August 31, 2015
Usually the time after SummerSlam was a time of relaxation. There was no major pay-per-view until Survivor Series, so Eleanor thought she would be able to go about her business and have her job return to normal. She and Rami would get back into the swing of things after all of the stress, and everything would go back to normal.
That, of course, was not the case.
Almost immediately after she set foot in the Performance Centre, William Regal grabbed her on the arm. He pulled her aside and made sure nobody was around before he started speaking. "We're letting Zahra go," he stated simply.
Eleanor's eyes bulged out of her head. "Are you serious?" she asked.
Regal nodded his head. "You saw how it caught fire on the weekend?" he asked. Eleanor nodded her head – Zahra's compromising tweets had made public rounds on the Internet. Every dirt sheet and even TMZ had picked it up. It was a PR nightmare. "Well, then, you understand why then."
"Shit," Eleanor swore, looking away from Regal for a moment. She thought about the possible fallout that would result from the situation. "Colby is gonna be upset," he said.
Regal shrugged his shoulders. "I know. But what are you gonna do? You can't go around posting that stuff and expecting everything to be okay."
"He's going to try everything in his power to get her to stay," Eleanor said.
"He can't do anything. The decision has already been made. We can't have that here," Regal shook his head. "If Vince can erase Hulk Hogan, he can erase Zahra."
As always, William Regal was spot on. Eleanor nodded her head and pursed her lips, looking around, as he did, to see if anybody was around. "Do you think they're making the right decision?" she asked, although she had a feeling she already knew the answer.
"Abso-fucking-lutely," he said, nodding his head once. "You know me, I don't tolerate that garbage."
Eleanor nodded her head again, unable to say much else as her thoughts ran rampant. She thought back to last week when she saw Zahra and Colby backstage at the NXT event. Zahra wasn't in the happiest of moods, for whatever reason, and then Eleanor had to insinuate Zahra was in the doghouse. She knew it would come back to haunt her somehow. "Are you giving her the bad news?" she asked.
"No."
"Good. Think I can hang out in your office until it's over and done with?" Eleanor asked.
"Well, of course," Regal agreed. "But why?"
Eleanor sighed. "I saw Zahra and Colby at NXT Brooklyn. She was saying some things -"
"What things?"
"—Basically insinuating she 'knew why I was with Rami', and I told her not to tread that water, that she was already in the doghouse and she shouldn't get into even more trouble," she explained. Regal smirked as she spoke. "I don't exactly think I'm her favourite person right now."
Regal couldn't help but chuckle as she put his hand on Eleanor's shoulder. "You'll be safe with me, darling. Let's get to work."
XXXXXXXXXX
It was 12:15 when Eleanor decided to break for lunch, carrying her Tupperware to the kitchen to heat up in the microwave. She spotted Fergal and waved him over, and soon Lexi (Alexa Bliss) joined them in the kitchen as she heated up her own meal in the microwave.
"Did you guys hear the news?" Lexi asked as she stirred her food around before putting it in the microwave again. "Zahra got fired this morning."
Fergal's eyebrows rose. Eleanor faked astonishment. "Really?"
"You mean you didn't know?" Lexi asked Eleanor.
Eleanor knew she would have to tell a little white lie, just in case anything got back to Zahra by word of mouth – things spread incredibly fast through the WWE locker room, as she knew all to well. "I had no idea. I'm not told that sort of stuff," she said.
"Is this because of that Instagram stuff?" Fergal asked.
Lexi nodded her head. "You betcha. It's nuts. She's nuts. I can't believe she would have that sort of stuff online," she said. "She was pretty upset when she left today. She was going to call Colby."
Eleanor's phone began to buzz in her pocket for an incoming call. She pulled her phone out of her pocket to see an unknown number flash across the screen. A confused look took over her face before she answered the phone. "Hello?"
"Did you know about this?" an unfamiliar voice practically yelled.
"Who is this?" she asked into the phone. Fergal gave her a strange look.
"It's Colby," he revealed himself.
Eleanor's heart dropped into the pit of her stomach. Speak of the devil. She knew she would be the first one to experience the fallout from this whole situation. She walked out of the kitchen area and in to the empty hallway so Fergal and Lexi wouldn't hear the conversation. "How did you get my number?" she asked, genuinely curious. None of the superstars, save for a select few friends, had her cell phone number. Colby must have had to ask multiple people in order to get it.
"Did you know Zahra was going to be fired?" he completely ignored her question.
"No!" Eleanor exclaimed.
"You're lying!" he accused her.
"Colby, I'm not lying."
"Yes you are," he said definitively. "Zahra told me you told her in Brooklyn she was in trouble and now she's fired. What the fuck?" he demanded.
Eleanor had had enough. "Colby, how many times does it have to be reiterated to you that I have no fucking power backstage," she demanded right back at him. "I'm an assistant. Nobody listens to anything I have to say, alright? The powers that be decided to fire her, not me."
"Spare me," he said sarcastically, making Eleanor's blood boil even more.
"Have you ever given thought to the fact that what happened was Zahra's fault and not the fault of anyone else? She's the one who posted fucking Nazi photos online and made racist comments!"
"I know you're lying to me."
"How many times will I have to say it until it gets through your thick skull," she enunciated her words sharply, her tone full of disparagement. At this point, she didn't care if she was being disrespectful – she needed to get her message across. "I am not responsible for another person's actions. I know you don't like me but this is uncalled for. For you to even think I had something to do with this is horrible."
"I'm going to ask you one more time, did you know she was going to get fired?" he asked.
"And I'm going to tell you one more time, no," she responded emphatically.
She could hear Colby breathe heavily on the other line, either to calm himself down or wind himself up. She could never tell with him. "Who did know?" he finally asked, in a voice a lot calmer than what he started out with.
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"Who knew she was going to get fired? If it wasn't you."
Eleanor felt like strangling him. "Nobody here, Colby. Only the higher-ups. Paul, obviously. I don't know who else. I don't think even Regal knew," she lied, not wanting to drag him into getting an angry phone call from Colby – although he'd probably get one anyway.
Colby mumbled something incoherently before the line went dead. He'd hung up on her out of frustration – Eleanor figured as much. She sighed heavily, wanting nothing more than to bang her head against the wall.
XXXXXXXXXX
Eleanor dropped by Rami's place after work, exhausted from the drama at work that day. She stuck her key in the door and walked in without hesitation. Rami was in his kitchen, cooking dinner for the two of them. He looked at her over his shoulder. "Hi darling," he said casually, focusing back on the stovetop.
"Hi love," she greeted him, swinging her purse on to the counter top. She walked up behind Rami and wrapped her arms around his waist. They stood in silence for a few moments; the only sound between them was of the water boiling for the pasta. "Did you hear the news?" she asked.
"Zahra? Yeah. Fergal texted me," he said. He raised his arm and wrapped it around her, bringing her to his side.
"I got an angry call from Colby today," she whispered.
"What? Why? Because of what happened with Zahra?"
"Yeah. He seemed to think I had something to do with the firing," she explained.
"Do I need to talk to him again?"
"No, no, it's fine," Eleanor shook her head against his body. "I get why he's angry. I just wish he didn't think I was some gremlin planning evil plots against him."
"What did you say?"
"I told him 'I don't know how many times I have to tell you that I don't make the decisions.' He didn't believe me at first but eventually he kind of, sort of, maybe relented before hanging up on me. I guarantee he's still pissed though."
"He's a hot head sometimes," Rami shook his head. It seemed like just yesterday that Colby had apologized to her – now he was calling her screaming on the phone. It was like a vicious cycle.
"You'd know better than me," she shrugged her shoulders. "I just have to deal with the fall out."
"I wish you didn't."
She shrugged her shoulders again. "It comes with the job."
"So what now?"
"He's just gonna have to deal with it. There's nothing that can be done. She made some really racist comments, and she posted Nazi-related imagery. Nobody can save her. Not even him," she explained.
Rami nodded his head in understanding. Eleanor was right – there was nothing anybody could do about it – even Colby.
Rami and Eleanor ate their pasta in relative silence, talking casually about what else had happened at work that week and what Eleanor knew about what was going to happen on Raw. After washing the dishes and retiring to the couch and cuddling with each other, Rami placed soft kisses on Eleanor's forehead. She could tell something was on his mind, but she didn't want to press him.
After a few moments, Rami decided to speak. He shifted his head slightly so he could look at her, but they were still cuddled in each other's warmth. "Can I ask you a question?"
"Of course."
"Do you…are you…" he hesitated, not sure how to pose the question. "I mean, do you want to be Paul's assistant forever?" he finally asked. "Do you want to do something else?" his voice was soft.
Eleanor stayed silent, the weight of the question looming in the air. Her lack of response made Rami feel the need to fill in the void. "Because I've been thinking a lot about you – more than usual – and about us, and our life together. And I want you to know I'll support anything you want to do, whether it's here, or somewhere else, like back in Montreal, or with your dad -"
"Rami -" she interjected softly.
"Let me finish, please?" he asked tenderly, his eyes pleading for her to listen, as if he had rehearsed this in his head a hundred times. She nodded her head. "I want you to be happy Eleanor. I want you doing what you want to do, not what Paul wants, or what I want. You were so stressed at Saraya's birthday and throughout SummerSlam and I just…I want you to be happy," he told her.
Eleanor nodded her head again, tears forming in her eyes. She processed everything he had to say – how sincere he was when he said he wanted her to be happy. She knew this was going to be one of those conversations, so she was ready to let Rami know about her anxieties of the future and what it would hold. She looked at Rami as he pushed some stray hair behind her ear. "What's your dream job?" he asked.
Quite the loaded question. Eleanor didn't know how to respond. "I can't see myself being Paul's assistant forever," she said, looking down. "But dream job? Honestly? I have no idea. Maybe get a better position within the WWE or within NXT, but that means staying in Florida."
"You don't want to stay in Florida," Rami said as more of a statement than a question.
Eleanor shook her head. "I either want to travel or be back in Montreal. That's my home, Rami. That's our home."
"I know, I get it," he nodded his head. "And if you want to do that, if you want to be back in Montreal, you can. You should. Especially if it's going to make you happy," he encouraged her.
The thought of moving just when their relationship was at a pivotal moment gave Eleanor the shivers. She couldn't – didn't? shouldn't? – move back just yet. "I've thought about maybe going to work for Montreal Canadiens head office, if I could get a position." She never considered anything to do with her art because she wanted to keep it as her hobby. She didn't want to do it so often and for so long she'd end up hating it. She'd already expressed this to Rami so he knew not to ask. "But then that…that would mean…" she couldn't finish her sentence.
"What's on your mind, darling?"
"Rami…" she began, a single tear falling down her cheek. "I'm scared of what's gonna happen when you go on the road," she confessed.
"Why?"
"I'm not going to see you as often – even less if I move back home. It's going to be hard for me. I love you Rami, I love you so much I can't stand being away from you. But I feel that's so selfish of me. You've been doing this since long before I got here...but…I just can't help but feel that in some ways, we're on borrowed time. I won't be able to sleep next to you every night like I do now. I will hear your voice through Skype or phone calls and not face to face," she rambled, all her emotions coming out at once.
"Please don't worry about stuff like that," he said, giving her temple multiple kisses to soothe her.
"Why?"
"Because there's no need. We're not on borrowed time. We're not that couple that's going to disintegrate because of distance."
"How do you know?"
"I just know," he said confidently, planting a few more soft kisses on her temple. "I love you Eleanor. I'd do anything for you, for us."
Eleanor sighed, hearing the words she wanted to hear, though the memories that were coming back to her in her mind were a lot more painful. "When I was 20 I met this guy and he became my world," she began a story. She felt Rami had the right to know why she was so insecure about the travel schedule and them being apart. "I was young and thought he was the be-all, end-all. I had been toying with the idea of moving to Toronto for university, and since he was from Ontario he kept trying to convince me. But the more time went on the more I didn't want to leave Montreal," she explained. Rami was listening attentively. "I went with him when he moved back and stayed at his student residence in Toronto for two weeks, and we had this huge blowout fight. He said to me, 'I want you to be here. If you go back to Montreal, I won't wait for you.' And I said, 'Then don't. Don't wait for me.' He told me, 'You're not worth it.' And that was that. I went back to Montreal, heartbroken, and he stayed in Toronto, and I never heard from him again."
The look on Rami's face was livid. "What a fucking jackass," Rami deadpanned, and Eleanor couldn't help but laugh. "I'm serious. Who is this guy?"
"His name was Chris Robinson."
"I don't want you thinking I'm anything like Chris Robinson, or that our relationship would end up like that," Rami said firmly. "I'm serious. I'd fly cross-country if it meant I could be with you for an hour. I'd fly to Montreal to meet you in an airport for ten minutes. You're always worth it Eleanor. Always."
Eleanor grabbed Rami's face and brought him down to kiss her. Their lips lingered over each other's for a few moments before Rami decided to pull away slightly and speak again. "I want you to promise me you'll do what makes you happy."
Eleanor kissed him quickly. "I promise," she whispered as she nodded her head, understanding the severity and the weight behind Rami's words. It almost felt like a giant weight was escaping her mind, like her anxieties about the future were eased now that she and Rami had had this talk and cleared the air on some major things plaguing the future of their relationship. Now, all she had to do was figure out what she wanted her next steps to be.
Easier said than done.
