"I'm glad you got the day off to come watch the show." Blake spoke to the blonde who was resting her long legs on his lap. Blake and Candice were sitting on a couch in his locker room at Madison Square Garden.
"I'm glad you're working in my town tonight." she smiled, playing with a strand of her hair. "So you never told me how your trip to Stamford went a couple days ago?" Blake nodded. Right after having a talk Barbie he got extremely uncomfortable and excused himself from their conversation, leaving his ex-girlfriend at the break room. He spent the rest of the day in his hotel room watching whatever movies the hotel was offering on their cable. Then he flew to New York in advance to spend the night with Candice at her apartment, and now here he was.
"You're right. I'm sorry babe." he spoke running a hand over his hair, he then reached for hers. "Well, I spoke to Shane and told him what I was feeling and he basically told me I have a little over two months in my contract and he wants me to use this time to think it over. I mean, he offered to just give me a month off by writing an injury into the storyline but I don't know. Cause if I leave it's going to be longer than a month. I mean, he offered me a lot more than I'm making. So many zeros, and my traveling would get paid for."
"Well have you talked to your parents about it?" she asked, lacing their fingers together as Blake placed a kiss on her hand.
"I was going to fly home for a day or two and just spend it with them. I didn't ask you cause I knew you had that photoshoot coming up in these couple days." he apologized, brushing her hand with his thumb. "But listen, I have an idea. When's the next time you have a few days off?"
"That sounds nice, tell them I say hi. Your mom is such a sweetheart. And next week I have four days off, why?" she asked, scooting closer to the superstar seeing him read his script for the night with his free hand. She watched as he stayed silent for a moment, scanning the piece of crumpled paper in front of him. The supermodel knew he wasn't ignoring her on purpose, he just hasn't had the time to prepare for tonight since he tries to keep her comfortable when she's backstage. He knew that she really didn't know anyone backstage, except maybe for a few divas and superstars she casually chatted up.
"Oh, um." he stopped for a second. Candice could tell he was nervous, since she could feel his palm being a bit sweaty. He threw the script back on the table before turning to her. "Why don't you and I take a little vacation to South Africa?" He smiled nervously gripping her hand just a little tighter awaiting her reaction. Blake stared into her blue eyes, and all she did was lean in and place a hand on his face.
"You're a sweet boy." she spoke softly, placing a soft kiss. This was going to be a big step in their relationship. Obviously they were going to her homeland, which meant that Blake was going to meet her parents. "Are you sure?"
"I'm so sure. I love you, and I think it's time. I don't want your parents to think I'm avoiding them, cause I'm totally not."
"Ok, well I'll book our flights and plan everything. This is going to be so fun and don't worry, I've sent a couple pictures of us to my parents so it won't be a complete shock when they meet you. I'm really excited, and I love you too." she smiled, bouncing off him lightly. Blake wrapped his arms playfully pulling the blonde on top of him. She laughed since the couch was so small that the two were having trouble staying on. She giggled lightly feeling his lips press on her, and his nose slightly dent her cheek. What was about to be an impromptu make out session was cut short when Phil barged in.
"Whoa, whoa. Keep it PG kids." Phil told jokingly. Candice was blushing heavily, after immediately getting off Blake and standing up.
"Damn it Phil, what have I told you about knocking?" Blake said with a slight chuckle, walking up to the straight edge superstar and giving him a hug.
"So this must be your lady friend I'm always hearing about. Cross, where are your manners introduce us!" Phil teasingly spoke to the superstar.
"Of course, Candice this is Phil, Phil this is the Candice." he introduced. Candice stuck her hand out but Phil instead wrapped her up into a bear hug. She squealed after being taken by surprise and after being put down all she could hear Blake's laugh.
"We're family here. So we gotta hug." Phil smiled as Blake nodded in agreement. "And I feel like I know you since Blake always talks about you, spending hours on buses and planes with this guy and the conversation is either him gushing about you and his dogs or me talking about the latest comic book I picked up."
"Blake does talk about his dogs a lot." she joked, but she felt delighted knowing Blake spoke about her so greatly. "Are you two wrestling each other tonight?"
"Yeah, that's why I came in here. I was going to go over something with him but ended up ruining your little moment."
"Don't let me stop you guys, do whatever you needed with him. I'll walk around and see if I can make some new friends." Candice spoke. It was a unsettling feeling to wonder this giant arena by herself but she knew Blake needed to do his thing.
"Are you sure? Phil and I can figure this all out before our match."
"Blake, I think I can handle myself." she said, shooing him along with Phil out the doors. She heard him laugh before closing the door behind her. The model plopped down on the couch that she was just hanging out with Blake on, and grabbed her laptop she brought along with her. The blonde searched for plane tickets that were available on her desired dates and smiled widely once she placed her order.
Barbie adjusted her knee pad as she strolled along one of the many hallways in the arena, looking for a specific locker room. The diva had no idea why she was going where she was, but she needed to. She wasn't finished with the talk she had with Blake in Stamford and she was dead set on finishing it. The blonde felt as if she was losing her mind, she swore Blake was going to tell her he loved her for once. She finally found the door she was looking for, after knocking the Florida native took a step back.
"Oh hey, Barbie. Blake's not here." the taller blonde spoke. Barbie kept her best to keep her smile on her face as she came face to face with Candice. She scanned the supermodel quickly. Candice was taller and skinnier than her, is that why Blake chose her? She quickly pushed back the original reason for coming and awkwardly greeted the woman standing in front of her.
"Oh I wasn't looking for him. Why would I even? I heard you were around so I just wanted to say hi." she smiled widely, hoping her big smile would cover the fact that she was lying. Barbie sort of threw herself onto Candice and wrapping her slender body in her arms. "Don't be so holed up in there, would you like me to show you around?"
"Um, yeah. I guess I should meet some of Blake's friends." Candice spoke, a bit taken back by Barbie's sudden hospitality. The supermodel walked side by side of Barbie as they began walking down towards the catering area. "Thank you, Barbie."
The diva nodded with a small smile before eyeing a group of her friends. She spotted the a large part of the divas sitting at a table and could see Nikki staring at her with a worried expression.
"Hey girls. This is Candice, she's backstage today so I thought I would show her around." Barbie spoke through a gritted smile.
"You're Blake's girlfriend right?" Eve asked unknowingly. Candice nodded with a small blush forming and introduced herself to the table of girls. Barbie watched as she took a seat next to Eve and began chit chatting with everyone like they were old friends.
"Barb, what is going on?" Nikki whispered as Barbie took a seat next to her.
"I needed to talk to Blake but when I went to his locker room she was there instead. So I couldn't tell her I was there to see him, so I told her I wanted to show her around." she whispered back in a slightly bitter tone.
"She seems like a nice girl, very pretty."
"Unfortunately, she's really nice. I can actually see why Blake likes her."
"I hope I'm not sensing jealousy, cause you have a man." Nikki spoke with a slightly amused tone. Barbie sent her a death glare before rolling her eyes. She then listened in on a story Candice was sharing with Eve and Brie about how it is actually hard to walk the runway with wings.
"Hey hey. Who's that?" a voice spoke into her ears as she felt her shoulders being squeezed. Barbie turned around to stare at the tan man in a headband. It was the one and only Zack Ryder.
"She's not available." Barbie replied, playfully brushing the Long Island native off. "Her name's Candice and she's Blake's girlfriend."
"There's no way that Cross can land a girl like that!" he spoke a little bit too loud. Candice turned around hearing Zack and she watched as Barbie put a hand over her face. "Hey, I'm Zack." the tan man announced, walking over to her. Candice took his hand into hers for an introductory handshake but was not expecting him to kiss both of her cheeks.
"Ryder, she's not interested." a familiar voice spoke, as his footsteps became louder. Candice's face fell into a comfortable smile seeing Blake walk up to the table. He was in his wrestling briefs, and his knee pads were comfortably slid around his shins right above his wrestling boots. Candice watched as he wrapped Zack into a sweaty man hug of sorts, and she also noticed the way Barbie looks at him. Sure all the divas gushed and acted like schoolgirls around him, but Barbie had an extra twinkle.
"Hey babe, making new friends I see." he spoke, leaning down to give her a quick kiss. "These girls treating you well?"
"Yeah, they're great. Barbie actually came and got me." Candice said with a small smile, nodding at Barbie's direction. Blake's blue eyes got wide from realization. Wait, Barbie got Candice. The young superstar turned and locked eyes with his ex-girlfriend who was sitting at the opposite end of the table.
"Thanks Barb, that's really cool of you. And I'm going to shower really quick I feel sticky then I have a segment to shoot. Are you gonna be okay here?"
"Yeah, I'll be fine." she replied, tilting her head upwards to receive another quick kiss from Blake. She smiled watching him wave goodbye to everyone at his table as he turned out of the hallway heading for his locker room.
Blake took a loud gasp feeling the cold water hit his body, he looked at the dial of the shower and it was on hot but yet the water was ice cold. He cursed to himself grabbing his towel and cutting his shower short.
"You've got to be fucking kidding." he muttered, still annoyed over the water situation as he threw on a t-shirt and pants. He messily ran a hand through his hair trying to get the rest of the water out.
"Hey. What's with the long face?" Candice spoke, poking her head before walking in and closing the door behind her.
"Nothing. The water doesn't get hot in this damn arena. I showered and it was like getting hit in the face with ice." he spoke still a bit bitter, throwing whatever left in his suitcase.
"I'm sorry to here that. Maybe we can take a nice hot bath...would that make you less grumpy?" she asked. Blake knew right away she turned on her seductive tone as she wrapped her thin arms around the superstar's waist. He immediately felt less tense feeling her kisses through his shirt.
"Don't make a promise you can't keep, Swanepoel." he teased.
"I'm a woman of my word. And I also booked our flights for us while you and Phil went out." the supermodel informed, taking Blake's hand in hers as they walked out of the arena and towards the parking lot. "I have two questions for you."
"Okay, shoot."
"One, we got invited to go out to dinner with everyone and I told them I would run it by you, but I kinda want to go and I think it would be good for you to spend some time with your co-workers. Two, how do you feel about Valentine's Day?" Hearing that Blake shut his eyes, hoping Candice didn't really notice. It wasn't about Valentine's Day it was that dinner with co-workers probably meant that Barbie was going to be there. Honestly, Blake's feelings for her were a mess. When she wasn't around, she would cross his mind occasionally but being surrounded by her would just mess with his head completely.
"Okay, where are we going?" he asked, giving her a small smile. Candice's face beamed with excitement which only made Blake smile wider. Her happiness would always rub off on him and that was a great thing. He let go of her hand and placed it around her shoulder, listening intently as she explained that since she knew New York best, his friends had given her choice on the restaurant. "Sounds great, babe. We'll go back to your place and get ready and we'll meet everyone else there."
"Good thing you said yes, cause I kinda told everyone the place and what time to meet us there." she spoke, giving him an innocent smile. Blake laughed, pressing his lips on the side of her head, before loading his suitcase into the back of her car.
"I think Valentine's Day is complete bullshit. People treat it like it's the one day to spoil or show love. I mean, I love you and I should love you everyday not just on Valentine's Day and everything is so damn crowded. But I do like giving gifts."
"True. True. Our first Valentine's Day is gonna be with my parents, is that weird?"
"No. Perfect timing." he spoke, leaning back on his chair as Candice started the car back to her apartment, to get ready for their night out with his fellow superstars and divas.
so this chapter is to set up for a few things, Blake going home, Blake and Candice heading on vacation, I'm just trying to catch up on real time and not fall too far behind. thanks for reviewing and reading! xo
