Chapter 7

Dave sat in his dressing room watching the show unfold on the monitor in front of him while Rae sat writing something in her notebook. Dave stood from the bench he had been sitting on, he walked over to where she was sitting and grabbed his bag off the floor next to her, pulling out his wrestling gear he laid it on the bench then sat on the edge of the bench and watched for a few minutes.

"You better get changed you're up in thirty minutes." Rae closed her notebook placed the cap back on her pen and stood from her chair. "I'm going to go get you a couple bottles of water while you change." Leaving her notebook in the chair Rae walked out the door and into the busy hallway.

Rae walked quietly down the many hallways until she reached the room that she had been looking for. Pushing open the heavy gray steel door Rae stepped into the room and was greeted with silence, something not unusual once the shows start up. Rae walked over to the table and grabbed two bottles of water out of the mini refrigerator and a few grapes for herself then sat down at one of the tables knowing the Dave most likely would not be finished changing.

God I don't remember there being this much pressure and guilt from my last affair, Rae thought as she popped one of the grapes in her mouth and opened one of the bottles of water. Then again I didn't know it was an affair until it was over. I'm not sure how much longer I can take this guilt, I can't keep sleeping with Dave his married I have to end this whole thing and end it now before things get to serious, like that part isn't already starting to happen. This is so not going to be easy, my feelings for Dave have already started to become something stronger, I may have to just quit my job and go back to stripping. Just then Rae was brought out of her thoughts by someone hitting the table in front of her.

Rae shook her head and closed her eyes shaking the thoughts that had kept her from hearing anyone enter the room. Opening her eyes she was met with the gaze from Dave's best friend Paul Levesque fresh from his match. Paul sat the towel that he had been using to wipe the sweat from his face on his knee and opened his bottle of water taking a drink.

"I didn't mean to scare you." He smiled taking one of her grapes. "I've been talking to you for the past couple minutes and you haven't answered anything."

"I'm sorry Paul I've got a lot on my mind right now."

"I can tell for the past couple days you've been kinda out of it at times. Is everything okay?"

Rae smiled slightly. "If you only knew Paul." He really was a caring man one that loved his wife very much and would never think about cheating on her with another woman.

"You wanna talk about it?"

"I'm not sure you would understand." Rae answered getting a curious look from Paul.

"This wouldn't have anything to do with a certain wrestler that you work for would it?" Rae just looked at him and took a drink from her water. "Rae whatever it is you can talk to me, I swear that I won't speak a word to anyone."

"You liar, you know as well I as I do that you tell Steph everything." Paul laughed at the comment, Rae was right every little detail that someone told him he had to tell Steph. He couldn't keep anything from his wife, not that it was a bad thing but with this information if the wrong person got a hold of it a lot of people could get hurt.

"Yeah, but Steph has never said anything to anyone." Paul reached a hand out to Rae's. "Look whatever it is that is bothering you, and I know it's something big and I know that if you don't talk to someone soon you going to go nuts. So when you decide that you want to talk about whatever it is I'm here and so is Steph." Rae nodded her head and looked at the clock behind Paul, Dave was up in ten minutes she needed to get back to the dressing room and make sure that he didn't need anything before he went out.

"I have to get back." Rae stood picking up the bottles of water with her and turned toward the door. "Can you meet me after the show in the lobby at the hotel? What I have to talk about is going to take a while." Paul nodded as Rae walked at the door and headed back to Dave's dressing room.

Rae walked into the hotel where she was meeting Paul, looking at her watch she noted that she had an hour before her and Dave were suppose to leave to head back home. Rae walked over to the little restaurant that sat off to the side of the lobby and saw Paul sitting off in the back; slowly she began to walk towards him.

"So where's Dave at?" Paul asked looking toward the lobby.

"He wanted to pick up a few things before we started back home he should be back here to get me in about an hour." Rae answered as the waitress walked up to the table and poured two glasses of water for them.

"So what did you want to talk about Rae?"

"Umm, I'm not really sure if I want to talk about it right now." Rae paused and looked down at the glass of water that sat in front of her. "I did before but now that I've had time to think it over, I almost afraid to talk about it with anyone."

"Why would you be afraid to talk about something? Is there something threaten you?" Paul asked concerned.

"No Paul no one wants to break my legs or kill me, yet that is." Rae laughed. "I don't want you to think of me as a bad person after I tell you what I wanted to talk about. You're like one of the only people here that I can talk to besides Dave and Step and I know that when you find out what's going on you're going to think I'm…well I don't even want to think about you'll think of me." Rae tried to explain as she fiddled with her napkin.

"Rae, I could never think badly of you no matter what it is that you have done. Besides it's not like it could be that bad, I mean it's not like you're sleeping with Dave or something like that." Paul laughed, and then realized the look on Rae's face. "Rae you're not sleeping with Dave are you?" Rae nodded her head slightly and blinked as tears began to build in her eyes. "Rae? Tell you're not sleeping with him?"

"It was only supposed to be a one time thing." Rae wiped the tears that began to fall. "But I think it's turning into something else at least for me. What am I going to do Paul? I've tried to stop it but I can't."

"Rae he's a married man with two kids. You have to stop this before Mel finds out or a lot of bad things could happen not just for Dave but for you too. Dave could loose his kids and his wife. And if some of the other guys find out that you're sleeping around their going to try and take advantage of you and I do not want to see that happen to you. You're too nice of a person for that to happen to. Rae I understand that you think you have these feelings for Dave but you have to let them go." Paul paused and reached across the table and took Rae's hand in his.

"Paul I've tried to stop it but every time that I do Dave starts it up again and tells me not to worry about that no one is going to find out and that he wants to be with me but he can't leave Mel because she'll take the kids. I don't know what to do?"

"I'm sorry Rae but the only thing that I know to tell you is to end this and end it now. It's obvious that you're already hurting by all of this; it's not going to get any better the longer you keep having an affair with a married man. The longer you're in it the more your feelings grow and before you know it you're left out in the cold with nothing but a broken heart." Paul paused as Rae wiped away the tears that were falling. "I know you care for Dave and you think that if by keeping this affair up you're keeping Dave close to you but you're not. If Mel finds out you and Dave are done for, she'll take his kids and he'll never see them again, or if she does stay she'll order Dave to fire you and hire someone else."

"Paul I don't think that I can just end it like that. My feelings for Dave are more then just lustful feelings, they run deeper then anyone could ever imagine and I'm pretty sure that he feels the same way."

"I know sweetie, trust me I know. Steph and I have been wondering when this was going to happen just by certain things that Dave would say about you as you walk out of a room. Trust me the man is head over heels for you and if it weren't for Mel and the girls you two would have been together a long time ago. And just for the record I've always said that the two of you look better together then him and Mel, I can't stand that woman and I really don't think that she cares all that much for me. So from my stand point I would love to see you and Dave get together but I also know that Dave made a promise to love honor and cherish until death, and I know that he made that promise because he loves Mel very much I know because I made the same promise to Steph."

"Yeah I know and I hate that he broke his marriage vowels."

"I think I've lectured you enough on this for right now." Paul said as he watched Steph walk into the restaurant. "The last thing I'm going to say is this. Think about everything before you do anything else with him." Rae nodded and turned her attention to Steph as she approached the table and sat beside her husband giving him a soft kiss on the lips.

"So did you two talk about whatever it is that had been bringing you down?" Steph asked looking at Rae with a smile.

"Yes we did and I'm sure that Paul will tell you all about it later tonight, and then you can call me up and yell at me."

"Well the only thing that I want to know is weather it concerns a certain boss of yours who just walked in the hotel." Rae looked up in the direction that Stephanie was looking just in time to see Dave walk into the hotel pulling his sunglasses off his face and stuff them inside his jacket pocket. Just the sight of him did things to her that no one could ever explain. "You better be careful Rae you're messing with fire and you know what happens when you do that." Rae looked back at her friends then back to the man that stole her heart as he walked towards them.

"I know and I think it's already happened, but I just can't stop it and I don't honestly want to stop it." Steph looked over at her husband who just squeezed her hand and placed a kiss on her cheek. She was concerned about her friend sitting in front of them, she knew that Rae was going to get hurt and hurt bad when Dave's wife found out about what was going on because she knew that Dave would never leave his family.

"You back already? I didn't think you would be back for at least another twenty minutes or more." Rae moved over in the booth to allow Dave to sit beside her as he approached the table.

"Yeah well it didn't take me near as long as I thought it would; besides we need to be heading back out on the road if we want to be home by this time tomorrow." Dave answered as he sat beside her.

"Why don't you guys stay and join us for late dinner?" Paul suggested to the pair in front of him.

"I'm starving." Rae said as she turned to Dave waiting for his answer.

"Sure, why not it'll save me the hassle of listening to you whine about starving to death." Dave handed her a menu and leaned over slightly to look it over with her placing his arm around her shoulders while he did so.

Paul and Steph watched the gesture Dave made, it's not like it wasn't something that he hadn't done before to Rae it was just different now since they knew what was going on with the two of them. Paul picked up his menu and handed it to Steph who took the menu with a slight smile and began to read over it.

Through out dinner Paul watched at the way Dave and Rae interacted with each other, the way that he would move a piece of her hair that had fallen out of her hair tie, the way he joked with her, the way Rae laughed and smiled at him, the way she hung on to his every word and watched as he spoke, it was like she thought he was the only person alive at that moment. Paul realized just how bad Rae had it for Dave and it made him even more upset and protective of her, he thought of Rae like his little sister and he did not want to see his little sister hurt by his best friend, he knew right then and there that he had to do something about what was going on between them before Rae did get hurt but could he do.