He finally walked inside. He saw her standing on his left hand side talking in a group of people. He didn't approach her but waited for her to notice him. In no more than twenty seconds she did. She didn't smile. Her look was concerned; maybe his was as well. He didn't move; he still waited for her to make the first step.
"Dean," somebody addressed him. Nothing. "Dean," he said again. This time that person touched his shoulder too.
"Not now," he responded, the arrogant tone similar to the one he uses in the ring.
He didn't watch the person's reaction for he didn't care. He watched Renee. He needed to talk to her. Finally. There were things she needed to hear, and Dean sensed she knew it.
His eyes striking hers, it was clear to Renee that Dean wanted her to leave her little group discussing no matter what and go with him. 'Cause by the look on his face Renee assumed the conversation they were about to have was not suitable for public.
But maybe she was wrong. When she got to him he took her hand but they stayed in the room. They stood by the wall; it would be an exaggeration to say they had privacy.
What's going on? Renee wanted to ask but didn't say anything. She was worried and couldn't hide it.
Dean bit his lip, played with his tongue, eyes searching around the room. He acted nervous but he wasn't. And he wasn't scared of looking Renee directly in the eye either. He just didn't know what to do, what would be the best thing to do.
"I know I wasn't the best boyfriend recently," Dean started.
"You've been busy."
"No. That's not the reason." So that she wouldn't have chance to ask some follow-up questions, he continued. "I'll try harder."
"Dean, you don't need to try harder. You were good enough. Something changed. It's not that you did something wrong, not that I know about," she added suspiciously, "but I feel we're driving apart. Am I wrong?"
Dean was ready to answer, he seemed to be about to agree with her, but when his mouth opened, not a single syllable got out.
"All right. Let's forget about those last weeks. Let's start over, have some fun."
"Do you want to come with me to a car race?" Dean suggested.
Renee smiled.
"I know you're not into that stuff . . ." He actually wasn't sure.
"Why not? It could be fun. Just . . . do we have time for that?"
"We have time for anything. You can come to my place . . ."
"You want me to come to Vegas with you?" she interrupted him, surprised. This was the first time. He never asked her that before; he demanded privacy, some alone time.
Dean didn't hesitate. "Yes."
"Are you sure about it?" she asked. It was a little hard to believe that Dean would change opinion on it, just like that. But he seemed sure; he looked confident.
"Absolutely." He smiled. He made one step forward so that she would have to move. When he made another one, she found herself leaning against the wall. He made her close her eyes and kissed her.
When he broke the kiss, the first thing Renee did was to look around to see if somebody noticed them kissing. Of course they did. But when they saw Renee looking at them, they stopped watching and went back to their previous activities. Satisfied, Renee now looked back at Dean who was holding her hand.
"I was thinking . . ." she started saying, "you remember that girl Rebecca?"
"Hmm . . ." he wondered. That name sounded familiar. Then an imaginary light bulb lit up in his head. "Oh, yeah . . . Rebecca. The little girl with awful family."
"Her family isn't awful." Renee sighed. "Anyhow, what if we took her for a trip?"
Dean stood there, speechless, stunned. Look of horror in his eyes.
"Breathe," Renee advised him, laughing. "I guess I should have expressed myself differently. What I mean is that we could invite her to Raw on July, 14, in Richmond and then to Smackdown taping the next day in Fayetteville. It's not that far from where she lives . . ." Which is? Dean wondered. He honestly had no idea. "It could be a nice trip for her. Don't worry, I'm not suggesting to take her on a holiday or anything," Renee explained and believed that this would make Dean relax. She realized he might have thought that she imagined something of a family trip, which wasn't her idea at all.
"We could do that. And when I return from Japan we, and now I mean just you and me, could go to New York."
Renee couldn't be more astonished. Not only that he wanted her to come to Vegas with him, he also wasn't terrified of going to his girlfriend's place? "You never wanted to come before," she said what he already knew.
"Now I do. And not only that. We'll go sightseeing; we'll go all the way up the Empire State Building. And I'll take you the best restaurants in New York," he promised. It was a spontaneous idea but maybe he shouldn't have said it out loud. Him suggesting to go around New York as a tourist was not like him at all. On the contrary, it was suspicious. And then he realized he went too far.
His girlfriend knew immediately that something was wrong. But due to all the people in their hearing distance, she didn't want to say something that could start an argument right there. She tried not to let show her suspicion. Moreover, there was a chance there was nothing to worry about and Dean's suggestions were abnormally normal. If anybody else said it, it would be certainly okay. The problem was that it was too unlike Dean. And she couldn't hold back the suspicion. When Dean tried to hold her hand, she let him but she was unresponsive. And her smile was frozen.
"What is it, darling?" Dean asked.
"Nothing," she lied. She wanted to know what was going on. She didn't dare to ask. Maybe she was terrified of the answer. Dean could have been hiding something and it was more comfortable to be living in a lie. But why didn't he tell her by himself? She tried to hide that she became suspicious of him recently, but for she was bad at pretending, he had to know. He couldn't believe she was buying everything that he was saying, could he?
"You don't seem happy about my idea."
"Really?" she asked, pretty sarcastically. All right, she was done with pretending.
"Renee, just tell me."
"You first," she said.
"Why I do feel I shouldn't have said it?" The short moment of happiness, the illusion of everything being fine was over.
"Dean, why don't we leave it now?"
"Why?" He looked around. "You mind talking down to me in public?" he said, his voice louder than should be. She didn't reply so he continued, getting more and more annoyed. "Tell me what you really think," he dared her. She still didn't say anything. Her face got sad. He took the wrong approach. He was never supposed to make her sad, speechless in a wrong way. "Renee," he talked to her, trying to make her like him again. He spoke sweetly, stroked her cheek, put aside strands of hair from her forehead so that he could see her beautiful eyes. She wouldn't look at him though. "Renee," he said again. When she still wouldn't look at him, for whatever reason, he put his hand on her face again and with his right thumb stroked the side of her chin. Then she finally looked at him.
"What are you hiding, Dean?"
Dean wondered. Was that the impulse to tell her the truth? Probably. But he dismissed it. He chose a different approach. "I know I wasn't the best boyfriend recently," he repeated the first sentence he said to her when he started the conversation which didn't take the direction he'd want it to.
Her response was different. "Maybe now it's the right time to decide if you wanna do anything about it. Or —"
"Don't finish that sentence, please. Of course I wanna do something about it. And I will. I really want to. So please, please, let me take you to that fucking Empire State Building," he begged, adding just a bit of humor and smile so that Renee wouldn't think he doesn't take it, or her, seriously.
After a minute when he started to doubt whether she'll ever look at him the way she used to, she smiled. It was a small, almost invisible smile but it was a good sign to him. He took a big risk because she was mad at him and he kissed her. She let him. In the middle of the kiss he reached with his free hand into the back pocket of his jeans and pulled out a piece of paper. He didn't look at it; his eyes were closed just as hers. But he knew there was a trash can next to his right leg. The paper, which was until now nicely folded, he reshaped into something like a ball and afterwards threw away. After that Dean broke the kiss. Then he leaned toward her left ear and whispered, "I love you, Renee."