"Sonya, come here!" Mandy called out.
Sonya was in their bedroom, folding up and putting away some laundry. "I'm a bit busy, babe," she called back.
"I know. But you need to come here!"
Sighing, Sonya fought off her impatience as she put a t-shirt away in one of Mandy's drawers. With that done, she left the bedroom and walked down the hallway to their apartment's living area. She found Mandy standing in front of the TV, watching a news channel. The breaking news banner at the bottom of the screen referred to a fire at an Orlando apartment complex. Fire crews were shown spraying water onto the building in question. It was obvious that they were fighting a losing battle against the flames. Two thirds of the building was already burning.
"Waterside Apartments. Wasn't that where Tessa said she was going to moving to?" Mandy asked.
"Shit, I think it was," Sonya said, recalling the name now that Mandy had said it. "I guess she won't be now. Is anyone hurt?"
"They were just saying they think everyone has safely evacuated, thank god. But the building is going to be destroyed, looking at those pictures."
"You're right. I wonder if Tessa knows," Sonya said, moving over to the couch and sitting down. At the end of the night at their new teammate's victory celebration a week earlier, they had both gotten Tessa's number. Sonya decided to text her about the unfortunate news. Even though they had swapped numbers, she felt nervous about texting Tessa. It felt weird being friendly with arguably the biggest name in UFC history. But there was no getting away from the fact that Tessa had been so down to earth when they had met. She came across like she didn't view herself as anything special, which was pretty awesome, Sonya thought. Fuck it, just text her, she told herself.
Tessa, turn on the news. Unfortunately I think the apartment block you were going to move into is on fire.
"I wonder if WWE were finishing with sorting the purchase out for her," Mandy said as she sat down next to Sonya. "That is, if they're even helping her with it. It's not like she's going to be short of the money."
Sonya grunted a laugh at the understatement. WWE had recently instituted a scheme for helping new trainees to purchase a home in Orlando when they were recruited for the Performance Centre. "I can't see her getting involved in that program. But yeah, I hope she hasn't purchased the place yet. Imagine that? Buying an apartment and it burns down before you even move in."
"It's probably better than it burning down after you move in," Mandy pointed out.
"That's true."
Sonya's phone vibrated, indicating that a message had been received. She unlocked the phone and read it.
Tessa Blanchard: RIP! Yes, that is where I was going to move to. The purchase was meant to complete next week. Looks like I'll be pulling out now. I'll have to look for somewhere else, fast!
"She was about to complete the purchase next week," Sonya reported to Mandy. "Now she's a couple of weeks away from moving down here, with nowhere to move into. She'll probably end up having to live out of a hotel for a while."
"That'll get her used to working on the main roster," Mandy said with an ironic laugh. "Hey, we could ask her to stay with us," she suggested after a moment. "If you want to, I mean."
Sonya considered it. They did have a spare bedroom. It was currently set aside as a sex dungeon for when Daria, her alter ego, came out to play. But it could easily be made ready for use by a guest. "I'm not against inviting her," she said thoughtfully. "I don't know if she would want to move here, but at least the offer would be there. If she did accept, it would give us more time to get to know each other better."
"Good point. But it will mean Daria doesn't have a room anymore," Mandy pointed out.
Sonya nodded. "I just thought that. Daria can improvise in our room for a while if she has to."
Mandy looked at her adoringly. "Is that a promise?"
"It is. I'll make sure she has plenty of new pairs of rubber gloves to pleasure you with. And I'm sure she's not running short of duct tape."
Mandy swooned at the mention of her glove fetish, clearly wishing they could indulge right then and there.
"I love seeing that look on your face," Sonya smiled knowingly. "Who knows, maybe I have new gloves in the house right now that you've not seen yet."
"Do you?" Mandy asked excitedly.
"Good things come to those who wait," Sonya said, teasing her. "Now, what am I going to text back to Tessa?"
Mandy wasn't best pleased about being made to wait for her fun, but she turned her attention to the question at hand. "Tell her we've got a guest bedroom she's welcome to use until she's got something else figured out."
"Alright." Sonya typed out the message and sent it. Within moments, a reply came back.
Tessa Blanchard: Really? That would be great, and very kind of you. I was thinking I'd have to hotel it for a few weeks.
"She says that's great, and very kind of us," Sonya relayed. "Sounds like we have ourselves a housemate moving in. I'll tell her we'll get the room ready for her today, and she come down whenever she's ready."
"Okay," Mandy said as Sonya typed. "I can't believe Tessa Blanchard is going to live in our apartment! What is this world we're living in?"
Sonya laughed as she read another message.
Tessa Blanchard: Thanks again. Hunter gave me a start date, but said I could show up sooner if I wanted. I might pack up some stuff and come down in a couple of days.
"She's saying she might come down in a couple of days, and make an early start with her training."
"Sounds good to me," Mandy said. "I'm looking forward to making a start. Do you realise we've never mentored anyone before, and now they've given us Tessa?"
"Wild, isn't it?" Sonya said, shaking her head at the ridiculousness of it.
Two days later, Sonya was back to feeling nervous. She and Mandy had spent most of their free time over the past couple of days cleaning the apartment from top to bottom, getting it ready for Tessa's arrival.
In truth, cleanliness wasn't what troubled Sonya anyway. Her fear was that Tessa would take one look at the place and clear straight out to find a hotel. It was a nice apartment for a couple of NXT wrestlers starting out on a road that would hopefully see them make big money one day. It just wasn't the kind of place a multi-millionaire would choose to live, she felt sure.
"Sonya, it wasn't long ago that I couldn't believe we were going to meet Tessa Blanchard. Now she's a few minutes away from moving in with us. Who would have ever thought it?" Mandy said, shaking her head.
"It's crazy," Sonya agreed. She had received a text from Tessa five minutes earlier, saying that she was five minutes away.
Right on cue, the buzzer on the intercom sounded. It would be Tessa, needing access to the gated community. Mandy walked over and pressed the button to talk. "Hello?"
"Mandy? It's Tessa. Requesting permission to enter." The request was delivered with good humour, and it made Mandy laugh.
"Permission granted." She gave instructions on where to find their apartment, and pressed the button to open the gate.
Meanwhile, Sonya opened the front door and stepped outside. Momentarily, she saw a black BMW crawl slowly around the corner. It was a fairly sporty model, but not what she would necessarily have expected someone like Tessa to drive. It did have the advantage of being practical, however. As it drew closer, she was able to see that the back seat was stacked with bags and travel cases.
Mandy came outside, pocketing her set of keys just in case the apartment door somehow closed. Being locked out was the last thing they needed. They waited for Tessa to spin the car around and back it up as close to the apartment as she could, wanting to make the unloading process as easy as possible.
The engine was turned off, and Tessa got out, smiling brightly. "Morning. Thanks again for this. I hope enough room for all of this crap?"
Her carefree attitude immediately started to dispel the nerves that Sonya had been feeling. If Tessa had any reservations about moving into the apartment, she certainly wasn't showing them.
"Let us give you a hand," Mandy said, walking over to the car.
"Most of it is clothes," Tessa said, opening the rear door on the driver's side. "There's more stuff in the trunk, too."
Sonya popped the trunk and saw another bunch of bags full of clothes, boots, and one containing gym wear. "I think we should be able to fit most of this in the guest room. It might be a squeeze."
"If there's anything we can't fit in, I'll keep it in the car," Tessa said, her tone conveying that she didn't see it as a problem.
"We can put some in the office if we have to. Let's unload everything into the apartment, and we can take it from there," Mandy suggested.
It took the three of them a few minutes to accomplish that task, piling all of the bags up just inside the apartment, near to the front door. When they were done, Tessa went and parked her car properly in one of the spaces in the communal parking area.
"Okay, let's show you around," Sonya said.
"Then I'll put some coffee on and make us some lunch," Mandy added.
"You're going to love Mandy's food," Sonya promised. "If she wasn't a wrestler, she could honestly be a chef."
"I knew this was the place to move into," Tessa said, smiling broadly, showing off a perfect set of teeth. There was no getting away from it, Sonya thought, she was a truly beautiful woman, and a badass too. Even setting her high profile aside, there were plenty of positives that WWE would have seen in her as a potential signee.
"Okay, through here is the kitchen," Mandy said, leading Tessa in there to begin the tour. "Make a mess in here, we're going to have problems," she added, only half joking.
"Noted," Tessa grinned.
Sonya waited outside the kitchen. Picking up the tour when Tessa came back out, she guided their guest across the living area to the door at the far end which led to the bathroom, office and bedrooms. "Obviously this is the living area. Through here are the rest of the rooms."
First came the office. Sonya opened the door to the rarely-used room so that Tessa could see inside. "The office. We don't use it often, so it's fine if you need to store some stuff in here for a while."
Right across the hallway was Daria's room, which was temporarily going to be loaned to Tessa. Sonya opened the door and led Tessa inside. There were a couple of wooden chests of drawers in the room. Recently, they had been emptied of Daria's kinky paraphernalia. "This will be your room. The bedding was all freshly laundered yesterday, and we've emptied the drawers for you to use."
"Thanks, that's awesome. A double bed, too," Tessa smiled.
Not for the first time, Sonya was struck by how down to earth she seemed. Before long, that message was going to properly drill itself home in her head, she thought. Escorting Tessa out of the bedroom, she proceeded further down the hallway to the bathroom. It had been thoroughly cleaned that morning, to the point that the suite was gleaming. "Here's the bathroom. Unfortunately the only toilet we have is that one."
"So be prepared to have the door beaten down if you spend too long in the bath," Mandy joked, joining them in the passageway, having gotten the coffee machine started.
Tessa laughed. "These are simple house rules so far: Don't make a mess of the kitchen, and don't hog the bathroom when someone needs to take a piss. I can commit to that."
Sonya and Mandy both laughed as Sonya motioned across the hallway. "And that's our bedroom. So, there's the tour. Want me to help you move your stuff into your bedroom while Mandy starts on lunch?"
"It's fine, I've got it," Tessa assured her gratefully. "This is a lovely apartment you guys have. Hopefully I won't burden you for too long. I was already doing some searching for a new place last night."
"Stay as long as you like," Mandy said in a friendly tone.
With nothing to do for the moment since Tessa didn't want any help with her things, Sonya followed Mandy into the kitchen. The last thing she would do was bring out her disastrous culinary skills, but she could at least fix the coffee while Mandy made a start on the meal.
"She's so nice, Sonya," Mandy said quietly after Tessa had gone towards her room with her first few bags.
"I know! I think we've really struck lucky having her as our new partner. It's still awful to part ways with Zelina though. The day we officially leave the NXT roster and give up our lockers is going to be the worst, I swear."
"Ugh, don't make me think about it," Mandy said sadly.
Tessa appeared in the doorway, interrupting the conversation. She had a pair of dark green rubber gloves in her hand. "Hi. I found these under the bed," she said, a hint of a crafty smile on her face.
"Oh, I must have left them under there when I was cleaning," Sonya said, taking the gloves and dumping them on a work surface. Her quick thinking might have been convincing if Mandy's cheeks hadn't already turned bright red.
A/N: Many thanks to everyone who left a review on the previous chapter.
So, Tessa has ended up living with Sonya and Mandy for a while!
Next time, Tessa's first day training with them at the Performance Centre.