Title: Glow

Rating: PG-13

Summary: After leaving Paul Levesque at the alter, Stephanie McMahon is determined to stay single. However, Chris Irvine is set on finding her perfect match.

Chapter 4

"Hey, Steph!" Chris greeted, spotting his friend walking his way down the corridor. "Where you going?"

"I was just going to catering. I haven't eaten all day!" Stephanie replied as her friend fell into step along side her.

Hearing Stephanie's destination, Chris immediately jumped in front of the brunette.

"What are you doing?" Stephanie questioned, wide-eyed.

Chris searched for his words. "I was just, getting some exercise!" he stuttered, doing jumping jacks.

"What the hell is the matter with you?" Stephanie asked, giving her friend a I-hope-you-know-that-you-look-like-a-jackass-and-I'm-pretending-that-I-don't-know-you look.

"You know, the food in catering is just… horrible! I can't let you eat in there!" Chris protested.

"In all the time I've known you, I've never heard you complain about any kind of food."

"Well, I just never said anything. But I've just had it! So why don't we go out and get something to eat, and I can tell you all about it!" Chris offered.

"Irvine, whatever is in there that you don't want me to see, I'll find out eventually," Stephanie informed the still jumping blonde.

Chris sighed as he stopped his exercise. "Fine. Go ahead."

Rolling her eyes, Stephanie walked past her friend and opened the door to catering. At first she couldn't understand why Chris didn't want her going in the room. But the she it. She saw them.

"I'm sorry," Chris whispered into her ear from behind.

Stephanie watched as Trish seductively placed a grape between her lips and leaned in toward Paul. He covered her mouth with his and the grape disappeared. Stephanie's throat tightened at the sight.

"Steph," Chris said, worry laced in his voice. Getting no response, he wrapped an arm around her shoulder and led her toward a table.

"That's what you didn't want me to see," Stephanie concluded as she sat down in her chair.

Nodding, Chris replied, "Yeah. I just didn't think… I'm sorry you had to find out like that."

"Don't be. I mean, I'm starting to date again… kind of… so it would just make sense that Paul did too," Stephanie responded calmly, her initial shock gone.

"Steph, they've been dating for about two months now," Chris informed the heiress.

"Oh," was all Stephanie could manage to get out. "I guess I just haven't noticed."

"Well, we kind of tried to keep you away from them on purpose," Chris confided.

"We?"

"Yeah. Jay, and Adam, and Matt, and I all agreed that if you weren't ready to date, then you probably weren't ready to see Paul date yet either," he explained.

Stephanie shook her head. "That's ridiculous. Absolutely absurd! I can handle seeing him with someone else. I'm the one who broke it off. And I'm obviously over it with my dating again," Stephanie rambled incoherently. "True he did start dating before me, but that's not what's important. What's important is that we are both over our relationship, which I so am! I mean, I don't miss him at all! In fact, I'm ready for a second date! Just not with Travis," Stephanie quickly added, remembering the previous night.

"Good," Chris beamed.

"Maybe we should've let her know about Paul and Trish a long time ago," Chris mused to his friends.

"Why?" Jay asked, pulling on a shirt.

"You should've seen her after she saw those two together. She was babbling about how she was over him and ready to keep dating. It was the kick in the ass we've been waiting for," Chris explained.

"So she just wants to catch up with Paul," Adam concluded.

"Basically," Chris agreed, shoving his wrestling tights into his bag. "I mean, she hated seeing that Paul had moved on without her. It's like she expected him to just mope for the rest of his life and die a bachelor."

"Well, can you blame her?" Adam replied.

"What do you mean?" Chris questioned.

"I mean that she grew up with people constantly fawning over her and doing what they could to please her. Then Paul comes along and does the same thing," Adam clarified. "He treated her like a princess whom he couldn't live without."

Chris shrugged. "I guess I see your point. But either way, she wants another date. So what's the next city?"

"Miami," Jay answered, picking up his bag.

"Do any of us know anyone form Miami?" Chris inquired.

"No… but we know someone who does," Adam grinned.

Dwayne Johnson laughed. "I remember hearing about that. Felt bad for Paul for a week. Then gave him shit about it for two!"

"Yeah, so me and a couple of the other guys have been trying to find Stephanie a date, and we're going to be in Miami next, so we were thinking you could recommend a friend of yours or someone we could hook up with Steph," Chris explained.

"Does this have anything to do with Paul and Trish getting together?" Dwayne asked knowingly.

"Well, sort of. It was kind of a wake up call for Stephanie telling her that Paul's moved on. So now she really wants to start dating again."

Dwayne sighed. "You know, you shouldn't be fixing her up with guys if she doesn't want to date. And you shouldn't be fixing her up with guys if she does want to date, but for the wrong reason," Dwayne reprimanded the Canadian on the other end of the phone line.

"Who the hell are you? Dr. Phil?"

"Hey, the guy knows what he's talking about!" Dwayne refuted.

"Do you know anyone or not?" Chris demanded to know, growing impatient with Dwayne's evasiveness toward the situation.

"Yeah," Dwayne muttered.

Chris smiled. "Great."

"Should I really be trusting you again?" Stephanie worried.

"You're not trusting us," Chris corrected. "You're trusting Dwayne. So remember, if you're date gets fucked up, it's all Dwayne's fault."

"Perhaps, with your logic, but you three are within arm's length," Stephanie pointed out.

Adam, Jay, and Chris exchanged slightly nervous glances. "Don't worry. This one will be fun!" Jay assured the brunette, giving her nose a light tap with his finger.

Stephanie gave the blonde a dry look. "Poke at my nose again and you won't be able to flip anyone off ever again."

Jay immediately took a few steps back.

"Maybe I should just cancel," Stephanie thought aloud.

"He'll be here in a couple minutes. It's too late to cancel," Adam said, putting a damper on her plan.

"What's wrong? I distinctly remember you telling me that you wanted to start dating again so that you could catch up with Paul," Chris sighed, hands on his hips.

"I never-."

A few knocks at the door interrupted Stephanie's argument.

"I'll get it," Stephanie said with a note of finality as she began walking toward the door.

"But you'll look desperate!" Chris whined.

"Doesn't matter. I just want to get this over with," Stephanie mumbled right before she opened the door. After a moment of introductions, Stephanie stepped into the hall with the man. "Bye, guys!" With that, she closed the door and left.

"That was a short date," Chris said from his position on the couch. He was lying upside-down so that his hair was spread out on the floor and his feet dangled over the back of the couch.

Stephanie merely sent him a glare as she stood in front of the three Canadians.

"I take it that it didn't go too well," Adam guessed.

"At least he didn't spill anything on you. Or it doesn't look like he did. And you don't smell!" Jay offered brightly from his own chair.

More glaring.

"So what happened?" Chris asked, rolling onto his stomach while inadvertently kicking Adam, who was sitting on one end of the couch, in the back of the head.

"HE HAS GOT TO BE THE MOST BORING MAN EVER! EVER!" Stephanie shouted, emphasizing "ever" heavily and balling her hands into fists. "I was about ready to chew my arm off just to stop myself from screaming at him. Do you know that he's a 'salesman?'"

"That doesn't sound too bad. I'm sure he meets a lot of interesting people," Adam said while rubbing the back of his head where Chris' boot-clad foot made contact with his head.

"Not when you're calling and interrupting people's dinners to ask them if they want to buy light bulbs," Stephanie responded through gritted teeth.

"Dwayne's fault," came Chris' immediate response. "He said he was a well-respected salesman."

"Well-respected my ass. He's a fucking telemarketer!" Stephanie scoffed, waving her arms wildly. Stephanie began walking to her bedroom. "I think that I might have preferred Travis over… Edmond," she spat out his name. "At least I got to see a good game when I ditched Travis."

Chris pushed himself off the couch and stood up to comfort his stressed friend. Walking over to the fuming brunette, he gently wrapped an arm around her shoulders. She immediately shoved him away from her.

"Don't touch me!" she spat venomously. "I'm going to take a shower, and when I come out, I want you three gone!"

The Canadians didn't dare call her bluff and ran out of the suite as she walked into the bedroom.

"Maybe we should let her pick her own dates," Jay suggested.

Adam looked at him as though he were insane. "Yeah right. Then she wouldn't go out at all."

"Well then maybe she shouldn't go out if she doesn't want to," Jay pointed out, pushing the button for the elevator.

"But she does so she can get back at Paul," Chris interjected.

"But don't you think that's the wrong reason for her to start dating again?" Jay argued.

"Does it really matter?" Chris retorted. "I mean, so she gets started for the wrong reason, but she'll end up happy and in love at the end of it. So there's just different starting points, but same end result. The way I see it, no harm done," Chris reasoned in his own Chris-like way.

Jay sighed. "I still don't feel right about forcing her to date."

The three stepped into the elevator as Adam reminded his friend, "We are not forcing her to do anything. We're just helping her."

"Thank you! At least someone understands what I'm trying to do," Chris proclaimed dramatically, throwing his hands up in the air in relief.

Stephanie sighed as the hot water hit her back. Why was she doing all this again? Oh yeah… Chris. He just had to play the hero who made sure she ended up with a fairy tale ending. When would he realize that she just wanted to stay single? It made everything so much simpler and less emotionally draining.

But Paul had moved on.

But dating just brought about too much drama. There were all these feelings, or lack thereof, and people got hurt. Did she really want to put herself through all that once she found someone? And she'd actually have to find someone with whom to put herself though all that! It was just too complicated of a process to start dating again.

But Paul had moved on.

But she didn't need anyone new in her life to make her happy. She was already happy. She had everything she could need. People who loved her? Her family and friends loved her. People to take care of her? She was Stephanie McMahon, damn it. She didn't need anybody to take of her. Someone to take care of her sexual urges? She had a company of gorgeous men who worked out for a living at her feet! She didn't need to drag anyone else into her life as a boyfriend or as any other role similar to that of a boyfriend.

But Paul had moved on.

Thump!

"Ow," Stephanie cried out as she pulled her forehead away from the tiled shower wall. "Paul's moved on…" she whispered to herself.

Isn't that what she'd been waiting for? Being the one to break it off with Paul, she didn't feel comfortable dating again until she knew that Paul was over her and seeing new people. So why was she having such ambiguous feelings over the whole situation? She had to admit, if not to someone else then to herself, that she enjoyed being in serious relationships. It gave her a feeling of being wanted and loved in a different way than her family and friends could give her. It gave her a different sense of security, and she missed that.

With a note of finality, she repeated, "Paul's moved on."

Author's Note: I know, it's been forever since I've updated and I am so sorry. I don't know what happened. But I'm back… I think and I definitely want to update this story more and hopefully finish it! If that last part of this chapter (where Steph's in the shower) is kind of random, that's because it is. I just kind of started rambling so… yeah. I don't know quite where it came from, but I feel pretty good about it. Haha. Thanks for being so patient with this story and especially with me. So now that you've read this chapter go and review! And if anyone can tell me how to get more than one line break between sections of a chapter, I will that person forever! Thanks!