Walking slowly up the ramp and through the curtain with a look of shock on her face was Stephanie's final job of the night and this was only for the benefit of the live audience as Raw was now on a commercial break. As she got backstage Stephanie saw Paul waiting and she giggled with sheer excitement as she exclaimed enthusiastically, "Oh my god! That was awesome! That crowd was insane! You're so good!"

Paul could not help himself laughing, he liked her personality so much, in addition to the obvious physical attraction any right minded male would feel towards this stunningly beautiful woman. Maybe a few women would like her too? Maybe he and Trish could... He told himself to stop being a pervert and respond to Stephanie, "I'm glad that you uh... obviously enjoyed it. It'll be harder next week when you have lines to deliver."

"I realise that but I can't wait!" Stephanie moved closer to him and Paul could smell her. Again he fought the urge to kiss her but also a voice in his head told him that kissing Stephanie was inevitable and that he should just do it. Stephanie's own voice continued to bubble over with excitement, it was almost as if she was high, "Thank you so much again for this Paul. I don't know what I did to deserve it but I can't describe how great I feel right now."

Stephanie did not have far to look up into the eyes of her boss as she was almost as tall as him when the large heels of her wrestling boots were taken into account and as she did so she was fighting her totally inappropriate urge to kiss him again. It was making her ache to deny herself. Paul brought an end to their mutual turmoil which had lasted for an uncomfortable two seconds by saying, "We'd better find out if the boss is happy with it. If I know her she'll be clearing out of here any minute. She doesn't like to hang around."

As she watched him turn to head for his office Stephanie asked, "We? You want me to come?" Paul did not stop walking as he answered, "You don't want to know if she liked your performance?" Stephanie hurriedly trotted after him and caught up as he entered the hallway. "But I didn't really do anything," she said questioningly. Without thinking about what he was doing Paul put his left arm around Stephanie's shoulders as he explained kindly, "You can say a lot in this business with facial expressions alone and in that respect you performed very well."

Feeling herself tingling inside due to the fact that Paul was touching her Stephanie managed to say, "Right. I'll remember that." At that moment they made a right turn into another hallway, now only a few feet from Paul's office and fortunately he removed his arm before the woman who was outside of the door could see them. It helped that her back was to them.

The energy between Paul and Stephanie was dissipated for now as they stood and watched Laura ordering a large, bald headed man dressed in a suit, presumably someone from her security detail, "Get the limo ready to leave now, I'll be out soon. Tell them the plane had better be ready to go wheels up the second I get on board too. I might even make it home at a civilized hour."

The man nodded, "Yes boss," and walked quickly away to obey the orders that had been almost barked at him.

Laura's response was, "Molto buona." Paul and Stephanie shared a glance. Stephanie was thinking that on Laura's wrong side was not somewhere that she ever wanted to find herself, least of all now. Everything about the woman's body language screamed impatience right now. Paul was thinking that although he had no clue what she had just said to the guy there was something attractive about a woman speaking a foreign language, especially with perfect pronunciation like that. The words seemed to roll from her tongue somehow. It helped that she was hot of course. Why was it that everything about the women around him was turning him on? He decided that Trish was going to get drilled hard when they got back to the hotel room. He had to fuck someone that was for sure as his balls were literally aching to be emptied. Trish was the only option and frankly the third in his order of preference right now. He cursed himself for thinking about his wife that way but it was what it was. The first choice was standing right next to him. If only. His thoughts were interrupted by Laura turning around to walk back into the office and seeing them both standing there looking at her, "Take your time why don't you? Can we get this done, I need to get out of here."

Wisely Paul stopped himself from correcting the word need with want as he followed Laura into the office with Stephanie trailing behind. It was as he walked through the doorway that Paul saw that his wife was waiting in the office. He had just walked around the corner in the hallway with his arm around Stephanie and fantasized about making love to two other women, all of this within a few feet of her. He reasoned that what she did not know could not hurt her. As Paul walked over to his smiling wife and kissed her he said, "Hey." Stephanie closed the office door and Laura began impatiently, "Right, who's going first?"

Paul stood next to his wife and put an arm around her shoulders. Trish flicked a strand of her blonde hair away from her face and asked distractedly, "First with what?"

With a frustrated, very Italian hand gesture Laura growled angrily, "Mannaggia! First with opinions on that segment obviously!" If Trish had known Laura any better she would have known that if she started to slip into Italian involuntarily like this it was very often a direct indication that she was getting pissed off. The knowledge would have been very useful and might have prevented everything that was to come that night.

As Paul had put his arm around Trish Stephanie had watched from near the door, wondering what right she had to feel jealous that the man she worked for had just put his arm around his own wife. She also wondered if Trish was stupid. If she had ever seen someone more impatient to get out of somewhere than Laura obviously was right now then she could not remember it and yet Trish seemed intent on acting dumb despite this because the next thing she said was, "I thought it ran perfectly. The crowd went wild as I predicted, I don't think it could have been improved." Paul found himself thinking that Trish really should put her shovel down and stop digging a hole for herself as he saw Laura's eyes glint at his wife and then heard her almost spit, "Porca miseria! You're actually arrogant enough to think that your work cannot be improved?"

Unfortunately for Trish she did not take kindly to being insulted and although she had no clue what the words meant the fact that it had been an insult was obvious which caused her to bristle and dig herself deeper, "You just insulted me didn't you? Just because you do it in Italian..." Paul removed his arm from around Trish, thinking that if she wanted to go down that path then she was going alone. He had heard stories from the office and had no intention of being part of one himself.

Laura's voice had quietened slightly, not that it was a good thing, as she cut Trish off "Yes I insulted you in Italian and now I'm going to ask you a question in plain English. What is the long term plan for this storyline of yours? What's the payoff? Apparently you're the creative genius so let's hear it?"

It was instantly obvious to Paul that Trish was fucked. He had not told her his long term plans for the storyline that he had thought up and then allowed her to pass of as her own. There was certainly no way that he was going to admit to Laura that he had lied to her about it multiple times, after all it was not him that had pissed her off. He said nothing as Trish hesitated for a half second and glanced at him.

Clearly she was going to get no help from her husband and she had not put any thought into the storyline herself as yet so Trish blurted out the truth, "I'm not sure."

Paul noticed Stephanie's eyes widen in the background and she mouthed silently to him, "Oh shit." Her idol may have been the greatest diva in WWE history but she apparently lacked the ability to think fast under pressure.

Laura had moved uncomfortably close to Trish who could now smell the strong coffee on her boss' breath as her head tilted ever so slightly to one side. When she spoke her voice had gone very quiet and her eyes burned into Trish. "You're going to have to repeat that."

Trish gulped as she realised how deep the shit was that her husband had dropped her into with his stupid idea of her taking the credit for his work. Now she was about to get eaten alive for it and the bastard was not even helping her out. Feeling her palms sweating but with no other choice Trish spoke, "I'm sorry, I haven't thought it through that far. I..." Trish saw Laura take in a deep breath and stopped speaking. In a way she would have preferred the explosion that she had expected to what actually happened, given the implication of it for her career. Laura's voice did not raise, it somehow got even quiter as she pointed to the door, "Out."

Certainly needing no second invitation to escape the firing line Trish scurried for the door and disappeared, leaving Stephanie to push it closed after her. Laura turned to Stephanie and spoke normally now but there was an edge to her voice that left no one in any doubt that she was still just as angry, "Stephanie how would you describe my reaction to Trish's stupidity and incompetence?"

What was this? An invitation to walk into a minefield was what it sounded like to Stephanie as she carefully phrased her answer, "Uh... I'd say you were very angry."

Paul managed to prevent showing a reaction as Laura confirmed, "Very angry. And how would you imagine I would react if I found out that someone had decided to lie to me about who wrote a storyline to give his wife credit that she doesn't deserve?" It was clear that Trish's half second hesitation and glance at him had sent them both up the river as Laura had obviously caught it.

Stephanie did not want to answer as she obviously knew what the question meant but she heard herself say, "You'd be livid."

Laura turned and looked at Paul with those green eyes that were hard to look away from as she now used a friendly, conversational tone, which he was under no illusion meant she was anything but friendly, "That's worth thinking about, wouldn't you say?" Without waiting for a response Laura headed for the door and ordered, "Stephanie walk with me."

Stephanie did as ordered and followed her boss out of the office. As they walked up the hallway Laura spoke with her anger apparently subsiding, "I'll have someone contact you tomorrow, you need to wear a suit in your role as General Manager. You can't exactly wear that." She gestured at Stephanie's ring gear before continuing, "We'll get you fitted for some designer suits and get you some blouses and accessories so that you look the part."

Stephanie beamed, "Thank you, that will be great. But uh..." her voice had trailed off. Laura encouraged almost kindly, "Speak your mind."

"Shouldn't I like, wear a cheap suit for the first few shows? I'm not supposed to be prepared for this job and, well, who would believe that I could afford a suit like yours?"

Laura nodded, "You're right. Good thinking Stephanie, maybe I really should give you Paul's job."

Stephanie hoped that this was intended to be a joke although it was a long way from funny. She decided to change the subject from Paul, "You were harsh on Trish, you don't like her huh?" As she finished the question she regretted it as she wondered if she had just landed herself a roasting but the question was answered, "I don't like or dislike her. I don't know her. I have no interest in knowing her. What I do know is she's in the job that she's in because of who she's married to not because of any evidence of ability on her part. I've got news for her soon."

It was obvious to Stephanie what that meant. "Oh god."

Apparently Laura immediately regretted her revelation, "I shouldn't have said that Stephanie and it stays between the two of us, am I clear on that?"

"Perfectly."

The two women were now entering the parking garage and Laura's limo was ready and waiting. She smiled at Stephanie and said, "I'm interested to see how well you perform in this role Stephanie. I have high hopes for you. Goodnight."

Stephanie smiled at the back of her departing boss. "Thank you. Goodnight."

As the two women had left the office Paul had mumbled to himself sarcastically, "That went well. Nice job Trish." How could she have handled herself any worse? Now the boss knew that he had lied to her. Trish had managed to drop him in the shit as well as herself with her stupidity. Why the hell had she said that she did not know the rest of the storyline? Hesitating and looking at him had been stupid enough without that. Even though it was true that she did not know she could have at least attempted some bullshit. This was the first night of many that Laura would be at the arena for Raw and it already felt to Paul that she was on the brink of firing both of them. It was all Trish's fault and now he was going to have to go find her. Even worse was the fact that he knew that when he did find her she would try to blame this total mess on him, he saw that coming already. There was no point delaying it so Paul headed out of the office, already preparing things to say during the inevitable argument that would take place as soon as he found his wife.