Renee was mad. A week has almost passed since she had a proper conversation with Dean. She couldn't forget about it. It was Monday, another Raw was coming, and there have been many times she was forced to interview Dean or discuss something work-related with him. But except for those cases, she did her best to avoid him. She took his advice. He told her that she should avoid Seth for apparent reasons. Although she had no real reasons to do so, just to keep Dean in belief that Seth was the one she had feelings for, indeed, she spent no time talking to him or being alone with him. But she did the same thing with Dean. Now, she might have done it in order to get over him, but in reality, she just couldn't stand him. She hated herself for being obsessed with him, especially when she considered the way Dean treated her last week. He didn't see why it was bad, and he felt no need to apologize. He certainly didn't understand what was going on with Renee, but he had a doubt he had something to do with it. Anyway, he didn't intend to do anything about it.
He would probably keep minding his own business if Renee didn't make it obvious that she was ignoring him. To be honest, she really ignored the whole Shield. It was just a couple of hours until the start of Raw and the authority gathered everybody who was scheduled to appear tonight to give them information regarding the show and each person's role in it. Wrestlers spent some time rehearsing and memorizing new lines and instructions that they were given. Renee herself studied carefully the script and one by one contacted people she was having some conversations or scenes with. She seemed really focused on her job, unlike some other guys who were just goofing around.
Dean received his script but he barely looked at it, he never spent on it more time than necessary. He was always ready to improvise or add his own part that, though, would confuse people working with him. He told himself that he would read the text thoroughly later, he was too fixated on Renee and on what she was doing. He was not sure if she noticed that he was staring at her, but even if she did, she did not let it show. On the other hand, it could be understood easily that she was purposely not looking at and not talking to Dean. She has talked to many other wrestlers, commentators or people doing the office job, but when she was coming close to Dean, or the group of Dean, Seth, and Roman for that matter, she would change direction.
At one point, she was passing them by while they were in the middle of a wrestling-unrelated conversation and Roman, who until now hasn't noticed anything strange about her behavior, being a nice guy, said hello to her. When she did not respond and showed no sign of receiving what he said, although he pronounced it clearly and loudly enough, he wondered if it was just because she was busy and hurrying to talk to Stephanie. But when she was coming back the same way maybe two minutes later and Roman tried to grab her attention so that she would chat with him and Renee just raised her hand toward him, making it clear she had no intention in a conversation whatsoever, he took it personally and found it very strange of her since she was always a nice and smiling person. Now there was no sign of smile on her face nor there could be found slightest eye contact on her side. And this strange and unusually impolite behavior made him curious.
"Is it just me or was that weird?" he asked his colleagues.
Seth was not really focusing on Renee until then, he was lost in the plan of upcoming match, but Dean immediately noticed Renee's reactions, he has been watching her for some time and was quite frankly curious about Roman's attempt to talk to her and what she would do. When she refused to look at any of them, more precisely on anybody standing dangerously close to Dean, it became clear to him.
"What happened?" Seth finally started paying attention.
"Renee just blew me off. Have I done something?" he asked himself.
"Have you?" Dean took interest in that question in order to figure out if there was any other explanation of her behavior than Dean's involvement in it.
"No," he rejected that idea, "I don't think so."
"Now that you talk about it," Seth showed his concern, "the same thing happened to me. Or, actually, she's been avoiding me for a week now. And I don't think I've acted rudely to her nor have I done something to piss her off. I mean, I could have, but I think it's unlikely."
Both guys shared a worried and confused look trying to figure out what it was that made Renee want to avoid talking to them.
Then Dean spoke, "I think I might have something to do with it." His voice was quiet due to his being ashamed of himself.
"What have you done this time?" Roman asked sluggishly, emphasizing it has happened before.
"I think the last time I talked to her, I tried to make my point so badly that I acted thoughtlessly and probably quite rudely as well."
Seth sympathized with Renee and felt bad for her when he imagined what she had to go through talking to Dean, considering the topic of that conversation. Roman, on the other hand, just sighed loudly.
"You should be forbidden to talk to her," he said. "So what was so bad that you made her hate us all?" he wanted to know.
"I can't tell you that," he responded. "It's private."
"Then why the hell do Seth and I have to suffer because of it? She should be avoiding you, not us," he noted.
"I believe that's what she's been doing. It's just that I'm standing right next to you, that's why she has no interest in talking to you right now," Dean tried to explain it to him.
"But Seth said that she's been avoiding him for a week, and I don't think that you've been with him all the time."
Since Seth easily realized why it was so, he intended to help Dean take Roman's focus off the topic. If Dean tried to explain how it was possible that Renee didn't want to talk to Seth either, no matter how distant Dean might be, Seth was sure that Dean would get lost in desperate search for a lie.
"Let's leave it. I believe when Dean makes up for what he messed up, things will get back to normal."
"I agree," Dean accepted Seth's help although he was surprised by it considering Seth was not supposed to know anything about the problem. "I need to talk to her," Dean continued, and planned to do so immediately.
"No," Roman opposed, and stopped Dean by placing his stretched arm against Dean's chest, interrupting his on-going movement and making him step back. "I don't think Renee would appreciate talking to you," he explained his action.
Seth was about to offer himself to ease things between Renee and the guys, or more notably Dean, but he quickly realized that since he was not supposed to have any relevant information about the conflict, his offer would seem coming out of nowhere and being pointless. So he just waited for situation to resolve without his interference.
"You better keep your distance," Roman recommended Dean, who was a little angry at Roman for stopping him and commanding him what to do and what not to do. "I'm gonna find out what's the matter and hopefully make Renee see that you did not mean to cause any harm. Or did you?" Roman asked doubtfully when he noticed Dean looking away like a guilty dog that knows he's been caught. "Oh, Dean. Why don't you just learn when it's time to shut up?" he asked him rhetorically, shaking his head in disbelief that there was yet another mistake caused by Dean that he now needed to fix.