Hey everyone! I wanted to get this update out before I went in for my foot surgery! Hope you all enjoy! Posting from my phone so I apologize for typos! I promise I will come back and edit later!

Happy reading!

Carter sat across from Renee on the patio of a café in Greenville, South Carolina, waiting on their food to be delivered and sipping on their coffee. It was a brisk morning but not quite too cold to enjoy a patio brunch.

Carter's legs were crossed, her arms folded in her lap and she was watching the light traffic pass by them while Renee looked at her phone.

They had gotten to Greenville late the night before and Carter had managed to convince Renee to do yoga with her that morning. Their couple of girls days in Vegas had been a fun time; it was always a good time with Renee. Carter knew Renee was eager to see Dean, though. It was tough to leave him behind overseas while they came home to the states.

She couldn't even be mad at her friend for giving some attention to her phone; she got it.

She glanced at her own phone that was sitting on the table. Seth was supposed to have an appointment that morning and she was curious about how everything was going, what the doctor had said, how he was healing. She frowned to herself slightly and looked back at the passing traffic.

They had spoken at least once every day since their phone call. It wasn't always a lengthy conversation and it came in spurts, but they had talked. She was still weary about it, though, and doing her best to keep some kind of distance. She always let him come to her first, even if she wanted to talk to him. She didn't want to come across as encroaching on anyone's territory, he did have a girl friend, and she was honestly trying to figure why she had put herself in this situation anyways. She shouldn't have given him her number to begin with but she felt for him; she knew what he was going to have to deal with while he was recovering and she knew it was hard. And he was lonely; she could sense that in him from the start and she couldn't push away someone that was a kindred spirit.

"You better not be staring at your phone and getting all starry eyed looking off into space because your mind is on Ziggy Starcheater," Renee interrupted Carter's thoughts.

"What?" Carter mumbled, looking at her friend.

"You're spacing out so I know your wheels are turning and you were staring at your phone...I figured it was Dolph."

"No," Carter shook her head and made a pained face at her friend. "I don't think about him much anymore and I do my best to avoid him. He's kept his distance, too."

Because her life was a collection of inopportune moments, her phone vibrated on the table, drawing her and Renee's attention.

Carter read the name on the screen, Rollins, and then reached for her coffee mug.

"Who is it, then?" Renee asked, a slightly playful and happy look on her face. "You're holding out on me!"

"I'm not holding out on you about anything or anyone, Nae," Carter replied. "My brother and I are figuring out Thanksgiving plans."

"Liar," Renee countered, cocking an eyebrow at her friend. "I will reach across this table and look at your phone and don't think I won't. Tell me, Car!"

Carter glared at her friend. "You're really a bully for being so small and bubbly."

"I know," Renee winked at her.

"It's Seth, ok?"

"Seth? Rollins?"

"No, Meyers, yes Rollins."

"Wh- how?" Renee stuttered on her question. "I didn't think you two..."

Carter watched her friend shrug.

"Yes, I know. It has been brought to my attention that I give off snobby airs, I'm going to work on that."

"We do kind of have a clique," Renee shrugged. "But still...why? Or when? How?"

"I gave him my phone number before he left to come home for his surgery."

"You slut."

"No, Renee, stop it. It's not like that at all."

"That line has been said so many times in the history of everything. It's never like that."

"Well it's not. It's friendly- one hundred percent. I had the same injury he has and I went through the surgery and rehab and getting back in to game shape and I just put out an offer of a friendly ear if he needed one."

"So it was Carter the 'I have to fix everyone' girl that gave him your number and not Carter the 'I have a thing for guys with long hair that wrestle in the WWE and have amazing abs' girl that gave him your number?" Renee gave her friend an amused look over her coffee mug as she took a sip of her drink. "I mean, I couldn't blame you. I've been around him, I get it."

"He has a girlfriend so yeah it was the "I need to fix everyone" Carter that gave him my number. I felt bad for him."

"He has a whore but fair enough," Renee shrugged.

"Renee."

"I'm sorry, I can't stand her. She's..." Renee paused at the daggers Carter's look was shooting at her. "Okay! It's not like that, you aren't interested, you're just being a good person, whatever I get it."

"Thank you."

"You can respond to him, don't let me keep you. I don't mind."

Carter reached for her phone and shot a glare at her friend in the process, "I will be so happy when I can give you back to Dean later today."

"Well that's something else that you and Seth have in common," Renee teased her.

Carter trudged into her hotel room after the Smackdown taping on Tuesday night, leaving her bag discarded in the middle of the floor and letting herself fall back onto the bed.

She was tired. Going from Europe, to her home in Tampa, to Vegas and back to the eastern time zone had thrown her body into a little bit of a tailspin. She was ready to sleep and have a day of relaxation. Her next day was going to be full of an airport and more travel though.

She sighed heavily, exhaling as she did so and blowing some strands of hair from her face.

These were the kind of nights where she did miss Dolph; not really him per se, but the company. At the very least she wished that the Bellas or Renee were around.

She groaned to herself, willing herself to snap out of her mood, and rolled off the bed to shower and put herself to bed.

She was just settling in to her bed and about to turn off the bedside lamp so she could drift off to the sound and light of the TV when her phone sounded. She stared at the ceiling for a moment, contemplating if she wanted to look at her phone or not.

Hi.

Carter made a face at the screen but unlocked it to respond anyways.

You do know it's almost midnight don't you?

Thought you were a night owl?

I've had a long day…

She watched the screen as the iMessage bubbles appeared as he was typing. They disappeared and started again before his message came through.

I'm sorry. I'll let you go. I hope you feel better in the morning.

Carter smiled. Thank you.

You're welcome. Good night.

She stared at the phone for a moment before placing it on the bedside table.

And so the conversations continued every day. Still sporadic between her work and traveling and his rehab and whatever else he was occupying his time with; but always ongoing.

He would ask who she traveled with and what she did with her down time, what music she was listening to, and she would ask about his recovery and his start of physical therapy and somewhere in the mix of all of it; it started to become normal.

Thanksgiving had snuck up and after a few days on the road that week, Carter was happily at home in Tennessee with her family to enjoy the holiday, the food, and the family time. The day itself had been full of family noise, cooking, talking, cracking open wine bottles, watching football and just a warm, happy time. Carter had been content and happy and couldn't have asked for a better day even as she returned home with her brother and his family to settle in for the rest of the night.

Then her phone rang and after two ignored phone calls and several ignored text messages she had retreated to the back porch of her brother's house; snuggled in a hoodie and nursing a glass of jack daniel's and coke; trying to let her mind clear and settle down.

Why did exes always have to make appearances on holidays? When would they stop trying to hold on?

She could hear her brother and her nephews in the living room but at the moment she was enjoying her solitude.

She felt her phone vibrate in her hoodie pocket and she groaned in frustration. She was ready to trek out into the yard and throw it into the river that flowed behind the house.

She begrudgingly pulled it out and looked at the screen, pausing at the name she saw; it was Seth not Dolph.

I know I've been MIA for a few days and I wanted to say I was sorry for it. I also wanted to tell you Happy Thanksgiving.

Without hesitation, Carter sought out the phone icon in her messages and pressed send, hearing the rings before she even had the phone to her ear.

"Well hello, Carter Kelley," Seth greeted her.

"Hi," she replied.

"I didn't expect a phone call..."

"You never do."

"I'm not much of a phone call person, really. I prefer texts. Text messaging was by far one of the greatest technological inventions of our time."

"That was a lot of big words," she frowned to herself, "and well...you got a phone call."

There was a pause on his end of the phone. She could hear him moving around and she sighed, leaning her head back on the wooden patio lounge chair she was sitting in.

"Are you drunk?" He asked after a moment.

"No."

"Oh you're definitely drunk," he chuckled. "You fucking drunk dialed me."

"I'm not drunk. I'm a little bit tipsy but I'm not drunk. Although I can't make any promises I won't make it there. I don't have to work until Monday so..."

"Was spending time with your family really that bad?"

"No I love my family. I'm ridiculously close to my family. My evening was bad."

"You want to talk about it?"

"No…" she trailed off and sighed.

"I'm pretty sure you wouldn't have called me if you didn't want to talk about it."

"I called you because I was curious about why you disappeared for a couple of days, since you brought it up." She had a realization hit her and she gasped slightly, before he could even respond to her. "Oh shit Seth, are you with your family? Did I interrupt you guys? I'm so sorry!"

"No," he laughed again, "no, you didn't interrupt anything. I wouldn't have answered the phone."

"Are you sure?"

"It's fine. I'm already at home. It's just me and my dog and the football game."

"You have a dog?"

"His name is Kevin."

"What kind of dog is he?"

"He's a yorkie."

Carter snickered. It was almost a snort.

"What?" he asked her.

"I wasn't expecting you to say you had a yorkie. I figured you would have like a pit bull or german shephard or something. A yorkie…do you carry him around in your gym bag? Please tell me you do."

"Well I'm hanging up now. I'm not going to listen to you emasculate me about my dog- who by the way is a badass dog."

"I'm sorry," Carter laughed, "please don't hang up. I couldn't help it; you took me by surprise with that. Please…"

"That was your one strike," he replied. Carter could hear the teasing in his voice.

"Send me a picture of him. I'm sure he's adorable. How do you travel all the time and have pets?"

"Well I'm not traveling right now," he replied dryly, muffled. There was silence for a few moments and Carter felt her phone buzz with a text before he spoke again, "when I was with Leighla she would take care of him. We tried to share him for a bit but it didn't really work out too well because she hates me so my family dog sits when I'm gone; either my mom or my brother. Now it's just me, though."

"You're feeling sorry for yourself again," she smiled to herself. She pulled the phone away from her ear to open the text from him. "Oh my god he is precious! Oh he's so shaggy and tiny. Awww…"

"Mhmm you aren't going to make fun of him anymore are you?"

"I wasn't making fun of him I was making fun of you."

"What are you drinking?" he quickly changed the subject.

"Wine, mostly, I'm working on a JD on the rocks with some coke right now."

"The hard stuff; yikes."

"I can handle it," she replied. She shifted in the chair, propping her boot clad feet on the railing in front of her and sighed.

"Come on. What's in your head?"

"Can I ask you something that's probably really inappropriate but…well, I already insulted your manhood tonight…"

"I'm only going to say yes to that because I'm very curious as to where this is going."

"Do you regret cheating on Leighla?"

Carter held her breath, regretting her questions before she had even finished asking it. There was silence from his end.

She finally heard him clear his throat.

"Yeah that's um…that's not where I expected that to go."

"Oh fuck, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Seth. Forget that I said that, ok? Just strike it from the record. Ugh…"

Carter buried her head in her free hand and shook her head at herself.

"It's fine, stop it. You took me by surprise on that one. I didn't know this was going to turn into another Oprah conversation."

"It's the alcohol," she mumbled.

"A drunk mouth speaks a sober mind," he replied. "Hold, please, and then I will answer your question."

"Ok," she said meekly, looking up from her hand and looking out at the clear, crisp Tennessee sky and the river. She sat her drink down on the ground next to her chair, deciding she was done with it, at least for the time being.

She heard him sigh heavily and she made a curious face as to what he was doing.

"What are you doing?"

"Taking this damn knee brace off. It's driving me crazy."

"I'm pretty sure you aren't supposed to do that."

"Probably not but I don't think you're going to call my doctors and tell on me so I'm doing it."

Carter chuckled, "fair enough."

"Oh fuck that's better…"

"Just don't try to walk or anything. Put it back on before you get up or go to sleep…"

"Ok, Carter Kelly, I'll make a deal with you. Tell me why you really called me and I'll indulge your questions."

"Ok but you first."

"Fine; to answer your specific question yes, I regret it."

"I sense there's a bit more to that answer."

"I regret everything that I did in handling all of that. I was…well I was too much of a dickhead to be a man and get out of an unhappy relationship like I should have."

"Are you happy now?"

"It's your turn," he replied, a hint of amusement in his voice.

Carter was silent for a moment, letting her mind wander for how she wanted to answer him.

"Are you backing out on me?"

"No. I didn't have anyone else to call and talk to," she said.

"I definitely don't believe that. What about Renee, or the twins, or Becky?"

"Renee is with Dean. The twins have their own things going on. Becky is at home with Fergil…" she shrugged to herself.

"So you're stuck with me."

"Yeah pretty much."

"I'm working on the happy part of things. It's a little difficult to do that right now."

"Understandable."

"My turn?" He asked.

"I think so."

"Why are you working your way up to 'drunk' with a jack and coke on Thanksgiving instead of hanging out with your family?"

Carter was silent. She bit her lip and pulled herself into her hoodie a little more.

"Nick called me, and text me, a few times and I was just really irritated and a little weak."

"Ah," Seth's response was quiet. "Are you ok?"

"Eh, I will be," Carter shrugged. A silence fell on both of them. Carter picked at some stray fuzz on her leggings and frowned to herself. "I guess I should tell you what happened."

"You don't have to. I'm perfectly okay with continuing on with a different subject if you want."

"No it's fine. Um, so you know Ashley, or well Dana Brooke? From NXT?"

"Yeah…" Seth already knew what she was going to say before she said it.

"Well she happened; several times for several months and I was an idiot and didn't know a single thing about it. And when I did figure it out he told me that he had realized I just wasn't the kind of person he thought he could see a future with. So he looked elsewhere for a future while still with me and I was good enough to sleep with but not stay with that whole time."

"Shit, Carter…" Seth muttered. "Oh man I'm sorry."

"So now he's trying to call me on a holiday, probably because he assumes I'm drunk, and tell me he hopes I've had a good day and I enjoyed my time with my family and he just missed talking to me and seeing me. He never wanted to meet my family, by the way, so I'm not sure why he cares."

Carter stopped talking, or ranting, and took a short breath, waiting for Seth to say something.

"Chances are he's having a lonely day and hoping you'd be around to talk to him…" Seth said. "I mean, I can't speak for him, but just with my 'guy' knowledge…"

"I was so dumb, so dumb," she shook her head. "I should've never gotten involved with him, I was just dumb. I was a glorified fuck buddy, essentially."

"Stop that." Seth sat up on his couch, intending to lean on his legs, and winced when he realized he still had his knee brace off and he had bent it more than he needed to. He swore under his breath, holding the phone away from his ear for a moment.

"You ok?"

"I forgot for a second that I can't bend my knee," he responded, a slight groan.

"Told you not to take the brace off…"

"Yeah I got it." Carter snickered as he sighed, "anyways, stop doing that. Don't call yourself stupid or dumb. I'm not allowed to feel sorry for myself and neither are you. Plus I'm not going to listen to that. Trust me, trust this coming from me, but by no means was anything that happened your fault so don't blame yourself for it. I don't care what he told you or what excuse he gave you. He's a piece of shit and I've never liked that dickhead but I especially don't like him now. You deserve better than that."

"You don't…even really know me, though."

"I know you enough to know you're a genuine and sweet person and that you care a lot for people even if they haven't earned that from you. Plus, nobody deserves that, Carter. They don't deserve to have someone else's mistakes put on them. He's an asshole."

"Thank you."

"And he doesn't deserve for you to spend any time at all being upset about him."

"That's easier said than done."

"I know but I'm just…I'm just saying. Don't give him any of your energy or your time. He gave that up. I've been on both sides of that and I get it and I know it's hard to let it all go but…just stay strong. Fuck it."

"Well you're a bit better at advice than I think I've given you credit for."

"I'm very wise you just have to give me a chance. Besides I'm…dealing with my own shit right now."

"You are?"

"Yeah, Zahra and I are done. She's halfway moved out of the house…" he stopped and cleared his threat, "so there's that."

"I'm sorry, Seth."

"Thank you."

"I would send you some of my jack and coke if I could. It burns a little but it feels so good."

"I'm not much of a drinker."

"You're straight edge aren't you? Oh you must think I'm a total lush."

"No I'll fuck with some beer here and there. Craft brews, micro brews…I was straight edge when I was younger, though. Wrestling and music were my drugs and drinks."

"You sound like a PSA they used to show on Saturday morning ABC."

"That dog...McGruff?"

"Yes!" Carter laughed, glad that he got her reference.

She heard the patio door slide open behind her and she turned around to look as she heard her name.

"Oh, sorry, I didn't know you were on the phone," her nephew, Tyler, said.

"It's fine little man. What's up?"

"We're going to watch Christmas Vacation and dad said to come see if you wanted to join us."

"Absolutely. Tell him I'll be there in a few."

He nodded at her and slipped back through the door without another word.

Carter brought her phone back up to her ear, "sorry, that was my nephew."

"Christmas Vacation?" Seth questioned.

"Yeah it's family tradition. We always watch it on Thanksgiving night. ''Tis the season…"

"Well go enjoy your family time. I hope you're feeling better."

"I am, thank you. Thank you for talking to me. I'm sorry I…I don't know I'm just sorry. I feel like I should be sorry for something."

"Have a good night, Carter."

"You too."

She smiled as she hit the end button of her call. She was feeling better. It had been nice to vent and get a different response than what she typically got from the girls. She loved them but she was tired of their reactions making her feel like she was an idiot for getting involved with him. It was nice to feel a little bit more like someone was in her corner.

She slipped her phone back in her hoodie pocket and reached for her drink. She was going to heed Seth's advice and enjoy her family time. Fuck it.

Seth looked at his phone as he set it down on the coffee table. He sighed heavily and leaned back, running his hands over his hair and rubbing his face.

That had been unexpected.

Truth be told there was a part of him that hated hearing the details about Carter's break up with Dolph. He had been on both sides of the situation and he knew that kind of hurt and damage he'd caused. At least he had owned up to his indiscretions. She didn't deserve that, though. Even if he had only known her for a few weeks he knew enough to understand the type of person she was.

A small part of him was angry for her.

He made a frustrated noise and looked over at Kevin who was laying on the opposite side of the couch.

"She's a good girl, Kev."

Carter woke up late the next day. Later than usual for her, but she wasn't surprised after her late night with her family and her rounds of drinks.

She laid in bed for a few minutes, letting her eyes adjust to the morning light and trying to assess how bad she felt. Surprisingly, she felt ok.

She grabbed her phone and climbed out of the bed, heading for the kitchen. She could smell coffee and it was beckoning her.

She looked at her phone as she walked down the hallway; junk emails, work emails, a text from Renee and a text from Seth. She responded to Renee and then opened his.

Carter smirked at the link he had sent her and she opened it, scrolling as she poured herself a mug of coffee.

She switched back over to her texts to respond to him.

So you're sending me playlists now?

She stood at the island, watching her youngest nephew sitting at the bar, eating waffles and furrowed her eyebrows. She wanted waffles.

"Jack, did your dad make those for you?"

"Yeah," Jack answered, not looking up from his plate.

She frowned, "where is he now?"

"I don't know. He and mom both disappeared. Tyler is in the living room."

Carter smiled as she took a sip of her coffee. Never mind, she would make her own breakfast.

Her phone buzzed on the tile countertop.

Is there something wrong with that?

She replied: No. I've only heard of like 3 of the bands on it.

I'm not surprised you're kind of a hipster/indie chick with a strange mix of rap. Just give it try. It's good for workouts and it's good for when you're angry at your ex.

Carter smiled. You mean sad and pathetic? I'm going to send you one that's all sappy, twangy country songs.

I told you to stop doing that. And please don't :)

Thank you. And thank you again for talking to me last night. It helped.

Anytime.