I missed some typos when I was editing the last one, possibly the one before that. I typed most of it on my phone, and autocorrect is a bitch.
Thanks for reading and reviewing. Love you guys.
Kat had been in a daze since Randy had left last night. Had that really happened? Was he really in love with her? And the kiss... God, the kiss! If he hadn't stopped she would have ripped his clothes off and rode him right there on the floor. He'd said all the things she'd never thought she'd hear, all the things she'd longed to hear.
Only it hadn't made any damn difference. She still couldn't have him. No matter how good he'd felt and how all the shit running through her mind seemed to have disappeared for those few moments.
She was just going to avoid him. He was too much to handle on top of everything else.
"Are you alright?"
She stopped messing with her beanie hat to look at Jeff. He'd seen Randy kiss her but he hadn't said anything. He should have been running his hands together in glee it something, since his master plan seemed to be coming together against her will.
"I'm fine."
"Is the pain any better?"
"Tolerable."
Her face looked a bit better too, which she was thankful for. She had covered the bruises up with makeup so they didn't look as bad as they really were. She was meeting Steph downstairs for breakfast at the meddling woman's insistence so she had to be as normal as possible. Steph was a little... volatile when it came to her family, sometimes even more than Hunter and Shane. She should have remembered that before she'd started the fight.
"Want me to tell her you're too tired?"
"No. She'd only come here. I'd rather do this in a public place so she doesn't blow up on me."
"You know she's going to blow up anyway, don't you?"
" Yeah."
There was no denying that. The only question was how big the explosion was going to be. If she reasoned with her maybe not too many people would get caught in the crossfire and she could still contain it.
"I'm still waiting for you to trust me enough to tell me what happened."
"You know it's not a matter of trust. I tell you everything."
" Really? 'Cause it doesn't feel that way to me."
"You knew that fight was going to happen sooner it later."
Jeff sighed and looked down at his watch. She knew he suspected something else was going on, but there was no way in hell she was going to tell him what it was.
"It's time," he said as he stood up.
She put her hat on and allowed him to help her to her feet. Jeff was going to have breakfast with Matt and Shane, she suspected it was only because he wanted to be close enough to encourage Steph's wrath.
"You haven't said a word about Randy," she said once they were waiting for the elevator.
"What's there to say? You wanted him to love you; he does; now you're going to break the poor man's heart. You're going to throw him out with the trash."
"It's not like that," she frowned.
"No? Then why aren't you with him right now, celebrating your love and doing the shit that people do when they fall in love?"
"It's complicated_"
"No it isn't. It's the simplest thing in the world," Jeff said.
She crossed her arms and glared at him.
"Well, I'm sorry my life hasn't been as easy as yours. We can't all have what we want."
Jeff turned abruptly to face her.
"You think my life has been easy?"
"Compared to mine, it's been a fucking walk in the park," she snorted.
"I wouldn't know. You don't tell me anything."
She'd walked into that one.
"And you do? Why do you make it seem as if I need to tell you every detail of my life if I want to be your friend?"
"No, that's not..."
His voice trailed off and he looked away.
"I don't want you to feel like that. What I was trying to say is Randy loves you, and I know how much you love him, too. When you find something like that it's worth holding onto because it's beautiful and it makes everything else in your life beautiful. I would give a limb to have that. Don't throw it away."
Of course. He was heartbroken. This wasn't about her, it was about him. It was insensitive of her to act like this in front of him.
"Hearts heal. You'll find someone else with time," she said as she linked their arms. "In the meantime, you've got me."
He smiled down at her as the elevator doors opened.
"I want you to promise me something," he said.
"What?" She asked cautiously.
"No matter what happens, you and I will always be friends."
She beamed up at him. If they could survive sleeping together they could survive anything. Anything, except Grace.
"Of course."
As soon as they stepped into the restaurant she wished she had asked Steph to their room instead. It seemed everyone had decided to have breakfast downstairs this morning. Had Steph sent out a memo or something?
Voices lowered and the whispers started. She didn't see Maria or any of the Divas she had fought with but a lot of the roster was there. And of course sitting quite close to Steph, Hunter and Shawn were all her newfound friends. She gave a half wave when Matt waved and smiled at her.
"If I fake a seizure will you get me out of here?"
"You're on your own sweetheart," Jeff said as he dropped a kiss on her cheek.
"So much for being best friends."
Jeff grinned and walked her to her table, greeting everyone as he helped her into her seat. Then he joined Matt, Shane and the beautiful John with the gorgeous hair only a couple of tables away.
With a sigh she finally looked at her family.
"Morning people. I'm sorry you all felt the need to gather down here to rehash my little... ah... run-in with a couple of inconsequential people. I'm absolutely fine, so all of this is unnecessary," she smiled. "So I vote we just enjoy a nice breakfast and head our separate ways for the day."
"Really?" Steph asked. "That's what you're opening with?"
The smile dropped.
"It was worth a try," she shrugged. "Can I at least order breakfast first before you shout at me?"
"I'm not going to shout at you," Steph said.
"Hunter came running to you instead of keeping his mouth shut. That means he wants you to shout at me, and he wants you to kill those women," she said, glaring at Hunter.
"They messed with my family. Can't let this one go," Hunter shrugged, stuffing a forkful of his breakfast into his mouth.
"I still say we call Shane down here as well," Shawn said.
"Are you crazy?" she frowned. "He'll kick the shit out of all of them for this."
"No, he wouldn't. He wouldn't hit women."
"Yeah, but are we really sure that all of them are women?" Hunter asked.
And Shawn cocked his head to the side as if he was really considering this.
She rolled her eyes. "Alright, cut this out. Noone's telling Shane anything, and noone is doing anything to Maria and her friends. I started this. It was my fault. So we're letting it go."
"Look at you, honey. Look what they did to you. Even if you started it, they had no right doing this to you. I understand why you did this," Steph said gently, "but I've talked to some people about what's been going on. They're calling you all sorts of names, telling horrendous lies, and the way I hear it, it's far from over. We're notletting it go."
"I don't care about what they're saying. I don't care what they do. And I did sleep with Randy, so half of it is probably true. Please let this go. I just want to forget about it."
"I can't do that," Steph said. "You're family, and we watch each other's back."
"But people will ask questions. Things will come out," she pleaded quietly.
"They won't. Don't worry about that, sweetheart," Shawn said. "We respect your decision to separate yourself from... all of that. But we have to make a stand. It's the only way we can make sure you're not targeted again."
She sighed.
"You've already got a plan," she stated.
That didn't surprise her. Her coffee arrived and she took a grateful sip, eying the three people in front of her. This situation was already out of her control, she'd been an idiot to think she could stop the deluge that was coming. And since Shawn was involved, it was probably going to be poetic as well as painful. His sense of humour was a bit more warped than Hunter's.
"It starts tonight," Shawn grinned.
"But first you need to tell me everything," Steph said. "I'm taking down names."
She sighed again. By the time she finished her breakfast Steph had the edited version of the whole story.
"You're like a walking soap opera," Steph said.
"How did all of this happen under our noses?" Hunter frowned.
"Are you saying that freak actually kept kissing you even after I told him not to," Shawn asked.
"Er... I'm gonna go now."
The room quietened down again before she could stand up and she turned to the door to find out which other unfortunate person was the object of everyone's hushed whispers. She met the baby blues, and just like that her body was on fire again, transported to the sweet kiss last night and lost to the future he had promised. She'd wanted a lot of things in her life; longed for them. But none as much as she wanted this man.
"Oh, look. It's the woman beater," Shawn said loudly as he beckoned him over.
"What are you doing?" she hissed.
She didn't want to see him, let alone sit with him at the table. He was just a painful reminder. Right there, offered on a plate, but an impossible dream.
"Aw, don't be like that. We like this guy," Steph said.
"Oh, we do, do we?"
"Yes," Shawn said. "A lot more than we like Jeff."
"Speak for yourself," Hunter grunted. "I don't like either of them."
"Morning," Randy said when he reached their table.
"Morning Randy," Steph smiled.
She looked anywhere but at him. She'd been trained her whole life to handle men, to manipulate them, to control them. But this man... he had her running scared. She'd let him into her heart, opened herself up to all this pain, but his admission last night had to be the scariest thing she had heard in a long time. He loved her. Jeff had said love would make everything beautiful, but if Randy's love was anything like hers then it would destroy him. Her past would hurt him and that was the last thing she wanted.
"Hey," Randy said to her.
She looked up and immediately looked down at her coffee again. He was smart casual today; a black long-sleeved shirt and black jeans. Her heart jumped. He looked so delicious. So dangerous.
"Hey," she answered.
"Did you sleep well?"
"Yes, thank you," she answered.
"Good," he said. "I was wondering if we could talk."
"I... I'm still having my breakfast."
"No, she isn't. She was just about to go back to her room," Shawn said.
She glared again.
"I'll walk with you," Randy offered, his hands on the back of her chair to pull it out for her.
No, no, no. How was she going to get out of this? She wasn't ready to talk about last night.
"Jeff is waiting for me," she said quickly, turning to throw Jeff a pleading look.
"Good. Because I need to speak to him, too."
Huh? She frowned, looking at him properly for the first time. He seemed upset about something, or very angry. She'd thought he wanted to speak about last night but it was obviously something else.
"Everything alright?" Jeff asked as he came to stand beside Randy.
"No. Let's go," Randy answered.
She left the room flanked by both of them, a worried frown on her face. The fuck had happened now?
John was waiting by the elevators. He smiled warmly at her and she forced herself to smile back. Only weeks before she had liked this man, but she wasn't in the right head space to be that girl again. Maybe in a few days. In a different city.
"What's going on, Randy?" Jeff asked when they were standing in front of the elevator.
"They're some things going around. I ignored them last night but John's heard something else this morning. I think you're going to want to hear this before you head to the arena. I think you should be prepared."
"Please tell me you didn't just pull me away from my family because of stupid rumours," she said in irritation.
"They're a little more than that, Katrina. I'll tell you upstairs," Randy said. "Away from everyone."
She looked around and noticed that the hotel lobby was busy and some of the patrons were looking at them. She didn't want to create any more rumours for Steph to get upset over.
"You look very beautiful today."
She looked up at him, and watched his lips curl into a little smile. What was he on? She was dressed as she usually did; sweats and a hoodie. And of course the beanie hat. He'd always told her she looked like a hobo when she dressed like this. That was one of the biggest reasons that he'd said she was unsuitable in the first place!
"Stop fucking with me," she said.
"I'm not. You look beautiful everyday. I just thought this time around I'd tell you instead of just thinking it."
She frowned and he smiled at her again.
He had a beautiful smile. A swoon worthy smile. And, like giggling, swooning was not something she did. So she looked away before it could happen.
The doors opened and she thankfully stepped forward. But she only managed one step before she froze in her tracks.
No.
No, no, no!
It has begun...