Chapter Three

Trish turned anxiously to Stephanie, as she fretted, "I have a huge crush on him!" Had it been any other person who'd uttered those words, the woman known as the Billion Dollar Princess would have more likely than not tripped over a nonexistent crack in the sidewalk and fallen rather unceremoniously onto her face. But Stephanie was no fool, and as soon as she'd seen Trish's initial reaction to Scott, she'd guessed something along the lines of what the blonde bombshell had just confessed. So instead of taking an unplanned and most certainly unwelcome dive into the asphalt, Stephanie simply asked, "What about Matt?"
"I don't know," Trish fretted, toying around with a strand of sunlight. "I mean, I guess I still love Matt...but it's just that we've been drifting apart recently, and he doesn't seem to care! However, I don't want to just throw away an eight-month relationship over some stupid schoolgirl crush!"
"Well, the important thing to remember right now is that you still have just a crush on Scott," Stephanie spoke up wisely. "I mean, let's face it: he's young, he's gorgeous, and he's a rock star. Most women seem to have a thing for rock stars, and you're probably one of them."
"So what are you saying? I'm just like a wannabe groupie or something?" Trish demanded. Stephanie felt like kicking herself for her choice of words.
"No, no, I didn't mean anything by that," she quickly apologized. "What I meant was that you are feeling neglected by Matt, and then you run into this gorgeous guy who happens to be a rock star and who seems to care about you. It's only natural you get a bit smitten about him."
Trish instinctively glanced down at the little care bear she cuddled in her arms at the particular comment about Scott caring about her.
"It's probably nothing to worry about," Stephanie continued dismissively, a confident smile on her face. "I mean, Scott's nothing more than a celebrity crush. You know, like you're dating this wonderful guy, but you still have a stupid celebrity crush on...I don't know, let's just say, Tom Cruise."
"I...I guess you have a point there," Trish admitted reluctantly.
"Trust me," Stephanie spoke confidently. "You just happened to meet your celebrity crush, that's all. After Backlash, Scott will be out of your life, and you can start mending your relationship with Matt."
"You're probably right," Trish admitted. By then, the two had reached Trish's rental car. The Canadian diva gave Stephanie a quick hug, before getting in and strapping on her seatbelt.
"Thanks for listening to me, Steph," Trish said gratefully. "I'll see you at the house show on Friday, okay?"
"Kay, bye," Stephanie waved cheerfully, watching as her friend started the engine and pulled out of the parking lot.

She sighed, before weaving through the sea of rental cars toward the one she and Hunter shared. Outwardly, Stephanie had appeared to be the personification of Confidence, as she readily gave advice to Trish on her relationship woes. Inside, however, the twenty-five-year-old princess of wrestling was feeling less than self-assured about her words. What she'd failed to tell Trish was that all three members of Creed--and that included Scott Stapp--lived in Orlando, Florida, the same city Trish had just recently moved to. So, it wasn't technically true that Trish would never even see Scott again after the Backlash live show. Hell, for all she knew, Trish and Scott could end up being neighbors. Stephanie winced.
"Ooh, that's not going to do wonders for her relationship with Matt Hardy," she murmured to herself, as her and Hunter's rental car finally came into view. It looked like the Billion Dollar Princess, who had just handed out advice to another person a mere five minutes earlier, was going to have to seek some advice of her own.

Stephanie glanced cautiously behind her back as she made her way into the women's locker room. She had put in extra effort to make sure that Trish arrived at least half an hour later than the rest of the divas, and it appeared as if her work had paid off. The blonde bombshell was nowhere in sight. Pulling up a chair and sitting down cross-legged, Stephanie suddenly popped a question which caught the other divas by surprise.
"So," she began, using a tone of voice most commonly found at a slumber party full of thirteen-year-old girls, "who would you rather date: a pro wrestler, or a rock star?"
Most of the other divas stopped whatever it was they were doing to turn around and stare at their boss in surprise. The only person to speak up without hesitation was Lita, who said confidently, "Put me down for rock star," without even bothering to look up from where she was leaning, tying her shoelaces.

"I think we need more detail than that, Steph," Molly Holly murmured uncertainly after everyone had gotten in her share of gawking at Stephanie and Lita. Stephanie flicked a long, chestnut lock away from her face, as she swept the other divas in an earnest blue gaze.
"Well, let's say we have this popular WWF diva--um, we'll just call her...Patricia," she began, internally wincing at the thin disguise she'd managed to spring on the real people's identities.
"What about Patricia?" Lita demanded, sparing a brief glance or two at the flock of women who had gathered around Stephanie, who plowed on.
"Suppose she's currently dating a WWF Superstar--we'll call him, um, Matthew." By now she was getting used to the pathetic attempts at covering up the Superstars' real identities. "But lately, the two of them have been spending less and less time together. They're drifting apart, and Patricia's scared because Matthew either doesn't know it, or he just flat out doesn't care."
"Ouch." Molly looked sympathetic.
"Right, ouch," Stephanie agreed, nodding. "And now let's say here comes this sexy rock star--we'll call him, um..." Stephanie struggled to come up with a name that sounded like Scott, but when she couldn't, she decided to swipe another Creed member's name. "Um, we'll call him Mark, and Patricia's smitten by him."
"Uh-oh," Torrie Wilson spoke up, beginning to see where the situation was headed.
"Now, Patricia's not sure whether Mark's romantically interested in her, but she knows that at the very least, he cares for her well-being--enough to buy her a get-well present after she went through a really brutal match up," Stephanie said truthfully.
"Aw, how sweet," Stacy Keibler beamed, toying around with a strand of her long, blonde hair.
"I know, it's totally adorable of him to do that, and now Patricia doesn't know whether she should break up with Matthew to pursue a relationship with Mark, or forget about Mark and try to work things out with Matthew," Stephanie laid the problem out into the open. A stretch of silence followed, during which, presumably, the other divas took the time to think over the dilemma and come up with a plausible solution.

"I think she should go with Mark." Stacy was the first one to speak up. "I mean, after all, obviously he cares more about her than her actual boyfriend does if he was concerned enough to give her a get-well present when he thought she was hurt, while Matthew didn't do anything about it."
"Yeah, but Mark's a rock star," Torrie pointed out logically. "You know the kind of reputations they have."
"No, no," Stephanie hastened to assure. "Um, Mark's in a band that's famous for having a squeaky-clean record when it comes to groupies and late-night partying and all that."
"Well, is Patricia happy with Matthew?" Molly wanted to know. "Because if there's even the tiniest chance that she can work things out with him, I don't think she should throw away her relationship to chase after a guy who might not even be romantically interested in her."
"She's got a point there." Torrie nodded wisely. "Or, it could turn out that Mark was just a celebrity crush, and she threw away her relationship with Matthew over nothing."
"And," Molly added logically, "both Patricia and Mark are in the entertainment business, which means they'll both be traveling a lot. With Matthew, at the very least she can see him when they travel with the WWF together, but if Patricia decides to go with Mark, he's going to be touring on different dates than she will. With Matthew, they'll be able to spend at least two or three days together per week. With Mark, who knows when they might get see each other?"
Stephanie was nodding along.
"Maybe," she conceded. "But..."

It had been three in the afternoon when Stephanie McMahon had called Trish Stratus on her cell phone to inform the Canadian diva that there had been a slight schedule change, and the house show would begin at seven-forty rather than six o' clock. She had cited some complicated reason along the lines of the Undertaker being unable to make it for the main event due to a leg that had been broken earlier in the morning, and how they went about contacting Kurt Angle from nearby Pittsburgh to take the Dead Man's place, and the American Hero had just gotten out of a traffic jam on the drive to the house show's location in Philadelphia and would arrive at least half an hour late. Naturally, Trish had had no reason to think otherwise, and began making plans for one last trip to the gym.

Then, Matt and Jeff Hardy had shown up at her hotel room's door, and asked if she wanted to hitch a ride to the arena with them, but that she would have to hurry up because they were already ten minutes tardy. Trish had blinked in surprise, and reminded them that the house show had supposedly been delayed for thirty minutes. When two blank stares met her response, she'd repeated Stephanie's complicated story...to which both her boyfriend and his brother had burst out laughing. Only until they'd propelled her out of the room and toward their rental car did Trish finally realize that there was no half-hour delay, Taker and his legs were perfectly fine, and Kurt Angle was at home, relaxing with his wife. At the time she'd had no reason to suspect a hoax on Stephanie's part. She'd just assumed the youngest McMahon had gotten her stories mixed up. After all, she did seem to be under some stress lately, what with booking an incoming pay-per-view and all.

Trish hurried along the hallways of the arena, occasionally passing by a familiar face and nodding her head in greeting. She sprinted toward the women's locker room, frantic that she'd just been tardy, especially what with her important match against Lita scheduled for later that night. She arrived, nearly out of breath from having run so hard, and heard the other divas talking from the other side of the door, so loudly that she wondered why she hadn't heard them when she was all the way at the other side of the arena. She shrugged, and was about to walk inside and change into her in-ring gear, when the topic of conversation suddenly caught her attention. Frowning and pausing with her hand mid-way to the door, Trish decided to wait a few minutes and eavesdrop on the conversation.

"She should go with Mark," Lita's distinctive voice could be heard stating stubbornly. "It's obvious that he's a very caring person, if he was concerned for Patricia's well-being after only meeting her a few hours earlier and exchanging less than a hundred words with her."
"Yes, but what about Matthew?" Molly debated. "She can't just break his heart to chase after some guy she barely knows."
"She knows enough about Mark to tell that he's a really sweet guy," Stacy pointed out.
"That doesn't mean the two of them could work out as a couple, especially when they're going to be on the road all the time, at different times," Torrie argued. "I think she should forget about Mark, and try to work things out with Matthew. At least with him she has a chance at the more normal of the two possible relationships."
"Oh, what do you know; you're marrying a wrestler, so of course you're going to be pushing for Matthew the WWF Superstar," Lita spoke up dismissively.
"Okay, so some of you think that Patricia should go with Mark, because he's a sweet guy, and seems to care for her--at least as a casual friend," Trish could hear Stephanie McMahon say. "The others are saying that she should try to work things out with Matthew, because she doesn't know whether or not Mark's even interested in her, and even if he were, the relationship would never work out because they'd be apart too often."
A stretch of silence followed, during which Trish assumed the other divas were nodding along to Stephanie's words. Her eyes began to narrow, as a number of rather familiar details about Stephanie's story began to emerge, and it wasn't long before Trish had put two and two together and realized just exactly what the Billion Dollar Princess was trying to do. Outraged, Trish prepared to burst in and confront the head of the booking department, but just then Stephanie uttered some words that shocked the fury right out of Trish.
"But let's say that Patricia and Matthew live in completely different states," she began, while on the other side, Trish was ready to storm in and request a private meeting with Stephanie. "However, Mark, on the other hand, lives in not only the same state, but also the same city as Patricia."
"Oh," Torrie and Molly echoed at the same time, while Trish, outside the women's locker room, froze in her action, as realization dawned upon her. Oh, my God, she thought silently to herself, is Stephanie saying that Scott Stapp also lives in Orlando, Florida? Trish thought back to the parking lot Monday night, where Stephanie had assured her that once Backlash was over and Creed had finished their first and only performance with the WWF, she would never have to worry about Scott Stapp again, and could instead focus on healing her relationship with Matt. Never have to worry about Scott after Backlash--yeah right! Trish thought to herself bitterly.
"In...in that case, Patricia should probably consider whether a relationship with Mark could be pursued." Torrie's voice sounded tinny and hollow for some reason, and Trish barely registered the pretty blonde's words.
"Well, she should probably get to know Mark better before she even thinks about dumping Matthew and chasing after some rock star," Molly spoke up reasonably.

Trish could take it no more. On an impulse, she burst into the locker room, startling the other divas and nearly sending Stephanie McMahon rocketing right through the ceiling.
"Trish!" Stephanie looked guilty, like a young child who had been caught red-handed with her hand in the cookie jar. "What...what are you doing here?"