Chapter 3

Amber sat across from Stephanie and the creative time and watched what remained of her career spiral right into the toilet. A valet? They wanted her to be a fucking valet for Dean? She glanced at Dean who sat next to her, but had remained silent through the entire conversation. By the look on his face he was as shocked as she, only it appeared he wasn't going to voice his opinion on the subject. Silence was a rare occurrence for Dean and only served to piss her off more. Why now was he deciding to clam up? Amber lifted a hand to stop one of the writers from talking. "I don't understand. Why do I need to be a valet for Dean?"

Stephanie sighed and rolled her eyes. "Are you really that dense, Amber?"

She hated when management felt the need to talk down to it's employees. Like it made them any more personable or easier to be respected. The only thing it served to do was fuel Amber's anger. "I guess I am," she spat. "So why don't you explain it to me?"

"You picked sides the other night," Stephanie said slowly. "You chose Dean over Seth."

Amber arched a brow. Was she fucking kidding with this condescending attitude? "Because you made me," she argued. "You pushed me into that angle."

"Regardless." Stephanie leaned back and waved a hand in the air as if to dismiss Amber's point. "As far as the WWE Universe is concerned, the moment Seth left you in the ring with Dean, your relationship with him was over. Whether you wanted to or not, you chose sides and the fans are going to expect you to be Dean's girl now."

Amber's eyes widened as she realized exactly where this storyline was going. Horror streaked through her at the idea they were proposing. "But Seth and I are still together in real life."

"I know," Stephanie said, her voice flat and unapologetic. "That is unfortunate...for you I mean, because this storyline may take a toll on your relationship with Seth." Stephanie shrugged. "Especially since we will be expecting you to really sell this relationship angle with Dean."

Awareness skittered up her spine and Amber narrowed her gaze at Stephanie. "What do you mean sell the relationship?"

"I mean," Stephanie replied. "That you two need to get close on screen. You need to make the WWE Universe believe you're a couple and that requires doing everything couples do, including kiss." Stephanie glanced at her nails. "I guess you'll get to see just how strong your relationship with Seth really is, because this storyline is going forward, regardless of personal feelings."

"But-" Sickness churned in the pit of Amber's stomach as she scrambled for a plausible reason not to move forward with the angle. They couldn't do this to her.

Stephanie shook her head. "This isn't up for debate, Amber. With Natalya, Summer Rae and Rosa, we already have three blond Divas in the division. We don't need another." She glanced at the head writer then back to Amber. "Don't get me wrong. You're a solid Diva, but the ugly reality is that without The Shield backing you, you're nothing special. You don't have an it factor or really anything that makes you stand out from the others. So," Stephanie pushed away from the table."Until we can come up with a new image for you, this is your storyline."

She stood, turned to go then paused and looked back at Amber. "Just remember. There are at least a dozen hungry girls waiting down in NXT for the opportunity to join the main roster. You want to keep what you have? Then you have a decision to make." With that, she turned and walked out of the room.

Seth sat across from Roman and laced his boots, but his thoughts were with Amber and Dean and their meeting with Stephanie and creative. He'd wanted to go with her, but with the demise of The Shield, unless the storyline directly involved him he wouldn't have been allowed in the meeting. Instead, he could only hope that Dean would be there to support her if she needed it.

Now that she was on her own, she'd been worried about where the creative time would take her.

Knowing 'The Authority' Seth understood she had reason to worry.

Dean plowed through the locker room door, a look of distress on his face that had Seth jumping to his feet. "What happened?" He paused, waiting for Amber to appear, when the door simply swung closed he looked at Dean.

"It wasn't pretty." Dean shook his head as he plopped down onto the bench. "I'm not happy about it and I know you're definitely not going to be happy about it."

"Why?" Seth asked. "What happened? Where's Amber?"

"She took off after the meeting ended, mumbling something about needing to be alone to think. She was pretty upset and as far as I'm concerned she had every right to be."

"Why? What in the hell happened in that meeting?"

"Basically, Stephanie ripped Amber's self esteem to shreds by telling her that she's nothing special. Then, just to add insult to injury, she dropped the bomb on her that if she wants to keep what she has here and remain a part of the WWE she must play girlfriend and valet to me on camera."

"What?" Seth stared at him, dumbfounded even as Roman held up a hand.

"Wait a minute. Stephanie wants Amber to be your on-screen girlfriend?"

Dean nodded. "And it gets worse. After Queen Bee sashayed out of the meeting she left it to Alan the head writer to inform us that management wants us together as much as possible. Which means she and I are to drive together, eat together and do all photo ops together. They don't want you anywhere near her for fear of ruining the storyline."

Seth couldn't quite believe what he was hearing. "But they know Amber and I are a couple."

Dean shrugged. "They know Zoe and I are a couple. They don't care, dude. You know management. They want what they want and to hell with the consequences."

Seth closed his eyes and scrubbed a hand over his face. So managment was effectively trying to ruin his relationship with Amber in order to perpetuate a storyline? After everything they did to Lexi and Roman he really shouldn't be surprised. Still, since when did they care who dated who and with Twitter, Facebook and that damn Total Diva's show, reality was slowly meshing with fiction anyway.

Regardless of what management wanted, he wasn't going to give up everything he and Amber build without a fight.

Amber!

Knowing how her mind worked, she wouldn't be quite so willing to fight. No, in order to make management happy she'd work it in her mind until she found a way to give them what they wanted. Damn! He needed to find her before she had time to twist this all around and turn it into something it wasn't. "So after all this happened, Amber said she needed to be alone?"

"Yeah?" Dean eyed him. "Why is that unusual?".

"And you just let her go?" Seth asked instead of answering Dean. He could feel the slow grip of pain clamping around his throat.

"She looked pretty upset," Dean said. "I thought it would do her good to have some alone time to think things through."

Nervous energy flowed through Seth as he began to pace. How could Dean just let her go like that? "Come on, Dean. You know how Amber is. She's not like Lexi where she can think things through to a logical conclusion and then discuss them like a rational person." He crossed to the bench and quickly tied his other boot. He needed to get out there and find her. "Amber takes things in, then internalizes them until she makes herself sick. She mulls and stews and twists the information around until she's convinced herself that whatever the issues is, it's ultimately her fault and then relents."

"So?" Dean asked.

"So, when something bad happens to her, you don't give Amber time to internalize it otherwise she erects her walls and it's harder than hell to reach her. She needs to face the issue immediately and head on with someone who can think logically." He shook his head. "I have to go find her."

"We'll help," Roman offered and pushed off the bench and nodded to Dean who was already up and headed for the door.

"I'm sorry, man. I didn't realize," Dean offered.

Seth shook his head as he joined his friends. He couldn't really blame Dean. His girlfriend was pretty typical when it came to dealing with emotions. Of course, Seth was sure that came from being raised in a relatively normal family.

As a child, Amber's home life had been fucked up and despite her best efforts to leave her past behind her, to this day she still carried baggage from it. All he could do was try and keep her from twisting the situation too far out of control.

He followed the men out into the arena hall and looked around. She could have gone anywhere. "Where in the hell do we start?"