Chapter 15:
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10:45AM Arianne's apartment.
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Randy woke up and Arianne wasn't beside him. The sun was already high and was seeping freely into the room from the window. He sat up on the bed and looked around the room.
He saw his luggage already at the foot of the bed, a shirt and a pair of pants hanging by the door of the closet and his shoes and pair of socks on top of the chair next to the table. The clothes he was wearing except for his coat were gone too.
The room wasn't big, but it was neat and comfortable, as was the whole apartment. The bed was sturdy and just big enough to hold the two of them snugly.
He put his feet down from the bed and found his flip-flops on the floor, which made him smile a little in amusement. He got up and went out of the room.
"Ari?" He called. "Where are you?"
"I'm in the kitchen."
He followed where her voice came from and saw her cooking. He walked up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist as he planted a kiss behind her ear.
"What are you making?" He asked, talking against her skin.
"Mmm…French toast with berries." She said, "What else do you want to eat?"
"You." He said, slipping a hand inside her robe and nibbled at the curve of her neck.
"Randy, stop that." She said, giggling. He was tickling her. "I was talking about real food."
He relented then and took a seat and poured coffee on a mug. "So what's on the agenda for the day?"
She put a plate down in front of him to eat, and then sat across him on the small table with her legs crossed under, flipping.
"I'm going to HQ by one. I still have a meeting with Stephanie and the rest of the team." She said, "We can't show up together."
She accidentally hit his foot so she put her leg down. "Oops, sorry."
He squinted at her like she did it on purpose, smiling slyly. "No, we can't. They might think I'm staying here—which I am, but we don't want them to know that."He said.
Then he swiped his foot and hit her shin lightly. "Oh, I'm sorry. Was that your leg?" He said, laughing.
"Ah!" She reacted in mock disbelief. "That's not very nice, Mr. Orton." She playfully kicked him on the knee.
"Hey!" He said, "You're fighting me back now?"
"When did I ever not fight back?" She smiled, teasingly.
"Oh, yeah?" He put his feet on either side of her seat, "What you gonna do now?"
"Hmm…this!" She said as she put both her feet up between his thighs, by his crotch.
He laughed, "Not a bad move, you plan on doing anything there?" He asked, mischievously.
But then her mood changed. "No." She put her feet down, and focused on her breakfast—no, brunch. "Finish your food, it's getting cold."
By then, he knew better than to push her when she's having mood swings so he put his feet down too and did what she said.
He doesn't know what triggered her reaction though. She was quiet until they both finished eating, and until she was washing the dishes. He couldn't take the silence anymore so he stood up and tried to cuddle up to her.
"Hey…" He said, as he moved behind her, putting his hands on her hips. "What's the matter?"
"Nothing." She said.
"Come on." He whispered in her ear, pulling her hips towards him, letting her feel him. "I know when something's bothering you. Why don't you tell daddy what it is, so I can make it better."
She finished washing the dishes then and turned around to look at him, but then he started to kiss her neck and she let him do so for a while, but then she pushed him off a bit.
"Stop." She said, "This is the problem, Randy."
She walked away from him and went to the living area and sat on the couch. He followed her, perplexed. He didn't know whether to sit beside her or if she'd even let him sit beside her. So he just stood there.
"I don't understand…what are you trying to say?" He asked, cautiously.
She sighed, "Sit down." She said, tapping the couch.
At least she let me sit beside her. Randy thought. That means she's not mad at me.
He sat down beside her on the couch. "Tell me what's wrong."
"Randy…it's just…" She took his hand, "It's just that every time we're alone together all we do is make out and have sex…"
"You don't…like the sex?" He asked, taken aback, his ego kind of hurt.
"No! It's not that at all! I-I like it…" She said, "Sex is great, I've no complaints in that area…"
"So what's the problem?" He asked.
"Randy, it's just that I kinda feel like that's what this relationship is about." She said, frustrated. "It's not like it for me, I love you and you know that. But when all we do is flirt, make out and have sex…I just can't help but feel that way." She said.
"When we talk, it starts out serious, but somehow we always end up doing the whole cycle…I want to share more than the bed with you." Arianned said, "I want to tell you all about the things that I find interesting. I want to tell you what's going on with me when we're not together. I want to share ideas, and dreams, and my thoughts with you and I want to know what you think of them. Do you understand what I'm saying?"
He looked at her in the eyes. He could see how serious she is about all of it, and he found it cute and amusing that he couldn't help but smile—which annoyed the hell out of Arianne.
"Don't laugh!" Arianne shoved him. "I'm serious!"
He laughed then, "I know, I know you're serious." He put his arms around her and tried to hold her as she struggled to get loose. "Come on, I'm sorry. I don't mean to laugh. You're just so cute when you get serious like that." He said, "I get what you mean, really, I do."
He became serious then, and she stopped struggling when she saw the way he was looking at her so he let her loose.
"You know I love you too, right?" He said, "I wanna know everything about you. What you feel, what you think, everything. You believe me, don't you?"
"You mean it?" She asked. Although in her mind, she already does believe what he's telling her. How could she not?
"Of course, I do." He said. "I completely feel the same way you do…I mean, don't get me wrong…I love your sex too, you...you're awesome." He joked.
"Randy!"
"No, ok, seriously now…" He held her again, but this time she didn't struggle to get free and just let him take her into his arms. "So…tell me what you want to talk about."
"Well…we have this meeting later, and we're going to pitch ideas about the directions we're going to go." She said, "You know how I've been asking you to consider being a face…"
"Ari…I told you…everything about me is a heel…" Randy said.
"No, no, wait…" She said, she sat up straight and looked at him. "Just hear me out…you don't gotta change anything much at all…I want to show everyone how amazing you can be."
"I just don't see how it's gonna work."
"It will work. I believe in you and in your abilities…you can make it work." She said, "You trust me right?"
"Yeah." He smiled. He pulled her towards him and cuddled her. "I trust you. I guess it won't hurt to try."
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That evening at the WWE Head Quarters…
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They were having their annual company Christmas Party that evening and every one of the Divas and Superstars were there along with the other employees. Of course, when surrounded by a lot of people, Arianne and Randy try to keep away from each other as much as possible.
For a while, they were content with stolen glances and smiles at each other from across the room, trying to be inconspicuous. But as the night progressed, they had to find other ways to communicate to each other, and the easiest was through text messages.
But then their exchanges got too frequent, and their reactions obvious that the people that were around them noticed.
[Wut r u laughing abt. over there? – Randy]
[Beth's telling me abt. wut u did 2 Cody at the tanning salon. Ur so mean! – Ari]
[Oh ya, that was funny. Codeman was 'standing at attention'. He must've been imagining sumthing. lol – Randy]
[Don't tell me its never happened 2 u b4. I bet ur imagination does worse things. – Ari]
[Only if I'm imagining u. lol – Randy]
Reading that she couldn't help but look at him and shake her head. He was looking at her too, and gave her a wicked little smile and a wink, which made her smile too. She had to bite her lips to repress herself from giggling.
"Ari!"
"Huh? What?" She said, distracted. "I'm sorry, you were saying something?"
"What were you looking at?" Beth asked.
She looked at the direction Arianne was looking at before and caught Randy before he looked away. But she didn't think anything of it. She knew Ari and Randy were friends, and didn't want to be jumping to conclusions.
But she's also a woman, and her instincts were telling her something else.
"If you want to join them, feel free to." Beth said.
"No, it's okay." Arianne said, "They're probably talking about guy stuff."
"Okay, suit yourself."
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But Beth really wasn't the only one who'd noticed. Cody, who was with Randy, noticed it too. But Randy realized that so he tried to divert his attention away from Arianne for as long as he could—all ten minutes of it.
He just couldn't keep his eyes off her especially while he was just sitting there, watching her every move, every little thing she does even when she's across the room from him.
He just wants to drop the act and approach her and kiss her right there, but of course, he can't do that. That would be like taking a mic and telling everyone about them.
In his frustration, he decided to take a walk instead. He went up to the rooftop to be by himself, since he knew nobody was going to be there.
He didn't tell anybody where he was going either. He pulled one of the chairs that were on the tables and sat there, tapping his fingers. It didn't take him long to send Ari a message again.
[I'm at the rooftop. Get here now. – Randy]
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Arianne was with Stephanie and Vince when she received the message and it made her quite restless. Stephanie was helping her pitch her ideas to Vince then and so she couldn't take the time to text him back.
"Do you really think it's going to work? I mean, he's made to be a heel." Vince said, "Everything about him screams heel."
"The fans are really starting to cheer him, even more than they do John." Stephanie said, "It actually reminds me of what happened to my husband."
"Well, if you put it that way…" Vince said, "My concern is if it will coincide with Randy's gimmick, turning him face."
Arianne's phone vibrated again and she had to check it. It was Randy again, asking her what was keeping her so long and to hurry up because he was getting cold.
"Mr. McMahon, I'm pretty sure he can do it without changing his character much at all." Arianne said, "I have faith in him, and his abilities. He's gonna be amazing. But I think maybe we should talk about this some other time…when he's here, in a more…formal setting. For now, let's enjoy the night."
"That's the best suggestion I've heard all night." Vince said.
Stephanie sighed, "All right, I guess we can do this another time."
"Anytime you want." Arianne said, "I'm always available."
Then they finally left her, but she waited a few seconds before jetting off so it wouldn't be so obvious that she was in a hurry to go somewhere.
Nonetheless, Cody saw her sneak out of the room and was curious as to where she was heading to.
She hurried to the rooftop, but when she busted out of the door, she didn't see him until he spoke. He was standing behind the door.
"Hey." He said, "I'm over here."
She turned around and saw him leaning on the wall behind the door.
"I got your message." She frowned, walking towards him. "I'll have you know I'm not going to be your bootie call."
He stood up straight as she approached, thinking he might have gotten her pissed off.
"Okay." He said, "Sorry, I... "
"Yeah, yeah." She said, "Now shut up and kiss me."
He was shocked that she got her like that, but was more amused. Nonetheless, he did what she told him to.
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It's been about fifteen minutes since Cody saw Arianne sneak out. He'd also noticed Randy wasn't around and he couldn't help but feel a little intrigued.
He'd always kind of felt like the two were too close sometimes, and though it makes him feel a little uncomfortable. He had always tried to move past that because they were both his friends and he didn't want to make assumptions.
But curiosity is getting the best of him this time. So, he went out and looked for Arianne. Somebody told him they saw her go up to the rooftop.
He wondered what she would be doing there, since it would be very cold by then especially because it's winter.
When he got there he saw a guy standing by the door, which was slightly opened. He thought he looked suspicious because he had a camera with him and he seemed to be taking pictures through the small crack.
"Hey, what're you doing there?" He called out.
The man turned around and then suddenly ran away. Cody didn't see the man's face because he had a mask on that covered half his face.
He was going to go after him, but then he heard voices outside, at the rooftop that made him stop. He looked at the direction the guy ran to but he didn't see him anymore.
Cody got more interested in finding out what the guy was taking pictures of and who the voices belonged to, so he opened the door a bit and peeked in.
He saw Arianne sitting on Randy's lap, her head resting on his shoulder with her arms around him. He had his arms around her too, securing her in place, and keeping her warm.
Cody didn't know how to react about what he was seeing and tried to turn around and leave, but then he bumped his elbow on the door, and it opened a bit more.
Randy sensed and heard his movement and reacted quickly. In second, Arianne stood up and he went to the door, and saw Cody inching his way away from there, trying to be inconspicuous, but to no avail.
"Cody!" Randy called him out.
It made him stop on his tracks, and then he turned around slowly to face Randy. Arianne followed Randy and saw Cody too and a look of trepidation crossed her face.
She looked pale, as if the color washed out of her face, especially when Cody gave her a questioning look.
"Cody?" She said, "Randy…?"
Randy looked back at her and reached for her hand, giving it a light squeeze, as if trying to assure her, before looking at Cody again, sternly. If he had any fear about the predicament they were in, he showed no sign of it. And that puzzled Cody a little bit.
"Let's go back outside, shall we?" Randy said.
Randy led the way back outside to the rooftop, still holding Arianne's hand, while Cody followed close behind. She couldn't help but look back at him, just to make sure he was following. She's worried that he Cody might not understand their relationship. And really, who would? It's wrong and she knows it.
When they got outside, Cody became hesitant. He doesn't know what else there was to talk about. He's seen everything there was to see, and it was as clear as day light.
"Randy, I don't think there's much to talk about." He said.
"Sit down, Cody." Randy said.
Arianne put her hand on his arm, "Randy…" She said, trying to keep him calm.
It was cold but she felt colder because of the situation. He realized what she was doing, but also felt her trembling a little and knew she was worried. He took her coat from the chair and placed it on her shoulder before he kissed her forehead.
"Go home. I'll handle this." He said.
She looked at him, like a little child, looking for reassurance. "Are you sure?"
"Yeah." He said, touching her face softly. He smiled a little, "Don't lock up."
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She nodded. It's funny how simple and indirect words from him assure her. She knew he meant to tell her everything was going to be fine and that he was going to follow her home after.
Cody was just standing there, looking at the scene unfolding before his eyes and realizing what the two have between them even before Randy said anything.
Arianne looked at him before she walked away, and her eyes told him everything else.
She needed for him to understand and give her and Randy a chance. And perhaps that opened his mind subconsciously about it.
He didn't even realize that he wasn't questioning it anymore until he sat down and heard what Randy had to say.
They were both silent for a while, just sitting out there in the cold night air, until Randy spoke.
"You're right. There's not much to say." He sighed, "I love her. That's it. That's my whole explanation."
"I know." Cody said. "Listen, I know you're going to ask me not to tell anyone about this…and I'm giving you my word right now that I won't."
Randy looked at him in surprise. He didn't expect Cody to be that way. After all, he's just a kid, what does he know? But Cody saw that too.
"I'm not going to judge you guys given my family history." He said, "The difference is, she works in the same company we are, which makes it difficult…and risky…not just for you, but especially for her."
"We know that…"
"I know." Cody said, "That's why I'm sure you do love each other. That's why I know you love her. Otherwise, it's not worth taking a risk. Arianne's my friend, and I care about her. I don't know what your plans are, and I can't say I'm supporting you guys. But I can assure you, I'm not going to tell anyone about this. I do hope that whatever it leads to, it will be for the best."
Randy didn't say anything. He just sat there and stared at a distance, taking in what Cody was saying.
Cody stood up then, "Well, I guess I'll go back before they start looking for me."
Randy nodded. "Yeah."
Cody started towards the door, but then Randy called him before he opened it.
"Hey, Cody."
He turned around and saw him standing there, with what looks like a look of respect in his eyes, much to his astonishment. As for Randy, he did have a new found respect for the boy he sort of took under his wing. He is now talking to a man, and he deserves it.
"Thanks." He said.
Cody nodded and left.
Randy went back to the party, but only to tell his friends and his boss, Vince, he was leaving. Then he went straight to Arianne's place, where she was waiting for him anxiously. He told her what happened and she was thankful that it went well.
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In a hotel room somewhere…
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The same masked man Cody saw sneaking around the headquarters was uploading the pictures he took of Arianne and Randy to his computer.
He opened his email account and sent them as attachment to two recipients. One of them was Arianne's brother, Joseph. The other recipient was also a familiar name.
Mark Alexander. Randy's former writer.
It was him who got the masked man access to the headquarters, and he was also the same guy who visited Joseph at the nursing home and enticed him to join him in taking down Randy and Arianne.
But that's just two-thirds of them. There's another one who they both answer to, and who was financing their plans.