Mandy was in a hire car with Roman, on the way to the arena for Friday night's Smackdown episode when her phone rang. The word 'Dad' appeared on the screen.
"Oh, it's my dad," she said happily. She always enjoyed speaking to him, especially when it had been a few days since the last time.
"Say hi from me," Roman said before she answered the call.
Mandy slid the green phone icon across the screen. "Hi, dad!"
"Hey, Amanda," he said. He was the only one who called her Amanda. If anyone else did it, she corrected them. But her dad had always done it, and she had come to see it as endearing.
"How are you? Is everything okay?" she asked him.
She heard a sigh on the other end of the call, which worried her. "There's actually something I need to talk to you about. There's something going on, and I'm not sure how you're going to feel about it."
"Oh?" Mandy asked, feeling extremely nervous about what might be coming next.
"You see, the thing is," her dad said slowly, "I'm opening the shop back up."
Mandy squealed in delight, realising that he had been teasing her by making out it was going to be something bad that he had to say, when it was actually the total opposite. "You got me going then, dad! Don't do that to me! When? When are you opening it?" she asked, speaking over the laughter coming from his end.
"Sorry! I just had to do it," he said. "I've got people coming to do some work on it at the start of next week. They'll be putting a plastic screen around the counter, plus a few other things for health and safety. I'm also going to have a new policy for payments – card only, no cash."
"I think that's a good idea. Dad, I'm so happy you're opening again! When are you heading back home?"
"Today. I'm packed and ready to go. I'm sick of the sight of this cabin, so I'll be glad to get home now that it's safer. I'd love it if you could come up soon?"
Mandy decided that turnabout was fair play. She could wind him up a little, as he had with her. "The thing is, dad, I've got a busy week next week. Like, real busy."
"Too busy to come see me?" he asked with obvious disappointment.
"Quite possibly. You see, we'll be house hunting. In New York," she added casually. She had kept the plans that she and Roman had made from her dad, waiting until the right time to surprise him. That moment had just presented itself.
"Wait, what?" he exclaimed. "You're moving to New York? You're serious?"
"I'm serious," Mandy assured him, enjoying his reaction. She noticed Roman smiling next to her. "Roman and I talked about it a while back and I explained to him that I couldn't be away from New York, from you, from the shop, when things went back to normal. We're going to find somewhere that's not a huge distance from the shop."
"And is Roman okay with moving up here?" he asked.
"Yes, he is," Mandy assured him. "He says hi, by the way."
"Tell him hi. You guys will stop by next week then, since you'll be in the area?"
"Of course we will," Mandy promised now that she was done teasing him.
"I can't wait to see you both. I can tell you're in the car, so I'll let you go."
"Thanks, dad. I can't wait to see you either. We're nearly at the arena, so I'll probably speak to you tomorrow or something."
"Okay. Good luck on the show. I'll be watching. Love you," he said.
"Love you too," Mandy said, and ended the call.
"I bet he liked that surprise?" Roman said, smiling again.
"Yeah," Mandy said, feeling quite emotional about the prospect of seeing her dad in person for the first time in months, and getting back to working in the shop. "I know I've said it before, but it means so much to me that you're willing to move up to New York. I just couldn't have been happy moving away permanently."
"I know, Peach. I'm looking forward to viewing some of the places we shortlisted. At least we agreed on the basics of what we wanted."
"Yeah, and we found some lovely places with our internet search. I'm still not used to being a millionaire. The thought of houses like those belonging to me just seems crazy, and exciting of course."
"Well, as you know, until we moved in together I had only ever lived alone since I moved out of my parents' place. I've never bought a house with someone, so I'm looking forward to it as much as you are, albeit for slightly different reasons."
When they arrived at the arena about fifteen minutes later, Mandy couldn't have felt happier. There was so much positive in her life at the moment, and very little negative. Even her nerves about performing were not as bad as they had been at the Royal Rumble, plus she now knew that she got along okay with Raquel Gonzalez.
"Okay, Peach, I'll see you later. Enjoy," Roman said when the time came for them to part ways, this time at a junction in the hallway. Female talent were directed one way, male talent the other.
"You call me Peach more than Mandy now, you know that?"
"You are my Peach," Roman shrugged, smiling with good humour.
"I am," Mandy giggled. "I'll talk to you later, Joe."
They pecked each other on the lips, then went their separate ways to the locker rooms. Although they had arrived quite early, Mandy found the locker room busy when she walked in. Raquel was one of the people who was there. She had made sure there was an empty locker next to hers for Mandy.
"Hey, how are you?" Mandy asked as she approached her new friend.
"Oh, hi," Raquel said looking up from her phone. She didn't seem particularly happy.
"You okay?" Mandy asked. Setting her travel case aside, she sat down on the bench next to Raquel.
"Look at this," Raquel said, offering her phone to Mandy.
Unsure what she was about to see, Mandy took the phone without saying anything. On the screen was a tweet from a dirt sheet account. It linked an article and offered the headline: 'Natalya: Reckless Raquel has put me out for four months.'
Mandy could hardly believe what she was seeing. Natalya had actually been unprofessional enough to give an interview and criticise Raquel's work, out of bitterness over an injury that no one apart from Natalya even thought was Raquel's fault anyway.
"Reckless Raquel? Seriously?" Mandy asked in a very mocking manner. "She needs to get a hold of herself."
"She wants to hope I don't get a hold of her," Raquel said quietly, with anger in her voice. "It would be one thing if I actually did anything. I've watched it back a bunch of times, and what everyone said was right. All I did was gorilla press her out of the ring. Now I've got an interview going around twitter saying I'm a bad worker before I've even had a match on the main roster. It's bullshit, Mandy."
"It is bullshit. That's exactly what it is," Mandy said, putting a sympathetic hand on her friend's knee. She was glad that although they were in the busy locker room, no one was paying any attention to their conversation. "You know what you're going to do, don't you?"
"What's that?" Raquel asked.
"You're going to prove the bitch wrong. And you're going to show her for what she is: a bitter, run down wrestler who is no longer relevant. That's what you're going to do."
"You've got some fire in you, Mandy," Raquel said, her tone conveying that she respected it.
"Sometimes you have to stand up and fight when things get on top of you. I've been through a lot in my life, like most people have, I suppose. At times it would have been easy for me to give up and go into a depression, but no, I always kept going because I knew I had to be there for my dad, and for our family business. In your case, don't let one person talking shit detract from the fact that you were called up to the main roster for a reason. You belong here, so act like it and show them why. Okay?"
"Okay," Raquel said with renewed determination. "Thanks, Mandy. I know I said we need to have each other's backs. You've made it clear you have mine."
"I definitely do. You showed you had mine when Natalya spoke to me like a piece of crap last week, so I'm confident we're on the same page."
"We are," Raquel agreed as she took her phone back. Shaking her head again, she re-read the article's headline. Noticing it, Mandy knew what she should say next.
"Try and keep your mind off her."
"You're right. I need something else to talk about," Raquel said. "What's the family business you mentioned?"
"We have a sandwich shop up in Westchester County. I'm not exaggerating when I say it's probably the best sandwich shop in the area. Our food is to die for. I'm very proud of that. It's actually opening back up next week, after being closed since March because of the stupid virus."
"That's a long time for a business to be closed for. A lot of places have been open for a while now."
"Yeah, I know. My dad went to live in a cabin he owns out in the country to ride out the worst of corona, and I've been living in Orlando with Roman. We're lucky that my dad owns the shop outright, so the closure hasn't ruined us financially. It might take us a while to get the customers back, but we'll do it. I'm going to be helping out there whenever I can."
"You might have a decision coming your way somewhere down the line," Raquel said.
"What do you mean?" Mandy asked.
"WWE is a full time job once house shows come back, assuming they do. You won't be able to do poker streams, run a sandwich shop, and work here. I can't believe Vince didn't have this conversation with you."
"He did," Mandy revealed, smiling. "He signed me up for TV shows only, so it's not going to be an issue."
"TV only? How did you swing that deal?"
"It helps when you don't need the money. I'm probably among the lowest paid people here, but I don't care. As we already discussed, this is my dream job. I'm here because I want to do it."
"You might end up being away from Roman a lot. His ass won't be TV only," Raquel said, amused by the thought of Vince letting one of the company's top stars skip house shows.
"I know. And that will obviously be hard. But we're going to be moving up to live near my dad. I'll be working, and I'll be spending time with him. Loneliness won't be an issue for me."
"I'm glad you've got it all worked out," Raquel said supportively.
"What about you? What's your personal life like?"
Raquel laughed. "What personal life? I live in a small apartment a few minutes from the PC. When I'm not working shows, I'm there training."
"You need to change that. Focus and determination are great, but so is relaxation. You should come over for dinner with Roman and I one night. You haven't eaten until you've tried Mandy Rose's cooking!"
Raquel grinned at the boast. "Oh, really? That's an offer I can't refuse. I'd love to come over for dinner. There is one thing I've got to ask you though."
"What's that?" Mandy asked a little tentatively.
"Why do you wear gloves all the time? You're not even wearing a mask. I've been wanting to ask that since you walked in."
Mandy looked at her hands, to her looking sexy in blue nitrile gloves, but to everyone else looking pretty silly, she had to admit. "It makes me comfortable," she half lied. At least she hadn't blushed at the question.
"Fair enough. Just so you know, we're not making it part of our gimmick."
"That's a shame," Mandy said, and they laughed like people who had been friends for five months, not five days.
A/N: Thank you to everyone who left a review on the previous chapter.
Next time, Mandy's first Smackdown appearance as Raquel's manager. What do you think will happen?