Tonight had been another crazy night. Stephanie headed back towards the women's locker room to change and ran everything back through her mind again. She had met the owner of WWE, that was crazy enough on it's own. Even more crazy was the fact that Laura seemed to like her. Maybe like was not the right word but that was how it seemed. She had gone wild at Trish and had left Paul in no doubt that she was angry with him too but she had spoken kindly to Stephanie which could only be a good thing for her career to say the least.
Thoughts were still preoccupying Stephanie's mind as she walked into the women's locker room. The Bella twins were the only people in there and they looked to be ready to leave. Stephanie was so busy with her own thoughts that she wasn't sure if she had heard correctly. Had one of them just made some kind of snide comment under her breath as Stephanie walked by? Surely not, why would they do that?
As she opened her locker and began to remove her clothes Stephanie thought that it would be nice to try and make some friends in this place. Her career might be taking off but the time on the road alone was getting tough already. She looked over and smiled as she asked the twins, "Hey, you guys want to get a drink somewhere?"
Both twins looked at her with distaste or was it jealousy? Whatever it was Brie asked scornfully, "With you?" Nikki matched her sister's tone as she said, "I don't think so." With that and a final look of disgust from each of them as they departed the twins left Stephanie alone in the locker room with a look of confusion on her face as she asked herself sadly, "What did I do?"
"What did I do?" Paul asked his wife as she glared at him from her sitting position on the bed in their hotel room. He had not been able to find her with his search backstage for the simple reason that as soon as Laura had dismissed her from the office she had hurried back to the hotel almost in tears. And now her husband had showed up and apparently he intended to act like he was innocent in the nights events which seemed to have gone a long way towards costing her the promotion she had been working towards for so long.
Paul watched his wife clench her fists at her sides in obvious anger as she said angrily, "It's what you didn't do that's the fucking problem. You know damn well that you deliberately didn't step in and help me." Paul realised that he had been right, Trish really had expected him to throw himself to the wolves to save her from her own stupidity. Laura might not be the kind of person to scream at you when she was angry with you but in a way the way she spoke had more of an effect and certainly left you in know doubt how angry she was. Was Trish serious right now? He decided to find out, "What, you expect me to take the flack because you pissed her off?"
Trish leapt up from the bed at that and raged, "No I expect you to take the flack for your idiotic idea to lie to her about your stupid storyline!"
Paul laughed despite the fact that his irate wife's eyes were burning into him, "Oh it's idiotic and stupid now is it? Funny... it was great when you thought you were going to get the credit wasn't it? Now you've dropped us both in it."
This somehow managed the difficult task of making Trish even angrier, "Yeah, right! She's not going to fucking fire you is she? I'm the one who's going to pay for this, it's fucking obvious! You've cost me my promotion and all you had to do was admit that you lied to her."
This was a tough point to argue for Paul as it was probably true therefore he opted not to bother, "She's not going to deny you a promotion because of this. She was just impatient to get home and you irritated her. I'm sure it will be forgotten by next week," Paul said, not believing a word of it. If he had left it there things might have gone totally differently but without thinking he added, "At least she likes Stephanie apparently."
Trish snapped at him, "Everyone likes the fucking golden girl don't they? Why don't you tell me why that is? What exactly is it that you like so much about her?"
Paul made a mistake as he instinctively shifted his weight a little as he stood opposite his wife and even worse he glanced away from her as he said, "What are you talking about now?"
"Oh my god! It's true isn't it? You're attracted to her? That's what this is all about? You've cost me my promotion just to get a push for some nobody bitch because you like the way she looks!" Trish's face had gone bright red as she screamed.
Instantly realising that he had fucked up Paul decided that he had only one option. He would have to make Trish feel guilty for what she had just said. He did a good job of sounding hurt as well as angry, "You're going too far now Trish. It's one thing to have an argument over who's to blame for Laura being mad at us both but now you're accusing me of what? Wanting to cheat on you? I'm not putting up with that, I'm out of here."
As she saw her husband turn around to storm out Trish felt guilty. What on Earth had she accused him of that for? She didn't even know why the thought had popped into her head. Why would he want to cheat on her, least of all with Stephanie McMahon? He was almost out of the door when she said, "Wait Paul, I'm sorry. I didn't mean it."
She saw him stop walking and his huge shoulders tensed up and then he said angrily without turning around, "Well you shouldn't say shit without thinking. That's been your problem all night." He walked out of the door saying as he did so, "I'm out of here and when I come back, if I come back, I expect a better apology than that."
With a slam of the door he was gone. Trish felt tears welling up in her eyes. After sitting back down on the bed she managed to force herself not to cry before wiping angrily at one eye with each hand to clear the tears from them. She then ran a hand through her hair and groaned in frustration at herself, thinking that Paul was right, everything that had gone wrong tonight was her own fault. She walked into the bathroom and and washed her face with some cold water. As she did so she looked in the mirror and saw that her blonde hair was a mess and she looked like crap. She also felt like crap and it was her own fault. She told the reflection, "Stupid bitch."
A room key card crashed onto a table in the corner of a hotel room and then a bag slammed onto the floor. Stephanie sat down sadly on the edge of the bed with a sigh of frustration. This was not something that had happened so far in her brief career, she felt lonely. Very lonely in fact. What the hell was wrong with those stupid Bella bitches? She briefly considered calling her parents or her brother but decided against it. What she needed was a drink, actually a lot of drink. She had not been drunk for a long time and maybe tonight should be the night. Who knew, there might even be some other divas or wrestlers in the bar, they were all staying in the same hotel after all. Maybe she could strike up a conversation with someone and actually make a friend to travel with. Most of the guys liked to travel in groups and hopefully she could make herself part of one. Failing that she could just get blind drunk.
Suddenly feeling hopeful at the prospect of getting to know someone, anyone, she decided head for the bar right away. She walked over to the corner of the room and snatched the key card from the table and hurriedly left the room. As she closed the door and walked towards the elevator an image of Paul popped inexplicably into her head. What if he was in the bar? If he was he would be with Trish so it would be best to leave them alone as she felt sure that after what had happened in the office earlier they would not be on the best of terms with each other.
A couple of minutes later as she walked into the bar Stephanie noticed that it was quieter than she had expected. Maybe people preferred to go out into the city for a night out than drown their sorrows in the hotel? It was not an option for Stephanie as a few drinks in the bar was all she could really afford. She looked around for any familiar faces and saw Naomi and Cameron at the bar. Walking over with a smile on her face Stephanie said, "Hey."
The word was repeated back to her by both women but the smile certainly was not returned. Stephanie searched for an ice breaker and all she could come up with was, "Can I buy you both a drink?"
Cameron raised her nearly full cocktail in the air slightly, "Got one. Come on Nay." With that the two women walked away to find somewhere to sit, their body language making plain that Stephanie was not welcome to join them. This left Stephanie alone again wondering what she had done wrong. She decided that she'd had enough of being shy and polite to everyone. It obviously did not work anyway so she ordered and paid for a JD and coke and then walked over to the two other divas as they sat in conversation opposite each other at a table and asked, "Do you two have a problem with me?"
Stephanie watched as the two divas exchanged a glance and a hint of a smile before she got a response from Naomi, "Why would we have a problem? If you want to suck your way to the top that's up to you."
Feeling her mouth drop open slightly at the implication Stephanie heard herself ask a question that she already knew the answer to, "What is that supposed to mean?"
"Girl you show up here after Triple H is telling everyone you're 'the next big thing in the divas division' and then a couple of weeks later you're suddenly the General Manager. How many blow jobs did that cost you? You must have been at it for a while."
Stephanie felt her blood boiling, "How dare you? I didn't do anything of the sort. I was given this opportunity, I didn't ask for it. There's nothing going on between me and Paul."
Cameron was looking past Stephanie as she said, "So it's 'Paul' is it? Well try telling me why 'Paul' has already looked at you twice since he walked in?"
Involuntarily Stephanie's head whipped around in the direction that Cameron was looking as she said, "What?" Both of the divas laughed at her and Naomi said, "Point proven. Go away Stephanie, go talk to 'Paul' why don't you?"
Paul had walked away from his hotel room unsure if he should feel pleased or guilty. Pleased that he had gotten away from Trish's accusation about Stephanie and made a good job of acting angry with her or guilty that she was right. He was beginning to spend way too much time thinking about Stephanie again. Maybe this idea of pushing her so hard so that he could get close to her and get to know her was a bad idea? Should he have just left her in NXT and tried to forget about her? He told himself that no, that would not have been possible. He had been stunned by Stephanie's beauty the first time he had set eyes on her and even now as he walked towards the elevator images of her ran through his head. Both images from his memory and his imagination, images of what she looked like in that ring gear and what she might look like without it. He shook his head, this obsession was getting out of control.
A minute later he walked out of the elevator and into the lobby and it was time to decide where to go to cool off after the argument. Go out to a club or something or stay in the hotel and have a quiet drink in the bar? After a moment of indecision he decided that he would have a drink in the bar and then go back up to the room and make peace with Trish. He had no intention of letting this obsession with Stephanie cost him his marriage, it was time to stop thinking about her and make things right with his wife.
As he walked towards the bar he reprimanded himself for being too obvious about it. Clearly he had been as Trish had already questioned him about it. He had to get Stephanie out of his head somehow. This new plan failed immediately as he walked into the bar the first thing he saw as if his eyes were drawn to her by some kind of unexplainable magnetism was that Stephanie was in the bar, standing next to a table talking to two other divas. She was wearing tight jeans and that ass...
He managed to force himself to look away from her and walk to the bar and order a beer. He sat on a stool as he waited for the bartender to fix his drink and repeatedly told himself not to turn around and look at Stephanie again. After thirty seconds he succumbed to the inevitable and turned around for another look. The lust burned inside him again and he thought that fucking Stephanie McMahon was not just something that he wanted desperately to do, it was almost something that he needed to do.
Tearing his eyes away from her was one of the toughest things he could remember doing. He squeezed his eyes shut as tightly as he could and rubbed his face hard with his right hand as he thought that maybe he should get some help. He could not go on thinking about Stephanie like that, especially when she clearly felt nothing for him. His beer was delivered and he took his first sip and savoured it but at that moment his heart stopped as he felt a presence next to him, smelled a familiar sweet perfume and heard a familiar voice, "Hey Paul. Mind if I sit down?"