Paul absolutely hated this. He hated the fact that he felt nervous as he sat in Laura's outer office waiting to be called in. A woman making him nervous, what the hell was that about? It was beyond ridiculous but it was happening anyway. He glanced across at Trish, thinking as he did so that she was immature. She had actually chosen to sit in the furthest seat possible from him. At least she still looked upset, her face was flushed and her hair was not as perfectly presented as her dark green dress was. It really should have been for a meeting like this, especially for someone in the precarious position Trish was in. He shook his head, her attitude would quickly change after this meeting and her inevitable firing. He was surprised that she had not tried to mend fences with him already, she must know by now that she was about to lose her job and she would need his help to get it back.
He waited with the arrogant smirk fixed on his face as it seemed to be almost permanently of late. After another couple of minutes Laura's secretary spoke in an irritating nasal voice, "Trish you can go through now." Paul raised his eyebrows slightly. Why was Trish going in alone? Laura obviously wanted her out of the way quickly, that must be it. He watched his wife as she walked past him towards the door to the office and noticed that she did not even glance at him. It was clear that his marriage was over, she hated him. Oh well, let her go and lose her job then. Paul had his job, both of his jobs. He was COO and he was the highest paid wrestler on the roster, Trish could go fuck herself. There was always Stephanie and she was hotter than Trish anyway. Trish entered the office and Paul heard Laura say calmly before the door swung closed, "Sit down Trish, let's have a chat."
Sitting there waiting for Trish to emerge from the office Paul found himself hoping that she came out of the office in tears and threw some abuse at him. Yeah, you have a chat with her Laura and fire her, he thought smugly. The minutes dragged by and Paul fidgeted uncomfortably. What was taking so long in there? Just then the office door opened and Trish stormed out. She charged past Paul without even allowing her eyes to drift to him and within seconds she was gone from the office. He had tried to read her expression from the brief glimpse that he's had of it but it had not really revealed much. She had not been crying as he had expected, which was a shame.
Now it was time to let this hot headed bitch rant at him for a few minutes about lying to her about the storyline and then he could get out of here and do something productive at last. That was the only thing this could possibly be about and the only reason Laura could possibly have to call him into her office. Still she was keeping him waiting but it was not going to work, he was not going to let it get to him, that was obviously what she wanted. He was brought from his thoughts by the secretary's nasal voice, "You can go through now."
As he stood and walked into the office Paul made sure that he had the arrogant smile on his face, that would show the bitch that she did not intimidate him, that needed to be made clear even if it was not true. Immediately upon walking through the door he realised that his effort had been wasted. Laura was standing looking out of the window, not even facing him. She was wearing a white blouse and black suit pants. Why did she only ever wear suits? She should wear a dress and flash those legs occasionally. That was what women were useful for, looking good not trying to act like they knew how to run a business. Laura was a wild one and he liked that, it was attractive for some unexplainable reason. It appeared that she was trying to work herself out of a rage right now, maybe she had gone wild at Trish? He had not heard any shouting but who knew how good the sound proofing was in here?
"Sit down," he was ordered. Okay, she was not working herself out of a rage, she was working herself into one, this much was apparent immediately. Paul obeyed the command and deliberately kept the smile on his face as Laura turned around. The little smile and the glint in her eyes did not make her attractive as she usually was, instead they put him immediately on edge but despite this he said arrogantly, "So you finally fired Trish huh?"
Laura walked slowly across the office towards him and as she spoke Paul noticed that her eyes gleamed, "Actually no I didn't."
What was that supposed to mean? Paul was confused until the realisation hit him mid way through his next sentence and his grin slowly faded from his face, "But you said one of us was... getting... fired..."
Laura had now reached her side of the desk and she leaned on it with both hands and the grin widened a little as Paul realised what that gleam in her eyes was as she looked down at him. She had prey in her sights and the prey was him, "That's right, I did."
"Wait a minute," Paul said defensively, "Me? Why me? What did I do?"
Paul was not sure what it would take for this woman to raise her voice as this did not even manage to accomplish it even though she launched into a tirade that he did not dare to interrupt, "Why you? I'll tell you why you. You're the worst example of a human being I've ever had the misfortune to meet, let alone employ. You're a liar, you're a cheat, yes that's right Trish told me exactly what you did last night and who with. I'm not actually going to have to get Stephanie McMahon in here and get it confirmed first hand am I? You manipulate people, you care about no one but yourself and you think my company is some kind of grooming ground for you to meet young women and trick them into bed. I don't know what reason my father had for making you COO but it's a mistake that I'm going to rectify right now. You're fired."
Taken aback by the suddenness of how quickly things had gone disastrously wrong for him Paul could only say, "Wait, let's talk about this. What do you mean I'm fired?"
Remaining in her standing position Laura sneered, "What do I mean? How many ways are there to mean you're fired? Try one of these if they make it easier. You are no longer the COO of my company. Your services are no longer required. Furthermore if I ever hear about you even looking at a woman that works for my company in an inappropriate way again I'll fire you from your onscreen contract too. Do you understand everything I've just said?"
Finally beginning to get over his shock, Paul now felt his anger boiling to the surface. Who the fuck did this bitch think she was to talk to him like that, like he was stupid? If he was going out he was not going to do it in silence, fuck that and fuck her. He leaned forward and said angrily as his ego took control of him, "I'll tell you what I don't understand, who the fuck you think you are? Huh? You're only standing there because your dad gave you this place and you stand there saying my company. You think you're something special? You're not, let me tell you that. You're a woman in a man's world." It felt better to get that off his chest. What confused him was that during his outburst Laura had calmly sat down and she had relaxed into her chair and she was smiling as she played with a fountain pen in her right hand. Did she actually enjoy someone standing up to her like that? Or had he just been very stupid and cost himself his wrestling career too? He had no idea. This fucking woman was infuriating and impossible to read.
When she spoke she almost sounded amused, "Allow me to give you a clue about something you patronising, sexist son of a bitch. I sit here because I own WWE and because I am Chairwoman and head of the board of directors. It doesn't concern you if my father used to own this place, what concerns you is that I own it now. What matters is that when I make a decision in this place it's final. You're no longer COO, you're no longer someone with any influence around here. What you are is a wrestler, in a locker room with a bunch of other wrestlers, who by the way all think you're an asshole. You're the one who is nothing special Paul and given that your soon to be ex wife is now on trial as Head of Creative for thirty days I don't like your prospects in that regard either do you? And one final warning, keep that cazzone of yours in your pants and away from my divas or I'll fire you from your onscreen contract as well. Now get out."
Paul had intended to leave without giving Laura any more mouth and pushing his luck but he had suddenly realised something as she repeated her threat to fire him from his onscreen contract and the arrogant smirk returned to his face, "You think I'm stupid don't you? Or that you intimidate me? Well you're wrong on both of those things and you have no grounds to fire me from my onscreen contract. I know it as well as you do. You've already fired me as COO so I can fuck Stephanie McMahon as often as I want and you can't do shit about it. If you fire me without a justifiable reason you have to pay me my contract in full, beside the fact that we both know I'm the best wrestler in WWE and you can't afford to lose me. Go on, do it. Don't just sit there making idle threats, fire me. Do it."
He had been incredibly satisfied to see that the bitch knew he was right about everything he had just said. The smile had disappeared from her face during his tirade and instead she now looked like he had just forced her to drink a cup of warm piss. The look on her face was great, priceless in fact. He didn't like the look in her eyes but fuck her, he may have lost his job as COO but he would get to walk out of her office leaving her with a nasty taste in her mouth and a bruised ego at least. He stood and sauntered towards the door with the smirk still on his face and he almost made it before Laura finally spoke and despite his satisfaction at putting her in her place the sheer coldness of her tone chilled him as she said quietly, "I will remind you of this moment amico, when the time comes. Then we'll see who's smiling."
Forcing himself to show no indication that he had heard this thinly disguised threat Paul opened the door and sauntered out of the office, scoring a final blow by deliberately not closing it behind him. That was the best that Laura could come up with? It was actually disappointing in a way to find out that she was just mouth, the parting threat she had made did not even mean anything. She was pathetic, she was just an egomaniac and nothing more.
It wasn't until he was in the elevator on his way to the lobby that the satisfaction of his victory at the end of the meeting began to wear off and the fact that he had lost his job as COO and his wife in the same morning came back to him. He had lost both of those things and for what? A cheap fuck in a hotel room with Stephanie McMahon. Sure she looked great, she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen, there was no doubt about that but was she worth that much to him? No way, she meant nothing to him and this was a disaster. It had finally hit him and it hit him hard.
When he emerged from the entrance of WWE headquarters a few minutes later he felt angry enough to hit someone. One throwaway fuck had caused this much damage to his life, how was that even fair? He turned on his cell phone and immediately a text message came through from Trish: Don't bother coming home you bastard. I'll have your shit shipped to your parents.
For a few seconds Paul stood outside of the entrance to the building shaking with anger at everyone but himself and everything around him seemed to start moving in slow motion as his blood boiled. Unable to keep himself under control he hurled his phone at the ground as hard as he could and was satisfied to see it smash into several pieces on the concrete. Making no attempt to pick up the pieces of either his phone or his life Paul set out to find a bar. It was time to get wrecked.
Ten floors above him Laura Molinaro watched him walk across the parking lot from her office window with a look of fury on her face. She was still seething, she had never been spoken to like that by an employee before, or by anyone else for that matter. No one had dared before. The son of a bitch would regret it, that was for sure. As she watched him getting into his car she told herself to calm down and that everyone had a weakness. No matter how long it took she would find one in Paul Levesque and when she did she would exploit it and she would remind him of this day as she had promised. There were worse things she could do than fire him that was for sure. Patience was what was required now and she was capable of being patient when she absolutely had to be.