We slipped into each other's lives so quickly once we warmed up to each other and I got past the thought that he was making our storyline happen for his own benefit. We were forced to spend more and more time together and it often leaked over from our time at the arena to our time on the road. We had signings together, would get food after the shows, and even had the occasional radio or TV appearance. There of course were some rumors about us as we became closer, but I found that ignoring them made them go away faster. We'd actually become friends, sharing stories about each other's pasts, talking about life and work. In a way, he confided in me and over dinner one night, when he was being extra quiet and I asked him what was wrong, he told me he was getting a divorce. It had been a little awkward but his moods were explained after that.

A few weeks after he broke the news to me, he was walking me to my hotel room after getting dinner and we stopped at my door as usual to say our goodbyes. I reached up to give him a hug and kiss his cheek, as we did every night, and for some reason our normal choreography got confused and for the briefest moment, our lips met. I pulled away immediately, blushing, and he apologized but he was smiling that dorky dimpled smile of his. We had kissed on screen before, but that was work and this was different. I gave his shoulder a rough push before saying goodnight and going into my room.

He teased me about it for an entire week until he started to get weird on me. He wanted to hang out still but I often caught him in quiet moods, not saying much over dinner and seemingly just wanting my company. It was again when he was walking me to my room that we had a revelation in what would become our relationship.

"You've been so quiet," I mentioned, looking up at him as we walked down the empty hallway.

He gave a half shrug, eyes ahead as he tracked the numbers on the doors. "Been thinking," he mumbled, very unlike the man I had come to know. He reached for my hand as we walked, which was also very unlike him and I laughed as I pulled it back.

"What are you doing?" I asked, keeping my voice light even though I thought he was going crazy. We stopped at my door and he turned to look at me.

"We should date," he said bluntly and I laughed again but the serious look on his face made me stop abruptly.

"You're serious?" I asked and instantly felt my heart racing and my cheeks blushing.

"Why not? We spend so much time together as it is, why not take it to the next level?" he asked. He was very serious. The semi kiss the week before must have thrown him for a loop.

"You're insane," I shook my head and turned to open my door.

"Give me one good reason why we shouldn't," he said and I whirled around to face him, firing off my answers.

"My career, the rumors, you aren't even fully divorced yet. Should I go on?" I asked and then continued on anyway. "There's already rumors, you know that, right? We get dinner and everyone whispers that we're sleeping together. The storyline has produced this bizarre online community of people who want us together in real life. I've done the date a star thing, if you don't remember all the stories I told you, and it didn't really get me anywhere career wise. All it got me was a broken heart. I got to this position on my own and I wanna stay here on my own, not because of some sexual connection with a top guy. And what makes you even think I…"

He kissed me. I was rambling nonstop and he silenced me with a kiss, a real one, not just lips brushing each other's by mistake. I melted against his soft lips and his hand went to my back to help mold me against him. When we finally broke apart, I was breathless and I blinked my eyes open to look up at him. I turned from him quickly, embarrassed that I had given into him so easily and effortlessly, and opened the door to my room. I opened it just enough to slip inside and forced it closed quickly, my cheeks hot with a blush caused by him, a blush he would bring to my face many more times in the future.


My blush was a dead giveaway that I was embarrassed, which made it easy for people to pick on me backstage. They knew they'd get a reaction when my face changed colors so people would make jokes or pull ribs all the time.

When we were just friends he would often stick up for me, calling off the guys backstage who took their jokes a step too far, or turning the attention on himself so people would forget why they were laughing at me. This, of course, just made the rumors worse that we were sleeping together.

When we started to date in secret, he stopped this sort of behavior to keep the rumors at bay. It worked for a while, people thought we were drifting apart because we didn't seem as close backstage anymore. What they didn't know was that I was slipping onto his tour bus at rest stops on the highway or he was sneaking into my hotel room on extended stays in cities.

We'd been dating about a month when a sexual innuendo was made toward me as part of a storyline and it carried its way backstage. The innuendo's turned derogatory as the boys club formed near a monitor backstage and he was right in the middle of it. I remember his laughing face when jokes turned to hurtful words. He did nothing.

Our eyes met from across the hall and all I remember feeling is hurt before I turned away and went to the locker room. I showered and dressed before tagging along with one of the girls to the next city, I didn't want to see him at the moment. All I could think about was his laughing face, laughing at me and at my expense. He called me repeatedly that night until I finally just shut my phone off. I avoided him the entire next day until the hurt passed and I actually started to miss him. It amazed me that I could miss him after less than twenty-four hours, but I did. After my match that night I went to the bus and waited for him there.

He looked tired when he finally came on board well after the show ended. He stopped in his tracks when he saw me and I stood from my spot on the couch. We just looked at each other for a long time until the bus gave a jolt and we started to move. The inertia pushed him forward and I was folded up in his arms in no time. "Don't ever do that again," he murmured into my hair. "I had no idea where you were, if you were ok." His tone came out so genuine, he was aching, and it broke my heart.

"I won't," I whispered, and I knew from that point on that this relationship would be trouble.