The third time it happened was three weeks later at a local Crossfit gym in Missouri. Seth, Sasha, Bayley, and Finn had agreed to livestream their workout on the Instagram of Dead Boys Fitness, after which they would have lunch. The IG Live took almost thirty minutes, and by the time it ended, they each had a spot on the floor—sweating profusely and cursing at the multiple blisters the workout had caused.
"Here," Seth crawled over to Sasha with a roll of blister plaster in his mouth. Taking her hands, he began to wrap the plaster around the affected areas. "You feel like eating sushi today?"
"Hey!" Bayley called out from the other side of the room. "I thought I was choosing where we were eating!"
"Well, you were taking too damn long to decide so now Sasha's choosing!" Seth yelled back.
"Biased loser!" Bayley joked, causing all of them to crack up.
"Sushi sounds good," Sasha shrugged, watching Seth finish up his work with the plaster.
"Great, because I'm starved," he chuckled, still holding on to Sasha's hands and studying them. He traced the outlines of the plaster slowly, almost memorizing the feel of them against his calloused fingers. Sasha watched him curiously, her heart racing against her chest. He seemed almost peaceful; like he was content just sitting there holding her hands. In a blink of an eye, the smile on his face disappeared and he furrowed his brows—a look Sasha had gotten so used to the past few weeks.
Sasha looked around. "Is it happening again?"
"Yes," Seth nodded, refusing to let go of her hands as he just stared at them.
"Ey, how long are you two goin' to hold hands and make the googly eyes? Let's eat!" Finn yelled from where he was changing into a new shirt.
But neither Seth nor Sasha moved. "I haven't been sleeping so well since that night my things got stolen," she admitted softly. "Somehow, a small part of me thinks someone out there is after me."
"You know I'm not going to let that happen," Seth told her.
"Guys! Come on! Let's get a move on!" Bayley interrupted.
With a soft groan, Seth pulled them both up from the floor. After changing into fresh clothes in the locker rooms, they followed Finn and Bayley out of the Crossfit gym. "What's with you two?" Bayley asked when she noticed both had gone quiet.
Sasha looked around the streets but found nothing to be suspicious of. Seth noticed this and placed a comforting arm around her. "I was just telling Seth that I haven't been sleeping well since the night my things got stolen. There's just this weird lingering feeling that I can't pinpoint."
"Well, I can't blame ya," Finn shrugged, mirroring the two and placing an arm around Bayley's shoulders. "Did they ever catch the guy?"
Sasha shook her head. "Not yet. I doubt they will though."
Crossing the street towards a plaza that had a small Japanese restaurant, they heard someone suddenly running after them. It was a big-boned, middle-aged woman wearing an oversized Sasha Banks shirt, while holding a pen and an old photo of Sasha from her NXT days. "I don't mean to be following," she started, trying to catch her breath. "I live around here and I saw the IG Live. I was wondering if I could get a photo with all of you."
Seth, Finn, and Bayley hesitated a little, but Sasha was the first to smile genuinely and step forward. "Sure, of course," she took the pen the lady was holding out and signed her photograph. "What's your name?"
"Melissa," the lady responded, staring at Sasha with a starstruck look.
"Here you go, Melissa," Sasha handed back the photograph with a quick dedication. "You wanted to take a picture?"
"Oh," Melissa snapped out of her daze. "Yes, yes. Thank you." Hands shaking, she took out her phone from her pocket and opened the camera app.
"Here," Seth offered, taking the phone from Melissa and waiting for her and Sasha to pose.
"Oh wow," Melissa continued to be speechless. "Thank you. Thank you, Seth."
After a few photos with Sasha, they took a group selfie, as Melissa thanked them numerous times and hurried off giddily with a huge grin on her face.
That night, Sasha made her way up to the room she was checked in for the weekend to take a quick shower before meeting Seth for dinner. Upon entering, a generous bouquet of flowers stood out from the empty table near the window. There was no note—just a clear, cylindrical vase filled with an arrangement of beautiful, bright yellow carnations.
After studying the bouquet and not knowing who in the world would send one (unless it was a prank, which she highly doubted), she made her way over to the phone and dialed the front desk. "Hello? Hi, good evening! This is Sasha Banks from Room 502. There's a bouquet of flowers in my room, and I just wanted to know where they were from?"
"Good evening, Ms. Banks! Hold on, let me just check," the concierge began typing on her laptop. "According to the records, there was a request to have them sent to your room this afternoon by a man named Earl."
"Earl?" she furrowed her brows. "Earl who?"
"Our apologies, Ms. Banks. He didn't leave a last name."
"Are you sure they were for me? It might have been delivered to the wrong room."
"Yes, Ma'am. The instructions were to deliver them to the room under Sasha Banks."
Scratching the back of her head, Sasha thanked the concierge and shrugged it off, before taking a quick shower, dressing in jeans and an Up Up Down Down pullover hoodie, and meeting Seth in the lobby.
"So the weirdest thing just happened," she started, walking with him to their rental car. "Some guy named Earl sent flowers up to my room this afternoon."
"Who the fuck is Earl?" Seth raised a brow, driving them off to the nearest burger joint.
"Exactly. I don't even know anybody named Earl," she told him.
Seth bit the inside of his cheek. "You say it didn't have a card?"
"None," she shook her head. "It's so weird. These past few weeks have been so weird."
Seth felt the uneasy feeling again but shook his head. "Let's just not think about it."
At the burger joint, they ordered their usual with Seth devouring a double angus cheeseburger and Sasha munching on some fish and chips. "Oh yeah. Before I forget, I got you the correct smart light bulbs you were looking for online. Let me know when you want me to come over your place, so I can hook them up to your Google Home," Seth started.
"Oh, that's perfect. Next weekend? I was thinking of flying back home then. I'm almost done setting up the entertainment room, then maybe I can actually start working on the gym."
"I still don't understand why you bought a house when you literally don't go home to it. You have more clothes at my place than yours."
"That's because your entertainment setup is better."
Seth snickered and took a sip of his milkshake. "Why don't you just move in? You practically own the guest room at my house."
"You know why," Sasha shrugged. "Plus—if that reaches Bayley, I'm never going to hear the end of it."
"True. Not exactly something to get Roman and Dean off my back either."
They both fell silent, contemplating the labyrinth that was their relationship. Awkwardly, Sasha reached for her drink when Seth sighed. "Sash," he started. "I don't know why we never just talk about it. I mean, we can literally talk about anything else but that."
Sasha bit her lower lip and spoke, "I don't know."
"Are we scared or are we just stupid?"
"A little bit of both maybe?"
"So what now?"
Brushing her hair back, Sasha took a deep breath. "I don't know. I just thought that it should feel bigger than this, you know? Does that make sense? I don't want to have to admit how I feel in a burger joint in the middle of nowhere."
"But that's who we are. And I think we were always programmed to be this way. We both take too much pride in trying to prove people that they're wrong about us, but I think I'm done trying."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"It means that one day, when the time is right and when you're ready, I'm going to work for it and make it happen."
Sasha tried to fight back the butterflies fluttering in her stomach. "Shut up, Rollins."
He chuckled at her attempt to drop the subject. "Don't think you can let this go that easy."
"Whatever," Sasha fought the urge to smile before popping a potato chip in her mouth.
Smiling at how red Sasha's cheeks were becoming, Seth took her hand and gave it a light squeeze, forgetting about the yellow carnations sitting in her room at that very moment.
A/N: Dundundun! Thoughts? Should the stalker be a guy or a girl? Are you guys enjoying the complicated friendship of Seth and Sasha? Do you want me to include more Bayley and Finn scenes? Let me know!