"Zel, you really need to calm down," Sonya said patiently. They were in her hotel room, where Zelina would be spending the night. There was only a double bed in the room, so they were going to have to share. That had been by far the preferred option for Zelina, who had refused point blank to countenance the idea of traveling on the tour bus, despite all of the persuasion that Sonya and Bayley had attempted. Even now that they were in the hotel room, she was still pacing angrily around, while Sonya sat on the bed, pillows cushioning her back against the headboard.
"How can I calm down? I had my boyfriend back there basically shouting down the hallway that I'm a slut!"
Sonya took a deep breath. "Alright, I know you're mad, and I know you're hurting, but raging at me isn't going to help anything. It's been more than an hour now since we left the arena and honestly, it's starting to piss me off."
Zelina walked over to the window and stood looking out. She didn't say anything for a couple of minutes while she tried her best to calm herself down. Sonya was right that she didn't deserve to take the flack for what Seth had done. She had been kind enough to offer her room for the night, along with a friendly ear. Seth was the one her anger should be directed at.
"Zel?" Sonya prompted gently. "Come sit down and talk to me, huh? I haven't even gotten a clear story of what happened yet, you've been so worked up about it."
Turning around, Zelina grimaced. "I'm sorry I've been going off at you. I just can't help it when I get pissed off. I really can't believe he said those things to me. What a total asshole."
Patting the bed beside her, Sonya said, "Sit down and tell me from the start what happened, without blowing up again. I want to help you here, but I need the full story."
"Alright." Zelina walked over and sat down next to her friend, shifting the pillows to prop her back the same way Sonya had arranged hers.
"I can get on to room service and get some beer or wine up here if you like?" Sonya offered.
"Thank you, but I'd better not. I'd probably get even angrier if I had drink inside me."
"Okay then, how did the argument start? Tell me the whole thing from the beginning."
Zelina covered her face for a moment, massaging her forehead to try and ease the headache that was starting to make itself known. With a heavy sigh, she started to tell her side of the story. "So, I had been in with Hunter. He was telling me about the promo stuff I've got to do with Paige for Fighting with My Family, and about some of the staffing changes they've made. I was really happy because they brought Sam Monte up to work with me."
"Everyone loves Sam," Sonya smiled. "He really is one of the good guys."
"Yeah, he is. So I was very happy when I came out of Hunter's office, and I set off to go find Seth and give him the good news. I came around a corner and there he was walking towards me. I said to him something like, 'You'll never guess who they've brought up from NXT,' and he launched right in on me. He said, 'I already know. The guy you were fucking on NXT, until he got injured.' I was stunned, as you can imagine. Seth had never spoken to me like that. The tone he used was like he thought I was the worst piece of shit he had ever seen. I don't think I've ever been talked down to as badly as that before, certainly not by someone I'm close to."
"I'm sorry he spoke to you like that," Sonya said with a compassionate look on her face. "So, reading between the lines, Andrade must have told Seth you were sleeping with him. Is it true?"
Trying to suck up her anger as much as possible, Zelina acknowledged that there was no judgement in Sonya's question. She was just trying to establish the facts of the situation they were talking about. "Yes, it's true. I slept with him once, and that was a mistake. It was the night he won the NXT title. We went out to celebrate and we both got blind drunk. We ended up sleeping together. What can I say? It was a stupid thing to do and I wish I hadn't done it."
"Oh, Zel," Sonya said sympathetically, moving a bit closer to her friend and putting an arm around her.
"Seth was going at me as if I'd been in a relationship with the fucking guy that I hadn't told him about."
"Maybe that's what he thinks?" Sonya ventured. "Are you sure you were clear with him that it was only once?"
"Uh, well, Seth demanded to know it was true that I slept with Andrade and why I hadn't told him. I shouted at him that it was, and that it hadn't exactly come up in conversation. I don't think I actually said it was only once, no. We were both so mad at each other. I slapped him for talking to me like shit and stormed off. That was when he shouted after me that Sasha might have been right all along. That was the most hurtful thing of all."
"You mean the other week when you said Sasha was giving you attitude? You didn't actually tell me what she said."
"She was accusing me of sleeping my way to the top. She said it was convenient how quickly I've been pushed, being given the cartel to manage and all of that stuff. She accused me of sleeping with Andrade when I was managing him, and now of course everyone knows I'm with Seth."
Sonya gave Zelina a squeeze and said, "Believe me, I'm trying to be the best friend I can here. But to do that, I need to tell you to try and see this from Seth's point of view, especially if you weren't even clear that you only slept with Andrade once and that it was a mistake. Seth will be wondering if he really means anything to you. He'll be feeling used. He'll be feeling betrayed."
"I haven't fucking betrayed him," Zelina snapped, jumping up off the bed, her hot-headedness taking over again. "I didn't cheat on him! I didn't lie to him about anything, I just didn't tell him."
"This is your biggest problem, Zel," Sonya said, keeping her cool. "You get all fiery as soon as someone challenges you. That really doesn't help in a situation like this. If you want to fix this with Seth, you need to calm the hell down."
"How can I calm down when my boyfriend is so willing to accept the fact that I'm supposedly a slut? How am I supposed to accept that he will just something like take that at face value without even speaking to me about it?" Zelina demanded heatedly, pacing again. "How am I supposed to just move on from that?"
"The same way Seth can move on from the fact that you've been with him for six months without telling him you slept with Andrade," Sonya said evenly. "You move on from it because you love each other and you want to be together. You guys are going to have to talk this out at some point if you want to fix things, and you can't go into it with that kind of attitude, like he's the one in the wrong and you're not. You're both at fault here, and you need to admit that to each other."
Before Zelina could reply, her phone started ringing. She took it out of her pocket and looked at the screen. "It's Seth. I'm not answering it," she said insistently, looking at Sonya, almost daring her to argue.
"I don't want you to answer it. You need to calm down before you talk to him. If you try it in this mood, you'll just fight again, and then it'll be much more likely that your relationship will be over."
Elena sat down on the end of Seth's bed after he moved his legs to make room for her. "This is an awkward position for me," she began with a pained expression on her face. "You are my friend, but you are also my client."
Sighing, Seth knew he was probably going to get a lecture for the way he had spoken to Bayley when she had given him the news that Zelina wasn't coming to the bus. Rightfully so, he had to admit. Bayley had done nothing wrong, and he had been aggressive towards her. That was not cool at all. "Don't worry about that, Daga. You can speak your mind. I know what you're going to say, anyway. I owe Bay an apology for going off at her."
"Yes, you do," Elena said, looking distinctly annoyed with him. "If I had been the bus and heard that, we would have had a big problem. Bay did nothing to deserve getting that from you. She was trying to help you. She spent a long time talking to Zel to try and get her to come with us."
"I know. I was out of line. I'll apologise to her. In fact, I'll apologise to everyone out there for how I was. I'm just so angry at Zelina right now, I can't even tell you."
"You should tell me," she encouraged. "You need to talk to someone. Talking always helps, and I am happy to listen. You obviously had a big argument. Tell me about it and I will try to help, yes?"
Seth decided what the hell, he might as well unload it all on someone. Maybe it would ease the pain of the betrayal he was feeling. "Alright," he agreed, sitting up to look at her better. "I got hit with it out of nowhere. I saw Andrade Almas in our locker room. He's the guy Zelina used to work with on NXT, as his manager. I figured with that being the case, and since it was his first night on the main roster, I would go and say hi. So I went up to him and he starts right into saying that Zelina didn't keep in contact with him while he was injured. I was thinking that wasn't particularly nice of her, but then he tells me to be careful because he was sleeping with her too, and she bounced as soon as he got injured. Ugh, it makes me feel sick just saying it."
"Stop," Elena said, raising a hand. "My English isn't great, but you just sleeping with him. That means more than once, no? Were they dating?"
"I don't know," Seth said, very frustrated. "When I confronted her, I told her he said she slept with him and she didn't deny it. She didn't even show any remorse. She just got mad at me."
"You were mad at her, she got mad at you. That is how arguments happen," she said reasonably. "You don't know if they were dating? You don't know if they slept together more than once? It might have been an accident, Seth."
He bristled at that. "Whose side are you on, Daga?"
"I'm not on anyone's side," she replied, with some frustration of her own. "I'm trying to help my friends when they're both being too stupid to listen to people."
"Stubborn. The word is stubborn, not stupid."
"Whatever the word is, answer me a question. You heard what this Andrade guy said. But do you have any idea what Zelina's side of the story is?"
That was when the idea entered Seth's head for the first time that he might have fucked up. He had gone right off the deep end as soon as Andrade had mentioned sleeping with Zelina, and hadn't given her a chance to speak with how he had launched into her the moment she had entered the same hallway as him. He actually didn't have the first idea of what her side of the story was. Almas could well have been baiting him for exactly the reaction he had gotten.
"Look at it from her point of view, Seth," Elena said softly, having seen a change in his expression. She reached out and took one of his hands in both of hers.
"That's what I'm doing now," he mumbled, feeling guilty about his Sasha comment in particular. "I said something really nasty, Daga. I'm not going to go into details, but it will have hurt her a lot. I'm still mad at her for not telling me she slept with the guy, but I do need to apologise for what I said."
Elena squeezed his hand and maintained eye contact with him. "She loves you, Seth. You love her. I know this. I know how I would feel if Bay and I had a fight. I thought I was going to lose her earlier when she told me she was out of the cartel."
"The bus," Seth recalled. "What did Vince say? Will he sell it to you?"
"Yes, for the same price I sold it to WWE for. It's not worth that with the amount of miles we've put on it, but I don't care. We need to take it off the road to be painted, but Bay can stay with us."
"I'm really glad to hear it, and I'm happy for you guys," he said sincerely.
"And I will be happy for you and Zelina when you work this out. Bay fought for our relationship today. You should do the same for yours, yes?"
"Yes," Seth said, closing his eyes for a moment. Despite the awkward English, Daga was talking a lot of sense. He opened his eyes again as Elena let go of his hand, and smiled at her. "Thanks for talking some sense into my stubborn, thick head."
"Stubborn. That's my new word for the day," she smiled. "Now, call Zelina. Make the first move and apologise."
"I'll ask her if she wants me to come to whatever hotel she's in."
"Okay, but it might be better to sleep first. Let cooler heads prevail. That's the right word, yes?"
"Yeah," Seth smiled, surprised that she knew that one. Elena also smiled as he called Zelina's number. "It's ringing," he reported.
Elena got up off the bed. "I'll leave you to it."
"She's not answering," he said, feeling his irritation flaring up again. "Her phone is on because it's ringing, so she's ignoring me. Fuck's sake!" he raged after a moment, when the call went to voicemail.
Having stopped just before opening the curtain to leave, Elena quickly stepped in to calm him down. "Send a text message then. Remember what I just said about fighting for your relationship? Cooler heads, yes? Stop feeling angry with Zel and concentrate on fixing things. Maybe she is too upset to talk. Start by texting her. Send an apology and see what happens."
"What if she doesn't reply?"
Elena grimaced. "We worry about that if it happens."
With that, Seth started typing out a message.
"He's sent a text now," Zelina told Sonya after her phone bleeped. She went on to read it aloud. "Zelina, I'm sorry for the nasty things I said, and for shouting at you. I'm sorry for saying Sasha might have been right. That was really not on. I should have let you tell me your side of the story instead of losing my cool. Can we talk about this?"
"You need to reply to him," Sonya encouraged. "Zel, if you ignore that message, that's probably your relationship done. I know you don't want that, no matter how angry you're feeling right now. Please think this through. Do you want to lose Seth for good?"
"No, of course I don't," Zelina said, her anger finally melting away. She almost burst into tears. "I just want him to realise he can't speak to me like that. I'm not going to be shouted at and talked to like a piece of crap by my own boyfriend."
"That's what he just apologised for," Sonya said reasonably. "You need to give the guy a chance. If I was you, I'd text back and apologise for not telling him you slept with Andrade, and ask him to come here tomorrow morning so that you can talk it out face to face."
"Not tonight?"
"No. You both need to cool off. Like I said before, if he comes over here now, you might end up fighting again, and that would be very bad. I think meeting him first thing in the morning would be better. Maybe you can sit down over breakfast or something?" Sonya patted the bed beside her again, encouraging Zelina to sit down next to her. "Come here, and we'll decide what to send."
Zelina walked over to the bed and sat down as suggested. Once she was comfortable, she started typing out a message. "I guess I'll start by apologising for not telling him about me and Andrade. I'll tell him that it was a drunken one night stand and it was a mistake."
Leaning over to see the message taking shape, Sonya said, "Then put that you agree you need to talk, and invite him to come here in the morning. Say you think it's better if you both cool off for tonight."
After including all of that, Zelina looked at her friend for final approval. "Shall I send that?"
Sonya nodded. "Yeah. See what he says to that."
Zelina sent the message. A reply arrived within moments, and she read it out. "Okay, text me in the morning and I'll get a taxi to your hotel. Where are you staying?"
She replied with the name of the hotel.
A further message arrived, and she read it to Sonya. "I'll see you in the morning. Sleep well, muñeca."
The message ending with that word made Zelina tear up. "Oh, Sonya," she said sadly, cuddling up to her friend.
"Hey, it's alright," Sonya said in a comforting manner, putting an arm around her in a tender embrace. "It'll be okay. Seth will come over tomorrow morning and you'll figure it all out."
A/N: Thank you everyone who reviewed last time. It was interesting to see some differing opinions with regard to who was at fault.
Sonya seems confident that Seth and Zelina will figure things out when they sit down and talk. Do you share her optimism?
