A/N: Hey guys! First of all, thank youCraftyTink529, CapriceCC, Christina89, VolcomStoneBabe, Xandman216, RKO. I. F., Mizzy681, xSamiliciousx, RKOsgirl92, Cena-holic8, Enigmatic Lotus Leaf, ' xDarexToxDreamx, nikki1335, Joviper54, KimmieCena, rkolover2, hardyrhodescenafan1, BourneBetter67, I'mxAxRockstar, southerncharm21, davis25, gratharmony, poisenousprincess, QueenofYourWorld, xpunkrockerx, jldmb and jeffhardyfan09 for reviewing the last chapter, you guys are absolutely amazing! It's a pretty quick update this time, but I have so much of this written already, I thought why not? Might as well keep you guys happy for being such great readers/reviews!

Secondly, the next three chapters are basically going to take place at the same time, each one being written from the POV of one of the three main characters... this one is the first, and it starts with Ella. After these three chapters are finished, well... let's just say things are going to start picking up. :P

Anyways, here we go! I hope you all like and please don't forget to leave feedback.

Chapter 26 – Problems

"What about this one? I think the colour is really nice. Simple, but nice... and it'll go with basically anything."

"Hmm, yeah..."

"Or this one? It's kinda extravagant, but it could work."

"Sure..."

"Ella!"

I looked up from the dining table to see Maria practically glaring at me, her arms full with a whole bunch of linen samples for the wedding tables, and everything else we needed material for on the big day. I sighed as I ran a hand through my hair, wondering why I couldn't concentrate. The wedding was now only two weeks away, which meant I should have been rushing around like crazy to get all this kind of stuff sorted... but for some reason, I just couldn't bring myself to do it.

Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that my best friend was away, once again, for another Raw? Since I had spent the night at his, we had barely spent any time together again; despite me telling him that I would do everything I could to get out of planning for a few hours to spend it with him instead, and now, he was off travelling. I couldn't quite believe it, but I missed work. I missed being able to groan with him about all the annoying divas, I missed travelling the country... I missed spending time with my best friend, our movie nights, our stupid senses of humour, his absolutely perfect everything...

On second thought, my problem concentrating could have been for another reason. A much bigger reason than not spending time with my best friend... and that problem was Jesse.

After we had made up, things were fine again... to begin with. It only took a few days for the tiff's to once again begin, and now we could barely have a conversation with each other without jumping down the other's throat. I told myself over and over again that we were both just stressed about the wedding, but there was still that small part of me that doubted what I was doing.

"I'm sorry, Maria," I sighed, slumping back in my chair, "It's just... there's so much on my mind, I can't bring myself to think of colours for table cloths. Can you just choose one for me? Whichever you think will look best," I threw my hands up in the air, before closing my eyes and leaning my head back.

"Of course... but please don't tell me you're still worried about Jesse," I couldn't see her, but I could tell by the tone of her voice that she was shaking her head.

"Isn't it always about Jesse?" I asked, my hand on my forehead, "Every time we speak now we're arguing."

"Hmm, so I've noticed," I opened my eyes, to see my friend smirking back at me. What the hell? I didn't know what was funny, truthfully.

"Haha," I glared.

"Come on, Ella," She sighed, before she began to look around the room to make sure we were alone. It was unlikely that we were going to be interrupted at this time of night, but I guess she still needed to check. Jesse's sister was home now, his parents were already settled in for the night, and as for Jesse, he was busy on the phone with Pierre in our room... something else to do with the wedding, apparently, "I know that you two are going through a rough patch, but so does every couple. After the whirlwind romance, you realise what a real relationship is like... you can't just sit around, you have to work on it. You can't just give up after a few arguments, and besides, you have an excuse. You're both totally stressed out about the wedding. Maybe afterwards, you'll both go back to loving each other again."

"I do love him," I rolled my eyes, taking in her words, "I want you to be right, I really do, but..."

"But what?" She sighed, as if I were making another excuse. I probably was, but I still needed to say. I needed her advice, because my own was definitely not working.

"Okay, you can't repeat this to anyone, okay?" I cringed, waiting for her to nod before I could continue, "I don't think Jesse even wants to be in this relationship."

"What? Why would you think that?" Maria's eyes grew wide, and her voice turned to barely a whisper as she leaned closer towards me over the table.

"He's constantly in a bad mood with me, everything I do he has a problem with, and... I've kinda, caught him with a few women before. Flirting and stuff."

"And stuff?" My friend's eyes narrowed, "What do you mean? What's he done?"

"Oh, nothing like that," I shook my head quickly, "He hasn't cheated, or anything... but I've caught him flirting with a bunch of girls more than once, and checking others out," I looked up at her, but didn't mention that the girl he'd been looking at had been her. It wasn't her fault that my damn fiancée couldn't keep his eyes to himself.

"Oh Ella," She sighed, dropping all the material so she could reach out and take a hold of my hand, "There must be some positives? He can't always be mad at you."

I guess that was the truth... there had been the occasional day over the last week or so where we had been okay with each other, where he had actually treated me like his girlfriend rather than someone he hated. Maybe she was right, after all.

"Well, I guess we've been okay a few times since we had the big argument," I shrugged, "There was one day that he was actually really nice. We'd just fought, but when he came back a few hours later, he apologised and brought me a bunch of flowers and stuff. That was only yesterday, actually. Thankfully we haven't had an argument since then, but still, it doesn't stop me from wondering when the next one will be, because it's inevitable."

"Nothing's inevitable, hun," She shook her head, smiling at me as she squeezed my hand, "You said that these problems between the two of you didn't really start until after he proposed to you?"

"Not really, no," I shook my head, but I couldn't stop my thoughts from returning to the day before he did propose, when he was eyeing up the models in the same damn room as me.

"Then like I said, it's probably just all the stress," She smiled once more, "As for him checking out other women... that's just a part of him being a guy, Ella. You can't expect him to not think another woman is good looking or whatever, nobody can do that," She looked pointedly at me then, and I cringed, realising she was talking about Randy. Why did I have to be so see-through? I wondered if a part of Jesse's problem with me was just that, he could see how I still felt about Randy...

In that case, I guess I couldn't blame him. I just wished I could stop myself from feeling that way about my best friend, so that I could give my everything to my boyfriend. But I knew that wasn't going to happen, not anytime soon, at least. I just hoped that in the future, at least, I could look at Randy and think of him as nothing but my friend.

With the smallest of smiles, I just nodded at Maria, having no idea how else I could reply to her. Despite knowing she could see straight through me, I couldn't admit to still liking Randy. I couldn't admit it to anyone, barely even myself.

"So, umm..." I began, forcing myself to look down at the different materials on the table, "I think we should go for this one, it goes with everything, like you said," I shrugged, pointing to the cream. Truthfully, I didn't care if the one chosen ended up being green with pink spots.

"Ooh, okay, I'll call Pierre and let him know," She grinned as she began to rummage through a pile of papers beside her. I smiled slightly at the sound of Pierre's name. He had been absolutely amazing throughout the last few weeks. He had basically been our own wedding planner. I had no idea how he was managing to fit us into his busy schedule, but I was beyond grateful that he had, "Now, I think we should move onto what is going to be on the tables. I have some pictures here somewhere that Pierre gave me..."

My eyes fell to the watch on my wrist, and they grew wide at the time. I hadn't realised that we'd been doing this an hour longer than I had wanted to. Looking back up, I faked a yawn, stretched, and rubbed my eyes.

"Actually, would you mind if we finish this off tomorrow? I'm kinda beat, and I was thinking of maybe spending a little time with Jesse, if he's finished," I smiled lightly.

"Oh, of course," Maria's eyes grew wide, and she nodded quickly as she began to stack everything in a neat pile on the table, "That's fine, if you want to... anyway," She stuttered, and I chuckled to myself, "I'll just go watch a movie in my room or something then. I'll cya tomorrow, hun."

"Okay, Maria," I nodded; my expression still amused as she stood up from the table and made a quick exit.

I shook my head back and forth, wondered how my friend had managed to stay exactly the same since college. She had always been the nicest girl, she would have always done anything to bring people together, or end arguments, just as she was now. I wondered why she and Taylor had even gone their separate ways when they had finished school. He must have been crazy, letting a girl like her go.

With the smallest of sighs I pulled myself out of the chair and moved the few steps over to the sofa, where I took a hold of the television switch and sat down. I looked at my watch once more, realising that Raw had been on for over an hour already. I was lucky that Randy was one of the main eventers, and would probably not have been on much in the part that I had missed.

As I had thought, when I switched on the show, my best friend's match was announced as the next one after the break. For the next few minutes I dazed, thinking about so many things at once, my wedding, Randy, Jesse... and wondered how the hell I was going to get through it all. Perhaps Maria had been right, perhaps once Jesse and I were married, things would cool down between us, but I just wasn't sure if I could last until then. Two weeks didn't seem a long time when it came to the wedding, but it sure as hell did to be arguing with my boyfriend constantly.

When the match finally came back on, I was grateful for the distraction... at first. I watched as Kofi Kingston made his way to the ring, his enthusiasm crossing over into the crowd. I smiled, knowing that he truly was the nice guy he seemed on television in real life. We weren't good friends or anything, but we had talked occasionally, and he had always been extremely nice to me. I knew he and Randy had some problems, though.

God, Randy had problems with everyone... pretty much.

And then his music hit, and I forgot about his stupid attitude, about Kofi, and even for those few minutes, about my fiancée problems. All I could think about was him.

I despised how I felt watching him making his entrance. His face was so intense; it sent shivers down my spine. He was dressed in those tiny little wrestling trunks, which made me think back to the countless times that I had oiled that gorgeous body of his for him. And then there were those eyes...

No. I didn't care how much I felt for him still, I didn't care how he made me feel every time I saw him... there was just no point in doing this. So what if I had problems with Jesse? It didn't give me the right to go back to drooling over my best friend.

And besides, like Maria said, once the wedding was over, Jesse and I would be fine. I would make us be fine. I'd work on our relationship until it killed me, if I had to... because no matter how hard it was going to be to make us perfect, it was better than the alternative. It was better than going back to having nobody, and wasting my life by hoping and dreaming that I belonged to Randy. Nothing was as bad as that.