Seth stepped out of the arena and stopped when he noticed the reddish blonde haired woman sitting up against the building further down. He knew no one was going to pay her any attention sitting there on her own late at night. In many ways she was a loner, and people let her be. She had only bonded with a few people in WWE. He and Roman were among those people, and it was only because of Dean.
Dean and Petra had been some sort of friends. They knew each other way back from wrestling school, and they had moved up in the wrestling world together. To Seth and Roman it was always clear that Dean used Petra, and she knew it too. She allowed it. For some reason she let Dean use her over and over. There was never a promise of a future or any sort of relationship. When he had a need and nowhere else to go to get it taken care of, he turned to Petra. And she would give Dean what he wanted time after time.
Then one day Dean had decided to leave WWE. He moved on to AEW and left Petra behind. She still had a year left of her contract, and Seth could feel Dean being angry that she didn't even ask for her release. Not that they would have granted it but he wanted her to ask. He wanted her to show him that she would still follow him anywhere.
Once Dean was gone, news broke ten months later that she had resigned for another five years which surprised Seth and Roman. They both had assumed she would follow Dean once she was free of the contract. For some reason she chose to remain in WWE. Seth had never asked why. He figured she would tell him if she wanted him to know. Like Dean, she was closed off when it came to a lot of things.
"Oh, Petra," Seth sighed to himself.
He was happy that she was still there. Very happy indeed. Only Roman knew how happy. It was something he kept to himself. He wasn't happy to see her look so sad most of the time. She was his friend no matter what, and he wanted her to be happy. Clearly his friend needed him in that moment so he decided to walk down to her.
"It breaks my heart seeing you this sad," he said.
She raised her head and settled her dark blue eyes on him.
"Let me guess. I should smile more?" She asked.
"Only if you want to," he said. "What you should do is talk more. Talk to me or Roman. Or maybe some of the other women."
"Because I have so many friends in this place," she said.
"You have us," he said.
He gently kicked her foot and gave her a little smile.
"Any plans for tonight?" He asked.
"Same as any other night. Me, myself and I hanging out at home," she said.
"Come with us. We're going out for a drink," he said.
"I'm not much fun to be around," she said.
"I happen to think so. So does Roman," he kicked her foot again. "Come on, Petra. One drink. Hell, you can even drink water. I don't care as long as you come with us. It's been a while since we hung out together. Make an old man happy."
She cracked a little smile at him calling himself old.
"Alright then," she said.
"Yes!" He said triumphantly.
"Help me up," she said.
She reached a hand up towards him. He grabbed her hand and pulled her up on her feet. Before she could reach for her bag, he grabbed that too.
"Insurance so you don't run," he grinned.
"And here I thought you were being a gentleman," she said.
"Me? Gentleman? Please," he laughed. "There's not much gentle about me if you know what I mean."
He winked at her and she snorted in laughter. That was all he wanted. To hear her laugh. He took it as a win and started walking towards the car. Roman came out of the arena at the same time.
"Hi, Petra," Roman said.
"She's going out with us," Seth said.
"Cool," Roman smiled. "It's been a while."
"Sorry, I've been caught up with... I don't even have a fucking excuse to use. I'm that pathetic," Petra said.
Roman placed an arm around her shoulders and kissed the top of her head.
"You don't have to excuse anything. We understand," Roman said.
"Okay, let's go," Seth said.