Hunter had given Stephanie all of Saturday night to reply and when he got up on Sunday morning and still didn't have any sort of reply from her, even if it was just to say no, he reluctantly sent her another text:

I don't know if you got my text or not but if you did & the answer is no just tell me please. If you didn't get it then I'd like to go out again this week please.

After sending the text he put her completely out of his head and focussed his energies on eating breakfast before he drove to the next town for the house show tonight.

It was early on Sunday morning, too early for Stephanie's liking, and she was wide awake and just staring at her bedroom ceiling. Her plan had been to sleep as long as Mikey would let her and she thought she would achieve it as she had made a big decision last night and thought it would take a weight off her mind but if anything she felt like she had a bigger weight on her mind now than she did before.

When Mikey got up just after seven in the morning it was the first time in a really long time that she didn't mind him being up at a really early hour, with her son up it meant she wouldn't have time to dwell on her decision.

Mikey had been up for a while and Stephanie had managed to get him dressed and to get his teeth cleaned after they had breakfast but now she had to move from getting him ready for the day to getting them both ready to fly out for Raw early the next morning. She was just putting another load of laundry in the machine when Mikey came running into the room holding her phone, "beep Mommy, beep."

Turning her son she raised her eyebrow, "are you a car now?"

Shaking his head he looked at her sternly, "phone beep Mommy not me."

"Oh I see, thank you." Reluctantly she took the phone from his outstretched hands and opened the text she had just received. Upon seeing another text from Hunter she sighed and closed the phone without truly reading it.

Seeing his Mom shut her phone looking sad he stood staring at her, "Mommy no like?"

Assuming that Mikey had left the room when she took the phone from him she was a little startled when he spoke and she looked at him again, "it was just about work, Mommy doesn't want to do work on a Sunday so they can wait."

Clapping his hands excitedly he liked having his Mom all to himself, "yay. Cans I helps Mommy?"

Turning the machine on before she turned back to her son she nodded her head and held her hand out to him, "Mommy needs to get your clothes and toys ready for the morning so you can help with that if you want."

Taking his Mom's outstretched hand he liked being able to pick what he wore and what toys they took.

Grateful to have Mikey in her life because it meant she could shut her feelings off in the name of doing what was right for him she happily focussed all of her energy and attention on him and nobody else.

It had been a good eight hours since Hunter had sent the last text to Stephanie and again he was still waiting for a reply. He understood she had Mikey to take care of but it didn't take two minutes to type out a text and tell him that she either wasn't interested or that she would talk to him later in the week or something, right now he would take anything that would at least let him know where he stood with her.

Spotting Jericho sat alone in the corner of the room he made his way over to him, he had clearly had more experience in the dating game or at least seemed to know more than he did. Sitting down beside him he was hopeful, "Chris have you got a minute?"

The word around the locker room today had been that Hunter had been dumped after one date because he had been quite moody all day so when he joined him Jericho was not surprised, "I don't have a spare minute that I can let you borrow but I have a minute now whilst I finish getting ready that if you need to talk I can listen."

"Okay good, thanks. The woman I went out on a date with on Friday night didn't reply at all yesterday and I sent her another text this morning and she still hasn't replied. Do I cut my losses and move on or do I keep trying?"

Tucking the laces of his one wrestling boot into the top of it he sat back for a moment, "cutting your losses at this early of a stage seems like a waste as she may just be playing hard to get with you so I wouldn't suggest that. Maybe don't contact her again until you get home on like Wednesday or whatever day it is that you get home and maybe give her a ring and see if you can get hold of her. If she doesn't answer your calls then I would suggest cutting your losses as clearly she had been lying when she said she wanted to do it again, assuming that was what she said."

Sighing Hunter wished that she hadn't given him that false hope by saying she'd had a good time, "she told me that she'd had a good time and she'd like to do it again."

"Well in that case I assume she's just playing hard to get and wants you to do some running. Give her time, she'll eventually answer your text or when you ring her you'll eventually be able to get hold of her and arrange another date."

Standing up Hunter slapped Jericho on the shoulder gently feeling more confident now and that she was just seeing how serious he was, "okay thanks man, it's much appreciated."

Walking off Hunter had to finish getting ready for the show himself.

After spending a good few hours with Mikey as he picked out the clothes and toys that he wanted to take with him her next job was attempting to pack it neatly in the suitcases which was far from easy when she kept getting distracted. It should have taken half an hour at the most but in the end it took her over an hour and by the time she was done she was wiped out and collapsed on the couch.

Closing her eyes in an attempt to relax whilst Mikey finished his movie she reluctantly opened her eyes when she felt him climbing on top of her, "what are you doing?"

Sitting on his Mom's lap he smiled innocently, "I's come for cuddles."

She was unable to stay mad at her son even if she wanted to when he gave her that look, she was sure she had given that exact same look to her own parents thousands of times over the years to get her way and just like her parents she caved and gave Mikey what he wanted. Holding her son gently she kissed the top of his head, "cuddles huh? Mommy likes cuddles with her little man."

He smiled brightly the second he knew he wasn't in trouble, "yaay." After a brief silent pause he spoke up again, "cans I goes to da ring with Hunner and Tishy 'morrow please?"

Shaking her head she had a small smile on her face, "I should have known you only wanted cuddles so you could ask that. Why do you want to go to the ring with Hunter? Is just Trish not enough for you anymore?"

Pouting a little he didn't like the tone of his Mom's voice, "I likes Hunner, he's fun and Tishy and me cans beat him."

"You think you and Trish can beat Hunter in a match? I'd like to see you try."

Puffing his chest out he sat up proudly, "we cans. So cans I?"

Shrugging her shoulders Stephanie wasn't going to ask Hunter to do it but if he was around and offered to then she'd have to live with that, "if Trish isn't busy then I guess you can go in the ring with her but there is to be no climbing no matter what anyone else says. I say no and that is final and if I find out you've been climbing the ropes again you will be in trouble and won't be allowed back in the ring ever again."

Completely ignoring the warning Mikey was just excited about being able to go back in the ring, "yaaaay, fank you Mommy."

Shaking her head she knew she gave in too easily but he wasn't going to get to the shows much if at all once her Dad came back to work and took the reigns of the company back so she didn't feel too bad about caving on this.