The first week working for Trish had been as terrible as Paul had feared that it would be and now it was Monday morning and time to begin the second which had no prospect of being any better. At least things with Stephanie were going well. At least well in the fact that he had decided to give in and accept that they were in a relationship. There had hardly been any time to work on it or spend time together because Trish, or the vulture as Paul now referred to her, had come up with the brilliant idea of booking Stephanie to wrestle on every house show possible which meant that she had been on the road every day apart from the day before which they had at least spent together at his condo. Trish was such a low life that she was deliberately doing everything she could to keep them apart and make things difficult.

He had enjoyed the opportunity of some company the previous day and some of Stephanie's fantastic cooking too. It was worth having a woman around just for that. Sadly sex had not really been practical as Paul could still barely walk without crutches. At least that nightmare seemed to be behind him finally as his physiotherapist had given him the okay to start walking without them starting today as long as he was very careful. The lack of pain surprised him as he walked into WWE headquarters.

Stephanie had been badgering him to take her on a first date but he had not wanted to go out when he was struggling with those stupid crutches. Maybe he could take her out tonight though? Oh no, he realised, that obviously would not be possible as Stephanie would be at Raw. God damn it, another boring night alone in his condo beckoned. As he took the elevator up to the creative department he faced the reality that not only would he be spending the night alone, today was certain to be another bad one in the office and already he felt miserable. Two minutes later he was making his way towards the vulture's office to find out what menial assignment she had for him this week.

To score himself a small victory over the vulture he opened the door to her office without knocking and walked in. Trish looked up at him but instead of irritation at his lack of manners her face seemed to convey amusement. "There you are Paul. I'll take a cup of green tea but when you've done that don't settle in too much. You're coming to Raw and Smackdown with the team from now on so you'll be leaving in a couple of hours."

That was why she was amused. She was anticipating pissing him off. Even though he realised this typically Paul reacted on instinct, "You're taking the piss. I'm supposed to be resting my knee."

"You'll be sitting down," Trish explained as if to someone who was beyond stupid, "I can't see how you can get more rest than that."

Paul had by now had more than enough of jumping at this bitch's every command and he let his anger take control of him at this order which he had no intention of complying with, "Fuck you Trish. I'm not spending two nights a week on the road with you."

Trish leaned back in her chair and took pleasure in clarifying, "No you're not. You're spending them with my team. Look on the bright side, your slut will be there too."

"You will not talk about Stephanie like that!" Paul exploded, "I've told you before about that and I'm not going on the road. In fact I quit this job and you can go fuck yourself you fucking vulture. I'm going to Molinaro and telling her she can stick..."

"Telling her what?"

Paul jumped at the sound of the voice behind him and whipped around. There she was. Laura was leaning against the door frame, grinning slyly at him. Clearly she liked the surprise she had just given him. She sure looked great but what the hell was she doing here and how much had she heard? How could he be this unlucky that she would actually show up when he was mouthing off at Trish?

"Was that question too hard Paul?" The patronising tone she used infuriated Paul instantly as usual. Who was she to talk to him that way?

"She's trying to make me go on the road to Raw and Smackdown," Paul pointed at Trish as he complained which made him look like a child telling tales to a teacher.

"And the reason you can't?"

This was actually a tough one. He suspected that using his knee injury as an excuse as he had with Trish was not going to work but he had no intention of telling the truth which was that he had refused simply because he despised being ordered around by the vulture, in fact by any woman. He decided the only thing to do was lie, "I can't do that amount of travelling with this knee."

Laura looked at him sceptically and raised one of her eyebrows, "Try again with the real reason?"

Paul now had his back to Trish but he just knew that she would be smiling at his discomfort as he struggled in front of the boss and admitted defeat with a sigh, "I don't want to take orders from her, especially stupid ones. You know that."

"Tough. Trish's order is reasonable, you're going. And Trish is right too, you should look on the bright side. Stephanie will be there." Paul was about to attempt to argue but Laura did not afford him the opportunity as she now spoke to Trish, "Trish you didn't get back to me about Thursday night."

"Oh sorry I forgot about it. Yeah, I can go. I'm no good at cards but it's for charity so why not, right? It's not as if I have a husband to stay home with." Paul grimaced as the vulture laughed at her own pathetic joke. He almost had to tell himself aloud to keep his mouth shut with both of these infuriating women chipping away at him. How much could a man take? And what was Laura talking about anyway? He might as well eavesdrop on the conversation and look at Laura's ass while he stood irrelevantly to one side, although she was wearing those stupid suit pants again.

"So you'll play?" She had just asked Trish.

"Yeah, it's a thousand bucks to buy in, right?"

"That's right and three quarters of it goes to the charity. I'll put you on the list then. I've got a flight organised for those who are attending so you don't need to worry about that but you'll have to organise your own hotel or flight back. Some wanted to say and some didn't so I didn't bother organising a flight that would be half empty."

"Okay, sounds good," Trish smiled.

With that Laura turned to leave and nodded slightly to Paul as she did so. For some reason he felt jealous. Why was he not invited to whatever this charity event was that they were talking about? He followed Laura out of the office without even looking at Trish and stopped her walking away with a loud, "Hey!"

Laura stopped walking and turned around, "I think what you mean is excuse me?"

"What is this thing you're talking about, and why am I not invited?" Paul demanded as he savoured the fact that Laura sounded pissed off by his deliberate lack of respect.

"A charity poker tournament. It's for cancer awareness. Three quarters of the entrance money goes to charity, one quarter to prize money."

"Wait, you're telling me you actually really do play poker? You must be the single worst player in the world."

There was no response for a moment as Laura seemed to consider the insult, "You've got a smart mouth. If only there was a spot available for you I'd take great pleasure in making a last longer bet with you but sadly I can't get you in."

Paul was stunned. It sounded like this arrogant bitch wanted to get into a pissing contest with him? Did she know who he was? "Laura there's not a sport or game in the world you could beat me at. Trust me."

"Golf." The reply had arrived so quickly that Paul sensed a trap door opening but he could hardly back down now. That would give her even more satisfaction than actually beating him. He could play golf, not brilliantly but he could play. He was sure to be a bigger hitter than she was. It was obvious that she worked out and she had quite muscular arms for a woman but obviously she was nowhere near his league in terms of power. He convinced himself that she would be easy to beat at golf, "You really want to play golf against me?"

"Standard stroke play, eighteen holes, lowest score wins, a thousand bucks."

This was better than he could have hoped for. She wanted to go eighteen holes and play him for money too. This woman's ego was something else, "A thousand bucks? Are you serious?"

"Always." She offered her hand to shake on the bet. Paul gladly accepted it and stared into her eyes as he did so. For some reason he found himself lost for what to say next and unable to look away plus he was still holding her hand, longer than he should have.

"Are you high or something?" She took her hand back and looked at him as though he was from another planet. He wondered how he must have been looking at her to get that reaction as he fumbled a response, "Sorry, these stupid painkillers."

"Hmmm," she looked at him doubtfully and then ordered, "Head home and pack some things. You're heading out to Raw. You owe me an hour."

"You're sending me home and somehow I owe you time for it?" Paul protested but then gave up, "Whatever."

"Let me know when your knee is strong enough. I want my thousand bucks in cash," Laura chirped before turning and striding quickly away. Paul ran a hand through his hair in frustration as he watched her leave. He ached to go after her, follow her into her office and drill her until she screamed on her desk. He headed for the elevator which Laura had just taken to the top floor. He waited for it to respond to his summons and when he entered it he could still smell her. Was it even normal to lust after women like this? Of course it was, he was a hot blooded alpha male and she was an attractive woman. Perfectly normal.

By the time he had made his way out to the parking lot and realised that he had no car as Stephanie had driven him to work the frustration of everything was getting too much. He needed sex badly, he was becoming obsessed with it. "No, just with Laura. Can't get that fucking woman out of my head," he mumbled with a shake of the aforementioned head as he took out his phone to call for a cab. "Fuck, I need sex." Fortunately no one had answered his call yet. As he waited for a response he reached a decision; once he was done with this call he had another one to make. Stephanie would get her first date tonight and afterwards there would be sex whether the knee hurt or not.

The traffic was bad as Stephanie drove towards the airport but she did not mind. She was early for her flight and had plenty of time plus it gave her time to think. She was finally happy after all of these years.

Years spent on the road alone wrestling in crappy arenas and gyms, sometimes in front of less than fifty people all in the hope of one day being noticed by someone. Her dream had cost her her friends, her share in the family business and her relationship with her parents. She could not remember the last time she had spoken to either of them. The sad reality was that they hated her for refusing the share in the business, refusing to work there and instead striking out on her own to pursue as dream which they considered stupid. No one would like to admit that they had bad parents but Stephanie had accepted the reality by now and had learned to deal with it.

At least her brother was not like them. Shane had been all she had in life before Paul and she loved him as such. Shane was always there for her, even when she was on the road and felt lonely and sad and called him at ridiculous times of night just to have someone to talk to he had not objected once. His wife Marissa probably felt a little differently but she was a nice, kind woman and Stephanie liked her.

And now there was Paul. For the first time in her life a man loved her. The most amazing man. A man she would be with forever. Nothing was going to change that, she loved him unconditionally and it hurt to be away from him.

One small comfort was that at least she was being allowed to wrestle again. Her thoughts were interrupted by her phone ringing. Technically the traffic was moving so she should not really answer it but at this speed it was fine. She looked at the display and saw it was Paul who was calling. It had to be Paul or Shane really.

"Hey!" She answered excitedly.

"Hi Steph. Listen I'm sorry to ask but can you get me from my condo and take me back to the office again? I had to come home to pack some things because fucking Trish had the idea to make me come to Raw and Smackdown every week and Laura is making me do it."

"Sorry," Stephanie began sadly, "I'm nearly at the airport and the traffic is awful. I'd never get back to your place and back to the airport again in time for my flight. I wish we had known sooner we could have travelled together. Hey, at least we can be with each other more often now."

"Yeah. I'll have to get a cab then. Uh, Steph? I was thinking we could go for a meal tonight, you know, after Raw? Like a date or something?"

"Yay!" Stephanie yelped excitedly, "A date? Oh my god I can't wait."

"Me either. Listen I better call this cab. I'll see you later huh?"

"Can't wait," Stephanie beamed as she ended the call. Paul was the best boyfriend she could imagine. Today was a great day. She knew she would not be able to stop smiling now, not with a date to look forward to with her amazing man.