"Well, last night was a failure," Randy said. "Big time."
"I can't believe she only drank water," Aleister said.
"I fucking blew money on a drink for her that she turned down," Montez said. "How the hell dare she?"
Karl leaned in close to Luke so only his friend could hear him whisper.
"Wow, a woman making her own decisions about what she wants to drink. Yes, how dare she?" Karl mocked.
Luke chuckled at the comment. A lot of the guys in on the bet had thought it would be easy. Get her drunk and take her back to her hotel room. They hadn't thought for one second that she might not want to drink alcohol.
"There's still time," Humberto said.
"Of course there's still time. The bet's gonna continue until someone taps that ass," Montez said.
AJ found Lyla running the ropes inside the ring. He stopped and watched her with a smile. She stopped running and smiled back.
"Hello, stalker," she joked.
"Waiting for someone?" He asked.
"Natalya. We have a match tonight. We're just gonna go over some sports," she said.
"Nattie's a great worker," he said.
She stepped through the ropes and sat down on the apron to get down to his level. He leaned his elbows on the apron and turned his head sideways to look at her.
"There's a game room in the basement of the hotel," he said.
"Are you plotting on killing me and dumping my body there?" She asked.
"No!" He laughed. "A bunch of us are going there tonight to have fun. You should come."
"I'm not drinking," she said.
"There's no alcohol involved. We're just gonna play games," he said.
"Sure, that sounds like fun," she said. "There's Natalya."
Natalya came walking down the ramp. She greeted both of them and rolled into the ring. AJ took off and left the women alone.
"What's up with you and AJ?" Natalya asked.
"Nothing. He just said they arranged a game night tonight," Lyla answered.
"Right, Becky already mentioned that. Well, if you're going, so am I," Natalya said.
The game room was easy to find. There were already a good amount of people there. Lyla couldn't see AJ anywhere but Luke and Karl were there. They were standing by a pool table, setting up the balls.
"Hi, guys," she said. "Can I play against the winner?"
"A threeway tournament?" Karl asked.
"No, no, no," Humberto interrupted. "Us against them, my precious."
"I'm not your precious," Lyla said.
"You could be," Humberto grinned.
Humberto grabbed two cues and handed Lyla one of them. He held out his hand towards the table.
"Bend over and open the game," Humberto said.
"Wouldn't you like that?" Luke muttered under his breath.
Humberto hadn't noticed AJ walking up behind him. AJ grabbed the cue and snatched it out of Humberto's hand.
"I already agreed with my friends here that we'd play tonight. Stand back and watch. Maybe you get to play later, maybe not. That all depends on whether or not Lyla wants to," AJ said.
"Sorry, mister Styles," Humberto said.
Humberto hurried over to a couch and sat down.
"Mister Styles?" Karl chuckled.
"It pays off to be an old wrestler that the young ones look up to. They don't wanna tread on my toes," AJ said. "Okay, are we doing this or not? I wanna beat your asses."
"As if," Luke said. "You've never been able to before, and tonight isn't gonna be your lucky night either."
"We'll see," AJ smirked.
Luke and Karl quickly won the game. AJ knew they would. They had always been great at pool.
"Alright, Lyla, just me and you this time," AJ said.
"AJ," Luke sighed.
Karl grabbed Luke's arm and pulled the bigger man away from the table. Instead they found two chairs and just watched everyone in the room. A lot of people had eyes on the pool table. They were just waiting for AJ to take a step away so they could get in.
"It feels like everyone's staring at me," Lyla said.
AJ looked around briefly and then turned to her again.
"Do you wanna leave?" He asked.
"Yeah, I don't like feeling like a piece of meat," she said.
"I'll walk you to the elevator," he said.
They walked to the elevator and waited for it to come down to the basement. Randy came walking out of the game room, slowly moving towards them as the elevator door opened.
"Walk me to my room, please," Lyla pleaded.
"Yeah, I'm not letting him get on this thing with you alone," AJ said.
AJ stepped into the elevator with Lyla. Randy stopped and smirked. He knew his plan had failed. There was no reason for him to continue moving forward and getting into the elevator. AJ wasn't gonna leave her side. The door closed again, and AJ and Lyla rode up to her floor in silence. He walked her to her room and watched as she unlocked the door. She left it open and turned to look at him. To her surprise she was met by a kiss. It lasted a few seconds and then he broke it.
"Sorry, sorry," he held up his hands. "Fuck, I didn't mean to do that."
"I don't mind," she said.
"If this is ever to happen, I want to be sure you feel safe with me," he said.
"I do. You've always been nice to me. And since you were man enough to tell me about that stupid bet, I feel safe around you and your friends. Besides, it was only a kiss," she said.
He leaned down and kissed her again. He tried to gently push her back into the room but she broke the kiss and placed her palms on his chest.
"Too soon," she said. "A kiss is fine but I don't want to have sex with you. Not yet, at least."
"I understand," he smiled. "I'm not mad. I can wait."
"I do have one question though," she said.
"Shoot," he said.
"This whole bet thing," she said. "How do anyone prove if they slept with me? If I deny it, how can anyone really know that someone won the bet?"
He held up phone.
"Pictures or videos," he said. "Which is why I'm gonna hand you my phone to hide whenever you're ready to be with me. I'm not part of that stupid bet."
"I believe you," she said. "So technically if I'm with you, no one wins. Do I get the money then?"
She grinned at him and he laughed in return.
"You can always ask Montez. He's in charge of it," he said.
"Montez is an idiot then," she said.
"Don't I know it," he poked her nose teasingly. "Sleep tight, Lyla. I'll see you tomorrow."