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When You're Around

Chapter 43

Monday night Rachel's duty was to hand out the scripts to all the divas and superstars. It was simple enough but she really wished she could be writing them instead of passing them out. But she knew she had to pay her dues and obviously she wouldn't start off right away with the big things. She knocked on one of the locker room doors and waited patiently for the door to open. When it did she smiled up at the young wrestler. "Hi, I've got scripts for the night." She said passing over the stack she had in her arms.

"Thanks," He said with a smile, taking the scripts from her before closing the door. She walked away to head back to the creative office to grab another set of scripts. She heard the door of the room she'd just been at open but didn't think anything of it until she heard someone call her name. She turned and smiled when she saw a grinning Stephen. "Hey,"

"I thought I heard your voice back there." He said and embraced her in a hug when he reached her. "How are you?"

"Good, I'm on script duty tonight," She replied with her nose scrunched up.

He gave a light chuckle. "Not too happy about that huh?"

She shrugged. "Obviously I would rather be writing something but I suppose I should get a feel for each aspect of the process." She shrugged again to show that she wasn't too bothered by this. "Way I figure, I'll be writing main events in no time."

He grinned. "That's the attitude."

She nodded. "So how are you?"

"I'm good, I was actually going to come find you later tonight." He scratched the back of his neck nervously. "Listen, I'm sorry about our date last night. That was definitely not how I wanted things to go."

"It's alright, I understand."

"Do you? I just...even though I'm put in the main event matches, I still feel like I have to earn the respect of the guys in the back who have been here longer." Stephen explained.

"Stephen," She said, reaching for his hand. "Like I said, I understand. You have to prove to Adam and some of the other guys you're not just a little cocky punk."

He chuckled at her wording. "Exactly. Good, I'm glad you're not mad at me."

"Of course not."

"Well, I was hoping I could make it up to you and take you on another date, just the two of us this time." He offered, stepping a bit closer.

She smiled. "I'd love to but I'm having dinner with Chloe tonight, I work tomorrow night and I leave Wednesday morning. Can we do it this weekend?" She suggested.

He nodded. "Absolutely, that will give me enough time to think up something special." He said with a wink.

She blushed a little. "Great, I can't wait."

"Me neither, I'll see you this weekend then." He said and once she nodded, he leaned and gave a small peck on the lips before walking away.

Rachel let out a soft sigh as she watched him walk away. It sure was nice to be pursued. She turned around but stopped in her tracks when she saw Adam leaning against the wall not too far away from her. "What?" She asked when he raised a questioning eyebrow at her.

"Nothing," He said simply before pushing himself away from the wall and walking off. Adam mentally cursed himself as he walked away with his head hung low in defeat. He was so stupid thinking that their nights spent together meant anything to Rachel. She was obviously hung up on Stephen. He didn't know what he could do to get her to notice him.


"So you're saying you are actually going to take time off work and come travel with us?" Chloe asked Jessica in surprise as she clutched her phone tighter to her ear.

Jess gave a little laugh. "Yes for the third time! Is it really that hard to believe?"

"Uh, yeah! Rach and I only beg you to take a vacation every time we see you." She paused thoughtfully. "What made you change your mind?"

Jess was silent for a minute. "Well, I've been, uh, talking to John lately."

Chloe smiled wide. "You don't say,"

"I do say and I just figured it'd be nice to get away for a while." She said casually.

"Well whatever John said to get you to agree, I owe him. I am very excited about this, we are going to have so much fun, wait until I tell Rachel." Chloe said excitedly. "Oh! Before I forget, I don't know if John told you but Randy is having John and Adam over this week and I was thinking it would be fun if we could all get together for a barbecue or something so keep Thursday night open."

Jess zoned off for a second as she thought of seeing John again. She definitely felt butterflies in her stomach. "Alright, sounds good."

"Great! Well, I better get back to work. Talk to you in a couple days." Chloe said before they hung up.

Adam sat down on the bench after walking into his locker room. He rested his elbows on his knees and looked down at his feet, lost in thought. "Damn her," He cursed Rachel to the empty room, he shouldn't be as hung up on her as he is.

"Damn who?" He heard someone say. He looked up and sighed at the sight of John. No way could he lie to his friend, no, he was too down.

"Rachel," Adam answered honestly.

"Wow, really?" John asked. He could tell that the "Damn her," comment wasn't in anger, it definitely sounded more like frustration. He could tell his friend was obviously into someone but he never would have guessed Rachel was the one. "I guess when I look back I shouldn't be surprised cause all that fighting was probably a whole lot of sexual tension." He said with a playful grin.

Adam nodded. "True on my part, though I'm not so sure I can say the same for her. She pretty much hates me even though we've-" He cut himself off, realizing he's already said too much.

John raised an eyebrow. "Even though you've…?" He asked curiously, wanting his friend to finish his sentence.

Adam let out a breath. He was going to have to just tell him now or he'd never let it go. "We've slept together twice." Adam replied.

"No shit." John commented in shock.

"Yeah and I think I really like her but…I don't know…she's always annoyed with me, plus I think she's pretty serious about Stephen."

"Hold on," John said, lifting his hand. "One thing at a time. Ok, she does seem to be annoyed with you often but you're not mister nice guy either. Whenever you two are together, you're constantly making sarcastic and condescending comments to her."

Adam frowned. "Whose side are you on?" He asked knowing his friend was right.

John just grinned proudly. "And as for how she feels about Stephen…well that can easily be remedied by you maybe not being such a jackass."

Adam smiled suddenly after listening to what his friend had to say. "You know, I think you're onto something. This weekend at Randy's, I'll show her I'm a good guy she could really like." He looked at his friend. "Thanks bud."

"No problem."

"So enough about me, anything going on with you and Jess?" Adam asked curiously.

"First of all, I never thought I'd ever hear you say the words 'enough about me' in a sentence." He laughed when Adam threw his water bottle at him. "But yeah, we talk on the phone almost every night."

"Whoa," Adam said surprised. "Sounds serious."

John shrugged. "Maybe, I'm not one hundred percent sure but I'm definitely going to use my time in St. Louis wisely."

A/N: Woohoo! Another chapter! Thanks for all your amazing reviews, i love them, keep them coming!