"Well, I think Chris should tell her."

"Excuse me," Chris said to Stephanie. "What in God's name makes you think that I should be the one to do it?"

"Because you were the nosy one who had to know who was on the guest list. Therefore, as the last one of us to know, you should be the one to pass on the information to Trish."

"Did you hear that?" Chris asked Hunter. "Did you hear that explanation?"

"Sounds pretty good to me," Hunter said, smiling at Stephanie, who grinned back at him.

"Oh, so that's how it is huh? Just because you two are the ones in on this little engagement party, I get to be the odd man out. I hardly think that's fair."

"Need I also remind you that you are the best man at this wedding, and the best man usually takes care of the hard things so that the couple getting married doesn't have to worry?"

"So, yeah, I'm the best man, big freaking deal," Chris said.

"Sounds fair to me, right Hunt?" Stephanie said quickly.

"Yup, sounds good Steph."

"If anyone should be the one telling her, I think it should be you Stephanie," Chris responded.

"Me!" Stephanie said indignantly. "Why should I be the one who has to tell her?"

"Because you are the one who is obsessed with this engagement party, so I think that you should be the one to tell her, what do you think about that Hunter?" Chris asked smugly.

"He has got a point, you are really into this engagement party, and you are planning a lot of it, so it would make a lot of sense."

"Hey, whose side are you on here?" Stephanie asked him.

"I'm on neither side," Hunter told her.

"Then I think it should be you, I mean, you're the one who wanted to invite him in the first place. Shouldn't the guy who invited Christian take that responsibility?"

"That's right," Chris said, glaring at Hunter. "You ARE the one who wanted to invite Christian in the first place. You should tell her."

"Whoa, just because I wanted him there doesn't mean that other people didn't want him there. Would you protest his going Chris?"

"It's not my engagement party."

"You never even had an engagement party," Hunter told him, and Stephanie glared at Chris and shook her head. "You have no prior experience."

"Well I don't know why you want an engagement party in the first place," Chris countered. "I didn't have one and I'm still married aren't I? I haven't screwed it up so badly that my wife, my dear, darling, beautiful wife of the last three years, has left me. So engagement parties are useless."

Stephanie scoffed and looked at him. "I hardly think that's true. I think they can be pretty useful."

"Give me a break Stephanie," Chris said, rolling her eyes. "Look, Hunter invited him, Hunter should tell."

"Well, you should tell because you're the best man," Hunter said.

"You both should just tell her," Stephanie said haughtily.

"Uh, how about you Miss Priss," Chris told her snidely. Stephanie stuck her middle finger up at him. "Oh that's real smooth Stephanie. You're the one coordinating this entire thing, I think the responsibility falls on you."

"Why don't we all just tell her then," Stephanie said. "The three of us are the only ones that know he's coming, we should all be there. I mean, if I tell her, she might punch me, and do either of you want to see this beautiful face to be ugly?"

"I might be interested in seeing you ugly," Chris said, raising his hand.

"I hate you," Stephanie said blandly. "I really, really do hate you. You're so immature sometimes."

"Aww, you're so kind, look Hunter, she's complimenting me."

"How about you two cut it out for like two minutes so we can go do this? Do you think she's going to take it that badly? I mean…really?"

"Have you seen her?" Stephanie said, putting her head in her hands. She glanced up at the two men who were looking at her blankly. She sighed, wondering how they could be so dense sometimes. "I mean have you seen the way she looks sometimes, not have you seen her in the most general sense."

"Oh, you mean when she gets that look on her face," Chris said. "When you know she's thinking about Christian."

"I think we're all familiar with that look," Hunter said.

It was true, and it wasn't just the three of them that were familiar with said look; everyone was pretty familiar with it. Trish wasn't fooling anybody, probably not even John. She was still hung up over Christian. The three of them sighed as they thought about their friend. It was pathetic, but in a completely understandable way. They felt badly for the blonde woman who was still wallowing in her heartache.

"Do you guys know what happened?" Hunter asked.

"Yeah," Chris said. "Christian pretty much just up and left her. He said goodbye, that he needed to start a new chapter of his life or some such bullshit and then he just left. I don't know why exactly, I haven't really talked to him about it. Our conversations usually amount to what's going on in the ring."

"Ours too," Hunter said. "I usually avoid the topic of Trish altogether. Christian's still my friend and everything, but you know, touchy subject."

"Trish wouldn't eat for at least five days after," Stephanie said sadly. "I remember Edge finding her and taking her to the hospital because she was suffering from exhaustion and dehydration."

Tears welled up in Stephanie's eyes and Chris, who was next toher, wrapped an arm around her. "Hey, don't cry. She's better now, at least on the outside."

She shrugged his hand off of her shoulder, not wanting anyone to act like it was a big deal. "I know, I just worry what's going to happen when they see each other again. It's pretty obvious that she's not completely over him yet. Then we're throwing her to the wolves."

"But it's not like we can just ignore one or the other," Hunter said. "We're all friends with the both of them, and it's not fair to choose one or the other, none of us had anything to do with their break-up."

"I don't think that Trish realizes what she has in John," Chris said, thinking about what he had told Trish before about John being a good guy. He was a good guy and right now, Trish deserved a good guy.

"So let's just get this over with then," Stephanie said, always the most determined out of any group. Hunter and Chris looked at each other and shrugged, following the dominant female out of the room. They were kind of dreading Trish's reaction to the news. Hopefully she took it well, considering she was with John now and they seemed like they were at least a little bit happy.

The procession down the hall was single-file, Chris taking the lead, Stephanie in the middle, and Hunter bringing up the rear. When they reached her locker room, they knocked and Trish called for them to come in. Chris opened the door and let Stephanie and Hunter walk through before entering himself. Trish looked at the three of them walk in and looked confused. The three amigos stood shoulder to shoulder and if they resembled anything, it was a couple of three-year-olds that had done something very bad and were about to get punished.

"This is weird," Trish said. "What can I do for you guys?"

"We needed to tell you something," Stephanie started, "something important. And…Hunter, would you like to take it."

"Well…Trish," Hunter said, looking like a deer caught in headlights. "Chris needs to tell you something."

"Um, no I don't," Chris said, leaning forward to look at the other two. "I think that Stephanie has something to tell."

"No, you do."

"No, YOU do," Chris said.

"YOU DO!" Stephanie said angrily.

"Hunter, can you give her a hard shove in the side for me," Chris said. Stephanie glared at him and folded her arms in front of her. "Oh don't go all petulant Stephanie, it doesn't become you."

"I don't know why I deal with him, why do I deal with him?" Stephanie muttered, saying something unintelligible under her breath, but it sounded like a number of some kind.

"Okay you two, break it up, this isn't what we came here for," Hunter said firmly.

"You two are crazy," Trish said. "Why don't you just come out and tell me what this is about. You guys have me a little bit worried. This isn't like an ambush or something is it? Because I consider you guys my friends and it would kind of stink if you guys were to turn on me."

"Fine, I'll do it," Chris said, sitting down on the coffee table in front of Trish. He grabbed her hands and held them in his own, running his thumbs over the soft knuckles of her hand. His voice was gentle when he spoke the next few words, "Trish…Christian is coming to the engagement party."

Stephanie closed her eyes and waited for the explosion. The only explosion was inside Trish's stomach. She blinked her eyes rapidly and nodded slowly, like she hadn't actually heard the news but was reacting anyways because it was what was expected of her. She felt like her chest was caving in and she was caught in the endless rubble. She put her hand over her heart to make sure that it was still beating. Yup, it was still ticking away, so she was still alive.

"Why didn't anyone tell me?" she asked quietly.

"We're telling you now," Stephanie said, trying to laugh, but it came out pitiful. "We could've just hidden it from you."

"Why? Why invite him?"

"It was Hunter's idea!" Stephanie confessed.

"Trish, Christian's my friend," Hunter said. "I couldn't just not invite him. He knows about the engagement, about the wedding, it wouldn't be fair. We all can't just choose sides here."

"Are you okay?" Chris asked softly.

"No, I'm not okay, what made you guys think I'd be okay!" Trish said, pulling her hands away from Chris roughly and standing up. "I know you should be able to invite him and I respect that, I just…I'm not ready to face him, to see him, I'm sorry, I'm just…I have to go."

Trish rushed out of the room, leaving the three of them there. Chris stood up and received a couple of impassioned looks. He sighed and looked at Stephanie, who was tilting her head towards the door and giving that look that pretty much made anyone who knew her cave in and give into her whims. Except this wasn't so much a whim as it was a genuine plea. Chris ran his hands through his hair and walked out of the room, finding Trish standing next to the door, tears in her eyes, but not ready to fall yet.

Chris took her into his arms and held her tightly, switching their positions so he was leaning against the wall and she was wrapped tightly against him. Trish buried her face into the soft cotton of his t-shirt, clinging to his middle. She just needed to hug someone. John was off somewhere, she had forgotten everything in the interim between finding out she would most definitely have to face Christian again and now. Chris was murmuring words of nonsense to try and comfort the distraught woman.

"Hey now, it's not going to be so bad," Chris told her. "I promise it won't be."

"How would you know?" Trish asked, pulling away and wiping at her eyes with the back of her hand. "You've been married for three years, and before that you were with...you don't know anymore."

"I'm not so old that I don't remember what it's like to break up with someone that you love."

"Babe?" Chris looked up and saw John. Trish sniffled loudly and tried to compose herself, keeping her back to him.

"Hey John," Chris said.

"What's wrong?" John asked as he looked concerned at Trish's behavior.

"Nothing," Trish said, turning to face him. "I was just feeling a little down, you know, and Chris was here to make sure that I was okay. I bet you anything though, it wasn't his idea to come out here and comfort me."

"So you got me," Chris said. "But it was nothing, really, but I'll be glad to let you take over John, my woman is probably waiting for me and you know how she hates to be kept waiting for anything."

"Yeah," John said, but he was distracted by Trish. Chris wandered off and John placed his hand on her shoulder. "You ain't cheating on me right?"

She laughed quietly, "I'd be murdered if I were cheating on you with Chris, you'd never find my body…not ever."

"So what's wrong then?"

She thought about telling him that Christian was coming to the engagement party, she really did. It mulled around inside her body and she seriously contemplated the reasons for why she should tell him. John was a good man, he would understand. Or maybe he wouldn't be so understanding. She was trying to be better around him, to not let him down, or let him know that her mind was sometimes elsewhere. She was trying, and she didn't want to regress.

"Just…needed a good cry," she lied. John didn't really buy it, but didn't want to push it. They were both keeping these secrets from each other and it wasn't healthy, but it was what it was. They hid the truths from the other, even though it might've helped had they just come out and said what they were thinking.

But John and Trish weren't the kind of people who really wanted to rely on something else. They were both proud people, strong people, and to admit that these mistakes, the way their relationship was playing out, neither one of them wanted to do that. So they stewed in their lies and secrets, letting them lie until they might explode.

"Are you sure? Did someone say something to you?"

"You don't need to be so protective of me Johnny," she said, trying to sound light so as not to arouse his suspicion. She let him hug her tightly, and she hugged him back lightly. But her mind was elsewhere, it was flying, soaring.

Her mind was in Florida with a certain blond man.