Love Potion No. 9 (Part II of III)
Rating: PG-13 (slight language, a few words, nothing huge)
Chicago, Illinois, The Next Morning
Stephanie shut the door to her father's hotel room tightly and leaned her back against the wall. Spending time with her father these days was not exactly on her list of favorite things to do...not even close. But now with all of the contracts out of the way, she was free as a bird to-
Spend Valentine's Day with Kurt.
Yay.
Stephanie felt her cheek make a weird tick and something like a snort came out of her nose.
But it couldn't possibly have been a snort, McMahon's don't ever do something as undignified as snorting.
Except that it really, really was a snort. Why the hell had she agreed to go on this date tonight anyway?
Oh yeah. She hadn't wanted to spend Valentine's Day alone. Now she was thinking she could though. She could go back to the hotel, throw open the patio drapes and watch the snow fall down, sit in front of the fireplace and catch up on her reading. Or maybe just take a nice, hot bubble bath in the Jacuzzi and watch a movie. She could order room service, indulge in some chocolate truffles.just take it easy. She wasn't one of those needy people who had to be out with somebody on the most romantic day of the year in order for her life to have meaning. She wasn't that desperate, damn it!
Stephanie pushed herself off the wall and started walking toward the elevator. Yeah, she could just have a nice night of it all by herself. She didn't need to go out with someone she didn't really want to go out with in the first place just because he was convenient. Stephanie pushed the elevator button down. She'd call up Kurt, tell him she just didn't feel this would be appropriate for their working relationship, apologize and say she hadn't meant to lead him on. He'd be okay with that, he always was. Yes. Yes, this was actually a good plan, she was being fair, she was even being kind actually, because she wasn't going through with something she had no intentions of ever following through with. Stephanie pulled her cell phone out of her purse and dialed Kurt's phone. She tapped her foot impatiently while it rung and she stepped out of the elevator doors and into the lobby. She was walking toward the exit when Kurt picked up.
"Kurt?" She began, taking in a deep breath. "Listen, I-" And that's when she noticed the only other two occupants in the lobby. She ducked behind a huge plant and flattened herself against the wall. She peered around the plant, her long hair like a curtain in her face.
"Steph? Steph?" Kurt's voice called from the phone.
"Shhh.hold on a sec." She whispered and she stared at the couple occupied in necking on the sofa in the lobby. The sight made her stomach turn over and she felt bile rise in her throat. She closed her eyes tightly and with an elegance and flexibility that would have made any gymnast proud she wove her way around the huge plant and made it to the safety that was outside without ever having been seen. Of course he would be staying at the same hotel as her father. Her father never settled for anything but the best, and neither did he. She exhaled.
"Stephanie? I want to know what's going on. Are you okay?" Dimly, she became aware Kurt was still talking on the other end of the line. She stared down at the phone, unable to remember why she was even calling him. She licked her lips and responded.
"Yeah, yes. I'm here." She said so quietly he could barely hear her. Really, really wish I wasn't.
"Well, ok. So what's up? Why did you call?"
"I just wanted to know if we were going anywhere especially elegant to dinner. I need to know what to wear." Stephanie was so very proud at the cool steel tone of her voice. She'd already picked up a dress this morning, but deep down she hadn't expected to need it...she hadn't been really planning on going on the date then either, she guessed.
"Whew. For a second there, I thought you were going to cancel." Kurt laughed, Stephanie laughed in response, but it was hollow.
"Nope. Not cancelling. So should I dress up?"
"Oh, yeah. I made reservations at a great restaurant, Le Petit Fleur. It was a little hard to get into, what with it being Valentine's Day and all, but I told them I was an Olympic Hero and man, they just bowed down for me. It's all set."
More than likely the poor restaraunter had just gotten sick of hearing Kurt's voice and had given him the table to shut him the hell up. Stephanie felt her eyes roll. "That's great, Kurt. Um.I'll be ready for dinner at seven tonight. You can meet me at my hotel, you know?" She hung up before he could offer to come and spend the rest of the day with her. Stupid, stupid.ugh! She cursed herself, already regretting not having cancelled the date. She'd just been floored, that was all, and she'd reacted the way she always did by doing the most self-destructive thing possible. Stephanie realized she was walking the wrong way. She bit the inside of her cheek hard to keep from screaming in frustration. And that would be when her heel broke on the sidewalk and she fell backwards, sliding on a patch of ice and snow. She hit the ground hard.
"Ohhhh." She groaned. She was startled when her vision went black for a second. Damn..she tried to ease herself up off the ground but the world seemed to sway for a few moments and she carefully rested her head back on the ground. It was blissfully cold, and she felt so good.
"Jesus, are you allright?" She heard a man call from a few feet behind her, in the direction of the hotel. Within seconds a warm body knelt over her and she opened her eyes.
No, no, no, no..the irony gods weren't this cruel, they just weren't. She blinked again hoping he'd morph into somebody else, God, anybody else. Please? She called out to the heavens silently. Please? She opened her eyes and-
Damn. Still there. And now he was leaning over her even closer, eyes deep and concerned, and oh, God, now he was touching her, his hands moving like ghosts across her body, and down, down, down.
"Nothing seems to be broken." Hunter said quietly. "But I think you should get an x-ray, just to be sure."
Work, vocal cords, work! "Uhhhh.." Stephanie felt her face flush in shame over her low, pained moan. She tried again. She licked her dry lips, not even noticing how the brown eyes followed the movement hungrily. "Hunter?" She squeaked out.
"Yeah..well, at least you can still recognize people. Come on, let's get you up. People are looking." He said roughly. But his hands were still gentle as he eased his arms around her, helping her to sit up. Stephanie pushed her knees up to try and give herself leverage against the ground. Her legs gave out beneath her but Hunter caught her and swung his arm around her back tightly. He all but carried her down the sidewalk.
"Did you just hit a patch of ice?" He asked.
"Something like that." She muttered. She leaned into his body more, he was so warm. And he smelled good, like.she stiffened. Like that redheaded tramp's perfume in the hotel lobby.
"Are you okay now?" He asked hesitantly.
"Of course. Just a little fall. No biggie." She smiled tightly up at him and he looked back down at her, still concerned. She realized he was walking her back into the hotel.
"Where are we-I mean, what are we-" The words wouldn't come out.
"We're going to-"
"Oh, Hunty!" A high-pitched voice carried across the room. "Hunty, are you okay? I saw you help this poor girl up and I-" The redhead bimbo stopped cold when she saw who it was. Seems like Red knew who she was, Stephanie thought in satisfaction as she burrowed in even closer to Hunter's chest. She was gratified when he tightened his hold on her.
Red seemed to have a little bit of the wind taken out of her sails. "Hunty?" She asked doubtfully.
"I'm going to help Steph get out of these clothes, they're all damp from the melting snow. I'm also going to call the hotel doctor, have him come take a look at her."
Red now seemed to be furious, much to Stephanie's glee.
"But Hunty, I-" She pouted.
"Look, Shelly, I-"
"My name's Sherry."
"Huh?" Hunter asked blankly.
"Sherry. You called me Shelly."
Hunter narrowed his eyes. He felt Stephanie shaking at his side. He thought he'd better get her upstairs, she was so cold...
He didn't realize her shaking was from holding back the laughter at her ex- husband's expense.
"Shel-Sherry. Look, I'm just going to take Steph upstairs for a couple minutes, I'll be right back down and then we'll go shopping. Okay?"
"Hunter's buying me teddies." Red said. Stephanie couldn't figure out why Red would be so viciously smug about some stupid teddy bears and then-oh.
Oh.
Fuck. She pushed herself off of Hunter. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to intrude on your afternoon. I-Thanks for helping me up, but I have a ton of things to do before dinner tonight. If I hurt or anything.I'll call a doctor. I-Thanks again." She said as she met Hunter's bewildered gaze head on. She backed away from him slowly, walking away in as dignified a manner she could manage. Which was difficult considering she only had one heel on her shoes intact.
"Stephanie, really, it's allright.." He called to her back. "You-are you sure you're okay?" He asked one more time.
She turned around. "I'm wonderful. Ha-Happy Valentine's Day, Hunter." She choked out.
"Yeah, you too, Steph. Hey, are you going to that dinner tonight, that Eric's hosting at Piazza Bella? It's mostly for Raw people, but Vince and Shane are gonna be there. I think your mom is too, it'd be weird if your dad showed up without your mom on V-Day, hmm? Eric wouldn't dare say anything if you decided to come. It starts at seven." He called back. Red then chose that moment to wrap her arms around Hunter and squealed. "Yay! Now we can go shopping!"
God, was Red about six years old? Stephanie shook her head, shrugged off the various aches in her body and turned the right way this time.
She hailed a cab and settled into the cushiony seat with a sigh. Ohhh.her back hurt really badly. When she finally arrived back at her hotel she flung herself on her bed and stared up at the ceiling. Well, at least she had a good excuse for not going out with Kurt tonight, she felt like she'd been hit with a two by four. She continued staring at the ceiling, counting the times she was blinking. Every time she shut her eyes all she could see were visions of Red and Hunter-and oh, let's not forget the damn teddies! She angrily wiped back moisture from her eyes. It wasn't a tear, it really wasn't, she was just in a lot of pain, and damn.now she was crying.
She couldn't do this anymore. She couldn't just keep going on like this, like nothing was wrong, like everything in her life was just fine and good.
She hurt. And she'd been hurting since long before her embarrassing introduction to the sidewalk today. She felt herself sobbing and managed to pull a pillow under her head.
It hurt to lay on her back so she rolled over carefully onto her side. She felt something digging into her hip and and with a small cry of frustration she yanked her coat off and pulled out of the pocket-the red bottle of perfume.
She stared down at the tiny thing. She'd nearly forgotten about it this morning. More like she'd just kind of pushed it out of her mind because of what Thea had said to her last night..
"You want something. Want it, want it, like nothing before or since. And you don't think you can have it, do you?"
The old woman had unsettled her. The way she'd spoken, like.like this perfume could actually do something about it..
"What you must ask yourself is what it is in this world you desire above all else, and make certain you are wearing this when you are within reach of that desire. Do you understand?"
No, she didn't understand, damn it. She didn't understand how Hunter could just go around happy and unconcerned about anything, go around and just mindlessly have sex with other women, not when she couldn't even get it together enough to go out on her first date in a year with one of her best friends.
Stephanie felt her eyes narrow and felt quite sure if she'd looked in the mirror even she would be afraid of what she saw.
So Hunter was Happy, hmm? A voice inside her sneered. He was Happy fucking every little thing in his path, it was just too easy to forget all about her, wasn't it? Forget he'd ever been in love with another woman, forget that he'd married her, lived with her, forget he'd promised to love, honor, cherish her until the death do they part.
Well, you aren't getting out of this that easy, you bastard. Without giving herself time to think about it she pulled out the phone book from the side table, looked up Le Petit Fleur.
She had reservations to cancel.
Stephanie set the perfume down on her nightstand and strode to the bathroom.
She looked downright frightening right now.but it was nothing a shower, a great dress and some make-up couldn't fix. She turned the shower on and stripped. She climbed in the shower, letting the hot water pound away all of her tension, and a lot of the lingering pain in her back, let it pound away everything but a whole new resolve.
Until death do you part. She was going to teach Hunter a whole new meaning to their wedding vows.
She blow dried her hair, her skin was a pretty pink when she was done from all the heat.
She pulled on the dress she had picked up this morning before meeting her father. It was sleeveless, slinky, silky, a deep red burgundy color.and she looked really good in it. She tried it out in front of the mirror. She almost didn't recognize herself, it had been so long since she'd actually bothered to dress up for something. She pulled her hair up into a neat twist her hairdresser had taught her..it looked wickedly elegant yet was incredibly simple to pull off. She put on the lightest make-up she could find, except for the lipstick.
She wanted red lipstick. Red, red, red, so red it looked like her lips were going to jump off her face. She looked at the jewelry she'd brought with her and decided to stick with only the ruby and diamond earrings. No other adornments, not tonight.
She sat back down on the bed and looked listlessly at the clock, watching as it ticked away the hours, then the minutes. 6:55, 6:56, 6:57, 6:58, 6:59-
And damn if Kurt wasn't precisely prompt as usual. She walked over to the nightstand. She pulled on a wrap and carefully cushioned the perfume bottle in her purse.
Stephanie walked over to the door.
Rating: PG-13 (slight language, a few words, nothing huge)
Chicago, Illinois, The Next Morning
Stephanie shut the door to her father's hotel room tightly and leaned her back against the wall. Spending time with her father these days was not exactly on her list of favorite things to do...not even close. But now with all of the contracts out of the way, she was free as a bird to-
Spend Valentine's Day with Kurt.
Yay.
Stephanie felt her cheek make a weird tick and something like a snort came out of her nose.
But it couldn't possibly have been a snort, McMahon's don't ever do something as undignified as snorting.
Except that it really, really was a snort. Why the hell had she agreed to go on this date tonight anyway?
Oh yeah. She hadn't wanted to spend Valentine's Day alone. Now she was thinking she could though. She could go back to the hotel, throw open the patio drapes and watch the snow fall down, sit in front of the fireplace and catch up on her reading. Or maybe just take a nice, hot bubble bath in the Jacuzzi and watch a movie. She could order room service, indulge in some chocolate truffles.just take it easy. She wasn't one of those needy people who had to be out with somebody on the most romantic day of the year in order for her life to have meaning. She wasn't that desperate, damn it!
Stephanie pushed herself off the wall and started walking toward the elevator. Yeah, she could just have a nice night of it all by herself. She didn't need to go out with someone she didn't really want to go out with in the first place just because he was convenient. Stephanie pushed the elevator button down. She'd call up Kurt, tell him she just didn't feel this would be appropriate for their working relationship, apologize and say she hadn't meant to lead him on. He'd be okay with that, he always was. Yes. Yes, this was actually a good plan, she was being fair, she was even being kind actually, because she wasn't going through with something she had no intentions of ever following through with. Stephanie pulled her cell phone out of her purse and dialed Kurt's phone. She tapped her foot impatiently while it rung and she stepped out of the elevator doors and into the lobby. She was walking toward the exit when Kurt picked up.
"Kurt?" She began, taking in a deep breath. "Listen, I-" And that's when she noticed the only other two occupants in the lobby. She ducked behind a huge plant and flattened herself against the wall. She peered around the plant, her long hair like a curtain in her face.
"Steph? Steph?" Kurt's voice called from the phone.
"Shhh.hold on a sec." She whispered and she stared at the couple occupied in necking on the sofa in the lobby. The sight made her stomach turn over and she felt bile rise in her throat. She closed her eyes tightly and with an elegance and flexibility that would have made any gymnast proud she wove her way around the huge plant and made it to the safety that was outside without ever having been seen. Of course he would be staying at the same hotel as her father. Her father never settled for anything but the best, and neither did he. She exhaled.
"Stephanie? I want to know what's going on. Are you okay?" Dimly, she became aware Kurt was still talking on the other end of the line. She stared down at the phone, unable to remember why she was even calling him. She licked her lips and responded.
"Yeah, yes. I'm here." She said so quietly he could barely hear her. Really, really wish I wasn't.
"Well, ok. So what's up? Why did you call?"
"I just wanted to know if we were going anywhere especially elegant to dinner. I need to know what to wear." Stephanie was so very proud at the cool steel tone of her voice. She'd already picked up a dress this morning, but deep down she hadn't expected to need it...she hadn't been really planning on going on the date then either, she guessed.
"Whew. For a second there, I thought you were going to cancel." Kurt laughed, Stephanie laughed in response, but it was hollow.
"Nope. Not cancelling. So should I dress up?"
"Oh, yeah. I made reservations at a great restaurant, Le Petit Fleur. It was a little hard to get into, what with it being Valentine's Day and all, but I told them I was an Olympic Hero and man, they just bowed down for me. It's all set."
More than likely the poor restaraunter had just gotten sick of hearing Kurt's voice and had given him the table to shut him the hell up. Stephanie felt her eyes roll. "That's great, Kurt. Um.I'll be ready for dinner at seven tonight. You can meet me at my hotel, you know?" She hung up before he could offer to come and spend the rest of the day with her. Stupid, stupid.ugh! She cursed herself, already regretting not having cancelled the date. She'd just been floored, that was all, and she'd reacted the way she always did by doing the most self-destructive thing possible. Stephanie realized she was walking the wrong way. She bit the inside of her cheek hard to keep from screaming in frustration. And that would be when her heel broke on the sidewalk and she fell backwards, sliding on a patch of ice and snow. She hit the ground hard.
"Ohhhh." She groaned. She was startled when her vision went black for a second. Damn..she tried to ease herself up off the ground but the world seemed to sway for a few moments and she carefully rested her head back on the ground. It was blissfully cold, and she felt so good.
"Jesus, are you allright?" She heard a man call from a few feet behind her, in the direction of the hotel. Within seconds a warm body knelt over her and she opened her eyes.
No, no, no, no..the irony gods weren't this cruel, they just weren't. She blinked again hoping he'd morph into somebody else, God, anybody else. Please? She called out to the heavens silently. Please? She opened her eyes and-
Damn. Still there. And now he was leaning over her even closer, eyes deep and concerned, and oh, God, now he was touching her, his hands moving like ghosts across her body, and down, down, down.
"Nothing seems to be broken." Hunter said quietly. "But I think you should get an x-ray, just to be sure."
Work, vocal cords, work! "Uhhhh.." Stephanie felt her face flush in shame over her low, pained moan. She tried again. She licked her dry lips, not even noticing how the brown eyes followed the movement hungrily. "Hunter?" She squeaked out.
"Yeah..well, at least you can still recognize people. Come on, let's get you up. People are looking." He said roughly. But his hands were still gentle as he eased his arms around her, helping her to sit up. Stephanie pushed her knees up to try and give herself leverage against the ground. Her legs gave out beneath her but Hunter caught her and swung his arm around her back tightly. He all but carried her down the sidewalk.
"Did you just hit a patch of ice?" He asked.
"Something like that." She muttered. She leaned into his body more, he was so warm. And he smelled good, like.she stiffened. Like that redheaded tramp's perfume in the hotel lobby.
"Are you okay now?" He asked hesitantly.
"Of course. Just a little fall. No biggie." She smiled tightly up at him and he looked back down at her, still concerned. She realized he was walking her back into the hotel.
"Where are we-I mean, what are we-" The words wouldn't come out.
"We're going to-"
"Oh, Hunty!" A high-pitched voice carried across the room. "Hunty, are you okay? I saw you help this poor girl up and I-" The redhead bimbo stopped cold when she saw who it was. Seems like Red knew who she was, Stephanie thought in satisfaction as she burrowed in even closer to Hunter's chest. She was gratified when he tightened his hold on her.
Red seemed to have a little bit of the wind taken out of her sails. "Hunty?" She asked doubtfully.
"I'm going to help Steph get out of these clothes, they're all damp from the melting snow. I'm also going to call the hotel doctor, have him come take a look at her."
Red now seemed to be furious, much to Stephanie's glee.
"But Hunty, I-" She pouted.
"Look, Shelly, I-"
"My name's Sherry."
"Huh?" Hunter asked blankly.
"Sherry. You called me Shelly."
Hunter narrowed his eyes. He felt Stephanie shaking at his side. He thought he'd better get her upstairs, she was so cold...
He didn't realize her shaking was from holding back the laughter at her ex- husband's expense.
"Shel-Sherry. Look, I'm just going to take Steph upstairs for a couple minutes, I'll be right back down and then we'll go shopping. Okay?"
"Hunter's buying me teddies." Red said. Stephanie couldn't figure out why Red would be so viciously smug about some stupid teddy bears and then-oh.
Oh.
Fuck. She pushed herself off of Hunter. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to intrude on your afternoon. I-Thanks for helping me up, but I have a ton of things to do before dinner tonight. If I hurt or anything.I'll call a doctor. I-Thanks again." She said as she met Hunter's bewildered gaze head on. She backed away from him slowly, walking away in as dignified a manner she could manage. Which was difficult considering she only had one heel on her shoes intact.
"Stephanie, really, it's allright.." He called to her back. "You-are you sure you're okay?" He asked one more time.
She turned around. "I'm wonderful. Ha-Happy Valentine's Day, Hunter." She choked out.
"Yeah, you too, Steph. Hey, are you going to that dinner tonight, that Eric's hosting at Piazza Bella? It's mostly for Raw people, but Vince and Shane are gonna be there. I think your mom is too, it'd be weird if your dad showed up without your mom on V-Day, hmm? Eric wouldn't dare say anything if you decided to come. It starts at seven." He called back. Red then chose that moment to wrap her arms around Hunter and squealed. "Yay! Now we can go shopping!"
God, was Red about six years old? Stephanie shook her head, shrugged off the various aches in her body and turned the right way this time.
She hailed a cab and settled into the cushiony seat with a sigh. Ohhh.her back hurt really badly. When she finally arrived back at her hotel she flung herself on her bed and stared up at the ceiling. Well, at least she had a good excuse for not going out with Kurt tonight, she felt like she'd been hit with a two by four. She continued staring at the ceiling, counting the times she was blinking. Every time she shut her eyes all she could see were visions of Red and Hunter-and oh, let's not forget the damn teddies! She angrily wiped back moisture from her eyes. It wasn't a tear, it really wasn't, she was just in a lot of pain, and damn.now she was crying.
She couldn't do this anymore. She couldn't just keep going on like this, like nothing was wrong, like everything in her life was just fine and good.
She hurt. And she'd been hurting since long before her embarrassing introduction to the sidewalk today. She felt herself sobbing and managed to pull a pillow under her head.
It hurt to lay on her back so she rolled over carefully onto her side. She felt something digging into her hip and and with a small cry of frustration she yanked her coat off and pulled out of the pocket-the red bottle of perfume.
She stared down at the tiny thing. She'd nearly forgotten about it this morning. More like she'd just kind of pushed it out of her mind because of what Thea had said to her last night..
"You want something. Want it, want it, like nothing before or since. And you don't think you can have it, do you?"
The old woman had unsettled her. The way she'd spoken, like.like this perfume could actually do something about it..
"What you must ask yourself is what it is in this world you desire above all else, and make certain you are wearing this when you are within reach of that desire. Do you understand?"
No, she didn't understand, damn it. She didn't understand how Hunter could just go around happy and unconcerned about anything, go around and just mindlessly have sex with other women, not when she couldn't even get it together enough to go out on her first date in a year with one of her best friends.
Stephanie felt her eyes narrow and felt quite sure if she'd looked in the mirror even she would be afraid of what she saw.
So Hunter was Happy, hmm? A voice inside her sneered. He was Happy fucking every little thing in his path, it was just too easy to forget all about her, wasn't it? Forget he'd ever been in love with another woman, forget that he'd married her, lived with her, forget he'd promised to love, honor, cherish her until the death do they part.
Well, you aren't getting out of this that easy, you bastard. Without giving herself time to think about it she pulled out the phone book from the side table, looked up Le Petit Fleur.
She had reservations to cancel.
Stephanie set the perfume down on her nightstand and strode to the bathroom.
She looked downright frightening right now.but it was nothing a shower, a great dress and some make-up couldn't fix. She turned the shower on and stripped. She climbed in the shower, letting the hot water pound away all of her tension, and a lot of the lingering pain in her back, let it pound away everything but a whole new resolve.
Until death do you part. She was going to teach Hunter a whole new meaning to their wedding vows.
She blow dried her hair, her skin was a pretty pink when she was done from all the heat.
She pulled on the dress she had picked up this morning before meeting her father. It was sleeveless, slinky, silky, a deep red burgundy color.and she looked really good in it. She tried it out in front of the mirror. She almost didn't recognize herself, it had been so long since she'd actually bothered to dress up for something. She pulled her hair up into a neat twist her hairdresser had taught her..it looked wickedly elegant yet was incredibly simple to pull off. She put on the lightest make-up she could find, except for the lipstick.
She wanted red lipstick. Red, red, red, so red it looked like her lips were going to jump off her face. She looked at the jewelry she'd brought with her and decided to stick with only the ruby and diamond earrings. No other adornments, not tonight.
She sat back down on the bed and looked listlessly at the clock, watching as it ticked away the hours, then the minutes. 6:55, 6:56, 6:57, 6:58, 6:59-
And damn if Kurt wasn't precisely prompt as usual. She walked over to the nightstand. She pulled on a wrap and carefully cushioned the perfume bottle in her purse.
Stephanie walked over to the door.