Teddy jumped in his car, having let Cheryl get back to work after her boss had discretely come outside and told her that her break had been long over. With plans to meet up later to keep him warm as he made the trek back to Iowa and the hotel that was soon becoming his new home away from home, he turned the radio on, needing the music to keep him company.
He turned it to an old school rock music station and the song that came across the radio seemed to scream at him with the truth of the way he was feeling.
"Now we realize that love isn't all its supposed to be, and knowing that you would have wanted it this way, I do believe I'm feeling stronger everyday"
During the trek back to the town where it all began, he had a lot of time to think things over and hearing the song lyric now just assured him that what he was doing was a step in the right direction.
Kristin had wanted him to move on, she had said as much when she dropped her new boyfriend bombshell. Now that he was actually doing it though there was a niggling in the back of his mind that seemed to scream that he had to keep his plans with Cheryl quiet because the last thing he wanted was for this new woman to be dragged into his messy divorce.
Would his wife have the gumption to do something that cruel? There was a time that Ted believed her knew her better then anyone else and would have said no. With the passage of time though, and the divorce looming over them both, he knew he couldn't answer it anymore without seeds of doubt planted in.
I can't let anything happen to Cheryl. I don't care what Kris wants to do to me, but Cheryl cannot become a part of it.
He was reassuring himself mainly because with his newfound declaration of love that he had given almost an hour ago back at Cheryl's store, he knew that things were just too damn easy and something had to go wrong. This time though, if anything did come of it, he would have to be better prepared.
Having lied to the people he worked for in the WWE to further his own personal agenda, he was even more certain about keeping things quiet. If they somehow found out he had taken the time for something personal and it didn't pertain to his divorce from Kristin, he didn't want to even think of the ramifications it would cause.
As he listened to the radio and sang along with some of the songs that he had grown up listening too, he saw the hotel off in the immediate distance, which means his driving for the night was almost complete.
Finally pulling into the hotel and swinging the car around so the valet parking gentleman could do his job, he got out and immediately felt his leg vibrating. Smacking his head he realized he had left the thing on vibrate when he had left Connecticut and hadn't put the ring back on.
Not thinking about who would be calling and hoping silently that it might be Cheryl telling him that she to would be on her way back home soon, or at least back to the hotel to see him, he answered without looking at the caller ID.
"DiBiase."
"Good Evening Teddy."
Pulling the phone away and staring at the lit up screen, seeing the number still flickering, he groaned to himself.
"Evening Kris. I assume this isn't a social call."
She laughed in the background and Teddy did his best to block it out. He had fallen in love with that laugh so many years before that hearing it now still sent those involuntary shivers up his spine. Just what the hell did she want after making it very clear the week before she wanted nothing more to do with him.
"Actually I just had the most interesting phone call. I just had to call and tell you about it."
Hearing her talk to him this way, a way that she hadn't bothered doing in six months sent chills down his spine. Why was she suddenly out of the blue calling him now when he was finally starting to feel halfway normal again?
"Oh yeah, what was the call about?" Ted asked, trying to fake interest. All he wanted to do was turn his damn phone off and block all of this out but he was stuck. No matter how much he tried to say otherwise, this woman still had the power to hold him by the balls.
"Stephanie called me and requested that I stop fabricating things for OUR divorce so that you could get back to doing your job properly. Isn't that the funniest thing? Where did she get that tidbit of information?"
He knew he had been caught, at least by his soon to be ex wife. He could only pray on every God he could that she hadn't tried getting back at him by in fact telling his boss the truth. The woman he had married so many years ago wouldn't have done it, but this woman now, he was almost certain she would have fed him to the wolves and liked it.
Ted had no idea which version of his wife he was talking to in that moment though so he could only silently wish.
"I have no idea where she got that Kristin, but what did you tell her?"
"I told her that I would go easier on you and that I was sorry for messing with your job and her business. I was the pillar of politeness Ted so don't worry."
He silently thanked her, looking up to the roof of the hotel as he did. From his mind to God's ears, she had actually come through for him, which immediately softened the way he reacted to her.
"Was that all Kris? I just got to the hotel and need to check in."
"Actually Ted, I was hoping that if you weren't too busy you might be able to fly out to the house. I think we need to talk about things. I've been doing some thinking."
He heard her speaking but he was sure he was not hearing it correctly. Had she just asked him to come home so they could talk? The very thing he had been trying to do for months with no success? Just what kind of chump did she take him for?
"Kristin, I don't get you. You told me last week you had moved on and now for some insane reason you want me to drop everything I'm doing and come back to Tampa? What's really going on?"
He had a mental image of actually going to Tampa and somehow coming face to face with the man she had found to replace him. The niggling doubt from earlier crept back in full force as he listened to her sharp breathing over the line. Was this really what was going on? Was he about to get his ass ambushed if he did as she asked of him?
"I've been doing a lot of thinking. I had a really big talk with my mother and she's admitted that she was lying. I think we should sit down and talk things through."
She really has lost her mind.
"So your mother admitting to lying about me is supposed to make me hop back on a plane and come home? Are you delusional Kris? You just found out that for the past six months, I wasn't lying to you."
She sighed into the phone and he immediately felt guilty for being this harsh with her. He kept replaying their last fight in his mind and how she would just not listen to reason when he claimed his innocence, yet now he was supposed to accept that she finally believed him?
"Teddy I love you, I've always loved you and I really did believe that you had cheated on me. I'm sorry."
The words he had been longing to hear for the past six months since this divorce had been put into the works poured out of her mind and it was breaking his heart into shards to hear it. He was feeling something intense for another woman and now suddenly his wife wanted him back?
"I can't listen to this right now Kris. I'm sorry but this is too much to process. When I can get a chance to come home again, I will call you and set it up but for now, I just cant."
He ended the call and threw the phone into his pants pocket brushing off the conversation as he made his way to check in for the night. He had made plans to meet up with Cheryl and as much pain as his wife's call had caused him, he was not breaking another promise.
He was going to enjoy himself tonight, Kristin and her ploy be damned. He would deal this when the time was right and for now, it wasn't.
The only thing that was, was the woman that had weaseled her way into his heart. The only person that mattered tonight was Cheryl, and him and that's the way it would stay.
