Chapter IV: Kiss and Tell
Summerslam was upon the wrestlers and staff of WWE and Cheryl was working her first inter-brand event. Actually, "working" was a loose term. She and the other women had to lose to the diva contestants in dodgeball, something that everyone knew wouldn't happen in real life. Her pride was taking a huge dent that night but it didn't stop her from approaching Molly Holly. Unfortunately, Stacy Keibler and Molly were sitting together and casually chatting. Trying to steel her jittery nerves, Cheryl approached the woman that she gave most of the credit for wanting to be a wrestler.
"Molly, hi, uh, I'm sorry to interrupt. I'm Cheryl Ellis…Cherry Leigh…" she began. The auburn-haired woman stoically shook her outstretched hand. "I just…wanted to introduce myself. I, um, don't want to sound like…like a fan but I am."
"Thanks, I appreciate it," she replied nonchalantly and turned back to her conversation with Stacy. The blonde gave her a smug smile and Cheryl backtracked, bumping into another SmackDown! diva.
"Hi, I'm Dawn Marie. I know who you are but I don't think we've met."
"N-no we haven't," Cheryl replied through her dry mouth, holding out her hand.
"You okay? Do want this extra bottle of water?" The redhead gratefully took it and gulped down the cool liquid. Laughter rang out from the couple behind them and Cheryl and Dawn Marie turned to see Molly and Stacy quickly jerk their gaze from the newest diva and giggled. "Don't worry about them. They're thick as thieves when they're together…and not much better than thieves when you think about."
"I-I have to go. Thanks," Cheryl said, holding up the bottle. "Nice to meet you."
"You too," the brunette melodically called back.
Cheryl deemed it time to give Stacy a dose of her own medicine, especially after the woman had blown her off theevening before. Earlier in the night, when Triple H confronted Randy Orton about giving him the title back, the champion attacked Hunter with only Flair to defend him. She rushed to his aid, pulling a few moves on Orton and attacking him with a chair, giving Batista enough time to make it to the ring after his singles match and run Randy off. A little overkill on her characterfor a woman, she thought, but at least it was better than running around in a bikini.
Returning from backstage, she flexed her hands from gripping the chair so hard and began her devious plans for a slight bit of revenge. By complete accident, Cheryl learned that the label on Stacy's brand of hairspray carefully peeled off. After quite some time in the toiletry aisle, the diva had the tools for payback. As the show started, Stacy's aerosol hairspray mysteriously disappeared and another can replaced it. With less than an hour to go in the night, the bimbo flounced into the room and announced that she was going to the ring to eliminate one of the diva contestants. She ran a brush through her hair, picked at some flyaways, and then pulled out the can that she thought was hairspray. Out came white deodorant all over the blonde's hair. The look of shock on the woman's face made Cheryl's year.
The entire lockerroom was waiting for the trademark hissy fit to start but the last of the diva wannabes popped into the room, interrupting their pleasure. They all crowded around her, cooing over the accident. Deciding to "help," Cheryl made her way through the girls and pushed a bottle of shampoo into Stacy's hand. "You better hurry, you've got less than ten minutes. I'll toss that bad bottle of hairspray and see if I can get you some more." The ice daggers coming from the blonde's eyes should have pierced Cheryl to the wall. Unfortunately, looks couldn't kill. The redhead strutted away, tossing the offending can of spray deodorant between her hands.
Cheryl had to make herself nonexistent until the end of the show. Lita promised to call her on her cellphone if anyone was looking for her. So, the redhead packed up her bag and began looking for a place to disappear. Her answer came when she ran across Batista. Stacy wouldn't dare say a word to her with him around. "Dave," she called out and hurried over to him.
The wrestler inwardly groaned when she called his name. He wanted to avoid her until he could get a handle on what he was feeling. "Yeah," he said, stopping to wait on her.
"I'm kind of hiding from someone. Can I hang out with you 'til the end of the show?"
He glanced at his watch. Twenty minutes. He could do it. "Yeah. You just want to hang out here?" he said, waving his hand around the hall. She shrugged her shoulders and plopped her bags on a box, along with herself.
"So, who are you hiding from?" he asked, trying to find safe conversation.
"Promise not to tell," Cheryl said with raised eyebrows.
"I swear."
"Okay," she replied and started with the tale of the orange lipstick.
Dave had sworn off flirting with her but found himself laughing at her story, enraptured by that damn pendant that dangled in the hollow of her throat. He was mesmerized by its movement and wanted nothing more than to rip it off and kiss her there. She sharply said something to him and his eyes snapped up. "Huh?"
"It's time to go," she said, nodding towards the people filing out.
"Uh, yeah. See you next week," he said and abruptly stalked off.
"I wonder what I said," she murmured but the wonder didn't stop there. Dave was nowhere to be found except during any vignettes she filmed with Evolution for the next couple of weeks. Then he barely said another word to her. She hid her disappointment and tried to push him from her mind.
During that time, Cheryl's character drifted into the background and she handled her matches expertly while dodging a surly Stacy Kiebler. She could only hope that their "problem" endedwiththe deodorantbut something told her otherwise. In the mean time, she would act as if nothing ever happened while she watched her back.
The pizza had arrived and the girls broke out the beers. A toast was made to the goddess of grease and sighs of culinary pleasure then began to sound around the table. "We sound like we're in heat," Nidia mumbled around her slice of pepperoni.
"I don't know about you all, but I'm getting me some tonight when we get done," Lita said with a smirk.
"Why are you even here now?" Victoria asked with a laugh.
"Because, I have to have my junk food fix for the week. Besides, Matt's downstairs hanging out with everybody he hasn't talked to since his surgery."
"Alan better be waiting for me naked when I get home," Victoria stated matter-of-factly.
"Amen, sister!" Nidia chimed in and high-fived Victoria.
Cheryl good-naturedly laughed but couldn't help but be jealous of them. They all had someone and all she had was a few measly dates and the memories of Pierce. The women noticed her slight discomfort and they all muttered apologies.
"It's no problem, guys. Don't let me put a damper on your fun," she said, waving them off with a flick of her wrist.
"You know what can fix that?" Nidia asked in a sing-song voice.
"I disappear with my new mystery novel?"
"No, you start dating again," she replied, nudging Cheryl's arm.
"It's not like there's a ton of eligible bachelors lining up for me," the redhead muttered.
"What's the deal with you and Dave Batista?"
"Absolutely nothing."
"I don't care what you said to me on the plane that day, you two looked a little cozier than just friends," Nidia stated and crossed her arms on her chest.
"It doesn't matter now. We haven't talked in weeks beyond business," Cheryl said, hoping to mask the disappointment she still felt.
"Oh, there's Edge," Victoria threw out. "I saw the two of you talking last night before the pay-per-view started."
"Yeah, you and Edge could go out," Nidia chimed in. "You two would be so cute together."
"Me date Edge?" Cheryl squeaked.
"It's just Edge. He's a real person too," Lita added.
It's just Edge, she wanted to mock. "But he's married."
"Try 'divorced in January,'" Lita said with a knowing look and bit into her pizza.
"That's it. We're setting the two of you up. It's time he started dating again and you, well, you should have a long time ago. It's not healthy for you to grieve this long," Victoria firmly announced.
Cheryl swallowed the pepperoni and adamantly replied, "I'm not grieving. I just haven't wanted to go out with anybody. Besides, why would he want to go out with me?"
"But you'd go out with him if he asked?" Nidia asked, squinting her eyes while the hamster's legs began to cramp from running so quickly in her mind.
"I…no…maybe…"
"Great!" she squealed. "Because, chica, he said he'd go out with you. He's gonna call you and ask!"
"Did you set me up?" Cheryl demanded. All three of them looked away, the guilty dog look on their faces. "I don't believe it," she said, stalking over to the bed and throwing a pillow at them. Victoria grabbed it and hurled it back. Within seconds, the four of them were pummeling each other with every pillow they could find.
Cheryl flopped back on the bed, exhausted. She wondered what it was that they could have said to get Edge to go out with her. The two had hardly spoken more than a few words to each other and Unforgiven was the first time they said more than two phrases to each other. Actually, it was quite a few as they complained to each other about not being on the pay-per-view card. The girls had taken a huge risk by asking him and somehow it didn't seem right to turn him down. In all reality, she didn't have a good reason to do so and she didn't think the reluctance was because of Pierce, even though her mind drifted off into what had prompted their first date.
It was the morning after the unknowing interview for the "security" team for "The Zone." She rose and checked her face in the mirror from the fight. Her lip was split was night before and that morning it was crusted with dried blood and the surrounding area beginning to show bruising. She did what she always did with such minor injuries after a ball game, suck it up and go on her merry little way. Dressing in her rattiest jeans and a practice jersey that had definitely seen better days, she declared it a 'cleaning day' and started with the garage to begin packing up what was left of her grandparents' things not given away in the will.
Sometime in the late afternoon, a knock sounded at her front door. She dropped the dishtowel in the sink from washing lunch's dishes and headed to answer the doorbell that had just sounded. She pulled the door open to find Pierce Ellis, immaculately dressed in jeans and a blue polo shirt. It was at that moment that she realized how brilliantly blue his eyes were. Freaking out about being covered in sweat and dust, she stuttered through asking him what he was doing there.
"I just wanted to check on you since it was my fault last night that woman hit you."
"How—how did you know where I lived?"
"The Internet's a beautiful thing, sweetheart. I hunted it down through your phone number."
"Oh…" she trailed off and began straightening the jersey and brushing her hair back.
Pierce tried not to laugh at her worrying about her appearance. He wished he could be a fly on the wall when she went back in and found the streaks of dirt on one cheek and on her forehead. He barely knew her but he already knew she worried way too much. "So, you finally getting moved in? You want me to show you around the island?"
She laughed to herself. "Well, that would be nice but I grew up on this island during the winters. You been here all your life too?"
He smiled and shook his head in embarrassment. "Yeah, summers for me. I own an apartment right down the road." She leaned across the porch railing to see the complex he was pointing at. "I'm surprised we haven't met before," he said with a dashing grin.
"Really? If you've lived here that long, you'd know you barely know your neighbors with the way people come and go."
"Alright, so I'm just trying to make small talk," Pierce replied with a shrug.
"Hmm…" Cheryl nodded like she sympathized with him.
"Wanna have dinner together to make more small talk?"
She didn't have to think about it and nodded. The rest was history as the two had been inseparable every day possible from there on out.
Cheryl had been home two days, aimlessly wandering around. She had escaped going out with friends and from seeing anyone from "The Zone." Pierce had been on her mind too much lately and the nightclub was the worst place to be to try to put him from her mind. Her parents had accosted her for a dinner every other week that she had been home. This week, however, they were with Craig in Maine, being introduced to his new girlfriend that he was positive was the onefor him. This girl would be the fourth one in four years that he was sure was the oneWhen he finally proposed, then she'd make the trip to meet her.
Tossing the remote control aside, Cheryl checked her home phone and her cell phone to see if they were still working since no one had called her, not just Edge, she added to herself. Deciding a nap on her balcony listening to the waves roll in would be a better way to waste her time than piddling around, she picked up the cordless phone, almost dropping it as it rang.
"H-hello?"
"Cheryl?" a male voice asked.
"This is she."
"This is Edge…" They digressed into niceties about their time home but then he asked, "When are you getting in to Toronto?"
"I'm actually flying in tomorrow afternoon. It's a cheaper flight than Friday for some reason."
"You want to go out for dinner Thursday night?"
"Yeah, sure." From there, they worked out the logistics of the date and ended the call.
Positive that there would be nothing between them, Cheryl wore a simple gray, ribbed turtleneck and a matching skirt that fell to her knees, along with her hair in a French twist. It was nice but not provocative. The phone rang as she reminded herself to calm down and not pick at her nails. It was Edge to let her know he was in the lobby.
She picked up her key and purse as the door jerked open to reveal Nidia. "Guess who's in the lobby looking all hot?" she announced, dropping her luggage, and then looked Cheryl over. "Oh, wait. I bet you know." A brilliant smile spread out over her face. "I'll be waiting up and you have to tell all."
"Good night, Nidia," Cheryl said with a shake of her head, slipping past the grinning woman.
True to her word, the kinky haired girl was waiting up, flipping angrily through the television channels. She bounded up from the bed when she saw Cheryl. "Tell me, tell me!"
"I don't kiss and tell."
"So you did kiss?" she asked, looking like a puppy with a toy being dangled in front of her.
She wished she could have hid the blush that revealed her answer. Nidia was right about Edge looking pretty good. His long blonde hair was down and dry, the soft waves screaming, "I have better hair than you." He was dressed in khakis and a dark green button-up with a brown leather jacket over it. Still, he didn't exactly make her stomach flip like Batista did every time she saw him, throwing a kink into her theory about her attraction to Dave.
The date seemed to be a typical one. Both were obviously nervous when Edge picked her up but, once they started to get to know each other, the tension dissipated. They ended up at a movie with a side order of ice cream afterward.
"How was it? I bet he's a great kisser," Nidia continued to prod.
"Alright, alright," Cheryl said, throwing her hands up and began to relate the tale-end of the date.
Edge had walked her to her hotel door. "I had a good time," she truthfully said.
"Yeah, me too. We've got an early house show Saturday. You want to go out Saturday night?"
Looking up at his expectant face, she couldn't say 'no.' "Sure."
He smiled and released the breath he was holding. "Okay, I'll call ya. See ya tomorrow." Edge took a nervous step back and slightly waved. "I…" he started but then crossed the distance between them and caught her in a soft kiss.
"See ya tomorrow," she whispered and slipped in the door to find Nidia waiting. "So there you have it."
"Well?" the brunette asked expectantly.
"Well what?"
"You've told me what happened but you haven't told me what you think?" she asked, that excited puppydog look still on her face.
Cheryl shrugged her shoulders. "It was nice. I had a good time but…I didn't feel anything."
"Nothing?" the other diva asked, wrinkling her forehead.
"It was nice, kiss included," she meekly replied. "Maybe it'll be different when we go out next week."
"Well, was it different?" Nidia enthusiastically asked, bouncing around on the bed to watch Cheryl.
The redhead sighed in exasperation as she pulled off her heels from her second date with Edge. "Is Eric not giving you any? Is that why you've got to dig into my romantic life?" she teased.
"C'mon," Nidia whined. "Was it different?"
Cheryl sat down on the bed and pulled the clasp holding the crown of her hair back. "No," she answered quietly. "I had a good time but there's just not anything there."
"Look at him! How can you not feel anything?" she asked, gesturing with both hands at the door.
"I just don't. I like him like a friend and that's about as far as it's going."
"Do you think he feels differently?"
"I don't know," the redhead shrugged and peeled out of her hose. "We kinda held hands and the kiss was just a quick one."
"Maybe you just need some more time together. Victoria thinks it's because you can't imagine being with another guy in that way since you, well, you know—"
"You've been talking about me to the other girls?" Cheryl asked, whirling around from where she had been standing and putting away her jewelry.
"They made me," Nidia apologized.
"S'okay. They'd beat it out of me eventually. You can tell Victoria that I've got another date with Edge next week. I was gonna make up some sad excuse and cancel but I'll go again…just for y'all."
The brunette squealed with glee and hugged Cheryl to her. "I hope you dream of good things tonight," she whispered and climbed into bed while her roommate disappeared into the bathroom to get ready to turn in.
She didn't dream of anything that Sunday night but she felt like she was walking in a nightmare during the preparations for RAW. It had been four weeks since her payback on Stacy and she was starting to stop looking over her shoulder every five seconds, expecting the blonde to take revenge. Luck had it another way.
"Is Edge the first guy on the ladder for you to sleep with? Because if he is, I can't wait until you find out he's a dead end," Kiebler sneered. After that, Cheryl had a weird feeling something was about to go down when the ditz and her entourage disappeared, mysterious smiles plastered on their faces. Christy and Carmella may have acted like they were enemies on television, but they had formed a tight-knit group with the former cheerleader.
The confrontation was the beginning as she noticed several of the women on staff glaring at her as she passed by. "What did I do?" Cheryl whispered to Lita as she settled in the ladies' lockerroom again. "It's like there's a hit out on me."
"Who said something?" Lita quietly asked.
"Nobody said anything. I was just getting a lot of looks and it wasn't because of my body."
"Who was it?"
"I don't know their names…the blonde-headed guy that we think may be gay…the redhead that we're jealous of her hair…um, that really cute girl with the dimples that does the sound…"
"Well, you see," Lita began, "there sorta is a hit out on ya." Cheryl's jaw dropped open. "I never said anything 'cause I know you now. Some of the staff thinks you're stuck up. You hardly talk to them, you keep to yourself, you're always reading… Anyway, they didn't particularly like you in the first place but now that you're dating one of the most eligible bachelors in the business, well…you get the picture."
"How do they know I, uh, I went out with Edge?"
Lita slightly pursed her lips and shrugged. "Maybe Stacy said something but it's probably because they're the ones most interested."
"Most interested?" Cheryl asked for clarification.
"You know," the other redhead replied suggestively.
"Oh…what am I supposed to do?" she asked, wringing her hands.
"Barring breaking up with Edge, I don't know. Just go out of your way to talk to them and don't let this problem with Edge bother you," the senior diva explained.
Cheryl nodded, thinking about what Lita had said. She was intimidated by a lot of people when she had to be herself. One would have thought that five years working in a nightclub would have helped but she spent most of that time standing in a corner glowering at people or getting to throw them out of the establishment.
TBC…
revised 5/12/05