A/N: Thank you for the reviews and everything, everyone, I'm so happy you liked the direction this was going in, enjoy, reviews would be lovely if you can! :)
"So, what are you doing on Saturday?"
"This Saturday, like the day after tomorrow Saturday?" Lance asked, his voice slightly sarcastic, but only slightly because Lance's mood hardly ever changed much.
"Yeah, what are you doing?" Chris asked. "Are you and Tina busy? Do you think you can get away for the day? I'll pay for it."
"You'll pay for it, what the hell is going on in Florida that we need to come on Saturday on such short notice?" Lance wondered. His friend calling him out of the blue wasn't unusual, Lance was used to that, but actually flying out to see him on a whim, that meant something was up, but Lance couldn't figure out what this could mean. "Wait, are you going to be winning the WWE title or something?"
"On a Saturday?" Chris laughed, "No, that's not it at all. Are you free?"
"Well, I'd have to check with Tina, but I think we're free, I don't' know of anything we're doing," Lance told him. "I don't have any shows until next weekend. I guess we could come up, but really, Chris, what is this for?"
"I'm getting married," Chris told him, "and I want you to be my witness or best man if that's what you prefer, but it's a civil ceremony, so I don't really think you need a best man."
"Wait, wait, wait," Lance cut into his rambling. "Chris, what are you talking about, you're getting married? What the hell has been going on since I last talked to you? I know it's been a couple months, but, Chris, this is kind of out of the blue."
"I know, I know it sounds out of the blue, but it's not, it's something I want," Chris told him. "I know you're going to think I'm making a rash decision, but I'm really not, not this time, not with this."
"Okay, but…I mean, do I even know this girl? I didn't even realize you were dating someone, and don't you think it's a little soon if this is someone new? I get falling in love, I do, I get it because when I met Tina, I knew, but don't you think you're rushing this?"
"It's Steph, Lance," Chris told him. "It's Stephanie, she's the one I'm getting married to on Saturday."
Lance was rendered speechless for the third time in this conversation. He knew Chris still had feelings for Stephanie. When Chris told him he was heading back to the WWF, he'd brought up how it was going to be weird seeing Stephanie again. Lance also knew that Chris went to Stephanie's graduation without her knowing. He'd known for all these years that Chris still held a candle for Stephanie, but now he was marrying her?
"Chris, what the hell happened over the past two months?" Lance asked him. "I don't even understand. I mean, I get that you've never really gotten over her, but you're marrying her now, what is this? I thought you said she had a boyfriend when you called me after your debut…"
"She did, his name was Tim, he wasn't right for her, and don't worry, she didn't break up with him for me or anything. She broke up with him because he wanted her to give up her onscreen role and her traveling to be with him. She dumped him, and I dumped Jessica, and it's just…well, we've been getting closer, and we've been kind of dating for a while now, but not officially, but we're official now and we want to do this."
"You know this is crazy, right?" Lance asked. "I mean, how do you guys even now this will work out? You haven't properly dated each other in years. This could be a huge disaster, Chris."
"I know it can, man, but I don't care," Chris told him, "I love her, I've always loved her. She was the first woman I ever loved, and I didn't care what her age was, and I don't care that we've spent time apart, as far as I'm concerned, I never should have left her. I should have continued seeing her, I shouldn't have wasted those years without her, but we're both better for it, and we're happy, and we want this."
"Are you sure though, you're different people now, you don't know if you're compatible."
"We are, look, this may see like we're rushing this, and in a way, sure, we are, but in other ways, we're not, and I would really like one of my best friends to be there with me when this happens."
"What about her family, what about your family, you know your mom would want to see you get married."
"We're going to do a real wedding in Winnipeg," Chris said, "it was Stephanie's idea because she knows my mom would want to be there. She met her when we were dating before."
"And I'm sure your mom sniffed that relationship out right away, didn't she?" Lance said. Chris's mother was sharp, and with the way Chris and Stephanie were, there was no way his mother couldn't see it if they were together. He didn't understand how Stephanie's parents missed it, but he figured they were busier with the company, and didn't notice their daughter was dating an older man.
"Yeah, she did," Chris chuckled as he thought back to that visit. "But we've decided to do the whole wedding thing afterwards for our families and friends. We just decided to invite one person each, she's going with one of her best friends. We really want this, man, it's not as rash as you would think."
"Are you sure you guys are ready for this?"
"Yeah, I'm sure, I've never…she's just, well, she's Stephanie, and I've loved her for years, and I've wanted her for years. Even when I convinced myself I was over her, I really wasn't, not totally. You know this, you know where I was, you know I never stopped caring, you were with me when I bought some of the cards for her."
Lance sighed. It was true, he was there for all of that, he did see all of that, "Yeah, I know, I know you never got over her. I just don't want you to make a mistake. I know you love her, Chris, that's not the problem, but it's the everything after that could bring a lot of drama, especially doing this out of the blue."
"It might, but I know what I want, I know that I love Stephanie, and everything will work out."
Chris sounded so hopeful that Lance was inclined to believe him. "Okay, we'll be there, I'll tell Tina, and we'll be there."
"Awesome, I can like send you plane tickets or—"
"We'll get it, it's fine," Lance told him, "you're in Florida?"
"Connecticut, Greenwich, we're going to do it up here," Chris said, "you have no idea what this means to me, really, man, thank you."
"Yeah, yeah, I'll call you later to tell you our flight details."
"Okay, thanks, man!" Chris said before hanging up. He walked into Stephanie's kitchen and was surprised to see someone sitting with her.
"Oh my God, you're him," the woman said, standing up as Stephanie followed suit. "You are the guy. I mean, I've obviously seen pictures and everything, but damn, you are the guy!"
"Lisa," Stephanie hissed at him. "I invited Lisa to be my witness, and she demanded that she drive over her right now and take us out to dinner—"
"Because I need to know who is marrying my best friend," Lisa said, stepping forward and sticking her hand out. Chris shook it and smiled at her. "I'm Lisa, Stephanie's best friend since middle school, and you are Chris Irvine, the guy who broke her heart."
"Lisa, shut up," Stephanie said, "don't mind her, she's kind of crazy."
"Uh no, I'm not, I've waited for so long to meet you," Lisa said, smiling at him, "and I must say, Stephanie has good taste. I mean, I didn't see you back then, but if you look like this now, you must have been cute then."
"Um, thanks," Chris laughed. This girl reminded him of Stephanie back in the day. She had that little bit of flightiness and enthusiasm. "It's really nice to meet you, I remember Stephanie telling me about you, mostly when she talked about her day when we weren't together."
"She's told me a lot about you," Lisa said, "you were the one who made our Stephanie a woman."
"Lisa," Stephanie covered her face and shook her head as her friend laugh. "Okay, now I'm regretting calling you about this."
"No, no, no, don't regret it," Lisa took Stephanie into a hug. "I'm so happy you called me, and I'm so happy that I get to be there for your big day. Honestly, this is a long time coming, you guys. Chris, she was never really over you. Sometimes, she would bring you up, just in conversation, and she'd wonder how you were doing, if you had a match. You two being together, it's right. Back in high school, she would gush about you all the time when we were alone. I was one of the only ones that knew."
"What did she say about me?" Chris asked, glancing at Stephanie, who tilted her head and implored him not to really ask that question. He gave a short shrug, smiling at her. He was curious as to how she talked about, and this was the next best thing to reading her diary, which he still didn't really want to do. It felt like too much an invasion of her privacy.
"She just used to say you were the sweetest, the cutest guy, and she couldn't believe she got someone as rad as you were to actually like her. I think she's still a little shocked about it because she had the hugest crush on you. She would talk all about how you were such a great wrestler, and how you were so sweet to her, but that you didn't think of her as anything more than a little sister until all that changed. How did you get that to change exactly, Steph?"
"I'm not even sure," Stephanie glanced at Chris, giving him a soft smile. "I just know that I did, and that he fell in love with me, and that we're getting married the day after tomorrow."
"Yeah, we are," Chris grinned at her.
"Okay, yeah, I did have my reservations about you two picking it up again, but I can see that you two are serious about each other, which means, Stephanie, I'm going to have to ask you to leave because I need to talk to your future husband."
"What?" Stephanie asked.
"As your friend, I need to talk to him," Lisa started to push Stephanie out of the room. "Go upstairs, actually, no, you stay here, Chris, let's go outside for a moment, shall we?"
"Chris, you don't have to," Stephanie shook her head.
"No, it's okay," Chris said, following Lisa outside into Stephanie's backyard. She walked a ways away from the house, out of earshot from Stephanie and stood there, arms folded as Chris caught up to her. "So what's this about?"
"When you left, I wouldn't say she was like, horrible," Lisa said, "but it was clear that she was upset. You meant a lot to her back then, Chris, and I had to watch as she patched herself together. I know what you guys did, how you ended, was a mutual thing, you both agreed that it was for the best, and you know what, I'm not disputing that it wasn't. I think it was for the best. I know Stephanie has grown, and I'm sure you've grown since then too, right?"
"I like to think so."
"Still, she missed you so much. The first few months, she walked around like a zombie, and she couldn't even tell her parents or most of her friends why. She loves you, she always did, and even as I watched her be with other guys, I could tell sometimes she was looking for bits of you in them. I'm not trying to issue a warning to you or anything, just…love my best friend. Love her, and keep her, and make her happy. I don't want that zombie Stephanie back again."
"I love her," Chris looked over to the house, where Stephanie was watching intently from the window. He threw her a smile, and she pretended like she was doing something. "I won't hurt her."
"Good, I want what's best for her, and it's been clear that it's you since you came back into her life. She would never tell you, and don't tell her I told you this, but the night you returned, she called me up after the show, and she was gushing about how you looked, how good you'd been, the whole nine yards. I knew then that this, whatever you two have, it wasn't over."
"So you thought we'd get back together?" Chris asked her. She shook her head.
"No, I knew you would."
