Chapter 2: It's Perfect
"That is literally a terrible idea."
"Gee thanks for your support Sash." They were standing in the hotel bathroom just half an hour later, getting ready to celebrate Finn's victory at the bar downstairs. Becky twirled a piece of her hair around the barrel of her curling iron, "What's so terrible exactly?"
"Bex." She said, pulling her eyeliner pencil away from her face and looking at Becky in the mirror, "Come on."
"What?" She combed her fingers through the new curl.
"I know." She said, leaning into the mirror to line her eye.
"Know what?"
"Becky, I saw you watch his match tonight. I see the look on your face every damn time you see him. I'm your best friend," She stepped back and assessed the wing eyeliner, then looked at Becky. "You can't hide from me."
She sighed an looked over at Sasha, "look," she said quietly, "I gave up on that idea a long time ago."
"This is gonna be really, really painful if you do it. Being around him all the time? You'll go insane."
"I've done it before, I'll be fine," She pulled her curls into a high ponytail, securing it with an elastic. "It'll be worse never getting to see him, it always is."
Sasha frowned disapprovingly, but didn't press the issue, "You ready?"
Downstairs, the bar was crowded with mostly WWE employees. They always took over the hotel when they rolled through town, like a loud, sweaty wedding party. Finn waved to them from a back booth with the New Day gang.
"Ladies you look wonderful tonight," said Xavier Woods, moving out of the bench so she could slide in next to Finn. "Becky are those heels?"
She rolled her eyes "I own heels, and I can still kick your lass all the way to Brooklyn."
"Oh I don't forget it. Hey Sasha, can you help me with something?" He pulled out his smart phone and the two of them were engrossed in their own world of Pokemon. Kofi and Big E were talking shop about their match last night, and so Finn leaned in to Becky's ear.
"I ordered you a whiskey sour, is that aiight?" his breath was hot against her skin, it gave her goosebumps
"You did?" She turned and met his eye.
"Noticed you've been drinking 'em recently"
"Yeah I…Yeah. Thank you."
"I didn't get to tell you about what Hunter said after the match…" He kept his lips close to her ear so she could actually hear his story. They were crammed into the booth and his hand fidgeting on his leg would just brush up against her every now and then. She felt a pang in her stomach every time, hoping he would just linger for a moment. He had once, when she was 19 or 20, at a bar on some tour. She couldn't remember the details, just how good it had felt to have his hand on her knee. After a moment he'd realized what he'd done and quickly removed it, murmuring something about it being inappropriate. Years and years later, she knew what the fidgeting meant, or rather, what it didn't mean.
Sasha caught her eye from across the table, she smiled softly, that look of, "I hope you're happy," before looking back down to Xavier's phone. Their drinks arrived and Sasha grumpily ordered a vodka soda when she saw everyone else take their drinks.
"You gotta send someone with your order if you're gonna take an hour to get ready, like Becky did." Kofi said sipping on a beer.
"Excuse you, we were gone 20 minutes"
"We're pros at fast hair and make up," Becky added, "Also you spent those 20 minutes playin' Pokemon Go so."
"This is true," Xavier said, "I just can't get it to evolve…" Sasha leaned back in to try to help him, and Finn returned Becky's ear.
"So I heard back from my broker,"
"Already?"
"He's a family friend and I…uh…may have asked him 'bout this last week." He grinned sheepishly "I was really hopin' you'd say yes."
He opened an email on his phone, pictures of a two-bedroom apartment in Downtown Portland. It was bright and full of old charm. "That's beautiful, hey, is that a dishwasher?"
"I know that was my reaction too," he laughed and looked her square, "You like it? Honestly, we can keep looking if you don't, he just thought it'd be perfect."
"It is. It's perfect."