Stephanie stood frozen as she heard Chris say that, but she didn't stay frozen for too long. No, because the hot burning of anger was bubbling up inside her. She was mad; she was beyond mad. There was lava flowing through her veins at this very second, and it was burning her skin, making her have a nice, pinkish glow. Did she have the right to be so angry with Chris? No, but that didn't stop her from being angry.

For Chris's part, he wasn't really interested in Lita, but he wanted to make Stephanie jealous, make her realize just what she had missed out on. Yes, it was pretty much doing the exact thing she had done to him, to Lita, but right now, Chris had no outstanding morals. He thought nothing of it because Stephanie had opened up a world of hurt inside his chest, and he would do anything just to feel normal again.

He still loved her, and that was the most pathetic thing that he had ever done in his life. She had used him, and treated him as a pawn in some sick, twisted game, but heaven help him, he was in love with her. Those months they had been together, regardless of the fact she was blatantly using him, they had been some of the most exhilarating of his life. Stephanie was something else altogether, and if he clouded his brain enough…he would…he could actually think that she was in love with him.

Stephanie turned on her heel so quickly that her hair flung back in its ponytail. She knew that she didn't have a right to be so angry and jealous over Chris, but those thoughts were overridden by that same anger and jealousy. The fact that she was a horrible person was no longer at the forefront of her brain. All she wanted now was to get back at Chris. For what, she wasn't too sure, but something deep in her chest hurt, and she wanted to get rid of that hurt as soon as possible.

"So you'll pick me up after the show?" Lita asked Chris. He had been staring at Stephanie walking away, silently pleased that she had looked so upset. It served her right to get a dose of her own medicine. "Chris!"

"Huh?" Chris said, jolted out of his small victory. "What did you say?"

"I was saying, did you want to pick me up after the show?" she asked again.

"Um…yeah, sure, that's fine," he said casually, and she looked at him strangely. Just a moment ago he had been so receptive to the concept of a date between them, and now he seemed so distant.

"Are you sure? If you don't want to go…"

"No, its fine," he said, plastering a smile on his face. He was going to go through with this, and what could it hurt? He'd go out with her a couple of times, and maybe he would actually enjoy himself. And maybe it would make Stephanie so angry that she would scream, and then HE could be the one who rejected her.

"Ok, then after the show?"

"Yeah, after the show," he said, reiterating her point. She patted him on the arm and walked away, a small smile on her face. Chris winced a little bit at what he was doing, but he was beyond the point where feelings could be hurt. He was hurt, and he needed to lash out.

Stephanie stalked back to her office, slamming the door shut behind her. She didn't even realize that Shane was still in there and he was sitting at her desk. She paced around for a few minutes before intending to go back to her work, only to gasp and grab her chest when she saw that Shane was sitting there.

"You've been here the entire time?" she asked stupidly.

"I never left," he said. "What's got you so worked up?"

"Chris!" she yelled. "He asked out Lita right in front of me!"

"Um…so? It's not like he's your boyfriend anymore," Shane pointed out. "It wasn't like he was your boyfriend before either."

"He just asked her to get back at me," Stephanie said with disgust. "Can you believe that! He's trying to get back at me!"

"Maybe it's because you used him for months, and pretended to have a relationship with him. Maybe that hurt him in some capacity."

"That's beside the point."

"Stephanie, give the man a break! Maybe he's just trying to move on with his life after you knocked him down. I can't believe you sometimes. The guy is obviously hurt after what he did. You shouldn't get in his way if he wants to be with someone else, the entire time you were together, YOU wanted to be with someone else."

"What's your problem?" she snapped.

"I'm sick and tired of hearing this," Shane said angrily, standing up. "Chris is my friend, if you haven't forgotten, and God, you broke his heart. I'm sorry sis, but I'm not going to have too much more sympathy to dole out here. Either you love the guy or you don't, but you obviously don't because you wanted Dave. Give Chris a chance to find someone too."

"Fine, if you're sick and tired of me, why don't you just get out!" she yelled, pointing towards the door. "You know how to use it, so use it!"

"I don't know why I even try with you Stephanie. You just don't get it."

"No, I guess I don't. I don't care what Chris does…there, does that make you happy? He can do whatever and whoever he wants. I don't care, he's not mine, is that good enough for you Shane?"

"No Stephanie, and I don't think its good enough for you either," Shane said, opening the door and then leaving Stephanie to herself again.

The anger was still boiling inside her, and she took a vase full of flowers and heaved it towards the wall, shattering it into a many pieces, the water dripping down the wall as the colorful flowers decorated the drab gray carpet. She stomped angrily at nothing and sunk down into her chair. She was so upset right now that she could barely sit still, and she kept getting up and then sitting down again.

"Bastard," she muttered under her breath, hitting her fist against the desk in front of her. "Well, if he wants to be like that, fine! Fine, I don't care, I don't care at all!"

Stephanie resolved herself and stood up once again. She wasn't going to sit around and take this. She wasn't going to let Chris do this to her! She was Stephanie McMahon, and she wasn't going to stand for some…subordinate getting the better of her. She went to her bag and grabbed some clothes she kept in there for emergencies, or if she needed to go out and cut a promo or something. She put on the sexiest thing she had and went to the bathroom.

Her hair was a mess, but if she just combed it out and strategically coiffed it, then she could make it look presentable. She put on some makeup and tried not to look like she was lacking sleep. She smiled at her appearance; she finally looked normal again, and not like her best friend had died. If Chris wanted to play that game, she would play it right back. She was going to get what she wanted. She popped a mint into her mouth and left her locker room, walking proudly down the hallway.

She walked to where she knew Dave would be, and sure enough, he was there, and she went right up to him and tapped him on the shoulder. He turned a surprised eye towards her before smiling cordially. She smiled back and was feeling very good for herself. Dave was what she had wanted all along, so this was really just getting what she wanted, and not getting back at Chris.

"Steph, hey," Dave said, "You look great."

"Thanks," she answered coyly.

"I heard you'd been having a tough time lately, I'm sorry to hear that," he told her sympathetically. She was happy that he was concerned for her; it meant that he had been thinking about her, and she wanted to be on his mind as much as possible.

"Oh, yeah, that," she said, blowing it off. "It's not a big deal, I was just not myself, I think I had a bug or something."

"Oh," Dave said, though he didn't believe that. "So what's up?"

"Well, I was wondering if you would want to go out with me sometime."

"Oh wow, I wasn't expecting that."

"It can be casual," she shrugged. "I just thought it would be fun, you know, just the two of us. I hope I'm not being too forward."

"No, of course not, this is just unexpected."

"The good kind of unexpected I hope," she replied, putting her hand on his muscular arm. "Because if it's the other kind, I'll be so embarrassed."

"Nah, it's the good kind," Dave smiled. "But are you sure you want to go out. I mean, what with everything that happen…with Chris."

"Oh, Chris and I are very over, very, very over," Stephanie said, an edge to her voice. "Chris and I were a mistake from the beginning."

"Seriously?" Dave asked in surprise. "Because you two seemed so happy. Everyone thought that you were really happy."

"Well, um," she stumbled on her words, because she didn't want to admit that she was happy. She wanted to remember Chris with derision, but she…couldn't. She and Chris had had a lot of fun together, and there had been way more good times than she would like to admit. She hated thinking about it though because Chris hated her, and she hated him…or at least she was trying. She was trying so hard to hate him with everything in her. "Yeah, for…we were, but things changed."

"Oh, did something happen?" he asked quietly.

"Yeah, but it was…mutual, it wasn't anything that could've been helped," she answered, looking down. She was a screw-up, that's why. "But onto better topics, dinner?"

"Yeah, I like a girl with initiative," Dave answered with a smile. "I'll pick you up at your office after the show, how does that sound?"

"I believe that I asked you out, so doesn't that mean that I get to pick you up," Stephanie teased.

"I figured I could at least be the guy at one point," he joked.

"Oh, well, in that case, yes, after the show, I'll be there, ready and waiting," she said with a smile, patting his arm, just like Lita had done to Chris. "Til then."

"Bye Steph. Do you care where we go?"

"Nope, surprise me," she called out.

Stephanie walked away, satisfied with herself. Finally, FINALLY she was getting Dave, the guy that she had wanted all along. Chris was pushed out of her mind as she thought about how much fun she was sure to have when she went out with Dave later. She was so sure that she was going to have more fun than she had ever had with Chris.

Chris had seen the entire exchange and he was pissed off. Why, he couldn't tell you because he didn't know. He guessed it was seeing the fruition of Stephanie's plan with him. If she had just done that beforehand he never would be hurt. Sure, he would have the hurt of never getting the chance to go out with her, but he wouldn't have to deal with the pain of having her and then losing her…or never having her at all, if he thought about it.

Stephanie walked past him, glancing to the side briefly before stopping in her tracks, gasping at seeing Chris. He stared at her, and she stared back, defiantly. She wasn't going to show weakness right now. Chris noticed how different she had looked from earlier. She had obviously cleaned herself up.

"So you're finally getting what you wanted," Chris said condescendingly.

"Yeah," Stephanie said with a sneer. "It was easy too, I guess I didn't need you."

That stabbed Chris in the throat and he had to swallow hard the hurt that rose up in him. Remembering the good things about Stephanie had been so easy when he wasn't talking to her, but the way that she said that, it hurt all the more. He had told her that he loved her, and she had told him that she used him. Now she had the audacity to treat him like scum.

Stephanie regretted the way that she had said that, and after a moment, looked down, "I'm sorry, that was rude of me, and I shouldn't have said that."

"It's the truth though isn't it?" he scoffed.

"I shouldn't have said that," she repeated, not knowing what else to say. "I should go."

"And get ready for your date?" Chris asked, and she noted the hurt in his voice.

"No, I have a show to run," Stephanie said.

"Oh, well, yeah, I guess you do have that."

"Chris, I can tell you don't want to talk to me, so why don't I just go?" Stephanie said.

"Don't be sympathetic Stephanie," Chris lashed out, "What do you have to be sympathetic about? You hurt me, and you can't take that back, so don't act like you're sorry."

"I am sorry, I wrote you that I was sorry!" she argued.

"Why did you hurt me Steph? Why did you have to treat me like that!" he asked, wanting to hear it directly from her mouth, to hear her say the words.

"Because I wanted something and I would've done anything to get it!" she said loudly.

"Do you have any remorse?"

"Of course I do. I didn't want to hurt you."

"But you did, and you know, it's so damn sad because I still love you, you know."

"You shouldn't," she said, closing her eyes.

"Then tell me how to stop," he said, and his voice was so low and so sad that she almost reached for him, just to take him in her arms and try to assuage his sadness, but she couldn't because she was the one who had done this to him.

She opened her eyes and saw him looking down at his shoes, and she felt even worse. "Because I'm the last person who deserves your love."

"That's true, but that still doesn't make it better, it doesn't make me better."

She couldn't believe she was about to say this, but she was, "Then go out with Lita, have fun, and eventually, you'll find out that I'm scum, and a bitch, and that the last thing that I would ever deserve is love from you. I want you to hate me Chris, because that's the only way that you'll move on. So please…hate me."

"I can try, but I make no promises."

"I'm not good enough for you. You may have said once upon a time that you weren't good enough for me, but that's so wrong."

"You know…never mind," he said, not finishing his thought. "I'll try and have fun."

Little did she know that he was trying to make her jealous, and essentially, she was doing the same to him. She stared at him for a moment, keeping his gaze. He didn't look away though, he stood firm and looked right back at her. She appeared to be opening her mouth to say something, but then thought the better of it, closing her mouth once again, and going so far as to purse her lips.

Chris called her on it, "You got something to say?"

"No," she said, but her voice had faltered ever so slightly, and she had wanted to say something. She didn't know what that something was, and suddenly she felt tired again, and her eyes were probably hollow and her face sallow.

"Then there's nothing more that we need to say to each other right? I mean, we said what we had to, and we're both obviously moving on to other people, and so we don't really have much to say do we?" Stephanie shook her head slowly because it suddenly felt heavy sitting there atop her head.

"No, we don't have anything else to say."