Disclaimer: I don't own Rob. *sad face* I don't own any other characters either, except Ella.

Rating: PG-13

Author's Note: Ok… I was planning on updating Monday, but I didn't… obviously. But I did it now… almost a week later. But yeah. Sorry to those people who were waiting for the next chapter (if those people exist). But here it is. Chapter 5! Yay!

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Chapter 5: Lesson In Pool

"So, your answer is…" Rob trailed off.

Ella smiled at him sweetly before answering, "Ok. But it won't be a real date. I invited Stephanie and Paul because I haven't seen Stephanie in so long and I just wanted to spend some time with her and see if her fiancé measures up to my standards."

"That's fine," Rob agreed. "So I found this pool hall not too far away."

"Sounds great," Ella replied. "I need to finish watching the show, so I'll see you in a little bit."

"Ok," he said grinning cutely. "I'll see you later." He then turned around and walked to, Ella assumed, his locker room.

Ella turned around and walked the opposite direction back to an office that was set up for her. There was a television so that she could watch the show from the perspective of an at-home audience member. Then the next night at the Smackdown taping, she would be in the audience to get the different points of view.

Entering the office, she found a leggy woman sitting on the couch sobbing quietly. Awkwardly, she asked, "Is something wrong?"

The woman looked up startled. Standing up, she replied, "I'm sorry. I didn't think anyone was using this room." She began to hastily wipe at her running mascara.

"It's fine. Don't worry. I'm Ella Taylor."

"Stacy Keibler."

"What's wrong?" Ella questioned, closing the door.

Stacy flopped back down onto the couch. "I just got in a fight with my boyfriend."

Ella sat down next to the troubled diva.

"I mean, I know I'm just being paranoid and jealous, but you know, a girl can only take so much."

Ella's throat suddenly tightened, hoping silently that Stacy's story wasn't anything like her own. "What'd he do?"

"I mean, it seems like he's been ignoring me and paying more attention to other women when I'm right there. And when he does acknowledge the fact that I'm there, he's always making comments about other women…" Stacy trailed off after finally taking a good look at Ella. It dawned on her that Ella was the person Andrew was talking about earlier. Stacy suddenly wished Ella wasn't so nice.

"What?" Ella prodded, sensing something else was wrong.

"Honestly, you kind of started our fight." Seeing the look of shock on Ella's face, Stacy quickly added, "But not just you."

Relief swept over Ella.

"I mean, it's just been building up for a few weeks now, and tonight was just the breaking point."

"I'm sorry," Ella apologized sympathetically.

"It's really not your fault," Stacy assured the other woman. "It's his."

Ella smiled. "He's just a guy. Guys are… guys," she said, not sure how to put what guys are into words. "Only he can control what he does. You can't blame yourself for something you can't control," Ella quoted Stephanie.

Wiping her eyes one last time to ensure there was no out of place mascara, Stacy stood up and said, "You're absolutely right. If he can't control his… guyness… then I'll find someone who can. Thanks."

"No problem."

"I'll see you later maybe," Stacy said over her shoulder as she left Ella's office.

Ella sat on the couch and picked up the remote control from the coffee table on the side of the couch. She turned on the television, grabbed her clipboard, and watched the rest of the show.

"You were great out there," Kylie complimented her reflection. She was standing in front of the large mirror in the women's locker room.

"Talking to yourself, or your own reflection, is the first sign of insanity," Trish called out, entering the locker room, smirking.

Kylie let out an over-exaggerated sigh and turned to face Trish. "Just shut the fuck up and leave me alone. I didn't ask what the first fucking sign of insanity is," Kylie snapped.

"Sorry if I didn't want anyone to throw you into the loony bin," Trish replied sarcastically. "Though someone should," she added under her breath.

"Whatever. Just get the hell out."

"This is not Kylie's locker room. This is the women's locker room. Meaning it's for any woman."

"So why are you in here?"

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"It means you look like a fucking guy! I mean, those boobs are so fake. You should've booked a plastic surgeon for you nose, not your chest."

Appalled by Kylie's comments, Trish grabbed her bag and stomped out of the locker room, leaving Kylie with a satisfied smile on her face… and the mirror all to herself.

"Yes, you are the best diva ever!" she told herself. "The best."

"Are you done throwing your little hissy fit?" Andrew asked, seeing his girlfriend approaching.

Stopping in front of him, Stacy kept her gaze away from his eyes. "Look Andrew, I know that you care about me. But this whole thing about commenting on other women, it's just really made me question how much you care about me. Or at least on what level."

"I don't get you mean Stace."

"I mean, you talk to me about other women like I'm one of the guys or just a friend. It's like, we don't act much like a couple anymore," Stacy explained.

"Of course we do," Andrew insisted.

"No, we don't," Stacy argued. "I mean, when was the last time just the two of us did something together?"

"Come on Stacy. It's not like we don't see each other."

"But it's not like you act like I'm your girlfriend either! I mean, you make it look like we're just friends, or even brother and sister! You don't hold my hand when we're just walking somewhere. You don't kiss me. You'll only do that in front of people we know."

"So I'm against public displays of affection. Is that so wrong?"

"Andrew! You make a little show of us being together on national television, but when we're just on the street, you won't even link arms with me!"

"Stacy, you're blowing this thing way out of proportion. I mean, so we don't link arms. So what?"

"So what? So what? SO WHAT? How can you stand there and listen to what I'm saying and just say, 'So what?' to me?" Stacy leaned against the wall and sighed. "I think we should see other people because you obviously need someone that I'm not."

"Stacy-"

"No. It's better this way. I can't control what you do, but I can control what I do." Kissing him on the cheek, she turned and walked away.

Andrew began banging his head against the brick wall where Stacy was leaning just moments ago. "How could I have been so stupid?"

"Talking to the wall, are we?" Jay asked, coming up behind his friend.

Andrew turned to face his fellow Canadian. "She dumped me!"

"Who? Stacy?" Jay asked.

"No, the boogieman. He and I have been having a fling for the past month," Andrew retorted sarcastically.

Raising his eyebrows, Jay replied, "Dude, I didn't know your door swung that way. The boogieman? But hey, whatever bakes your cake."

By the look on Andrew's face, Jay could tell that his friend was not enjoying Jay's humor.

"What happened?"

"She started talking about what we don't do and stuff and it just blew up in my face!"

"What you don't do? Are you still a virgin?" Jay joked again. "Sorry," he said quickly after looking at Andrew's expression, his hands up in surrender. "Well, look at it this way, you can go and hook up with whoever you want. I mean whoever you want."

"I'm not gay!" Andrew exclaimed. A few crewmembers looked warily at the wrestler. "Look what you did!"

"What I did? You're the one who was shouting about gayness. Besides, you could be bi," Jay suggested.

Andrew glared at his "helpful" friend.

"Listen, just try to move on. There's no use on holding on to Stacy 'cause she's gone. So just find another girl. And you will find one. And if you can't, I'll buy you a nice little prostitute," Jay offered.

Andrew chuckled at Jay's last comment. "I think you need one more than me."

"Excuse me, but I happen to be married," Jay informed his friend, holding up his left hand and flaunting his wedding band.

"But that doesn't mean you get any on the road. Besides, girls are just naturally attracted to me. I don't need your two cent whores."

Jay looked hurt. "Do you really think that low of me? I would've bought you at least a three dollar whore."

Smiling, Andrew pushed himself away from the wall. "Thanks man."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're not gonna get all mushy on me, are you?"

"No." There was a short silence.

"You really liked her, didn't you?"

"Yeah, but what can I do now? She's already made up her mind. And once she's done that, you can't really change it."

"You'll get over her eventually."

"Yeah… I just wish I didn't have to."

"Ok, that's enough corny stuff. Let's go back to the hotel."

"Alright," Andrew said, walking off to the locker room with Jay.

"Ready to go?" Stephanie asked, popping her head into Ella's office.

"Yeah, just let me finish packing my stuff," Ella replied, shoving a few papers into her suitcase.

"You're gonna go like that?" Stephanie questioned coyly.

Ella looked down at her clothes. She was wearing a black skirt with a white blouse. "Good point. But I didn't pack any other type of clothing. So unless you guys wanna stop by the store, yeah, I'm going like this."

"Well, aren't you lucky? I brought some extra clothes just in case someone had to spill or dump or somehow get something on me," Stephanie told her friend.

"Thank you," Ella said gratefully.

"They're not much, but they're better than that."

"That's fine."

"I'll go get them," Stephanie said, leaving the office.

A few minutes later, Stephanie returned holding a pair of jeans and a large black t-shirt. She tossed the items of clothing to her friend. "Here's a rubber band too. The shirt's Paul's, so it's huge. Just tie the back or something.

"Thank you," Ella said as Stephanie left the room to let Ella change. Quickly unzipping her skirt and pulling off her pantyhose, she slipped on the jeans. She unbuttoned her blouse and put on the shirt. It was bigger than it looked. She rolled the bottom of the shirt up then tied it in the back to make it shorter and tighter. The sleeves practically went down to her elbows, so she rolled the sleeves up as well. Finally satisfied she folded her clothes and managed to fit those into her briefcase as well. "Ready," she announced, coming out of the office.

"K. We have three cars to take care of: mine and Paul's, yours, and Rob's. So we're just all gonna follow Rob."

"Sounds good."

They reached the parking garage where Paul and Rob were already waiting.

"Paul," Stephanie started, leading her friend to her fiancé, "I want you to meet Ella Taylor."

"Nice to meet you," Paul said, shaking her hand.

"You too," Ella returned.

"So Rob, where's the pool hall?" Stephanie asked.

"Few blocks down. Just follow me," he instructed the small group.

Everyone climbed into their respective rental cars and took off, with Rob leading the short train of vehicles. The show having ended more or less an hour earlier, there was very little traffic because of the time of night. They reached the pool hall quickly and parked.

"We're here," Rob announced as everyone got out of their cars.

"Thank you Captain Obvious," Paul said sarcastically.

"Well, let's go inside," Ella suggested when they all just stood by their cars.

"Lead the way," Rob said.

"Your idea to come here," Ella pointed out.

"We'll go together," Rob said, offering his arm to her.

She looped her arm through his and the four walked into the somewhat crowded building.

"There's an open table," Stephanie pointed out. The group grabbed a couple sticks and walked over to the table.

A tall, but shorter than Rob, man walked over. Tattoos were visible on his arms. "How long you gonna be here?" he asked gruffly.

"Couple hours?" Rob asked the group. When they nodded he said to the man, "two hours."

"You can pay when you're done," the man informed them. He then went back towards his post near the entrance.

"He seems friendly," Ella said under her breath.

"Oh yeah. A real Mr. Rogers," Rob added.

"Well, let's play some pool," Paul said, grabbing the balls and forming them. "We playing teams?"

"Yeah," Stephanie answered. "Girls versus guys."

"They think they can beat us," Paul chuckled to Rob.

Stephanie raised an eyebrow at Paul's comment.

"Alright, we accept," Paul said. "We'll even let you ladies break."

"How sweet of you," Stephanie replied, her voice coated with sugar. She took on the sticks, covering the tip in blue, and leaned over on the table, aiming her shot. "But I must warn you," she started, hitting the white ball, "that I used to play pool when I went with my father on his business trips sometimes," she finished, standing back up to admire her work. She sank two of the striped balls. "The guys who taught me said I was a fast learner."

Paul and Rob stared incredulously at the green table.

Stephanie walked over to the other end of the table and aimed again. This time she only sank one striped ball.

Needless to say, the girls won… quickly.

"Well, I learned something tonight," Stephanie announced as they exited the pool hall.

"And what's that?" Paul grumbled at having lost seven fast games to the two girls. Ella had played well, but the girls won because of Stephanie.

"That you suck at pool," Stephanie teased.

"It's not my fault you never told me you were freakishly good at pool," Paul defended himself.

Stephanie giggled. "I know."

"You didn't do too bad though," Ella said to Rob. Their arms were once again linked with one another's.

"Yeah. I did do better than Paul," Rob said thoughtfully.

Paul only grumbled more. "I had an off night, ok?"

"Whatever you say, Honey," Stephanie said getting into their rental.

"Well, since we're not staying at the same hotel, good night," Stephanie said to Rob and Ella.

"Yeah. Bye," Paul said grumpily.

Ella and Rob watched as Paul and Stephanie left for their hotel.

"So where are you staying?" Rob asked.

"I dunno the name of it. I only have the address."

"Well, where is it then?"

"On… 27th," Ella answered, pulling out a small piece of paper with the hotel's address.

"Oh, you're talking about Red Lion," Rob said.

"… Sure."

"I'm staying there too."

"Why aren't you staying at the same place as Steph and Paul?"

"They wanna spread us out so that we don't get together and burn down the hotel," Rob enlightened her.

"Oh. So that's what you normally do in your spare time? Burn down hotels?"

"Darn, I wasn't supposed to let you in on my secret."

Ella laughed. "Your secrets safe with me. For now."

"Well, we better get going."

"You lead the way 'cause I dunno how to get there."

"How were you going to get there before?"

"Drive around and hope that I was going in the right direction."

"Well then you can follow me."

"Thank you. You're like my knight in shining armor."

"I thought you said I was too short, pale, and ugly to be your knight."

"Things change."

Rob shrugged. "I'll take it."

Getting into their cars, the two drove to the hotel. Once their, Rob carried Ella's bags for her. They stopped briefly at the front desk to check in. Fortunately, Ella's company had made the reservations for her this time.

"Well, goodnight," Ella said, stopping at her room.

"This seems familiar."

"Doesn't it though?"

"Yeah."

After a short silence, Ella said, "Thank you for tonight. It was fun."

"Yeah."

"Night."

"Night."

Ella scanned her keycard and the door unlocked. She took her briefcase and small bag and disappeared into the room.

When the door closed, Rob turned to go back to the elevator and go to his own room.

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Author's Note: Ok. There it is. It actually turned out longer than I expected it to. I hope you liked it! Go review it now! And tell your friends to read this. I need all the reviews I can get. Ok. Enough from me. I'm gonna go now. Thank you!