CHAPTER FIVE: A NEAR KISS



The next several weeks found Eve strengthening her ties with the other wrestlers. Jeff, she still tried to avoid, which wasn't easy considering that they worked together and she'd struck up a close relationship with Lita. He was always around and sometimes she caught him staring at her strangely, as if she was some kind of puzzle he was trying to figure out. At least it seemed that way. He was always quick to avert his gaze when he knew she'd noticed him staring.

On group outings they talked and danced, at restaurants they always managed somehow to be seated next to each other. In the gyms he'd often spot her while she lifted weights - she still didn't know how they always seemed to end up there at the same time.

Eve could feel her walls crumbling - the ones with anti-Jeff posters plastered all over them - and, quite frankly, she was scared. To let Jeff in past her defenses was a risk to her goals. Considering what was at stake, she couldn't let that happen.


It was a Wednesday afternoon in Florida. Several of the wrestlers - Eve, Lita, and the Hardys amoung them - that weren't slated to make an appearance on Smackdown or any of the weekend shows had gone ahead to where the next Raw Is War was scheduled to be held.

Eve was wondering what Matt, Jeff, and Lita were doing in Florida. Usually, whenever they had the chance, the three would go back home to North Carolina. With now until mid-afternoon on Monday free, that's where they should have been headed. Instead, they were here. In the same hotel. Sharing side-by-side rooms just across the hall.

Funny, Lita hadn't said anything about her and Matt and Jeff going directly to Florida, not even when she'd asked Eve what her plans were.



"I'm going ahead with some of the guys."

"Really? No plans to see your family then, huh?"

Eve's whole body stiffened and her hackles rose. "No," she'd replied, then walked away to leave Lita standing in the hallway, staring at her retreating back.

The next time they'd seen each other, Lita didn't bring up Eve's abrupt departure. Eve was happy to leave it buried.

Remembering that, Eve finally connected it to their prescence here and now. She cringed. Were they feeling sorry for her, here to keep her company? Well, dammit, she didn't need their pity!

Feeling the need to escape now, Eve got dressed in sweats and left her hotel room. She bumped into Jeff - literally - hurrying around the corner heading toward the elevator.

"Woah!" Jeff said, his hands gripping her shoulders to steady them both. Like a repeat of the first time they'd met, their rouch sent a sudden flame of desire through them both. Inexplicably, their heads began to move closer together until their lips were almost touching.

*Oh my God! What the hell am I thinking?!* Shocked, Eve pulled back and looked up at Jeff. Her eyes were filled with fear.

Jeff could only puzzle over the look Eve gave him. Why was she so frightened? "Eve," he said, raising his hands to touch her again.

Eve flinched and held up her hands to try to ward off his touch. "Don't touch me!" She turned and fled, choosing to take the stairs rather than wait for an elevator and risk Jeff trying to follow her. For that very reason, she chose to jog outside the hotel rather than use the indoor track.

Eve was running from her fears, trying to avoid her memories. But the encounter with Jeff just now had brought them into focus with more vivid and painful detail than there had ever been before.

When Eve had announced her plans to become a wrestler when she was twelve, her father had laughed it off, thinking she was simply dreaming tomboy dreams of being like her famous uncle. But even then, Eve had been serious about what she wanted. Asking her uncle for advice, Eve began to work out and build up her muscles. She practiced wrestling moves that she saw on TV with her giant brown teddy bear. She always won, of course.

In highschool, Eve had to learn to wrestle in a different way than those in the professional leagues. She joined the high school wrestling team by forging her father's signature on the permission form. He never took an interest in her schooling except to see how her grades were doing from time to time, so he hadn't learned right away about her deception. Her mother had, though. Eve had been scared when her mother had confronted her, certain Mom would tell Dad. But amazingly enough, she hadn't. Her mother had kept her secret.

Then came the day that Eve graduated highschool. Her father had been present for the whole day, including the awards ceremony. His smile had become frozen in place when she'd gotten the most valuable wrestler award. Nothing had been said then, he'd waited until she'd gotten home, where he could blow up at her in private.

It was the first night he'd slapped her. It was also the last night she'd seen him. She'd ran to her room and stayed there until well into the next day, waiting until her mom had driven her dad to the airport before going downstairs. Her dad had delayed his business trip a few days in order to be able to go to her graduation ceremony - he worked for a big import/export company and had to travel alot.

Eve had called a friend of hers - Deidre "Dee" Powers - and asked if she could move in with her for a short while. Sarah, being her best and closest friend (as well as looking after her wealthy parents' house for the next several years while they were off doing missionary work in a third-world country), said yes. Dee called up her boyfriend, Derek Walters, for help and also because he had a van. Together, they managed to get Eve's stuff packed and in the van before her mom got home. Eve left a letter behind that explained that she had to follow her dreams and she couldn't stay at home if her father couldn't support her.

Since that day, she'd neither seen nor spoken to either of her parents directly, all messages going through Dee. Not that there were all that many, anyway, and none in the past three years. She hadn't even bothered to ask Dee to pass on the news that she'd gotten her much-coveted contract with the WWF. Dee had squaled with joy, though, and that had meant alot to Eve.

They had kept in regular contact since Eve had moved out of Dee's parents' home. Eve had been the first one called when Derek had finally proposed, she'd been Dee's maid of honor at their wedding, and when Derek had called her in the middle of the night to say they'd just been in a car accident, Eve had driven four hours to hold her friend's hand while she lost the baby she hadn't known she'd been carrying.


"Shit!" Eve was startled from her memories when the skies opened up and began raining on her. It was really cold rain, too. And here she was stuck on a trail in the woods a good half hour away from the hotel.

*Nothing to do now but run back to the hotel,* Eve thought with a mental sigh.

Needless to say, Eve was completely soaked through to her skin and chilled to the bone when she got back. Several people gave her odd looks, like a girl that didn't have enough sense to come out of the rain right away should not be staying at the same hotel as them.

A hot shower went a long way to warming Eve up. She dressed in a second pair of sweats and tossed the wet clothes in the hamper to be cleaned by the hotel staff later on. She was still towel-drying her hair (blow-drying made it frizz horribly) when a knock came at her door.

It was Lita. She walked into the room without waiting for an invitation and Eve closed the door and turned to face her.

"What happened between you and Jeff? He came looking for you about an hour ago. He looked really upset but he wouldn't say why."

"Hello, Lita, how are you doing?" Eve said with a slight edge of sarcasm.

Lita looked surprised for a moment and was also temporarily speechless.

"We nearly kissed," Eve said to break the silence. "I reacted badly and ran off."

*Uh oh,* Lita thought to herself. *If this is how Eve reacts after an almost-kiss, then getting these two together is going to be a lot harder than I thought.* "A kiss? What's so scary about that?"

"Alot, if you had my past," Eve replied cryptically. When Lita would have questioned her about it, she added, "Look, I'm not ready to discuss that part of myself right now. I don't want to hurt anyone, especially Jeff-"

Lita's ears perked up at the "especially Jeff" part.

"-but I'm not looking to be in a relationship with anyone right now. I know that's where this attraction between us will lead."

"There's nothing I can say to change your mind?"

"No. Until I clear up certain issues, I can't allow myself to get close to Jeff like that. I couldn't be the kind of girlfriend that he deserves. I won't do that to him."

*So that's why she's allowed herself to become friends with everyone else while being aloof with Jeff.* "I'm beginning to understand now. Is it okay if I share what you've said with Jeff? He doesn't understand why you're pushing him away and its hurting him."

Eve hesitated a few moments before replying. "Yes, as long as it doesn't get beyond him and Matt." Eve didn't want Lita to keep secrets from Matt, which was why she'd added his name in.

"I'll make sure that it doesn't." Lita started to leave.

"Lita, I'm going to go to bed early. If you could make sure that Jeff doesn't decide to come knocking on my door..." Eve trailed off.

"I'll make sure that he doesn't."