Disclaimer: WWE hasn't lifted the restraining order, sadly, so no one belongs to me. Still holding out hope that Randy will call.
Leigh, Stephanie and Marc Andrews were sitting at a long table in a charming English pub called Gabe's. The bar was practically empty, for which all were thankful. They weren't in the mood to deal with the rabid fans that could affect their evening. Leigh knew she wouldn't have been recognized, not having an on-screen role, but was greatful that their gathering would be limited to their small group. She wasn't sure how the alcohol would affect her emotions that night, especially after the grueling day she had just put in. RAW had been a huge success and there was advance praise for this particular episode. They had not only managed to elevate Randy Orton more so than before, but had hinted at tension between Edge and Chris Jericho; Kane had interfered in the Matt Hardy/Dave Batista match, allowing creative to build upon a Kane/Batista feud that would begin down the line, thereby eliminating the ridiculous pregnancy angle. Chris Benoit had performed a seething promo directed to all members of Evolution; finally allowing his hatred and passion to pour through the television cameras. He called on Orton, mainly, but the young grappler had not been the only one verbally attacked.
Leigh twirled the straw in her Jack and Coke and sipped, allowing the liquid to burn down her throat. I'm going to pay for this tomorrow, she thought. She looked at her coworkers as they began arguing about where to take Orton after SummerSlam; should they continue with a Benoit feud or jump right into Triple H? Stephanie looked at her friend, noticing she had been unusually quiet during an argument in which she could provide some much-needed guidance. "You okay, Leigh?"
"Sure; just listening to Marc and his ridiculous preconceived notions that we need to immediately go back to Triple H main-eventing." Both Marc and Stephanie blanched; no one had ever been so blunt before, not when it came to Paul Levesque. "Don't get me wrong, Paul's done a lot and he'll play a huge part down the line, but right now he needs to be used for Eugene. Nick hasn't been given too much time in the ring lately, and he needs to be allowed to showcase the fact that his repertoire consists of more than copying other people's finishing maneuvers." Leigh shot out this statement, only after did she realize that the words sounded much harsher than she intended.
"Wow, sweetheart, don't hold back," Marc laughed uncomfortably to fill the silence. He was surprised that this girl had so much… well, balls, for a lack of a better term. The Creative team had always used Triple H as a go-to guy; partially because he was married to the boss, but more so because there was no reason not to.
"Actually, let's not talk shop tonight. I, for one, have been on overload lately. I'd love to spend the rest of the evening enjoying this beer, talking to my friends and spending time with my husband, if he ever decides to grace us with his presence." Stephanie put an end to the bickering. She had quickly deduced that Marc wasn't going to fall by the wayside when it came to being with Leigh. He'd apparently developed quite the crush on her during this past month and, when he was continuously rejected, had fallen back on the old habit of grade school behavior. He also had no doubt heard that Randy Orton had been asking about her, and didn't want to deal with fighting over a girl who didn't want him with a guy that would, quite possibly, kick his ass. Steph had no doubt in her mind that the two of them would be able to work together, and work well for that matter, as they were both professionals, but it would have been a better idea to hold off on inviting Marc for an evening out until he could move on to another object for his affection.
"Did I hear someone call for a sexy beast?" A voice called out to the three of them.
"Sorry to disappoint you, Chris, but you're not quite as sexy as I was hoping for," Steph laughed as she finished the rest of her beer. "You're just in time to buy the next round, though."
"Actually, if you ladies don't mind, I think I'm going to head back for the night," Marc said as he started to get up. When Steph shot him a questioning look, he merely shrugged his shoulders and glanced at the blonde woman who was still nursing her drink. Leigh raised her head and caught the non-verbal exchange.
"Marc, please don't go because I'm acting like a child. I've had a long day and I'm just…cranky. I promise to behave myself from now on," she replied. She didn't want him to leave because she'd been bitchy, but she wasn't about to fawn over him to make him stay.
"Relax, gorgeous, we've all been there," he smiled, always playing the 'nice guy' card. "I've gotta go because, unlike some uber-organized people at this table, I haven't finished up all my outlines for tomorrow. My boss can be a real bitch when the work isn't done up to code."
"I would take offense to that, but I'm too damn tired. Plus, it's true," Steph smiled sweetly at the man, as he pulled out his wallet to pay his tab. He threw a twenty dollar bill on the table and looked at the two women as Chris Jericho walked up to them, with a tray of drinks in tow.
"There; I bought the first round. You owe me next time we do this," he said; without realizing it, he stated this with his eyes locked on Leigh.
"Didn't take you to be such a cheap date, princess," Jericho laughed as he took Marc's place at the table. "See you later, man."
As Marc opened the door to leave, Paul, Dave, Randy and Ric walked up. Standing aside to let the young writer pass, they heard heels clicking along the sidewalk behind them. Randy turned around to see Trish, Stacey, Amy, Matt Hardy and Shane Helms approaching.
"What is this place, guys? I thought we were going dancing…" Stacey asked the four gentlemen holding the door open for the group to enter.
"Steph wasn't feeling up to anything too high energy. We've been here before, it's pretty quiet and the guy usually gives us free drinks if we promise to not to break anything," Paul replied with a laugh. "Listen, if this isn't your thing, feel free to go wherever."
"I don't want Leigh to think we ditched her…" Trish replied. She had immediately taken a liking to the newcomer and wanted to make her feel welcome. However, she wasn't the type to just sit around in a bar and talk; she could do that anywhere with her friends. A club atmosphere was what the group had been intending.
"Don't worry about it; I'm sure Leigh'll understand. Go, have fun, we'll see you this weekend."
"You're sure? Maybe we should just go in and say hi; one drink won't take that much time," Trish started.
"Don't be stupid; it's already after midnight now. By the time you have a drink and head back over to whatever club, it'll be after 1am. You'll probably miss last call and get annoyed with Leigh for keeping you so long. Trust me, she'll understand."
"Okay, thanks, Paul. Tell Leigh we said sorry. Take it easy, man," Matt said as a good-bye, slinging his arm around Amy's shoulders and leading the group back to the cars.
"Happy now?" Paul said as he turned towards Randy. "No more single guys cuddling up to your woman."
Randy rolled his eyes as Dave and Ric laughed lightly. "It's amazing how not funny you are, Trips," he said and shook his head, walked in the door and over to the bar. "Hey guys, you need anything?" He called to Stephanie, Chris and Leigh. "Paul's paying."
Leigh looked up from her drink to watch the handsome young man as he took drink orders and smiled at them. The sleeves of his blue shirt were rolled up halfway and the forearm muscles flexed as he supported his body weight on them, leaning forward against the half wall separating him from his friends. The light-colored khaki pants he was wearing were loose fitting, but could not hide the fact that his legs were as well developed as the rest of him. His hair was still damp from his shower, and Leigh could smell the soap he used emanating from his tan skin. Randy's eyes locked on hers for a moment, shocking Leigh into realizing that she'd been caught. "What can I get you?" He asked softly, as though trying not to interrupt her thoughts.
"I'm good, thanks," she replied clearly, holding his gaze. She was trying very hard to not let on how much his look affected her, but it was difficult when she had the tendency to catch her breath when he was around.
Paul took his seat next to Stephanie, kissing her full on the lips; Leigh averted her gaze back to Chris on her right and laughed at something he said to Dave, who was sitting on the other side of him. Ric pulled out the chair across the table from Dave, aside Paul, as he sat down and called to Leigh. "OK, dollface, how was the first day?"
"Busy," she replied with a smile. "It'll probably take me a while to get used to this pace. I've gotta ask, Ric, how the hell is it that you've been able to do this for 30 years?" She smiled at the legend as she asked this, propping her right elbow on the table and resting her chin on her hand.
"It's all worth it, darlin'. I wouldn't have had it any other way," he winked at her.
"Careful, Leigh. I think the old fart's flirting with you," Dave laughed, simultaneously slugging Ric on the shoulder and taking the beer Randy handed him. Randy came around the table and handed Paul his scotch on the rocks, before taking the seat at the head of the table, next to Leigh. She could feel her heart hammering in her chest; turning to look at him as he sat down, she offered him a shy smile as way of hello. Randy didn't catch it.
The group of seven talked for a long while, with Chris constantly feeding the jukebox quarters to keep the background noise alive. Ric had been entertaining them with stories of his Four Horsemen days, some of which even Paul hadn't yet heard. Leigh quickly threw a glance at Randy, thankful that the rims of her glasses prevented him from noticing. He was toying with his draft beer, picking it up and putting it back down on the coaster over and over again, watching as the coaster stuck to the bottom of his glass from condensation before falling back to the table again.
"You look like you're enjoying yourself," she offered quietly so she didn't offend the rest of the group.
He didn't say anything at first, he was too surprised that the woman was speaking with him, then smiled without looking at her and said, just as quietly, "I'm pretty easily entertained, but I've heard a lot of these stories from my dad already." Leigh watched again as he picked up his beer and let the coaster fall. "That's annoying," he finally said.
"Here," Leigh pulled the salt shaker over from the center of the table and sprinkled a few grains onto the coaster. "You should be good now." Randy tried again, but the coaster refused to stick to the glass.
"Hey! Where'd you learn that?"
"College; isn't that where everyone learns nifty bar tricks?" Randy finally looked her in the eyes and smiled.
"So, Leigh, what's your story? We've been hearing about Ric's escapades all night, but we don't know a damn thing about you…" Chris directed the group's attention back to the attractive blonde at the end of the table.
"There's no story, or at least, not an interesting one. I grew up in Houston watching wrestling, much to my parents' chagrin. I was a good kid, never got into any trouble. I went out of state for college, where I did get into a lot of trouble, but my parents never knew about it. I moved back to Houston after I graduated and worked a couple shit jobs, and in my spare time did a lot of work for some wrestling websites. One of my columns was actually to write RAW, which could have gotten me sued so I'm still not sure why I did it. When I saw this job posting online, I figured, 'what the hell' and submitted my resume and a couple of stories. Next thing I know, I'm sitting in an empty bar in Sacramento with some of the greats in the business, listening to Jimmy Buffett ask 'Why don't we get drunk and screw'. It's pretty surreal," she laughed.
"No, darlin', surreal is Eric Bischoff working for Vince McMahon. You just got lucky," Ric replied before draining his beer.
"Well, as enlightening as it is to hear Leigh dance around an issue, I think I'm going to head back to bed. See you kids tomorrow," Chris said and, turning to Leigh, kissed her on the cheek. "I know there's more to it than that; we'll talk when you're ready," he whispered in her ear. Leigh could only give Chris a sly smile as a reply. He went to take Stephanie's hand to kiss it good-bye when he realized that she was asleep on Paul's shoulder.
"Would you mind taking her back, too?" Paul laughed as he tried to rouse the sleeping Steph. Leigh got up to use the ladies' room and when she returned to the table, realized that Randy was the only one still sitting there.
"Everybody else take off?" Well, Leigh, that might just be the stupidest question you've ever asked. "I don't think we've met; I'm Captain Obvious."
"Yeah, I didn't know where you parked, so I wanted to make sure you made it back to your car okay," Randy replied with a laugh, looking up at her. He could tell the day had been a long one for her; she looked exhausted. Her eyes were wary behind her glasses and her skin had lost its vibrancy. Some of the hair was beginning to unravel from the knot she had it tied in, allowing soft tendrils to frame her face. Randy had the sudden urge to envelope her in a hug, but he fought it. She slumped into the seat next to him and sighed.
"I was just thinking earlier tonight about how you guys are like superheroes. I don't know how you do this four nights a week," Leigh replied. She took off her glasses and set them on the table, rubbing her hands in her eyes to try to wipe away some of the exhaustion. Even without replacing them on her face, she could tell Randy was looking at her closely. She could feel him looking at her.
"So, do you want to go back or can I buy you a drink?" Randy asked as casually as possible. He wanted to sit with this woman all night, learn everything he could about her.
"I should get back…" Leigh said, putting her glasses back on. Other than that, she made no effort to get up. She knew she should leave and go back to her hotel, but something, some force, was keeping her in her seat, not allowing her to look Randy in the eyes.
After a few minutes, Randy laughed lightly. "Okay, I'll re-phrase: will you go back or can I buy you a drink?" Leigh finally smiled and looked at him, briefly, before shifting her gaze back to the table.. She was silent for a minute; Randy felt as though the air surrounding them was pregnant, as though whatever relationship these two people would share was dependent upon this very moment. He decided that he wasn't going to wait for her to answer, not wait for her to reject him again. He took the initiative and left the table for the bar, ordering her Jack and Coke.
Okay, y'all, I love this. I'm addicted. All future chapters will be under the story titled Cocoon.