Indi had been standing outside of the building for what seemed like hours although, in reality, she knew it had only been minutes. She switched her gym bag from one hand to hold it with both in front of her. Her mind was a million miles away from the Capitol Wrestling Center but yet her body was required to be present here for the NXT show starting in a few hours.
Indi felt her phone vibrate in her pocket and reached in to retrieve it. She allowed the device to pull her gaze from the building in front of her as she noticed she had a new text message from Candice. She opened it and saw it was one asking where she was.
Indi let out a small sigh as she quickly texted back simply the word "outside". She slid her phone back into her pocket and took the few steps toward the doors of the building and opened them. She barely acknowledged the security team who nodded at her as she passed. She made a left turn and began down the hallway to the locker room area.
The building was quite small so she could hear various conversations coming from throughout all parts of the building. Some were just chit-chatting while she heard some working out in the gym located in the back of the building. She rounded the corner to come out into the open common area that housed the gym and was located directly behind where the ring was set up.
Indi's eyes did an immediate scan of the room to see if she could see him. Her heart sank a little when she saw no sign of him. She wasn't totally surprised. He usually was not just out milling around with everyone else. Sometimes though he passed through, it was impossible to get anywhere in the building without doing so. She continued on slipping quietly along the back wall to avoid conversation or confrontation with anyone as she headed directly for the small locker room where she knew Candice was waiting for her.
"There you are!" Candice's tone was loud and caused Indi to cringe slightly as she entered the doorway to the locker room. In the middle of the room was Candice with her phone in one hand and a wrestling boot in the other.
"Hey... I'm sorry I'm late," Indi responded in a quieter tone more appropriate for the small room.
"What happened?" Candice asked, her expression turning from annoyance to concern.
"Nothing..." Indi quickly dismissed the question as she walked across the room and placed her bag on a bench. She unzipped it and started to fumble through it.
"Nothing?" Candice was by her side now.
"Yeah, it was nothing, traffic... I got caught in traffic," Indi fibbed.
"Well you know Johnny always tells you to get an early start to avoid that," Candice reminded her.
"I know," Indi replied turning to look at her and offering an attempt at a smile. It seemed to placate Candice who turned and went about putting on her other boot. Indi found the bag of makeup she was looking for and pulled it out. She didn't feel especially like going and sitting for a lengthy makeup session and was so late she might not have time to anyway so she instead got her bag and stepped inside a small bathroom on the side of the locker room.
Indi took a good look at herself in the mirror and frowned. She looked rough. She had not been sleeping that well since the incident. Her frown grew as she remembered seeing Poppy wrapped up in Dexter's arms and she felt fresh hurt and annoyance rising up in her. She had not seen him since. There had been text messages from him but she had not brought herself to open any of them. He had even attempted to her get her attention on Twitter and Instagram but there too she had not really engaged him.
Indi went about getting her makeup ready as her mind continued to entertain her with thoughts of the strange and captivating man that she had been trying hard to not think about day in and day out. She wanted to stay mad at him, but there was a part of her that just knew that what she was was innocent. Friends had pointed this out to her, strangers on social media were begging for her to try and understand. They however didn't understand how she felt in that moment.
A knock on the door in the locker room next to her broke her out of her thoughts. She heard Candice shuffle over to answer it and heard some conversation between her and who she thought was Johnny but she couldn't quite tell because it seemed they were nearly whispering. Indi hurriedly went about touching up her makeup while trying to listen as best she could.
Things eventually got quiet in the next room which intrigued Indi even more. She stepped back from the mirror over the sink and stuck her head out the door to look into the locker room. She saw Candice holding something in her hand. A large envelope of some kind. She was walking over to a corner between the lockers. She watched as Candice slowly pulled a locker slightly from the wall and slid the envelope behind it.
Indi furrowed her brow as she watched confused by what was happening in front of her. Candice started to turn around so Indi sunk back into the bathroom and pushed the door gently closed in front of her.
"Hey Indi, you okay in there?" Candice's voice came from right outside the door.
"Y...yeah... just finishing up," Indi replied in as much of a nonchalant voice as she could muster.
"Okay well... I am going to go find some food you want me to bring you anything?" Candice inquired.
"N...no... I ate before I left home," Indi answered.
"Okie-Dokie," Candice said before her footsteps moved away from the door and Indi heard the door to the locker room open and close. Indi composed her thoughts for a moment before she exited the bathroom. She eyed the corner of the room as she found herself slowly walking towards it.
Indi stopped herself halfway across the room as she suddenly felt guilty for what she was thinking about doing. It was probably none of her business whatever it was Candice was doing but something was nagging at her. Her mind went back to their day at the spa when she found out that Candice had been the one buy flowers for Shotzi and Ember and not Dexter as she had feared. It was that moment that had kicked off all of the drama between her and him and now she had an awful sense of deja vu washing over her.
Indi took the last few steps to the corner much quicker than her first ones as she slid her fingers behind the locker. It was much heavier to move than she had anticipated by watching Candice do so moments ago. She finally budged the locker and one large envelope slid out into view. Then another. And another.
"What?" Indi spoke quietly to herself as she saw her name written on the envelope in a stylized fashion that she immediately recognized. She reached down and picked up the one she had just seen Candice hide. She stepped back and slid it open. Immediately she saw what it was as she pulled it loose from the envelope.
Indi's hand went over her mouth as she a drawing of her. It was beautiful. It was her holding her championship title. A picture she remembered posing for just last week. She ran a hand over the drawing and traced it with her finger until her eyes caught the caption at the bottom.
"I'm sorry, please let me explain."
Indi was smiling but couldn't remember at what moment she had started. She gently laid the picture out on a nearby chair and went about opening the rest to see many more similar pictures, of her... of him... one of her cat. All with similar captions. One in particular under a depiction of the moment where she surprised him at ringside brought a tear to her eye.
"It is only you."
Her phone vibrating in her pocket barely went noticed and it was only seconds after it had stopped that it even registered with her. She retrieved the phone and saw it was a text message from him. This time she hurriedly opened it and that is when she saw all the ones she had yet to unopen over the last couple of weeks.
"Did you like it?"
Indi was nodding in response to the message before she could bring her fingers to text a response.
"Where are you?"
She studied the message willing the "delivered" to change to "read". She was about to send another message when it finally changed and she stopped her fingers. She saw the dots indicating he was typing and she held her breath until the response came.
"Outside."
Indi scooped all of the pictures up in her arms and hurriedly left the locker room. She made her way back the way she had come earlier, this time in nearly a full run and not trying to quietly slide along the back of the walls. She could tell people were turning to look at her but she really did not care.
Indi hurriedly made her way to the front lobby and pushed open the door and walked into the muggy humid evening Florida air. She turned her head from side to side looking for him. She saw nothing immediately so she started making her way around to the backside of the building. It was there she saw his car. Some sort of older large black car. Indi wasn't too sure about the make not being overly familiar with American cars.
Indi tried to compose herself a little as the car came better in view at the end of the room. She stopped when she caught a glimpse of him sitting on the trunk of the car with his arms crossed over his legs. She took a deep breath and hurriedly made her way down the length of the car and moved to stand in front of him still clutching her pictures tightly.
His eyes moved from the ground up to meet hers and she felt dizzy from the sight. It was the same look that had prompted this whole thing to begin. The look that had captivated her and changed her whole life.
"I do..." Indi spoke.
He cocked his head slightly. She held up the pictures.
"I like them very much," She elaborated. "And I am sorry too... about what I said... I didn't mean it."
His expression softened as he hopped down from the car and stood in front of her.
"And I know... I know it was a misunderstanding last week... and..." Indi was suddenly slightly out of breath.
His hand moved to gently caress her cheek and it stopped her train of thought completely. She had never felt so warm in all of her life and it was not the humidity to blame this time.
"I... can we start over?" Indi asked. A nod from him and a slight smile. That was it, she was done for now. She started to lean in. Her lips were mere inches from his when she heard the loud and boisterous tone of Austin calling her name. She made a disappointed face and opened her eyes as she could hear him coming closer, no doubt sent to look for her.
She stepped back and attempted to pull herself out of the trance she was in. He was still looking at her, not even phased by anything going on around them.
"I will definitely text you... and... if you text me back I promise I will answer okay?' Indi offered him an assuring smile. He merely nodded his head and matched her with a small smile of his own.
Austin's voice was merely a few feet down the parking lot now as he continued to call for her. Indi made her way past Dexter to move out so Austin could see her. She stopped suddenly when she felt her hand being enveloped by a large gloved one. She turned to see him looking over at her. He let her go as quickly as he had captured her. And she felt flush all over again.
Indi, quickly as she could, composed herself and stepped out into view for Austin who was now just a couple of cars away from her.
"There you are!" He was still shouting despite the short distance. She barely paid that any attention though and glanced behind her to see somehow Dexter had managed to disappear completely. She smiled and then reached out to turn Austin around and began to walk them both back toward the building.
The End.
