My eyes were glued to the monitor backstage as I idly chatted with Maria. Poor girl, dumb as a clump of dirt. It's awful to say but she makes up for it by being so sweet and naïve. I could see him walking up the ramp, and I soon lost track of what Maria and I had been discussing. Oh well, it couldn't have had much depth anyway. It was probably just last week's episode of some materialistic MTV reality show. "You wouldn't believe it. She said one thing and she said another thing, and…"

He said, she said. That was all I caught before I spotted the rapid movement of the curtains as he whipped them back. That couldn't be good. "Hey, you. You didn't see me coming?" I said in that flirty tone that girls use. I had my best sweet, completely uneager smile on my face. If he couldn't tell I was happy to see him he had to be blind. Maybe he would have had better luck if he was actually looking at me.

He just walked right past me like I wasn't even there.

"I was talking to you, you know. You're the only one I've been waiting for." Absolutely no response, but I still pursued him. I could almost imagine how Umaga felt in the ring, minus the weird native part. "Anyway, I was thinking, you and I should grab a bite to eat. Maybe get better acquainted with the city. Then if we have time to kill we can head over to my room and talk, or something." Or something. I made sure our options were always there. Again I was not given a response; he just kept walking.

"Carlito, you're acting like I'm not here talking to you. Stop for five seconds, will you?" Before he had the time to escape into another hallway or leave for the locker room without speaking to me, I grabbed the sleeve of his shirt and tugged lightly. If he couldn't hear me, or see me, I surely would have felt that, and he did.

I didn't expect him to have the response that he did.

It only took him a split second to voice his dislike for what I was doing. He spun around faster than a cheetah with a can tied to its tail. The words that flew out of his mouth were too quick for me to react to and definitely not in English, but I could tell that they were not meant to be taken nicely. My mouth was opened to say something to my defense, but as soon as I parted my lips, he had shoved me down by the shoulders.

Although it was entirely possible that he hadn't intended for things to get to that point, walking away from a girl crying on the floor is completely intentional. There's no arguing that. I wasn't complaining though. I just gathered all of my calmness, wiped away my tears, and went on with things. No one was going to see Trish Stratus vulnerable again.

----

"I'm fine, guys," I groaned as I rose from the bed. "Really, I'm feeling better, and I can sleep off whatever is left." Being the rambler that I was, I made assumptions before I made wise decisions. My head was in twenty different places. I wasn't even thinking when I opened the door to greet Lillian and Torrie. "See, I'm fine." My eyes met with my guest's and I shouldn't have been surprised when I saw that it was him.

"Carlito, you should-"

You should go. You shouldn't be here. You should give me space. You should let me keep my dignity. You should stop making me care about you. "You should kiss me" was never on the list of things to say, but he made up his own rules.

"No. We're. Not. Doing. This." My words were punctuated by kisses until I put my arms up as a barrier between us and pried my lips from his. "Whenever you're bitter, or angry, you're not going to take it out on me and then expect to get in my bed. You shouldn't be expecting anything from me anyway. You hurt me." His lips had just been taking a break, because they were back on my lips. My lips, my neck, but he seemed to use the most care when he kissed my shoulder. I didn't protest.

While I sit here writing this, he's still in my bed.

Her pen was still in her hand. She had stopped writing once she felt his cheek rubbing against stomach. "Hey, are you awake?" Trish whispered as she stroked his cheek with all the loving she could muster. Her hand went still as he buried his face into her stomach, which she took as a sign that he wasn't quite ready to wake up. She couldn't blame him. She wasn't sure what time it was but it was late. To her surprise, when she looked down to admire him he was staring up at her.

In his drowsy state his coordination wasn't the best but with a few yawns he was faking with the best of them. Pretending to be wide awake, he laid his head down on her shoulder and poked the cover of her journal. "What's that?" He asked, his closeness causing her to grasp the book tighter. "This," she said as she looked down, "is just a silly journal."

Carlito had noticed it before. She had hid it beneath her jacket before. It had managed to slide under the bed on accident. It was never supposed to be seen by him. He knew that much. "Silly? Not if you keep it so close to you." The routine was the same as always. Trish opened her hand and let the book drop to the floor. "I only keep the memories close. I want to keep you even closer. You know, before something else tries to tell us that this can't last forever." Trish's arm dropped down to the side of the bed.

Out of his sight, she knocked lightly on the nightstand.

Notes: I just want to say that I'm so pleased by the feedback I've gotten. I didn't think that the story would get that much attention. It was originally written as a one-shot just in case the story didn't feel right or anything. I hadn't thought of what would come next in the story, so I decided to pick it up as a story about a relationship, with a good part of it being told from her journal. I really didn't want to drop that idea. Expect the next chapter to be a lot more lighthearted. I hope you enjoyed reading this. I'll try my very hardest to meet all of your expectations.