Chapter Seven: Moonlit Strolls
To Stephanie's surprise, Shawn's plan didn't turn out as bad as she thought. When Shawn bypassed the hotel, Therese leaned up to ask Stephanie about it and she only pointed toward Shawn, not wanting to take any responsibility. Therese said nothing, contemplating how she would handle the situation once they stopped. She continued to converse with Kevin to keep any suspicion down. Upon arrival, Therese was relieved to see a well-lit park dotted with trees and a creek running through it.
They filed out of the vehicle, their conversation down to a whisper. Therese quickly surveyed the area and clutched her handbag, feeling the outline of her 9mm. Shawn said something about how they couldn't just end the date with dinner but Therese barely caught any of it as they headed for the walk beside the stream. If Michaels and Nash had anything to do with the stalker, they were both in trouble. If not, Stephanie was probably the safest she would ever be. Shawn was showing an obvious interest in her, friend or otherwise, and gut instinct told her that Stephanie was safe with him. However, gut instinct would not hold up as an excuse if something did happen.
They stopped for a moment to admire the beauty of the small place. Shawn glanced over Stephanie's shoulder and winked at Kevin. Simultaneously, the two put an arm around Stephanie and Therese, respectively, and steered them in opposite directions. Stephanie reveled in the moment. Moonlight bounded off of Shawn's hazel eyes and all she could do was stare into them. Nothing was said between the two of them as they slowly strolled down the sidewalk.
Therese would have killed for it to have been that way for her. She lost all thought the minute Kevin wrapped his arm around her. She didn't realize she has stopped breathing until he asked if she was alright. She nodded and then glanced over her shoulder at Stephanie and Shawn. They settled on a bench and Therese situated herself so that she could watch them. They were adorable together. Stephanie was laughing and Shawn was smiling as if he held the entire world in the palm of his hand.
"She's a big girl, you know," Kevin said when he caught her looking in their direction again. "She's hardly a freshman in college anymore. It's amazing how much she's grown up since she started working with her dad and especially since she ran around with D-X."
Puh-lease, she's got you fooled too. "Yeah, I guess so," Therese muttered. They were silent for a moment and Nash toyed with one of her blonde curls that the breeze had blown out of place. Her stomach flipped and she knew she had to start talking or she would lose herself in a moment. "What does Shawn think about Stephanie?"
"They're good friends. I know that much." Kevin watched the two for a moment as Shawn re-enacted some match that had gone embarrassingly wrong in his first days of wrestling. Stephanie was trying not to laugh but I was obvious that she almost couldn't contain herself. "They were never particularly close that I'm aware of. We weren't exactly talking when she was hanging out with Shawn and Hunter. Yeah, at one point in time, he was a bad influence on her. Nothing would have changed with or without him."
"What about now? I mean, he's not going to treat her like he did then or anything?" she questioned, hoping to put her mind at ease about Stephanie being with Shawn.
"Nah, Shawn has changed more than anybody I know. After his back injury—were you watching wrestling then?"
"Uh, I think. Either way, I know about it. Go on."
"Anyway, between the injury and his stint of playing at commissioner, he began to think about his career and realized how stupid and childish he was being. He kind of got depressed and dropped off the face of this earth. He's really been a whole new person since I barely got him to come back last year." Kevin stretched out his legs and turned back to playing with a stray curl again. They both spoke at the same time. "Go head," Kevin said first.
"Shawn's got the reputation for being…well, for lack of better words, a heartbreaker. He wouldn't play with Stephanie, would he?"
"I don't think the heartbreak kid image will ever go way. Besides, I think he likes it. But, like I said, he's changed. He's just a natural flirter. At least, now, he doesn't make good on his flirts. He's too much fun to not tease him about it. Just out of curiosity, why? Is Stephanie interested in him?" Therese froze. She didn't know what to say. "Doesn't matter. It's obvious."
Therese sat up straight and stared Nash in the eyes. She tried to keep her voice calm and steady. "Whether or not that is true, do not say anything to either one of them. Shawn does not even need to think she's interested and Stephanie does not need to know that you think so."
"Hold on there. I wouldn't say anything until I knew for sure about both of them," Kevin responded, holding up his hands.
"Sorry I reacted that way…even after all these years, I still try to protect her," Therese easily lied.
"They do look good together, don't ya think?" Kevin glanced in their direction again. They had never left Therese's sight. The two were quietly talking, Stephanie seeming to pour her heart out over a matter and Shawn raptly listening.
"That's probably the happiest I've seen her since I've started working for her, and, from the looks of it, the happiest she's been in a while." Therese wasn't lying this time, but it still didn't change her opinion of Stephanie.
"How long has it been since y'all were in school together?"
"Oh my gosh…let's see…It's been five years since she graduated and I finished three years before she did…that's a lot of time." Nash was quickly doing the math in his head to figure out how old Therese was without having to ask. He knew she was at least thirty, which made him feel better about going out with her since he thought she was Stephanie's age.
"Boston U…Communications?"
"Yeah, I obviously didn't do anything with it…well, I don't consider eight years of odd jobs doing something with it. I ran into Stephanie the last time she was in Atlanta for a show. She offered to hire me in WWE communications but I didn't want to live in Connecticut. Then, I, uh, kind of fell into some hard times, called her up, and, well, now I'm her personal assistant…I know I didn't go to college just to be a glorified secretary, but, for now, it'll do until I get back on my feet." Damn, I'm starting to believe myself, Therese laughed to herself. They were silent for a moment, smiling together at Stephanie and Shawn's laugher. "I wonder what's so fun—" Kevin started but never finished as Therese darted off the bench and across the way in the direction of the other couple.
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Stephanie had never more in her life wanted to be with Shawn Michaels. It took every fiber of her being not to play in his thick blond curls. She wasn't sure what he was feeling about her and she wasn't going to take the wrong step now. She knew she wasn't ready to move on, but she was enraptured by his charisma that she had moved on in those moments in the park. He made her feel like the moniker of "princess" that she had earned. Her ex-husband and the stalker were the last things on her mind as she wished her heart away that Shawn would make the first move. He was telling her another of his crazy stories, this one non-wrestling related, when her mood drastically changed.
No one had seen the dark figure moving in the shrubs until he darted out at the couple. The hooded man decked Shawn from the side and flipped open a switchblade knife. He demanded their money and Stephanie just held out her purse. The black-clad form reached for the handbag, but he fell to the ground as Shawn swept his feet out from under him. The man tumbled into the creek and sprinted off into the trees. Shawn started to jump the creek but thought twice and turned back to check on Stephanie. Therese was with her, an arm around her shoulders. She was slightly shaken but otherwise alright. "Shawn, I think it's time to go," Therese quietly said when he came back up from the creek bank. She searched the ground with her eyes for the knife, not knowing if he could have been the stalker since she never heard the demand for money, but nothing was to be found.
The men instinctively wrapped protective arms around their respective ladies as they headed back to the Explorer. Pardon me, but I'm the one acting as security and I have a gun! Therese thought, wanting to fling Nash's arm from her shoulder. She let him think he was doing her a service and walked across the green to the vehicle. Once inside, nothing was said between the four of them.
At the hotel, Therese allowed Stephanie and Shawn to say 'goodbye' to each other without her presence. "Sorry, it had to end this way, doll."
"Nothing you could do to stop it…but you were my hero. You did save me," she said, blushing.
"I did what anybody would have done," he replied, his cheeks a little flushed also.
There was an awkward silence for a moment while Stephanie's mind churned. She wanted to see Shawn again but didn't know how long she was going to be stuck with Therese. Therese could be her only ticket to him for some time. "Pick Kevin's mind about Therese and call me. She's still apprehensive about working for me, so I don't think she'll willingly take time off. I'll give her a little 'encouragement,'" Stephanie said, winking and glancing in the direction of Therese and Kevin.
Therese was writing her number down on the back of a receipt and Kevin was broadly smiling at her. She handed him the paper back and gave him a one-armed hug. They gave each other a quick kiss on the cheek and Therese came to collect Stephanie. She thought she was going to have to pull Stephanie off of Shawn as she hugged him far longer than a friend would have. The four waved 'goodbye' and were off to their respective places.
Stephanie tried to linger in the lobby as long as she could because she knew what was coming when they got back to their rooms. She was ready for anything Therese threw out at her but a fight would ruin an otherwise perfect evening. Well, not counting an attack by a mugger and the embarrassing "college" stories, she thought. Therese held Stephanie's door open for her and then slammed it once inside. Stephanie waited for the harangue but Therese only stalked by. She tossed her heels rather unceremoniously into a corner and flipped on the television, knowing that she had to find some hockey to take her aggression out on before she took it out on something, or someone, else. If she hadn't been so pissed, she would have been elated to find Anaheim still in overtime. Flopping down on the bed, she yelled at a Minnesota player that almost took his opponent's head off.
Stephanie was beyond confused. Therese took her head off last week just for opening the patio door, but, now that it was her own fault that she was almost mugged in the park, Therese wasn't saying a word. Her hope was that Therese was not so angry that she couldn't even speak but that it was something completely different. What it was, she had to know. "Can we get this over with so I can go to bed?"
"Get what over with?" Therese asked, not looking up and throwing a hotel pencil at the television when Minnesota didn't get a penalty called on them for what she thought was a blatant cross-check.
"Come on. You are pissed at me and I'm not waiting while you seethe about it and blow it all out of proportion."
"You want me to yell at you for what happened? Okay. What the hell did you think you were doing by going off with Shawn?" she angrily asked, sitting up on the bed and throwing her legs over the side.
"You were right there. It's not like I was hiding. You didn't do anything to stay with me. Like I couldn't tell you and Kevin were in deep conversation."
"It was about you! I was trying to find out whether or not I could trust Shawn."
"You can trust Shawn," Stephanie replied through clenched teeth.
"How do we know that?" Stephanie didn't say anything. "In case you didn't notice, the second that guy attacked you, I was there."
"Look, I'm fine. You got what you wanted in going out tonight. Everything's fine."
"I got what I wanted? You only used Kevin to get to go out with Shawn!" Therese yelled, standing up from the bed.
"You used me to go out with Kevin!" Stephanie flung back.
"I told him 'no' and you told him 'yes.'"
"Yeah, and when I changed my mind, you talked me into going anyhow," Stephanie accused, angrily jabbing a finger at her.
"We are just going to argue in circles. Yes, I'm pissed at you. I wasn't talking because it was bad night and I needed to get it out of my system instead of taking it out on you. But, no, that's not good enough because you just invite misery. You want me to be constantly yelling at you or belittling you. That's the only way you know you exist is when you're being abused."
Stephanie's eyes narrowed in anger and she started to speak but snapped her mouth shut. Therese stared back, waiting for the other woman to say or do something. Stephanie turned on her heels and stalked into the bathroom, slamming the door shut behind her. She settled on the cool floor and leaned her head up against the vanity before bursting into tears. Maybe she's right. Maybe I have to be yelled at to make sure I even matter anymore. Maybe I need a pity party. Maybe I thrive off of pity. When the sobs finally subsided, she climbed into the shower in hopes of ridding herself of the emotional residue of her pity party.
Therese didn't try to stop her. When she heard Stephanie crying, she headed to the bathroom but stopped just shy of knocking. She didn't have a clue what to say and thought it better that Stephanie just have her cry out. The only reason she had fought with her was because she was frustrated with herself and Stephanie started pushing her. She had failed to keep Stephanie safe from a mugger in the park, so how was she supposed to keep her safe from a stalker? She would be back home in a matter of days and under review—that is if they didn't fire her first. Then she had said things that she hadn't meant to say. Just because she believed them to be true didn't give her the right to bring Stephanie to tears with her words. Therese had planned to apologize to her when she came out of the bathroom but she had fallen asleep before Stephanie was out of the bathroom.
The next day was one of the tensest days between the two. Neither spoke to other. Just when Therese had found the nerve to apologize, Stephanie would be in the middle of something and give her a glare that meant "stay away." Eventually Therese gave up and left her alone. After their fight, Stephanie didn't want to talk to her, no matter what she had to say. She was grateful when Therese gave up trying to speak to her. She found that she could concentrate on her work better.
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TBC…
Author's Note: Sorry to those who expected more of Shawn's plan and that it was less "Shawn-like" and more subtle than normal.