Chapter-9

"Carrie?" I asked even though I recognized her.

"Leave me alone Randy." She pushed past me. I instinctively reached out and grabbed her arm. She turned around and faced me. Her tears started flowing freely now I noticed that her eyes were a golden brown, very similar to her hair color. "Oh Randy...He... He's ...forgotten" With that she broke down into sobs. I normally wouldn't have had the time to deal with this kind of display especially for someone that I had known not even 24 hours. But something inside of me, maybe my conscious or maybe it was my instinct as a man to protect a woman, knew that I couldn't leave her here like this. I scooped her up into my arms and carried her to my hotel room. I laid her on the bed and retrieved her a glass of water and a box of tissues. I didn't say a word I just silently held her until the sobs stopped. I wasn't sure what to say to her to fix her problem, she hadn't even told me what it was, but I felt like she was and allied force.

Once calm she drank the water and went to the bathroom to wash her face. I flipped on the TV waiting for her to emerge and peeled off my suit jacket. The curtains were shut, I opened them up to revel a rainy day in Ontario, gloomy to match my mood and hers. I sighed and sat down on the bed and begin flipping mindlessly through the cannels. When she emerged from the bathroom. She had pulled her long brown hair up into a ball on the top of her head, her brown eyes were swollen and red rimmed from her crying and she was pale. She managed a half smile to me.

"Do you always play the knight in shinning armor? Or is this your first time?" She said with her usual wit.

"Well, you know what they say, there is a first time for everything." I smirked. She collapsed on to the bed and turned to face me.

"Well I guess you want to know what that was all about." She said.

"I can't say it hasn't crossed my mind, but don't have to talk about it if you prefer not to," I said. And I actually meant it. She owed me no explanation.

"I owe you an explanation," she said. I felt like she was reading my thoughts.

"No, Carrie you don't. You barely know me." I said.

Then she nodded her head and we just sit in silence for the longest time staring at the TV screen, until the sound of her voice broke my undeserving concentration. "Randy, I know you don't really know me, and I do really love my husband. But will you just hold me? Just for a little while. I need a friend. I just need to feel safe again." She looked at me and in her eyes I could see so many emotions. They matched my own. Carrie and I understood each other. It was my turn to nod. I laid my head back against the headboard and extended my arm. She curled up beside me, like a lost child. Somewhere with in the gloomy room, and in the midst of the chaos and confusion that had exploded into my life, I found a comforting peace in the presents of an unlikely friend. I finally drifted off in to a restful sleep.

When I woke up my muscles were stiff from laying the same position. But I woke up with a smile, which is something that rarely happens. I had a dream, about Stacy. I don't remember it all but I remember I was happy. I was at peace with myself. I looked around and Carrie was nowhere to be found. I rose from the bed and streached some more. I saw a note scribbled on the nightstand that read: Randy, Thank you for just letting me be. I am going to get some coffee and clear my head. I will see you later.

I studied the note for a moment longer before deciding to change and see if I could find someone going out to dinner to tag along with. I stepped outside of the hotel room hoping that I would avoid Paul, Dave or Stacy. I decided to go down to the desk to see if I could get Benoit's room number to go over our match. When wouldn't you know with my stream of luck these past few days, who was walking down the hallway toward my room?

"Randy, I think that we need to talk." She said. My first instinct was to snap at her and tell her that I didn't want to talk. But that just didn't feel right anymore. I'm not sure if it ever did. I knew that I needed to talk to her but my stomach was begging me to put on hold.

"Not right now Stacy I am going to get dinner." I said. I sounded a bit detached but not as cold as normal. Which was a start for me.

"I will come with you." She said.

"I don't think that would be the best idea, you know given the 'current situation' and all." I said and started down the hallway.

"We need to talk about the, as you like to put it 'current situation.'" She said. For once around me she was not chewing off her bottom lip.

"Where is Dave?" I didn't even look at her as she caught up with me.

"He is having dinner with Paul and Eric to discuss a new story line idea that Paul had." She said trying to keep my hurried pace.

"Fine you can come." I said. I'm not sure if I was happy or upset about the fact that she was coming. The only thing that I was totally sure of was that I was starved.
We rode the elevator in silence and when it dinged in the lobby I exited leaving her a few steps behind as if to mask the fact that we were together. I turned to her and told her that I would see if the hotel provided a car that we could take. She stood silently behind me as the hotel clerk informed me that the only thing left was a limo but that the driver would take us anywhere we needed to go. I thanked the clerk as she notified the driver. I turned back to Stacy. Then I did something that actually surprised both of us I extended my arm as to escort her to the car. I silently cursed myself but the movement felt so natural that it happened before I was able to stop my self. She looked up at me with her big hazel eyes as if to see if I was really offering my arm to her. Then she rested her hand on the inside of my arm. Now my stomach was not only growling like someone who had not eaten in a week but now it was fluttering with butterflies also. I looked over at her, as we exited the hotel behind the driver, she looked at me and we both smiled then I looked away again. I felt like an embarrassed teenager taking a girl out for the first time.

"I do believe you are blushing Mr. Orton," She said and giggled.

"I don't blush," I said. I helped her into the limo; I tipped the driver and told him to take us some place that was with good food and a nice atmosphere. I part of my mind cursed my heart reminding me that this was not a date. I slid into the car next to her and could feel the cool leather against my skin. I was so nervous, I tapping my hand against my knee. I glanced at her, she seemed so calm, no playing with the hem of her skirt like the last time we were sitting side by side in a car, she wasn't even chewing on her bottom lip. But I was an emotional wreck and I wasn't sure how to handle it. I haven't been in this situation too many times. Stacy then surprised me. She reached over and took my hand the one that I was steadily beating to death on my knee.

"Don't be nervous Randy," she said. I jerked my hand away even though I desperately wanted to keep it there.

"I am not nervous," I lied. She took my hand again when I started moving it. This time my will to move was much too weak so I just held her hand. I wanted to talk to her about the Dave thing but I couldn't right now. I just wanted to pretend that he didn't exist and I felt guilty as hell for that. I had no idea what was happening to me. I felt elated and scared to death at the same time. I was happy that she was there, even though it complicated my life, but I was scared she would go away. I never admit to being scared.

I tried to concentrate on the streetlights that were lit outside the tinted window as we passed them by. I was failing, I looked over at her and had the uncontrollable urge to wrap her in my arms and tell her that I was sorry for every thing that I had put her through. But I didn't and somehow though outside of this limo everything was wrong, right here, right now I felt like everything was ...right.

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