Disclaimer: I own no one except Nicole
A/N Sorry for the long wait in updating this story. I've been incredibly busy with Midterms and Final projects due the beginning of June. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the chapter.
Chapter 20: Surprises, Surprises
Steve's POV
"Just...promise that you'll try and get out of the house today...even if it's for only a few minutes?"
He listened to his daughter sigh on the other end in contempt. "I promise," she finally said in a small voice.
On Steve's end, he rubbed a hand over his trademark goatee at his daughter's resigned voice. "Come on, surely you can do better than that, can't you?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well, normally you'd have either yelled or cussed me out by now, with only the attitude that you can use when it comes to dealing with me. But so far, you haven't done either one of the two today."
"Dad," she softly whined, "I'm just not in the mood to do anymore yelling at people right now. But I promise as soon as I'm up to it, you'll be the first one I yell at; deal?"
Steve gruffly laughed at his daughter's cockeyed deal. "Okay deal. Now I'm holding you to that, because as much as I'm happy that we're on civil terms with each other, I do miss our little petty arguments."
"They weren't petty arguments, Dad."
"You know what I mean. Now, hang up this phone and be sure to expect a call from your mother either today or tomorrow."
"Mom wants to talk to me," she asked in a dazed confusion. "I haven't talked to her since before I joined the WWE as a diva."
"Yeah, well I'm not to sure about that either. But none the less, she told me to tell you to make sure you pick up that phone when she calls and not to just let the answering machine pick it up."
Steve could practically imagine Nicole on the other hand chewing on her bottom lip in thought. Finally she broke the silence. "Fine, I'll talk to you in three days, Dad."
"See ya," he muttered, hanging up the phone. Placing the phone back into his pocket he walked into the local diner to have a "brunch" of pancakes, sausages, and chicken-fried steak.
Nicole's POV
She opened up her eyes to hear someone pounding on the door to her apartment.
"Nobody's home," she yelled at the door.
The pounding stopped and was replaced by a soft, low voice. "Nicole, open the door. It's stifling in this hallway."
"Go away Matt," she again yelled, walking past the door and into her kitchen.
Matt Hardy was the last person she wanted to see. She knew he was probably here to gloat about how he and everyone else were right about Randy, and she wasn't in the mood to deal with anything he had to contribute at the moment.
Rinsing out her glass she placed it back in its spot and walked out into the living room, and saw that he had started up the pounding again.
'No problem, I'll just turn up the TV then.' She thought to herself.
Picking up the remote she put it on MTV2 and settled in for watching a few videos. A few minutes later Linkin Park's 'Lying From You' was just ending when her house phone began to ring. Glaring at it, she listened as the person began to leave a message on her answering machine.
"Nikki, it's me Matt. I was just calling to..."
"Don't you get the message yet Matt? Now, I don't know how you managed to have your home number show up, but I'm still not letting you into my apartment."
Then it went silent while Matt contemplated on Nikki's new revelation.
"Uh, what makes you think I'm outside your door, and why is that music up so loud?"
"The music is being used to drown out the pounding at my door coming from a man with a soft southern accent."
"I hate to break it to you, but that's not me. I'm sitting here on my couch watching a movie while waiting to hear from Jeff."
"Isn't he in Florida at Universal Studios for the Impact tapings?"
"No, they taped everything earlier in the week. Anyway, I was just calling to see if he had touched base with you yet, since he's in New York City and all."
"Wait, and you say that you're in Cameron, right?"
She groaned when Matt said 'yes', prompting him to ask what was wrong.
"Matt, I think I know who's pounding on my door now. I'll call you back later, alright?"
"Okay, just have Jeff give me a call if you hear from him."
They said their goodbyes and hung up the phone. Placing her hair into a messy ponytail, she stood up, walked back into the hall and opened the door.
"'Bout time you opened up the door. Do you know how long I banged on this door for?"
Nicole shook her head at him. "No, how long?"
"75 minutes, that's how long. Do you know how much my hands hurt now?"
Shaking her head, she pulled him in and shut the door. "No, but I bet you're going to tell me, aren't you?"
"Damn straight. They hurt as if I was pounding on a concrete wall, that was on fire."
Taking a seat she threw him a bag of ice to put on his hand.
"Thanks, good to see you still have manners." Jeff said, referring to the door incident.
"Shut up Jeff. I thought you were Matt at the door or someone else I didn't want to talk to."
"Didn't you look through your peephole and see a blue-haired man standing there?"
"No, because I never bothered to look and see," she admitted.
Shaking his head, he laughed and pulled her into a hug. "Next time, do my hands a favor and check?"
"Whatever, Jeff, why are you here in New York?"
"Well, I have a thing and...I wanted to check up on you. Matt told me what happened between you and Randy. Are you okay?"
"Well, yeah, I'm doing just great. In fact, I've never been better."
"Really, because by the looks of your apartment, you aren't doing to hot."
"I just haven't had time to clean, because I've been so...busy, lately."
"Busy doing what?"
"Uh, I've been busy watching my soaps. You know how addicted I am to them and with being on the road and with Randy, I haven't had time to watch them as often as I'd like."
Jeff said nothing in response, which really unnerved Nicole.
"That's your big excuse...soaps?"
"It's a viable, but true excuse. I'm been catching up on weeks' worth of soaps that I haven't had time to watch."
"Nicole, when are you going to learn that no matter how long I'm gone, I'll still be able to tell when you're lying or not?"
"What?"
"You are lying through your teeth right now to me, and you know this. See, you think because you haven't seen me in about three years you'd be able to pull off lying to my face, which you haven't," he paused to take in a fresh breath of air, "So, if you're ready, how about the telling me the truth this time."
Nicole stubbornly stood up and began to pace the room. "There's nothing to tell. We hooked up, dropped my friends in favor of Randy and Evolution, then after all that we had been through in the past month he dumped me. That's it; nothing more and nothing less."
Jeff looked down, and shook his head. "Is the guestroom still clean?"
"Yes, why?"
"Well, I figured it's time we spent a few days together for a little heart-to-heart...when you're ready to of course."
"Is this my punishment for taking so long to answer my door, because if it is I'm never answering it again," she groaned in response.
"Relax, my dear, it's not exactly your punishment. Trust me, by the end of these three or so days together, you'll see things a bit clearer than before."
"But Jeff, I don't want one of your heart-to-heart therapy sessions," she protested.
"Just because you don't want it, doesn't mean you don't need it, Nikki," Jeff said, pausing to pick up his two suitcases. "Do you trust me?"
"What?"
"I said do you trust me?"
"Of course, I trust you."
"Good. So you know I'd never steer you wrong too, right?"
"Jeff what does this have to do with anything?"
"Actually it has to do with the validity of our almost four year long friendship. Now, answer the question, please."
"Yes, I trust you enough to know that you'd never intentionally steer me in the wrong direction, Jeff. Is that what you wanted to hear?"
Jeff nodded and began to make his way towards the guestroom. "Just so you know, our first session is tonight after dinner," he called over his shoulder.
"Oh goodie, goodie, gum drops then," she muttered to herself. "It figures that I'd land myself a closet 'wannabe' psychiatrist as a friend."
"I heard that," he yelled back.
"Of course you did, because you hear everything."
Shaking her head, she settled in for a nice little 'All My Children' marathon, courtesy of SoapNet.
Elsewhere, a lonely Randy Orton was just waking up to a quiet hotel room. Upon close inspection, he saw that it wasn't necessarily his hotel room, but a hotel room no less. Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, he sat up and put on his discarded clothes left by the door last night.
He was just putting on his jacket when, Lauren walked out of the bathroom with a white terry-cloth bath towel wrapped around her body.
"Hey sexy, going somewhere?"
"Yes, back to my hotel room," he replied, standing up.
"Now, you weren't going to just leave without saying goodbye to me, were you?"
"Of course not, besides I just wanted to thank you for last night. You were absolutely wonderful."
"You weren't so bad yourself," she spoke, placing her card on the inside pocket of his jacket. "Next time you're in town; don't hesitate to look me up."
Kissing her on the cheek, he left her hotel room and slowly walked back to his thinking about all that had transpired last night. He was still deep in thought when he walked into the huge suite that he had started to share with Evolution, who was currently sitting in the living room area of the suite with...
"Stephanie, is that you?" He asked, pausing on the steps that led to his bedroom.
"In the flesh," she responded, standing up to hug him. While hugging Steph he looked over her shoulder to find Dave staring at him. "So tell me, where are you just coming from?"
Randy grinned only the grin that he could do. "No where special Steph; just out and about around town is all."
Dave snorted, causing Randy to look his way. "Really, so you weren't with a girl all night?"
"What if I was? Do you have a problem with that Dave?"
Dave stood up. "Yeah I have a problem with the fact that you're acting like your relationship with Nicole meant nothing."
"Wait you broke up with Nicole Austin? When did this happen?"
"I believe about a week ago. It just wasn't working out between us, and so I felt it best if we ended it," He explained, not looking Stephanie fully in the eyes, which everyone took notice of.
"Well that was unexpected. I thought for sure you two had hit it off."
That's because we did hit it off. God I miss her so damn much.
"Yeah well, what can I say? These things happen," he explained, looking at the clock on the wall. "Well, as much fun as this has been, I'm going to have to take my leave, so I can go shower. Steph, it was nice to see you around for once and I'll see you guys later."
They all waited until he walked out of the room to talk about him.
Dave's POV...
"See what I mean, Steph?"
Stephanie turned and looked at Dave. "Yeah, I do. When I asked him about the break-up, did you notice he didn't look me in the eye once while he was speaking?"
"Please, he's been doing that since the night of the break-up. It's just that his taking this so lightly, like it was a piece of paper that he threw away, is pissing me off. Randy and Nicole deserve to be happy...together...and I just don't understand why he keeps willingly putting up a barrier between her and his heart."
"Well maybe, he's realizing that she's the real deal and just got scared? I mean he is only 24 years old, Dave," Paul argued.
Dave licked his lips and looked back up at Paul. "I don't give a flying fuck about how young he is. If that's really his problem then he should stand up, stop being an asinine idiot and face his fears like a man would and should do."
"Be that as it may Dave, as the neutral party we have to make sure that we stay in good standings with both Randy and Nicole; especially Nicole, as I'm pretty sure she isn't doing all that hot at the moment," Stephanie spoke, using her business voice.
Dave looked between Steph, Paul and Ric, who all wore matching frowns on their faces. "Fine, whatever, we have to stay in good standing. I'll see you guys later" With one last look Dave walked out of the hotel suite.
So Steph believed it best that we stay in "good standings" with Randy and Nicole. Well, he had no problem with the Nicole part; it was the Randy part that bugged him. If Randy kept up with the obnoxious schoolboy routine for much longer, there was for no way, he was staying around to be witness of it. No way, no how, it was not happening as far as Dave was concerned.
But if it did, he knew the perfect way to handle it: punch him square in the jaw. Either way, until Nicole came back, it was going to make for and interesting couple of days.