Money in the Bank was the occasion for the next milestone in Tessa's career. The second time she wrestled a man was also going to be her first match on a WWE pay-per-view. With all due respect to The Miz, she considered facing Seth Rollins to be a step up. He had only been on the main roster for about a year, but he was already seen as one of the best in the business. Although she knew she was going to be booked to lose the match, she hoped Seth would be willing to do his best to make her look good in the process. A burial wasn't what she needed at this early stage of her WWE career.

Entering the building with Sonya and Mandy, Tessa wasn't the only one hoping for a strong performance in a losing effort on the upcoming show. The Golden Gloves were going to lose a match to Clementine and Carmella. The question was how comprehensive would their victory be?

"I have faith in Clem not to ruin us," Mandy said. "She's been good at putting us over in the multiple ass-kickings we've given her."

"I'm confident you'll be fine," Tessa said. "As for me, I have no idea."

"Honestly, if anyone's going to give you a hard time over your booking, I don't think it will be the guys," Mandy said.

"Christ, don't tell me that," Tessa sighed. "The last thing I need is the girls on my case. Have you heard complaints?"

"Sasha was grumbling the other day when she found out she didn't make the card tonight in anything more than a manager role with Bayley. She said something about starting to wrestle men, and she was being sarcastic."

"Brilliant," Tessa said, shaking her head. There was no time to dwell on it, for they had reached the women's locker room.

As they walked in, they found a surprise waiting for them inside. Nikki Bella was in there, standing in the middle of the room, surrounded by most of the other women. The scene looked like a queen holding court. It was safe to say she was popular, Tessa thought. It was only just past the point where she would get that kind of reaction. People were quickly getting used to seeing her around, though.

"Hi, everyone," Mandy said brightly.

Greetings came back at the group of new arrivals, then Natalya handled the formal introductions. "Mandy, Sonya, Tessa, I don't think any of you have met Nikki?"

"No, but I've been looking forward to meeting them," Nikki said brightly. Stepping out of the huddle she was in, she gave each of them a peck on the cheek in greeting.

As Nikki starting waxing lyrical about the potential she saw in the Golden Gloves, Tessa watched on, feeling something stirring inside her. Nikki was one seriously sexy lady. The dark blue dress she had on complimented her gorgeous, athletic figure, and her smile was to die for.

"And you, Tessa, wow! What else can I say?" Nikki said when she was done with Mandy and Sonya. "I used to watch all of your UFC fights. I've never seen anything like the way you used to take people apart. And now here you are fighting guys in WWE. Incredible."

"Thanks, Nikki," Tessa said, feeling a bit shy, which was totally out of character for her. "I'm, uh, having a great time so far."

"So, Nikki, why are you here?" Sonya asked, before laughing at herself. "Oh god, that came out wrong. I didn't mean to sound rude, I just..."

"Relax," Nikki giggled. "I know what you meant. You're trying to say you heard I retired, so why am I back in the locker room?"

"Right," Sonya said, happy to have been let off the hook.

"That's what I was just talking to everyone else about," Nikki said. "I'm not coming back to wrestle. Sadly, that ship has sailed for me. The reason I'm here is that at the end of the show tonight, Lucy is going to appear and fire Stephanie as Smackdown GM. I'm going to be announced as her replacement."

"Oh wow, that's awesome," Mandy said. "I think you'll do a great job. It certainly won't be what the fans are expecting."

Nikki laughed. "Yeah, I think that's a safe bet. Lucy doesn't particularly like the promotion and management to be seen as heels on TV, so I'm coming in to take over from Steph, and I'll be in something close to a babyface role."

"Are you looking forward to it?" Sonya asked.

"Hell yeah," Nikki said emphatically. "Since I'll never be able to wrestle again on medical grounds, this at least keeps me around the business I love. It's the most I could ask for, and I'm grateful to Lucy for bringing me back in."

Tessa was standing there listening to the conversation in silence, trying and failing not to be preoccupied with how sexy Nikki was. What an absolute babe, she thought. Glamorous, sexy, down to earth, and she seemed to have a sense of humour too. If it was a bar they were in, instead of a locker room full of colleagues, she might have considered making a move.

"Tessa, can I speak with you for a minute?"

Turning to see who had spoken to her, Tessa saw Clementine, the baseball cap-wearing fan favourite, and unofficial locker room leader of the Smackdown women's division. There was no such thing officially, but nonetheless everyone knew the role existed, and who occupied it. Tessa wondered if she had done something wrong, but Clem's expression didn't seem to indicate anything like that.

"Sure. What's up?" Tessa asked pleasantly.

"Shall we step outside for a bit of privacy?"

"Okay," Tessa said, still trying to gauge what was going on.

Clementine wasn't letting anything slip. She led the way to the door, holding it open for Tessa.

"What's up? I'm not making enemies already, am I?" Tessa said after they had walked a short distance away from the locker room.

"Not that I know of," Clem said, managing a laugh that seemed a bit forced. "There's something I want to tell you. Before I do, I need you to understand that what you're about to hear is the way things work around here sometimes, so I want you not to overreact."

"Overreact to what?" Tessa said, starting to think that she wasn't going to like whatever was about to come her way.

"I've had word passed my way that Seth Rollins has gone to Lucy Thorne and asked her to change your match. Apparently, he told her he doesn't want to work with you."

"What? Why?" Tessa cried, feeling shocked and annoyed at the same time.

"Why do you think?" Clem said, showing her distaste for the reason with her tone.

"Really? He doesn't want to work with me because I'm a woman? Well, that didn't take long, did it? What do I do now, go and speak to Lucy?"

"You could do that. Would you like me to come with you?"

Tessa shook her head. She knew Clementine meant well, but she had no need of anyone's help to fight her battles for her. "No, thank you. I appreciate the heads up, but I'll deal with it myself."

"If you're sure. Any problems, you know where I am. A piece of advice, though? Don't go causing a scene with Rollins. Speak to Lucy, and have her deal with it one way or another."

Tessa nodded, thinking that Seth could think himself lucky that she wasn't going to 'cause a scene' with him, since it would likely involve knocking the sexist prick's lights out. That would show him how he would get on if he really fought a woman.

With her blood close to boiling point, Tessa stormed off to find the boss's office. She cautioned herself that even though she was raging, she should not go off the deep end, mindful that Lucy wouldn't stand for a bad attitude, no matter who was in the right. At least there was no one waiting outside the office, she saw when she located it. She gave the door a firm knock.

"Come in!" Lucy called from within.

Tessa opened the door and walked in, finding the chairwoman sitting at a desk that had formats and other paper documents strewn over it. The improvised office and the chaos on the desk made the prim and proper, well dressed Lucy look distinctly out of place behind it.

"Hello, Tessa. Can I help you with something?" Lucy asked, gesturing to offer her a steel chair that was sitting in front of the desk. Lucy at least had an office chair for herself.

"I hope so," Tessa said, walking over and sitting down. "I heard Seth Rollins was in here saying he doesn't want to work with me. I'm guessing it was because I'm a woman."

"You sound annoyed," Lucy commented, passing no judgement on it either way.

"You could say that," Tessa replied, conveying perfectly well that she was. "I was wondering if I might run into a problem at some stage with someone giving it attitude over working with me. I didn't think it would happen this quickly."

"And what do you think is the right approach to this… problem?" Lucy asked, pausing for a second to choose the right word.

"I think you should tell the guy to quit being a sexist asshole and do his job," Tessa said frankly. "I don't know where he gets off coming in here and telling you who he wants to work with and who he doesn't. He should have at least had the strength of character to come to me first and talk to me about it. What he's done is totally gutless and pathetic, and I have no time or respect for it, or for him."

"Tell me how you really feel," Lucy said with some dryness.

Tessa realised she had gone on a rant instead of simply answering the question that had been put to her. "Sorry. I didn't mean to go off at you. I just feel like he has disrespected me personally, and women in general."

Lucy leaned back in her chair, eyeing Tessa for a moment. When she spoke, her voice was still perfectly calm, but there was a bit of a sharp edge to it. "Let me tell you how you should have handled this. You should have come in and told me why you were here, and you should have asked me what I said to Seth about it. Believe it or not, I'm capable of spotting someone disrespected women myself. I've been one for thirty eight years."

Fuck, Tessa thought. Her temper had gotten the best of her after all, and she had made herself look bad in front of the boss as a result. "I'm sorry," she said. "It's just that when I heard that it really..."

"Pissed you off?" Lucy suggested. "Here's the thing, Tessa. It pissed me off too. That's why I told Seth in no uncertain terms that you wrestling men was my decision, as was putting you and him. I asked him if he was going to sit there and tell me to my face that he wasn't prepared to go along with what I wanted."

And I bet he soon said no to that, Tessa thought. Lucy seemed like a nice person, indeed she probably was, but no one ran a business the size of Thorne Enterprises without having another side to them. Seth had risked getting the full force of that other side. Tessa had no intention of making the boss cut loose herself. "I apologise for going off like that. Hearing what his attitude to me is made me angry, but I should have kept my cool and spoken to you professionally."

"It's okay, so long as you keep that in mind in future. If anyone is going to be shouting or ranting at people around here, it's going to be me. You can bring concerns to your agent or to me, but do so in appropriate way. Now, moving on, Seth has been told that he will be wrestling you tonight, and that I expect to see a good match. You're going to go and find him, the two of you are going to work out this unpleasantness, and you're going to put a good match together for tonight's show. Seth was told the same thing, so I don't expect to hear any more about it. However, if he does give you any grief, I want to know about it, understood?"

"Understood," Tessa said, getting up. Part of her felt like she gotten a hard time over something Seth had done. After all, he was the one who had pissed Lucy off. There was a lesson to be learned about how to deal with the boss, though. She didn't react well to people getting worked up. It probably offended her English manners. Issues should be talked about over a cup of tea and a cucumber sandwich, she thought, imagining a stereotypical English accent that amused her greatly.

"Good. Go and find Seth now. Oh, and Tessa?" Lucy said just before she reached the door.

"Yeah?"

"Good work last week against The Miz. I want to see more of that. There was a lot of positive reaction to it. I expect that to pick up as we move forward."

"Thank you. I enjoyed wrestling him. Trust me, I'm giving this everything I've got. Breaking boundaries means a lot to me."

Lucy nodded, allowing Tessa to leave the office. As she walked out, Tessa wasn't sure if the meeting had gone well or not. She had annoyed the boss with her rant, but at the same time she had shown she wasn't going to be pushed around by assholes like Seth Rollins, as well as receiving praise for her work. As for the asshole in question, he was about to be the next one to find that out that Tessa Blanchard was no push over.

A/N: Thank you to everyone who left a review on the previous chapter.

Seth isn't keen on working with Tessa. After both of them getting put in their places by Lucy, will their encounter calm tensions, or make them worse?