SUBTITLE: BREAKING CHARACTER

CHAPTER 26

"Girl, I had to send you the video! It was crazy! I wish you could've seen it in person!" Olivia laughed hysterically with Robin over the phone as they reviewed the video she had just sent her of the altercation between Roddy Piper and Dean.

"That sounds a hot mess! Where is Dean now?" Olivia almost blurted out that Dean left for the airport an hour ago, but she caught herself just in time to keep the surprise.

"I have no idea, girl. He's around here somewhere." Olivia saw Wade walking towards her and rushed to get off the phone. "Hey Robin, I'll give you a call later. Mr. Barrett is approaching."

"Handle your business, Liv!" Olivia hung up and Wade walked up to her and rested his hand on her hips.

"Well, hello Mrs. Bennett." He bent down to kiss her and she was instantly mesmerized by his cologne.

"Hey Wade. Nice match tonight."

"Thanks, Love." He took her hand and gently massaged the ring finger on her left hand. "Do you have any plans for your birthday?" Olivia hadn't made any plans for her birthday which was only a couple weeks away.

"I don't know for sure, but I think Robin might be planning something." She didn't want to commit to spending her birthday with Wade or Seth. That's a choice that would be impossible to make.

"Ahh, I see. Well keep me posted. I'd love to be the first to wish you happy birthday…at midnight." Wade kissed her hand and he saw Seth walking down the hall out of the corner of his eye. "Bloody hell."

"Hey, Liv." Seth pulled Olivia into him by her waist. "Barrett... Funny seeing you here. I thought you'd be somewhere fucking Alicia. Oops, did I say that out loud?!" Olivia pushed Seth back to keep them from fighting. Wade laughed Seth off and stayed focused on Liv.

"I'll wait to hear from you, Livy." Wade kissed her hand before walking away. "Bye Mrs. Bennett." Wade winked at Olivia infuriating Seth.

"Mrs. Bennett? Who the fuck does this guy think he is?" Olivia smiled to herself at the sound of being called Mrs. Bennett. She rescinded her smile as she turned to look at Seth.

"Don't worry about it, baby. Are you ready to go?"

"Yeah…" Seth was looking at Olivia out of the corner of his eye. He didn't like that Liv seemed to like being called Mrs. Bennett. He immediately thought of ways to step his game up.

When they left the arena, Seth simply told Olivia that they were going to dinner. He wouldn't tell her what place was willing to stay open so late, but she just sat back and waited patiently.

"Here we are." Seth pulled into the driveway of a house and two men came out to greet them. "Hey pop!" Seth jumped out of the car and hugged his dad and his brother before coming over to the passenger side and opening the door for Olivia.

"And who's this beautiful lady?" Seth's dad reached out his hand to help Liv get out of the car.

"Dad, this is Olivia. She's the one I told you about." Seth winked at her as she dealt with the shock of meeting his family.

"Hello, Olivia. I'm Colby's dad, Michael and this is his brother Jacob."

"It's nice to meet you Mr. Lopez…you too Jacob." Seth's little brother punched Seth in the arm to congratulate him on a nice "catch" as their dad escorted Olivia into the house.

"It's a shame Colby's mother couldn't be here to meet you. She's away visiting her sister." Michael pulled the chair out for Olivia to sit down.

"Oh it's okay, pop. I'm gonna work on getting her to come back and meet mom another time." Olivia laughed at Seth's relentless pressure.

"How the hell did this jerk get a woman like you?" Jacob snapped Seth into a headlock and they all started laughing.

"I guess I'm just lucky, Jake." Seth kissed Olivia's hand almost exactly where Wade had earlier. He leaned in and whispered in Olivia's ear as his family left the room to bring the food out to the table. "You're hand smells like Alicia's pussy from Wade's kiss earlier. You might wanna go wash your hands before dinner." Olivia laughed uncontrollably as Seth's dad and brother came back into the room.

They ate and laughed until almost 2am. Michael and Jacob told Olivia all the humiliating Colby stories they could think of. She genuinely enjoyed herself and felt like a part of the family.

"Ok, that's enough humiliation for one night. We gotta go, pop." Seth stood up to hug his dad and Michael was almost in tears.

"You gotta come back soon, Mijo." He looked at Olivia and smiled. "Can you make sure he stops by to see his old man every once in a while?"

"You got it, Mr. Lopez." He hugged Seth again and then moved on to hug Olivia.

"Maybe you'll be calling me dad someday!" Olivia's face turned red and all the guys teased her just like family.

After saying goodbye to Jacob, they got in the car and headed for the hotel. Olivia had a silly grin on her face and so did Seth.

"What are you smiling about over there?" Seth caught quick glimpses of her as he navigated the dark roads.

"Nothing. I just had a really good time tonight."

"Good. I'm hoping you'll see more of my family." Olivia gazed out the window at the stars that seemed so close you could touch them.

"We'll see…Colby." They both laughed and Seth tightly held on to Olivia's hand all the way back to the hotel.

Sometime around 2 am Robin noticed a faint knock on her door. She wasn't expecting Dean until about 4 or 5. She grabbed the bat she had in her living room and pressed her ear up against the door to see if she could hear anything.

"Who is it?!"

"Robin, please open the door. I know I should've called, but I just needed to talk to you." It was Derrick. She'd been meaning to call him and apologize for days, but time had slipped away from her. Dean wasn't expected to be there for another few hours. So, she figured she could politely blow Derrick off long before then.

"Hi Derrick." As she opened the door she saw Derrick standing there in a tuxedo. "You're kinda dressed up for a late night surprise visit.

"I had an event for my nonprofit this evening and I had to see you." Derrick sat on the couch and stretched out his long legs under the coffee table. "I don't get you, Robin. Did I do something wrong?" Robin tried to keep her cool as she sat down next to him.

"Derrick, our timing was just really bad. I'm not in a place to spend time with men right now." She tried to carefully look at the clock on her TV without him noticing.

"Am I keep you from something?" Derrick loosened his bow tie and sat back to get comfortable.

"Umm, not really." She sat on the edge of the sofa cushion and tried to think of ways to get Derrick out of her apartment. "Whew, I'm tired! I had a super long day." Robin stretched and yawned in the most exaggerated way she could.

"Oh I don't want to keep you from your sleep. I wouldn't have dropped by so late, but I was driving by and I saw your light on." Derrick was interrupted by Robin's phone ringing. It was Dean. She tried to silence the phone but she accidentally answered it.

"Hey Tweety!" Both of them could hear Dean's voice loud and clear. "Tweety? You there?" Derrick looked at Robin with a harsh look on his face.

"I think your friend is on the phone." He kicked his feet up on the coffee table and rested his hands behind his head. Robin went into her bedroom and shut the door.

"Hello? Dean?"

"Hey Tweety. I just landed and I should be there in an hour or so."

"Umm, okay. Sounds good. I'll see you then!" Dean noticed something was off.

"You okay? Why are you trying to rush me off the phone?" Robin searched for an excuse, but her thought process was interrupted by her door bell ringing. Before she could get out into the living room to answer the door herself, she opened her bedroom door to see Dean standing face to face with Derrick.

"Oh Shit! Hey Dean." Robin shuffled over to Dean to greet him. His eyes were locked on Derrick who just stood there smiling as he realized he caught Robin in a lie.

"Hey there, Tweety. Here I was trying to surprise you and you didn't tell me that you had company." Robin prayed that Derrick would just leave.

"Derrick just dropped by and he was just leaving…" Robin tried to push Dean out of the way so Derrick could walk out the door, but he wasn't budging.

"I think we got us a problem, Tweety. He doesn't look like he wants to leave." Dean had a sadistic look on his face.

"There's no problem, Dean. He was just leaving." Derrick just looked at her and shook his head.

"You know, I'm a good guy. I treated you like a queen and I guess that's just not what you wanted. I guess you can't turn a hoe into a housewife." Before Dean could jump on Derrick, Robin slugged him in the mouth right where Roman had hit him a few weeks ago.

"Get the fuck outta my house before I let Dean kick your ass like he's been wanting to do since he met you!" Derrick held his lip and walked out the door. He turned around like he wanted to say something else, but changed his mind when he saw the crazy look in Dean's eyes.

After Derrick left, Robin closed the door and felt Dean's eyes burning a hole into her from behind. She turned around and fell victim to those stunning blue eyes.

"I keep trying to tell people not to mess with Tweety!" He wrapped his arms around her and she nearly melted. Something was different about his hug this time. She stayed in his arms as long as she could until he pulled away from her. "I need to talk to you about some things…" Robin's joy faded and her stomach knotted up. As Dean motioned for her to sit down, tears filled her eyes. She knew this was serious when a stoic expression covered Dean's face. In her mind, there was no way this could be good.