Twenty-Four

Mark was lacing up his boots when Brock Lesnar walked into his locker room without knocking. In two weeks, Mark could go to Minnesota and get Celeste. He was glad she left behind Elise's number. He planned to call for an address before he left. All he had to do was wait out the clock.

It was hard for him to not call Celeste. He missed talking to her. Selfishly, he wanted her around him all the time, but he knew she had things to deal with. She needed to get herself sorted out before she dove into another relationship, and he understood. But he missed her. He at least wanted to know if she had managed to get all of her things out of Brock's place undetected.

He looked into the dull blue eyes of Brock Lesnar. "Were you with her when she pulled that little stunt of hers?" he asked. Mark looked genuinely confused.

"Little stunt?"

"She's gone, man. She took all her shit out of our home," he informed him. Mark looked down, biting back a smile. He at least knew now that Celeste had gotten in and out undetected. She must have waited until Brock was on the road to do it. He knew she was a smart girl.

Brock sat down beside Mark on the wooden bench. "I'm not going to attack you, man, but I want to know: is she with you?"

"No." Brock nodded. He believed him.

"But she was with you."

"She was."

"Did you fuck her?"

"No."

"Really?"

"Really."

"I don't know where things went wrong with her and I," Brock said with a sigh. Mark felt a little uncomfortable that Brock was confiding in him about the problems he had in his relationship with Celeste. But Brock couldn't exactly talk to Paul Heyman. They both knew that Paul didn't care about Brock's problems. He just wanted Brock to become the greatest professional wrestler ever. Brock wanted that for himself, too, but at the end of the day he was still human. "She'll always be the love of my life. I was her first everything. She's so shy, and so beautiful. Looking at her used to give me a tug, but somewhere...I just stopped caring. She deserved better. I don't know if it's just me getting more mature with age or if it's just me accepting that life has torn us apart."

"Or the fact you beat the tar out of her and left her chained to the bed," Mark said. Brock sighed.

"I'm not proud of that. I'll regret that for the rest of my life," Brock confessed. "Jealousy..."

"That wasn't jealousy, Brock. You have a problem. You're double her size and you hurt her. You don't think I didn't hear her cry, or saw her fear? You attacked her two weeks ago, Brock, and you hurt Trish in the process. So don't come to me with this maturity bullshit."

"For your information, I apologized to Trish."

"Oh yeah? What did she have to say to that?"

"She told me to shove my apology up my ass."

"That sounds like Trish," Mark chortled. His every nerve was singing with nervous energy. It was a surreal, strange situation he was stuck in the middle of and he wasn't sure if a fight was going to break out. He hoped not; he was in no mood to fight. Their feud on television was over for now; Brock was now starting to rebel against Paul backstage and on camera, all while feuding with the Big Show. "Are you conceding that it's over with Celeste?"

"I am," Brock confirmed. "I don't deserve her. I don't know if I ever did. And right now I got bigger things to deal with, like building my career." Brock ran his hand over his cropped blond hair. "Are you going to move in on her?"

"I don't know. Probably." Brock nodded.

"I've always heard you were a sharp shooter, Mark. I respect that. I'll see you around." Mark watched, bewildered, as Brock got up and left the locker room.

No matter what she did or how hard she tried, Celeste couldn't get her mind off Mark. She always wondered what he was doing, how Zeus was doing and how things were down in Texas. She watched him loyally every week.

She was spending her day at Elise's, helping her with some gardening. Jacob was helping out as well, fixing Elise's fence. It had been blown to the side during a nasty storm three nights before. Down in the dirt, Celeste was helping Elise plant some daisies when she heard a car door slam. She turned to see Trish climb out of the car, dressed in tight blue jeans and a black turtleneck. Big sunglasses covered her face. Her hair was pulled back into a high ponytail. Jacob's eyes scanned over Trish, his jaw dropped in amazement. He wasn't sure he had ever seen a woman so gorgeous.

"Trish!" Celeste stood and rushed to her friend, hugging her tightly. "What are you doing here?"

"I got the address from Elise. I got her number from Mark. I hope it's okay that I stopped by."

"Are you kidding me? It's so good to see a familiar face!" She hadn't seen Trish since No Mercy. Trish looked much better than she had that night, tanned and toned and glamorous like only a WWE Diva could look. She turned to her siblings. "Trish, this is my brother Jacob and my sister Elise. Guys, this is Trish. She works with Mark, and she's probably my best friend backstage at WWE."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Trish," Jacob managed. Celeste fought the urge to smile. Even in her typical everyday wear, Trish looked like a movie star. Her brother was starstruck. Trish shook his hand, flashing him her million-watt smile.

"Do you drink coffee, Trish? I'll make coffee," Elise offered.

"Coffee sounds good," Trish replied. Elise disappeared into the house, Jacob following close behind after Celeste shot him a look. Celeste turned her attention to Trish.

"Is everything okay? How's your head?"

"My head is just fine, thank you. How's yours?"

"Tormented, but otherwise undamaged." There was an awkward pause between the two of them.

"He misses you, you know."

"I miss him, too," she confessed.

"So why are you doing this, then? It just seems like a whole lot of unnecessary pain."

"I just want to be sure this is what we both want. I don't want to move too fast and not have it work out. You may not understand why I'm doing this, but it makes sense up here." She pointed to her head. "In two weeks, if he still wants to be with me, then he'll do something about it."

"Do you think he won't?"

"I don't know." They walked into the house. "It feels really good to be home and unafraid."

"I'll bet." Celeste didn't have a doubt that Mark wouldn't come for her. It all depended if he met someone else within the next two weeks who left him completely head-over-heels. Beautiful women always surrounded Mark. Women like Traci. Mark wasn't made of stone; he was human. Celeste knew that. To assume he didn't see plenty of women would have been naive of her.

She wondered if she was succeeding in driving him away, but she dismissed the thought. Everybody had her doubting her decision to leave, but she knew this was the right thing for her to do, to get herself some peace of mind and some clarity. Even if it hurt the both of them, she truly believed that it was going to be the best for them in the long run.