He and Stephanie had been good together when they were younger. They'd just admitted now that they were different people, not the same. Even if he did want her, was jealous, he didn't know her anymore, not like then.
"Very funny," she said, hitting him a little. "He is a really nice guy. He's been good to me and that's really all I can ask for, you know. Just someone who obviously loves me and treats me well and wants to be with me."
"But you don't have marriage on the horizon," he scoffed, "sounds to me like you're pretty committed."
"Committed, sure, marriage, no," Stephanie said, shaking her head. "I mean, maybe in the future, but right now, I'm not feeling it, feeling that marriage vibe, you know, the one you get when the clock starts ticking and it's either get married or just break up. Not like the feeling you're obviously getting with Jessica."
"She's great," Chris said, saying it as if he had to reassure himself of the fact.
"I can tell by the way you talk about her," Stephanie nodded with no maliciousness in her voice. "You get that voice, you know, the one where you could probably go on for hours about the person. I used to have that voice with you, except maybe tripled. If someone had asked, I would've talked about you for days."
"There's not enough about me to go on for days," Chris told her.
"Oh, I beg to differ," Stephanie told him, winking. "You love her though and I can tell." She grabbed the hem of his t-shirt and tugged on it affectionately. "You're adorable."
"What?" he said, glancing down at her hand, which was still curled around his shirt.
"You just are," she told him and for the briefest of moments, he thought she was going to lean forward and kiss him, something she would've done years ago. The funny thing was it was more forbidden now than it had been when they were younger. "I think it's always sweet when someone is so obviously in love. It's all so romantic."
"You're a sap," he teased.
"I'm simply a hopeless romantic," she said in a dreamy voice.
"I think sap was the right word," he said, somehow scooting a little closer to her, his chin in his hand now as he looked at her. They were simply staring at one another, having a conversation, but it looked very private to the outside eye. Her hand was still curled around his t-shirt, occasionally tugging at it playfully.
"Is she with you tonight?"
"Nah, she's got work," Chris said. "She's not going to be traveling with me anymore. I guess this will give her a chance to really get used to me being on the road."
"That's tough," she said seriously. "I know it can be a hard transition for the people left at home. Sometimes Tim gets frustrated with me being gone and I'm not on the road nearly as much as you are."
"I think she can handle it," Chris said, "she's tough."
"To be with you, I'd think she'd have to be," Stephanie said, the corner of her mouth turning up into a smirk. "I know I was."
"Still are," he told her, "definitely still are."
"Why thank you, maybe I should go have a match and show how tough I am," she joked, then ducked her head a little. "You know, my dad wants to pair me with Paul Levesque for this huge storyline. If I'm going against Paul, I'll definitely need to be tough."
"You and Paul…yeah, don't see that."
"What, he could be my type, don't you think?" she kidded, striking a bit of a pose. Chris found himself reaching out and touching her cheek with his palm.
"Let me see, beautiful and Paul is a bit of an ogre, you're definitely too good for him, I wonder why your dad would stick that guy with you. Talk about a mismatch."
"It's not going to last long, a few shows and then it'll go away. It's more that Paul is trying to stick to my dad, blah blah blah," Stephanie said as Chris dropped his hand from her cheek. "But it'll be fun nonetheless. We should have a storyline together. Didn't I once say that I would be your valet?"
"I think you did," Chris said. "I would love to have you as my valet, do you think you could see yourself with a guy like me?" She rolled her eyes and just stared at him, pretending to scrutinize him, look him over. She tugged on his t-shirt again.
"I think that could work."