July 2014

Truth was, it was nice to have a friend. Sure he had those drinking buddies, but the last time he hung out with them sober it went…poorly. Seth was gone, and his frustrations were starting to consume him, the more he tried to get revenge and get his goddamn life back, the more Seth got in his head. And Roman, Roman was over the whole damn thing. He barely saw her, maybe once or twice a month for coffee, but the occasional text seeing how things were going with him, they made all the difference.

He caught sight of her on his way out for errands one Thursday morning. Her schedule was always weird, she looked like she hadn't been to bed for a while. She smiled at him from the mailboxes.

"Hey, haven't seen you around here in a while," she said, riffling through her mail.

"Been on tour overseas."

"Oh, how was it?"

"Kinda shitty honestly," he shrugged, "you never get to see the place you go to."

"Ah. Hey, are you moving out?"

"What?" his head snapped towards her. "Why would I move out?"

"Didn't you get the letter? They're going co-op."

"Oh. No, I uh, own the place outright. Are you leaving?"

"Yeah," she frowned, "I love that apartment but I haven't really been saving to buy a place. I just can't afford it."

She smiled at him sadly, "I'll see you later," she started to head back towards the elevator, and he watched her, not able to believe that he actually wouldn't see her again.

"Wait, Renee!"

"Yeah?" she turned towards him as she called the elevator.

"I uh," he shrugged, "I got an extra room. If you want it."

"What?"

"You like this place, you don't have to leave it."

"Move in with you?"

"Yeah, you know, as a roommate, here," he motioned for her to follow him as the elevator arrived. "I'll show you it."

"Uh okay, sure."

He smiled sweetly as she got on next to him. It took her a second to realize he had hit the button for the 10th floor. She did a double take. The 10th floor? The only thing there was…

The doors opened and sure enough, there was only one door at the end of the hall. He didn't glance over at her reaction but simply unlocked the front door like it was nothing. It opened up to a massive penthouse. Her mouth gaped open as she looked around. The place was modern and luxe, a far cry from what she'd associate with Dean's blue-collar personality. A large kitchen was decked out in stainless steel appliances, it was nestled under a staircase leading up to the second floor. The second floor of his apartment. The living room was cozy, a lived-in leather sofa a bright blue sectional arranged around a massive television screen. It was probably the square footage of her entire apartment.

"So this is it," he said casually, tossing his leather jacket down on one of the armchairs.

"This is it…" she looked around flabbergasted.

"There's a dining room through here," he led her through an archway, "but I don't really have a lot of guests so mostly it's just my trophy room."

Above the mantle of a modern fireplace, the United States Championship was hung. Several others she didn't recognize surrounded it. CZW World Heavyweight, FIP World Heavyweight, IPW World Heavyweight…

"Safe to say you're a world heavyweight champion?"

"I was, at a certain point or another," he shrugged, "so first bedroom," he opened a door off of the dining room, "is the gym, you're welcome to use that stuff if you don't break anything."

"Might need to get lighter weights," she laughed nervously, looking into the room full of expensive gym equipment.

"We could do that. There's a bathroom down this hall, and it connects through to the second guest room."

He opened the next door, a king sized bed sat in the middle of the light, airy room.

"You could take this one, and I mean, it's bigger but I think this one has a better view."

"There's a third?" she was mystified, following him around the corner to another door. They entered the room and she had to catch her breath, looking out at Penn's Landing from way up high. "Oh wow."

"You like it? Yeah, mine faces this way too. Plus it has a bathroom, so no weirdness about that."

"That's…that's great."

"Yeah I think this is a better option," he leaned against the doorway, "but it's up to you."

"Dean…"

"I know, the place is a bachelor pad. We could redecorate some stuff-"

"I can't afford this."

"What do you mean?"

"This is a duplex on the top floor in Penn's Landing."

"What're you paying now?" he crossed his arms.

"$1200."

Dean shrugged, "sold."

"$1200? This room alone has to be worth at least that."

"It's not exactly half the mortgage, but it'll help."

"I can't accept this, it's really nice of you to offer, but I can't," she shook her head, breezing by him into the living room.

"It's not charity," he followed her, "I bought this place as an investment, it's about time it started making some money back."

"So rent it out to someone who can afford what it's worth."

"I don't want to, I want to rent it to you,"

"Dean," she sighed, spinning around and catching his gaze, "what is this, what're you after here, honestly?"

"Honestly?" he gave her a sad smile, "honestly it gets damn lonely around here. All I've got is Moxley, and I'm sure he doesn't appreciate going to the doggy hotel for 300 days out of the year. I thought my mom might come stay with me," he shook his head, "she had other plans. I offered a room to Nate, but you can probably guess how that ended."

"So you want me here because you're lonely."

"Aren't you? Bet you that one bedroom even starts to feel huge and empty after a while."

She looked down, not wanting to admit that he was right.

"It'd be nice to have someone around. Just to…watch hockey with. And eat pizza. And you know…talk to. It'd be nice to come home to someone."

"Yeah…" she looked around at the gorgeous apartment. "Though I've liked being on my own honestly."

"I'm gone most of the week. You'd have this all to yourself."

"That's not even,"

"Don't worry about that, look, I pay a cleaning crew to keep this place from falling apart. Even just someone wiping down counters, vacuuming, it'd cut that bill in half."

"Wiping down counters? That's my rent?"

"And I pay the kid on three to water the plants."

"The plants?"

"And I pay an obscene amount of money for someone to feed, and walk, and socialize Moxely. I bet he'd like having an actual human around."

Renee looked over at the nearly grown puppy, sleeping on the couch. "Yeah, I'd like that too."

"You'd actually be doing me a huge favor moving in here," he insisted.

She chuckled, "yeah well, that's the only favor I'm doing for you."

"Psh, yeah, yeah of course, I wouldn't, we wouldn't," he shook his head spastically. "So you'll do it?"

"This place is beautiful, Dean."

"So you'll do it," he insisted.

"Yeah, I'll move in. The one facing the river."

A grin broke out on his face, "good. I'll get you a key made and uh…put that stuff in the storage unit. How's Wednesday?"

"Like this Wednesday?"

"Yeah, I won't be on the road so timing's good."

"Isn't that a little fast?"

"No time like the present, right?" he rubbed the back of his neck, "I mean I just figured-"

"Uh, yeah, okay,"

"Okay," he grinned again. "I'll see ya then, roomie."

XXX

"Right here please?" Renee said to the movers that Wednesday as the hoisted her desk through the door. The room had been cleared of the minimalist furniture, but the steel gray walls still felt more like Dean. Maybe a couple of tapestries could fix that.

The room was a good size, larger than her own one downstairs, and the huge windows made it feel massive. She had them situate her bed right in the corner of the two adjacent windows so that she could look at that view every morning. It was proving a little difficult, though, when it came to making her bed.

"Oh c'mon!" she grumbled as the fitted sheet slid off of one corner.

"You want help?" a little knock came at the open door, Dean was leaning against the doorway nonchalantly.

"Uhh sure. How long have you been standing there?"

"Not long," he shrugged, "here."

He gestured for her to move to the other side of the bed as he pulled the sheet down over the corner. Picking up the patterned teal comforter, he helped her drape it over the bed and tucked it down behind the low footboard.

"That good?" he asked, looking up at her, eyes twinkling.

"Perfect," she flopped down onto it in exhaustion. The move had happened so quickly, she'd barely gotten to rest all week.

"So um," he leaned against the window, "you got buyer's remorse yet?"

"'Course not-" she laughed, "I mean, it's not home but…"

"We could paint. Or get some new towels, or I dunno, like, pillows?"

"Dean, it's your house, don't worry about it."

"No, it's our house."

"What?"

"I mean-" he laughed, his cheeks flushing slightly, "you're not just a guest. You live here. I promise."

"You still pay the mortgage."

"Well then I get to call first shower," he chuckled, hoping off her bed, "but just holler if you need anything. Su casa-uh…"

"I got it, thanks."

He closed the door on his way out and she looked out to the water. It was beautiful, this whole place was beautiful. It was unreal. She knew he did well for himself, she saw the lifestyle that wrestling afforded the twins, but this…this was unbelievable.

She spent a few hours watching House of Cards as she arranged her desk, unpacked her closet, moved the lavender rug around two times and then a third. Outside the window, it was just starting to drizzle. Renee stared out at it, absent mindlessly wondering how exactly she got herself into this bizarre situation. What was she thinking? She barely knew this guy. Renee headed for the door, half a mind to tell him that she couldn't do this, it was a mistake.

"Dean?" she called.

"Kitchen!"

"Dean, I-" she stopped as she entered the kitchen, "I uh, what're you making?"

"Chili," he said stirring the tall pot with a ladle shaped like the Loch Ness Monster, "old recipe. You want some?"

"I love chili,"

"I know."

"You know?" she furrowed her brow.

"You told me," he seemed unfazed, spooning it into a bowl, "that time I saw you after you got caught in the rain and you were like 'I just need a big bowl of chili,'"

"Is that what my voice sounds like?" she teased.

"Something like that," he handed her the bowl and took another for himself. "Luckily, so do I sometimes,"

He nodded for him to follow her into the living room.

"You sure it's okay to eat in here?" she paused in the doorway.

"Your house, remember?" he sprawled out on the couch, balancing the bowl on his lap.

"Sounds dangerous but okay," she blew on her spoon and sipped it, "wow that's really good."

"Perfected it back some years ago when I was on the road. Can make it in a motel microwave and over a camping stove in a parking lot. This way's better,"

"You used to make this on the road?"

"Yeah, you know, it's dirt cheap," he shrugged.

"Not a lot of money in wrestling?"

"Not in the indies, not at least what I was doing. Now if you spend ten years in WWE, and are as beautiful as the Bellas-"

"You think they're beautiful?"

"Sure," he shrugged, "I guess. You don't?"

"No, of course I do. Just trying to figure out your type so I can set you up with my friends."

"Not big on brunettes, honestly."

"No?"

"Eh, it's trivial but, kinda."

"Good to know," she felt her face blushing slightly and tried to shake it off. "You seem to do okay for yourself now."

"With the ladies?" he teased, a goofy grin on his face, "no, I know. I do okay."

"This place is a little more than okay, Dean."

"I bought it when I was a champion, comes with a bonus, not to mention guaranteed dates. Things are a little less little more than okay now. But yeah… it's a beautiful place, huh?"

"Really is."

"Beautiful apartment full of beautiful things and no one actually gets to enjoy them. That's where you come in."

"Is it?"

"Sure is."

"Well, thanks. For the room."

"And the chili?"

She rolled her eyes, "and the chili."