Disclaimer, etc., in part one.

We are now officially past the halfway point in this story...

Part Thirty-One

"So... It was very nice of you to defend my honor."

Eve Torres smiled slightly as she sat there, the diva staring out the window of her apartment, where she just so happened to have a lovely view of the beach. Yes, California living was expensive, but it gave her some great scenery, too. She loved to watch the sun reflecting out over the water. "Well, she did hurt you because of me," the woman finally said, the smile falling from her lips as she spoke, and she heard Kelly give something of a huff on the other end of the line.

"It totally wasn't your fault, and you know it. You aren't the one that made Jeff Hardy a drugged-out, redneck bully," the blonde girl said, and Eve would have smiled at that had she not been able to hear Kelly's little sound of pain on the other end of the line.

"Kels? You okay?" she asked, and the blonde sighed.

"I'm fine. Just moved too fast. But it really isn't your fault. Jeff's a bully and Maria is a brainwashed idiot. I hate to say it, because he's a total loser-freak, but Dolph Ziggler could totally do better than Maria. I mean, he could at least find a girl that's not lusting after someone else - and really obviously, too," Kelly said, then sighed again. "Anyway. Not the point. My point was that you're totally my hero because you beat up the evil witch that hit me with a tire iron."

"Yeah, well, she deserved it. She's attacked both of us, you know," Eve said. "She just attacked me from behind in the arena. I guess when that didn't turn out too well for her, she decided to bring a weapon into the fight with you." The brunette paused, frowning as she looked out at the waves.

"I wish I could have been there to cheer you on and then laugh in her face when you forced her to tap out. That was great. The announcers were all shocked and shit, like they didn't expect you to be able to do it. Just because Maria's been in the company longer, they think that should means she's better, but obviously she's not. At least I got to see it on television. I recorded it, and so far, I've watched it at least six times. Maybe seven."

"Well, I'm glad you enjoyed it. I'm sure you would have enjoyed watching Melina beat her up at the live event the next night, too. She didn't make her tap out, but she did nearly knock her out with a kick to the head. I'm not so sure that Maria's going to be in any condition to wrestle for a couple of weeks after that."

"Good. She made me lose some time, so I hope she loses some, too. I wish I could have seen it, though."

"Try YouTube. Sometimes people post stuff from the live events there," Eve told her, vaguely thinking that she might just have to check the video-sharing site for that particular match as well. And maybe also the match that had happened later that night, when Punk had gotten a lovely GTS on Jeff Hardy. Oh, but it had been hard not to cheer from her spot at ringside - she'd known she had to walk out with Jeff on occasion still, at least until she was ready to turn against him completely - and it would be nice to watch it when she would be able to actually allow the smile to cross her face.

"Ooh... Hadn't thought about that. I may have to go searching for it," Kelly said, sounding very cheerful about the prospect. Not that Eve could blame her for sounding happy about seeing Maria getting her butt kicked. If Maria had attacked her with a damned tire iron, she'd probably be watching every beat down Maria had ever taken in her life on a freaking loop.

"Well, as long as it gives you something to do," Eve replied. "And really, it was a lot of fun. She tried to run away and everything. After the match, Ziggler had to come out there and help her to the back, and she couldn't even walk a straight line. He looked kind of like he wanted to leave her there, too."

Kelly snorted. "Well, duh. He probably realized that she's head over heels for Jeff Hardy or something. I wonder if she called out Jeff's name during sex or something. It totally wouldn't shock me."

"Ugh. Let's please not talk about Maria's sex life," Eve said, then nearly cursed at the sound of glee that came from the other end of the line. She knew exactly what was coming next, unfortunately.

"If we can't talk about Maria's sex life, maybe we should talk about yours. And don't tell me it's non-existent-"

"I'm not sleeping with Punk," Eve broke in, and she could practically hear Kelly rolling her eyes on the other end of the line.

"Yet. That, my dear, is the key word. You're not sleeping with him 'yet'," she said, and Eve made a face.

"Don't be so sure I'm going to sleep with him *ever*," Eve told the younger woman, though in truth, she fully intended to do just that... But she wasn't about to talk to Kelly about that, or about the fact that she and CM Punk had actually discussed the matter of sex... Not to mention the fact that next week, after the shows were over, Punk was going to be heading out to California to do some promotional stuff, and they'd already talked about spending time together then. Eve knew that if he stayed at her place while he was in California, if they were totally alone and there was no possibility of someone finding out about them, then they were likely to take things that last step. And she was excited about it, and kind of nervous, and she was not about to talk to Kelly about it. She wasn't even going to tell Kelly that Punk was going to be visiting her next week because she knew the other woman wouldn't leave her alone about it. And it wasn't that she didn't adore Kelly; the woman was pretty much her best friend, or at least one of them. She just wasn't ready to tell her everything about her life. She liked to keep some things private if she could, and that included some aspects of her relationship with the world heavyweight champion.

Kelly heaved out a sigh. "You're no fun."

"Because I won't be a totally open book? Sorry, not going to feel guilty."

"Fine. If you won't tell me about how you and CM Punk are going to have crazy, naked sex, will you at least describe the match between Maria and Melina in more detail... Just in case I can't find it on YouTube? And oh, wait a minute, I think I just did. Holy crap, is she really wearing that? Because that is ugly. And it has feathers," Kelly said, and Eve let out a laugh, not just because she was glad of the subject change, but because she also had a very clear memory of what Maria Kanellis had worn as ring gear when she'd faced Melina on Saturday night at the SmackDown live event.

"Yes, those are feathers. Purple, hot pink, and blue feathers, to be exact."

"How many flamingos and peacocks did she have to pluck to make that awful thing?" Kelly managed to say through her shock, and Eve laughed again.

"A lot, is my guess. Wait until the end of the match. Seriously, there are feathers all over the place-"

"Well, of course. I've seen Maria's hot glue gun skills. She either puts way too much and makes a mess, or she doesn't put enough and the stuff barely sticks. Her skills with the bedazzler aren't much better, and holy crap, did she make some sort of design on her boots?"

"Yes. Yes, she did."

"It looks a little... abstract," Kelly said. "From the angle this person was shooting at, anyway."

"It looked a little abstract from ringside, too. I have no idea what it was supposed to be. Melina claims that Maria had a smiley face bedazzled onto her toes, but I never saw it, and the little rhinestones didn't fare much better than the feathers did," the older diva said, and Kelly snorted, then heaved out a sigh. Eve could practically picture the amused look on her face, the way Kelly was probably shaking her head at the sight of Maria's version of ring gear. Maria's fashion sense could seem a bit questionable at times, but she'd really outdone herself for the live event. Probably testing new gear or something to see how it held up under match conditions. It really hadn't held up well. At all. And not just because the person wearing the gear had been repeatedly twisted up like a pretzel.

"Well, at least you and Melina looked good. I seriously want to borrow the dress that you were wearing. It looks awesome," Kelly said, letting Eve know that she'd gotten to the part of the video that showed Melina's entrance with her alongside the other woman. After a few moments, Kelly made an annoyed sound.

"What?"

"The guy focused on your ass for a second, so I thought I was stuck with a perve video and wouldn't see the match, but he went back to the match real fast. It was right after you left the ring to stand at ringside, so maybe he was just trying to get a decent shot of you or something. Whatever," the blonde said. "At least I don't have to search out another video of the match and... Oh, lord, she just lost, like, a dozen feathers-"

"Yup. And it was mostly just a mesh-like material and her bra and panties underneath all the feathers, so... I'm thinking they won't be letting her wear something like that on television. Especially since she was wearing a thong beneath her sorry excuse for shorts," Eve declared, and Kelly snorted again.

"What a moron. I have to admit that I feel sorry for whoever had to be in the ring after her... All those feathers and rhinestones all around..."

"Yeah, Jericho didn't seem to thrilled with it, especially after Rey decided to try and stick some of the feathers in Y2J's hair. It was a good look for him," Eve said with a snort, and Kelly laughed at that, then let out another snort at the sight of something that was happening on the video she was watching and, since Eve had a pretty good memory of the match itself, she was pretty sure she knew what was so amusing. And so the two friends sat there, Kelly watching the video while Eve shared her memories of it, the two of them laughing and letting themselves forget for a moment everything bad that had been going on around them. The bad would still be there waiting for them when they got back to work.

Unfortunately.