Sorry it's been a while since I updated my stories I've just been really busy! Hopefully I will have time to write again and I'll be working on my story Changes so it will be updated next. This chapter is short and it probably isn't the best but it puts the story where it needs to go next so hopefully no more writer's block with this story. Anyway I hope you enjoy :)


After rushing off from catching her father kissing another woman Stephanie decided to head back home. The rest of her shopping trip had been ruined and now all she wanted to do was go home and try to push the images out of her head. She was furious at her father for doing that to her mother and part of her was angry that he hadn't even tried coming after her when she walked away from him. It wouldn't have done him any good really because she wouldn't have believed anything he had to say to her but it still hurt that he seemed to not give a shit.

Stephanie stared out the window of the car and let out a sigh as they passed by houses on her street. Allie had offered to drive them back to Stephanie's house and after that she had been pretty quiet. That was the great thing about Allie though she knew when to give her space and she would come to her when she was ready. So far Stephanie had calmed down a lot from earlier but she still wasn't ready to talk to Allie. First she wanted to talk to Linda about it that is if her mother would talk to her about it. So far Linda had avoided any topic related to Vince but that wasn't going to get in her way of at least trying. It seemed like she was in luck for trying to talk to Linda about it because Stephanie immediately noticed her mother's car in the driveway once they began to reach Stephanie's house. Once Allie pulled into the driveway and parked the car Stephanie got out and started for the house.

She didn't even wait for Allie as she entered the house and headed into the living room where she could hear her mother's voice.

"Mom I need to talk to you" Stephanie said coming into the living room and looked at Linda who was sitting on the couch next to another person who had blonde hair.

"Stephanie come in and sit down I'm just showing Charlotte some pictures of Shane when he was younger" Linda replied not even turning to look at her but Charlotte did. She gave Stephanie a small smile and Stephanie just stood there feeling frozen to the spot.

"When did you two…meet?" Stephanie asked feeling confused. She had just met Charlotte yesterday and now here she was with Linda looking like they've know each other for a long time.

"We just met an hour or two ago. Shane and Charlotte dropped by here and I decided we should all get to know each other so I sent Shane to get some groceries so I could cook dinner. Don't be rude Stephanie introduce yourself" Linda replied finally looking over at her.

"We met last night actually" Stephanie replied finally moving her feet and walked over to a chair beside of the couch.

"How come you didn't tell me?"

"You were in a hurry this morning to meet dad. How did that go by the way?" Stephanie asked sitting down in her chair and crossed her legs.

"It was fine" Linda replied flipping through the book of photographs she had on her lap and pointing to a picture on the page and Charlotte turned her attention back to the pictures.

"Gee thanks for leaving me with all this stuff Steph" Allie said coming into the living room carrying bags from their shopping trip.

"I'm sorry Allie I wasn't even thinking" Stephanie uncrossed her legs and got up from the chair to take some of the bags from Allie.

"Allie come over and meet Shane's girlfriend Charlotte" Linda said looking at Allie with a smile and Allie looked over at Stephanie like she was asking her if she should. Stephanie just gave her a shrug before taking the bags she had got from Allie upstairs to her bedroom.

This was not what she was expecting and Paul would be off of work soon and would be coming here to her house. One of the reasons he was coming here was so Shane and Charlotte wouldn't annoy her. She could always text him to let him know they were here so they could go back to his apartment instead. But with the way her day was going Shane and Charlotte would probably just end up at the apartment not long after her and Paul did. Stephanie dropped her shopping bags on her bed and then flopped down on her bed beside of them and laid back.

"So that's Charlotte huh?" Stephanie heard Allie ask as she came into Stephanie's room.

"Yeah" Stephanie replied not even trying to hide the annoyed tone in her voice. After a few seconds Stephanie felt Allie sit down beside of her on the bed.

"You really have nothing to worry about you know"

"What did you mean?"

"Charlotte doesn't seem to be all that great to me. You are one hundred times better looking than her" Allie replied and Stephanie just scoffed. "I'm being serious Steph. Why are you letting this girl get to you? You've always be confident about yourself."

"I don't know" Stephanie replied propping herself up slightly on her elbows and looked at Allie. "Maybe it's because I've never met any of ex boyfriend's ex-girlfriends before. Or maybe it's because it's Paul's ex. The guy who I had a crush on for years and all he ever really seen me as was little McMahon, Shane's little sister. Then he doesn't talk to me for five years and dates girls that look like Charlotte."

"Apparently he finds you pretty damn beautiful and he better because you are. I'm not very good at this stuff Steph but Paul is with you now and he admitted he cared about you back then from what you've told me. I'm sure you are way more important to him than Charlotte ever was. At least you don't look constipated" Allie shrugged and Stephanie laughed.

"What does that have to do with this?"

"Charlotte seriously looked like she was constipated or something" Allie replied as Stephanie laid back down on the bed still laughing. "But seriously Steph. You are a beautiful person on the inside and out. There is no reason for you to feel bad about yourself around her."

"Thanks Allie"

"Do you feel better?"

"Better than I was"

"Girls come back downstairs with us and have a glass of wine" Stephanie heard Linda say and she really hoped Linda hadn't heard any of their conversation.

"We'll be right there Linda" Allie replied as Stephanie raised up to a sitting position on the bed and looked at Allie.

"Do you think she heard any of our conversation?"

"No I'm sure she would have said something along the lines of stop being rude or something" Allie said getting up from the bed and Stephanie followed along behind her.

"Let's hope so."

After a little while of talking with Linda and Charlotte Allie ended up leaving which left Stephanie by herself listening to Linda and Charlotte as she poured a second glass of wine. The little conversation with Allie had helped her a little bit and she was feeling a little more comfortable but she still felt awkward around Charlotte. She wished she could just shake all of her insecurities away but that wasn't going to happen that quickly.

"Did you get lost babe?" Charlotte asked as Stephanie heard footsteps coming into the kitchen behind her and she turned to see Shane coming in with quite a lot of groceries.

"No I just picked some more stuff up than I intended" Shane replied sitting the bags on the counter and then giving Charlotte a peck on the lips. Stephanie felt her stomach churn at the sight. This definitely felt like some sort of payback for her and Paul doing this in front of Shane all the time.

"You didn't have to do that Shane" Linda replied going over to the bags and pulling out the food to start putting it away.

"Well the refrigerator was pretty bare mom and I just wanted to help you out so you had one less thing to worry about"

"What do you mean by that?" Stephanie asked sitting down her glass of wine and looked at Shane who just gave a shrug.

"It just means apparently mom has been busy and I wanted to help her out"

"So it has nothing to do with dad and- "

"No" Shane replied sharply cutting her off from finishing her sentence which was probably a good thing. She didn't want to end up hurting her mother right now but she was starting to get the feeling Shane had lied to her about not knowing what was going on with Vince and Linda. Especially with the way he cut her off and was now giving her a look that told her to drop the subject.

"Hey guys" Stephanie heard Paul say and turned around to see him walking over to her. She couldn't help but smile, it was just the effect he had on her. It made her forget about everything around her at the moment.

"Hey" Stephanie replied standing up and going over to him before he even made it over to where she had been sitting. She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him not caring who was watching.

"Miss me?" Paul asked in a low voice so only she could hear.

"More than you know" Stephanie replied before giving him another kiss. She really wanted to talk to him about what she had witnessed with her dad today but at the same time she just wanted to forget about it for the moment.

"Get a room" Stephanie heard Shane mutter and she rolled her eyes.

"Don't worry we will later" Paul replied looking over at Shane and then gave her another kiss before they went over to sit down with Shane and Charlotte.

Stephanie sat down and grabbed her glass of wine to take another drink when she noticed out of the corner of her eye that it looked like Charlotte was staring at her. She turned to look at her but Charlotte had her attention on Shane and now she was starting to wonder if she was seeing things.

"How was the rest of your shopping trip?" Paul asked her and she turned her attention on him.

"Didn't get to finish it but I'm sure Allie and I will go again sometime" Stephanie took a big drink of her wine hoping Paul wouldn't ask any more about it. It wasn't something she wanted to discuss with Linda being able to overhear because her mom actually seemed to be in a good mood. Which here lately seemed to be a rare thing and she could hold off on interrogating Linda about what she found out for a little while. The only thing right now that mattered was to see her mother happy again. "How was the rest of your day?"

"Torture. Or at least it felt like it because I kept counting down the hours until I could see you" Paul said leaning closer to her "I was kind of hoping it would be just me and you though."

"Me too. I feel like that's not going to happen anytime soon though"

"It will. I'll make sure of it" Paul whispered into her ear causing her heart to race and her cheeks to flush. She couldn't wait for it to just be them with no interruptions or surprises.

"How does that sound Stephanie?" She heard her mother ask her but she had been so focused on Paul that she hadn't even heard anything Linda had been saying.

"What?" Stephanie asked directing her attention on Linda.

"That we go do a little shopping together tomorrow. Unless you don't want to go since you went today"

"I'd never turn down shopping mom" Stephanie replied with a chuckle.

"Great we'll have fun"

"Sounds great mom" Stephanie smiled at her before turning her attention back to Paul as he took a hold of her hand and laced his fingers through hers. Finding out about her dad and going through all of this stuff with her family had her really stressed out but when she was with Paul it somehow made things better. At least she had him by her side through all of her family problems.


"Steph you're being quiet" Linda said as Stephanie stared out of the window in the backseat of the car. She hadn't been up very long since Linda came knocking on her bedroom door that morning informing her it was time to get up and leave for shopping. Honestly all she wanted to do was stay cuddled up next to Paul who had spent the night and just sleep in and if she would have known Linda wanted to go shopping so early she would have declined.

"I just need coffee" Stephanie replied stifling a yawn.

"Coffee does sound good" Charlotte said who was in the passenger seat. She looked back at Stephanie and gave her a smile and once Charlotte had stopped looking at her she rolled her eyes. Last night when Linda had asked Stephanie if she wanted to go shopping she had been so wrapped up in Paul that she hadn't realized her mother had asked Charlotte to come along. So now here she was stuck in the backseat while Linda and Charlotte chatted happily up front.

"We'll get some soon" Linda replied as they pulled into the parking lot and Linda turned the car off.

Linda and Charlotte continued talking as they walked inside the building with Stephanie trailing behind them not really in the mood for talking. Maybe if it were Allie she was here with it would be different but talking with Linda was hard at the moment because she found it hard to not mention what she saw with Vince yesterday. Then she didn't really know Charlotte and she was still feeling pretty insecure around her. She just hoped that maybe after a while of shopping she would feel better and maybe be able to join their conversation. In a way though she just hoped this whole shopping trip went by pretty fast because Paul had made plans for them later and promised it would just be them with no interruptions.

"Stephanie are you sure you're okay?" Linda asked as her and Charlotte had gone straight to picking out clothes that liked and planned to try on.

"Yeah I'm fine mom. I'm just trying to get woke up more" Stephanie replied following their lead and started picking some stuff out.

"So Stephanie how long have you and Paul been dating?" Charlotte asked making Stephanie look over at her.

"Not long" Stephanie replied feeling uncomfortable about answering questions about Paul to his ex.

"Those two have been pretty inseparable since Steph came back home" Linda said as Stephanie took her clothes and started heading to the dressing rooms to try them on. She was feeling even more uncomfortable with the conversation and wanted to get away from it. It made her wonder why in the hell Charlotte even cared. Shouldn't she be asking stuff about Shane instead of Paul?

"Steph?" Stephanie heard Charlotte coming up behind her just as she made it to the dressing rooms.

"Yeah?"

"I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable"

"Don't worry about it" Stephanie replied turning around and forcing a small smile.

"It's just…" Charlotte trailed off and look down at the floor before looking back at her "Shane is my boyfriend and I care about him so much. I have for quite a while and I know how close you and Shane are and how he is protective of you. It makes me want to look out for you too especially since I hope to be around for a long time."

"I don't understand- "

"You should be careful with Paul. I don't want to see you go through what I went through. I know it's none of my business but if I could help make sure you don't get hurt and cheated on like I did then I feel like I should say something."

"Listen I don't think you can say Paul cheated on you when he was with a girl after you two had already broken up" Stephanie replied trying to keep her voice calm and steady.

"Is that what he told you?" Charlotte asked and shook her head "Paul and I fought a lot. We were on and off throughout the relationship but that was because Paul would go out to parties and get drunk. I would call him when he forgot about a date we had later because he was too busy partying and some random girl would answer his phone saying he 'was' busy at the moment along with some giggling. That would happen a lot or I would call him in the morning to have that happen. That is why we broke up and fought so much and I was stupid enough to take him back when he told me it wouldn't happen again. Just take it from someone who has been through it and take my advice when I say please be careful."

Charlotte didn't even give her chance to respond and turned around and walked away. Stephanie just stood there shocked and silent anyway. After a minute she tried to shake away the negative thoughts and feelings away. She really had no reason to believe Charlotte and Paul had not given her a reason not to trust him so instead of overanalyzing everything Stephanie finally headed to a dressing room to try on her clothes. But even though she had tried not let the things Charlotte said get to her she couldn't help but replay the words in her head. It made her wonder if Charlotte was lying or if Paul just hadn't been completely honest with her.