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Chapter 5

At ten thirty the following morning, Maria slowly opened her eyes. Her head was a little fuzzy but she wasn't feeling too bad otherwise until she came face to face with Jeff Hardy. She opened her mouth and started to scream, only for Jeff to quickly cover it with his head, muffling the sound.

Jeff looked at her intently, "Are you gonna calm down so I can remove my hand?"

Maria nodded slowly and Jeff moved his hand, "What the hell are you doing here?"

Jeff smirked, "You don't remember last night?"

Maria tried to think for a moment but came up with nothing, "No, all I remember is being at Mickie's place and drinking some vodka. Everything else is a bit of a blur … When did you show up?"

"You were pretty wasted by the time Chris and me arrived."

Maria rolled her eyes, "Obviously, I mean there is no way I would have slept with you otherwise. You took advantage of me."

Jeff made a face, "No I didn't."

"Oh yes you did."

Jeff shook his head, "No, I really didn't. I've only just got in the bed." He pointed to a glass on the nightstand, "I brought you some fresh orange juice a minute ago and noticed you were waking up …"

Maria's jaw dropped, "So you thought you'd mess with me? Are you insane?"

Jeff chuckled, "It was just a joke Maria. What have I told you about relaxing?"

Maria rolled her eyes for a second time, "So not my idea for a joke, Hardy … More like my worst nightmare."

"Not what you were saying last night. You said I was cute."

"You lie. I did not."

"Yes, you did. You can ask Mickie and Chris if you don't believe me, they both heard you."

"Oh my god. Clearly the alcohol had affected my brain."

Jeff grinned at her, "Whatever you say."

Maria frowned, "Where's Mickie?"

Jeff ran a hand through his hair, "She and Chris had an appointment. I dropped by earlier to see them and I said I'd keep an eye out on ya while they were gone."

Maria huffed, "I don't need a babysitter."

"Why are you so angry, baby?"

"One, don't call me baby. And two, I'm not angry, I'm hung over and you know exactly how to push my buttons."

Jeff pulled back the covers, revealing that he was indeed fully dressed and got out of the bed, "In that case, I'm gonna leave you to it. Enjoy the juice. I should be getting back to work anyways. I'll see you at the wedding on Saturday."

"Urgh, don't remind me. Although, now I come to think of it, I don't know what I'm worried about, you'll probably just no show. Afterall, you have a history of that, don't you?"

Jeff placed his hand over his heart, "Ouch."

The redhead sat up slowly in the bed, "You really are an asshole, do you know that? I'm just surprised that being such a fantastic designer you haven't launched your own fragrance yet. You could call it 'Asshole by Jeff Hardy.'"

Jeff made a face, "It wouldn't actually smell like Asshole though, right? Because I'm thinking that would smell pretty bad and nobody would want to buy that ... What? Are you upset that you didn't offend me, Maria?"

Maria pouted, "No."

Jeff smiled at her, "Yes you are."

The wedding planner folded her arms over her chest, "No, I'm not."

"Now which one of us is lying? Anyways, as fun as this has been, I really gotta go. I'll see you on Saturday. Don't worry I will be there." He winked at her.

"Really, there's no need. I probably won't see you anyway, I'll be busy working."

"And that's another reason for me going. Gotta make sure you don't stress out too much."

"I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself."

"And besides, I can't let Candice down."

"But you have no problem letting me down," Maria whispered when he was too far away to hear her.

"What was that?"

"Nothing, doesn't matter."

"See ya, Maria."

"Whatever." Maria waited for Jeff to leave the room before she flopped backwards onto the bed, "Why me?"

Thirty minutes later, the redhead was preparing to leave the apartment when Mickie walked through the door, "Oh hey, honey. I wasn't expecting you to be up yet. How's your head?"

"A little fuzzy but not too bad." Maria put on her jacket, "Last night, I didn't do something really stupid like call Jeff cute did I?"

"You don't remember?"

When Mickie didn't deny it, a look of panic spread across her best friend's face, "Oh shit."

Mickie smiled, "Don't worry, it wasn't that bad. And I explained everything to Jeff."

"What? How could you?"

"I only told him that you were in a bad mood because you'd had a crappy afternoon. I didn't tell him he was the reason behind your crappy afternoon."

Maria blew out a breath, "Thank god. He's bad enough now but if he ever found out I wanted to sleep with him, he'd be unbearable. And that's wanted as in past tense before you say anything."

The brunette held up her hands, "Hey, I wasn't going there."

"Glad to hear it."

"Did you enjoy your orange juice by the way?"

Maria raised an eyebrow, "How did you know about that?"

Mickie smirked, twirling a small section of her hair around her finger, "He brought it over especially for you. I thought it was kind of sweet."

Maria sighed dramatically, "You would. Look I gotta go. I have a million and one things to check on before Saturday for Candice. I'll call you later?"

"Sure thing, hon."

Maria walked forwards towards the door but suddenly turned back towards the other woman, "Oh and thanks for letting me stay last night."

"No problem. Did you sleep well?"

"Yeah."

Mickie giggled, "Must have been the fact that Jeff tucked you in."

"He what?"

"Tucked you in. You passed out after you ranted at him for being a loser."

Maria cringed, "Oh shit. Why didn't you stop me?"

"I was going to but it was too late. You really let the guy have it."

"Well he's an ass…"

"Asshole, yeah so you keep saying."

The taller woman placed her hands on her hips, "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing, nothing. Weren't you going?"

"Yeah … You'll keep, Mickie James."

"You love me really."

Maria rolled her eyes, "Sometimes." She affectionately touched her best friend on the arm, "See ya later, Micks."

"Bye, Ria." Mickie opened the front door for Maria to leave.

As Maria walked down the hallway, her cell phone started to ring, without looking at the caller ID she pulled it out of her jeans pocket and answered, "Maria Kanellis."

"Oh hey Maria, it's Candice."

"Hi Candice, I was just about to call you. How's it going?" The redhead continued walking towards the stairwell.

"Great, I was just calling to see if you could do me a favour?"

"Sure, what is it?"

"Pick up my wedding dress from Jeff's studio."

Maria frowned even though Candice couldn't see her, "Oh, I thought you were going to do that on Friday?"

"I was but Punk has arranged a surprise for me and I'm not going to have time to do it myself."

"I can do that no problem."

"Thanks Maria, you're a life saver."

Maria ended the conversation quickly and replaced her cell phone in her pocket and shook her head, "I must have done something terrible in a past life to deserve this."