13

Dallas spent the night in her own room, and spent the next morning driving. Taker was catching his plane from where they were so she wasn't too worried she'd have to deal with him. Except for the nine billion phone calls, of course. So many missed calls, just one message. She stopped at a red light and put her cell on speaker to listen to it while she waited.

For a solid minute there was silence. And then she heard a sigh. "Dallas. I'm sorry. I'm takin' my shit out on you and…fuck. I hate voice mail. Call me back. Please."

Dallas hung up the phone and tossed it onto the passenger seat of the car she'd rented. She might call him. Eventually. It wasn't going to be that day, that was for sure. She wasn't mad – technically speaking. Frustrated. Why was he making this shit so hard?

Her cell phone rang. Dallas glanced at it but couldn't see the caller ID from the angle she was at. She stopped at yet another light and grabbed the phone, meaning to turn the damned thing off. She saw it was Rachel's number, so she answered.

"Stranger. Wanna share a room tonight?"Rachel jumped right in.

"Hello to you too. And I guess we can, why? Thinking of something fancy?" Dallas smirked.

"Hell no. Just a double. I can upgrade for free, so it'll be half regular." Rachel breathed a sigh. "This week has sucked so hard. I need to be around somebody that feels my pain."

"Why? What happened to you?" Dallas asked with a laugh.

"Phil! He won't let me smoke. Not even when I'm alone. He says the smell of smoke on my clothes makes him feel like throwing up and blah blah."

"I hope you blew some in his face. He takes that straight edge stuff pretty serious."

"You're tellin' me. I got over my crush pretty quick. Moving on to the next one." Rachel laughed. "He's a conceited jerk anyway. How was your week?"

"It was an experience." Dallas said dryly. "Although details will have to wait. I'm driving."

"Oh. My bad." Rachel snickered. "Room 412, and I'll leave a spare key at the desk."

"Right. See you in a couple of hours." Dallas hung up and before she could do more than jab at the power button, her phone rang again. "'See you' was my way of saying goodbye, Rach." She answered again, figuring Rachel had forgotten something. That was the usual.

Instead, a deep voice rumbled in her ear. "Where are you?"

Dallas rolled her eyes. Taker was nothing if not persistent. "On my way to the next venue. Matter of fact, I am driving right now so if you don't mind…"

"Wait…" Taker cleared his throat. "You keep askin' me what's wrong. You really wanna know?"

"I wouldn't have asked if I didn't." Dallas said, holding her frustration back by force of will.

"I wanna get together and talk."

"Talk about what? You have made it perfectly clear that you want to be friendly when we're alone and you can get laid, and a complete dick when we are in public. Or more specifically at work. Let me see if I can guess. You assume because I am a female, and I was fucking you, that I have also been fucking with other guys along the way. And you are trying to figure out the who and the how. Let me clear it up for you." Dallas did not give him time to interrupt. "I have fucked exactly one guy in the fed. Does that make you feel better?"

He didn't say anything for a few moments. When he did, his voice had dropped into a chastened tone. "Who was it? So I'm not going crazy trying to figure it out."

"Are you serious?" Dallas started laughing. It really was funny. Annoying but hilarious. "You. You idiot. One means you, this past week."

"How is that even possible?" Taker said slowly. "I thought you and Glen…"

"Me…and…" Dallas snorted with laughter. "Rachel. Rachel fucked Glen. That was a long time ago. Am I now getting the credit for her conquests? I don't know what else you want from me. Would it make you feel better if I fucked around with a different guy every week? I don't get it. I don't understand this weird…bullshit…you keep imagining."

"It's not bullshit. You wanna know the real reason? I like you, Dallas. I have a feelin' that it could be more than…"

"Don't." Dallas cut him off.

"You asked. Repeatedly."

"And I'm regretting it. We hardly know each other. Don't go saying you have some sort of misplaced feelings for me just because you're rebounding, or lonely, or need your ego stroked. I'm not a star-struck ring rat, I don't need to fuck for a better position. And I sure as hell am not gonna be your convenient anger outlet."

"I didn't say any of that."

Dallas shook her head. "I know. I just said it. I heard myself. This is why I don't get involved with you asshole wrestlers. I don't think the world revolves around you, and I sure as fuck am not going to start now. You want somebody who's been around and you can count on who she's fucked, I suggest you call Lisa. You have a nice trip home."

She didn't give him time to come back with an answer for that. She hung up and then turned the phone off.

There was a reason she hadn't been calling him. Dallas didn't do angry, and she knew better than to try to 'talk it out' when she was angry. Taker didn't understand that. If he had waited a few days, and given her space to calm down, Dallas would have likely let this pass. She was going to keep her phone off, and stick to the hotel for the rest of the weekend. Just in case he got any smart ideas about scrapping his trip home for some unwarranted quest to argue things out.

Taker took the hint and backed off. At least for a couple of days. On Monday, when he got off the plane, the woman at the information desk informed him a rental was waiting. So that was one more headache that Dallas had remembered to take care of.

Speaking of Dallas…priority number one was tracking her down and sorting this shit out. Hopefully she'd be in the locker room and he wouldn't have to look far. He made it to the arena and Michael gave him his locker room number. Where his assistant would be waiting. Taker figured it was all a little too easy as he went down the hallway.

So he was not completely shocked when his assistant turned out to be Rachel.

"Hey, Taker. Have a good trip?" Rachel grinned at him from her laptop. Unlike Dallas with her ever-present ink pen and folder, Rachel relied on her computer.

"It was all right." He forced himself not to jump down her throat and ask about Dallas. He tried a different approach. He set his bag down on a bench and looked at her. "So Will isn't back yet?"

"Nope. Next week, maybe. At least that's what Craig said last night." Rachel looked up from her laptop once more. "I got you, Dallas got Orton, and a miracle happened and Lisa finally got stuck with Cena. I feel like I won the lottery." Her dislike of Cena was pretty well known backstage.

Taker smiled dutifully and started digging into his bag, not looking for anything in particular. Dallas was with Orton? He forced the jealousy he felt back down and sighed, accepting it. It was possible that Rachel would have traded her, but really what did he expect? Dallas wasn't like any other woman he'd ever met, and he really needed to stop lumping her in the group with them.

"There's a meeting in about an hour. You have time to grab something to eat before."

"A meeting?" Taker asked, looking at Rachel.

"Yeah. The mandatory staff…well. Mandatory for me. I don't know about you, because I think I have seen you at maybe one of these meetings in the past five years."

"I musta been sick that day." Taker smirked and zipped his bag. "I guess I'm overdue for one anyway." And he could probably get two minutes of Dallas's time while they were in there. Of course he should keep in mind not to push her too hard, considering she did not mind publicly embarrassing him.

"Other than that, you're clear until about four. They wanted to know if you would rather record your promo or if you wanted to do it live."

"Either way, doesn't really make a difference to me." It wasn't like he was saying anything new. "Actually, yeah I think recording it is probably gonna be better. So we'll do that."

Rachel smiled and typed something on her computer. "I am going to have the easiest week ever. All right. I'll go clear it then."

"Oh yeah? I thought I was busy."

"You are. This is why I love being behind Dallas in the rotation. She does all the hard work and she doesn't 'forget' stuff." Rachel did air quotes for that one. She gathered her things up and left him alone to mull over things.

Taker shook his head and paced for a few minutes, trying to figure out why it was bugging him so much that yes, the assistants worked on rotation. Maybe part of it was because Craig thought he was doing Taker a favor by having Will stick with him every time he had to have an assistant. Not that he had complained. In fact, usually Taker made comments about a personal assistant being a waste of time for him.

Of course that had been the week he'd been stuck with Lisa. She got things done, but she was in no way organized. And she left things to the last minute. Taker had found himself one day with no rental because Lisa had forgotten, the next he was without a room at the hotel because they were overbooked and she was waiting to be told to find him another room, instead of just doing it.

Taker heaved a sigh and looked at his watch. He wasn't remotely hungry, and the meeting would be starting in half an hour. He decided he'd wander the hallways until it began and try to clear his head.

Backstage it was packed. Since there was a meeting, everyone was there. Taker nodded at a few people who said hello, but kept to himself otherwise. He did not see Dallas, or Orton. Hell, he hadn't even seen Rachel and he'd been back by his locker room twice. The crowd started moving toward the ring, where they usually held such large meetings. Taker spotting Dallas as soon as he entered. She was standing near the announce table, in apparently deep discussion with Jim Ross and Orton.

Taker saw her glance in his direction as he took a seat in a few rows back from the ring. He lifted an eyebrow and nodded at the chair next to him. Dallas frowned slightly and looked away from him. She said something to Orton and JR before turning and walking over to where Taker was seated.

"Yes?" She dragged the word out, but the anger she'd flashed Saturday was no longer evident.

"How about that talk?" Taker said it in a low voice so no one else would overhear.

"I think you've said enough." Dallas studied him for a minute. "And this is hardly the time or place for another argument."

So, she was prepared to fight it out with him. Taker smirked to himself. "Tonight?"

"I don't know what time I can get away."

Now it was Taker's turn to study her. "Doesn't matter. I'll wait on you."

Dallas rolled her eyes. "Not necessary. I will call you, and you can meet me somewhere."

"You wanna come to my room when you're done then?"

"I'm not sure that's such a good idea." Dallas turned serious.

"Oh. And here I thought you wanted this to just be about sex."

"I do. It's not my intentions I worry about."

Taker was saved from trying to answer to that by Michael climbing up onto the ring apron hitting a microphone to get their attention. Dallas spared him one last completely unreadable look before she wandered off toward where Orton was sitting on the announce table. He smiled and scooted to make room for her to sit next to him.

It was all he could do not to go over there and punch the younger man in the face. So much for having a handle on the jealousy issues. Taker smirked to himself and tried to focus on what Michael was saying.