"Looks like you guys have done a great job with this place," Thea said as Seth and Ronda lead her into The Venice Steakhouse, with Maggie and Adam following behind. Much like their house, the restaurant was an impressive, modern building and everything from the decor to the furniture said money. This was unmistakably a high class establishment, serving fine food to those who could afford it.
"Thanks," Seth said. "We've put a lot work into it. A lot of money, too. We actually had the place built from scratch. It's our pride and joy, and our retirement plan as well. We won't be wrestling forever, and we need something to fall back on when we're done."
While she seriously doubted that Seth and Ronda would ever find themselves struggling for money, Thea admired the forward planning. "What made you decide on a restaurant?" she asked.
"Eating is one of life's great pleasures," Seth said with genuine passion. "We both love eating good food, so we decided we could make money by selling it to people. So far, it's going well."
"Business is good?" Thea inquired, looking around again at the tasteful decor and furniture. Whoever had designed the place had done a very good job of it. Seth and Ronda had likely hired a professional to do the job for them.
"You can't move in here most nights," Maggie said. "People have to book a couple of days in advance to get a table. Word of mouth can be a powerful thing, and we've made sure our service is second to none."
The use of the word we made Thea wonder if Maggie also had input into the restaurant, and then it dawned on her. In conversation over breakfast that morning she had learned that Maggie was a professional artist. "Did you design this place Maggie? The decoration I mean."
"Not entirely, but I had some input. What do you think of it?"
"It looks fantastic," Thea replied honestly.
"I used to have a job in a bar that stood right here on this spot," Ronda told her. "I hated the guy you ran the place so bad. I remember when I quit my job there I told him I'd come back one day, buy the place and tear it down. It ended up that he went out of business before I came back, but I damn sure bought it and tore it down, just like I said I would."
"Nice," Thea said, for want of anything else.
As it was only mid-morning, the restaurant wasn't due to open for lunch service for another couple of hours. The staff were already hard at work though, with three waitresses busying themselves with cleaning and setting tables. A smartly dressed man who looked to be around forty approached the group and shook hands with Seth and then Ronda as greetings were exchanged. Thea didn't have to wait for Seth to handle the introductions to figure out that she was about to meet the manager of The Venice Steakhouse.
"Jack, this is Thea, and this is Adam. They're here to film the documentary about Ronda. We're going to do a couple of quick interviews here, but we'll be out of your way before opening time."
"We've got to have lunch here after we're done filming," Ronda decided. "We can't bring them here and not have them try the food."
"Right, of course," Seth said, chastising himself for not thinking of it himself. "You're okay with eating lunch here, guys?"
"Of course they are," Ronda said without hesitation. The idea of anyone snubbing her restaurant was clearly alien to her. "Where else would they want to go, McDonald's?"
Thea sensed the undertone to that comment. Ronda was going to be insulted and angry if there was any perceived slight on her restaurant, but there was a problem. "I'm a vegan," she announced delicately.
Ronda looked at her as if she had actually said that she'd just flown in from Mars, but Jack had a more customer-friendly response ready and waiting. "Not a problem. We have vegetarian options on the menu that are suitable for vegans. There's pasta dishes, potato dishes, vegetable options and salads."
"Excellent," Thea smiled. "That sounds perfect."
Even with the disaster averted, Ronda looked put out. She wandered off to inspect the work of one of the waitresses, but Thea heard her mutter, "Fucking vegan? Christ."
"Okay," Seth said awkwardly, not wanting an argument to kick off. "Shall we set up somewhere, Thea? You want to talk to me and Maggie, right?"
"Yeah," Thea said. More level headed than Ronda and also mindful of the clout that she had with WWE, Thea was happy to let her subject's little show of attitude slide, although it had shown her a glimpse of the side of her personality that some of WWE's Divas roster didn't appreciate. Whether there had been a reason to be irritated or not, there seemed to be a lack of a filter between brain and mouth where Ronda was concerned. "Let's set up at one of the tables. Who wants to go first?" she asked, looking at Seth and then Maggie.
"Are you okay to go first?" Seth asked Maggie, pointedly glancing at Ronda. The message was clear to Maggie: he wanted to go speak to Ronda in private and cool her down, in order to make sure things got better, not worse as the morning progressed.
"Sure, I'll go first."
A few minutes later, Maggie, Thea and Adam were set up at a table near the front of the restaurant, ready to film the day's first interview. "Can I just ask your surname, Maggie, before we start?" Thea asked. "We'll need to put it on screen the first time we show you."
"Wright," Maggie said, now feeling uneasy again at the prospect of being filmed. Millions of people could end up watching the interview that she was about to give, a fact that was hard to come to terms with.
"Great," Thea smiled. "Just so you know what to expect, I'm not going to go into how you met Ronda, how you became friends with her and all that stuff. I'd love to talk with you about that out of personal interest at some point, but it's not really applicable to the documentary. What I'm going to do is just ask you a few questions about what it's like to live with Ronda and to be friends with her, that kind of thing. It won't take too long at all. We'll most probably work in your answers to the questions at various points in the show where they are appropriate rather than showing the interview as a whole. There'll be a short voice-over piece to introduce you to the audience and let them know that you're Ronda's housemate, so we'll start right in with the first question when we start filming. Is that all okay?"
Maggie nodded to confirm her understanding, then Thea looked at Adam and asked, "All set?"
"Yep. Good to go in five, four, three..." He counted down the last two numbers with his fingers and then started filming.
Thea started with a question that would likely never be used on the documentary, sensing unease from Maggie. "How does it feel when you see Ronda on WWE television, wearing merchandise that you've designed?"
It was a cleverly thought out question, getting Maggie to loosen up by talking about something that she was passionate about. "It's awesome. I never expected anyone to think my drawings were any good. It was just a hobby for me. I sent Ronda a drawing I did of her not long after she made the active roster and I was blown away that she commented on it and said she liked it. Then the next thing I knew, WWE were contacting me about putting it on a shirt for her. I really couldn't believe it. Even now that it's a regular thing to see her wearing my designs, it's still incredible."
Smiling at the quality of the answer and pleased that the interview didn't look like it would be a tricky one, Thea moved on. "What is it like to live with Ronda?"
"When we're at home it's just like living with anyone else," Maggie replied with a grin. "There's a tendency, and I used to do this too, to think of the top people in WWE like they're superheroes or something, but the truth is that they're just like everyone else. Ronda is my friend. We do things that friends do together. We watch movies, we play video games, we go shopping, we just do all the regular stuff that everyone does with their friends. It's only in public that it's different."
It was common practice to smile often when interviewing someone in this manner, and it was easy for Thea, given that Maggie had even teed up the next question herself. "What's it like to be out in public with Ronda?"
"It's crazy sometimes," Maggie said, shaking her head at some memory or other. "It's got to the point now where a lot of people recognise her. They don't have to be wrestling fans anymore, thanks to the movies and the commercials. Wherever we go, people will come up to her, and to Seth, obviously if it's all three of us out together. A lot of people just go crazy, wanting pictures or signatures or whatever. It really can be wild. People will come over when we're eating, people will stop us in the street, people stop us in the supermarket. I mean, I get it, I've been a fan too. I still am a big wrestling fan, but it's like people don't realise that Ronda needs to have some private time too."
"And how does Ronda react to all of that attention? Does she find it intrusive?"
"Sometimes it is intrusive. But I have to make it clear that Ronda loves the fans, and she does her best to make time for people as much as possible. I remember one time we flew into LA and there was a whole group of fans there in the airport. Ronda must have spent ten minutes with them signing things and getting selfies. I knew she was tired enough to fall asleep on the spot after the day we'd had, but none of those people would have been able to tell that from how she was with them. Afterwards, I asked her how she can always be like that without it seeming to wear her down, or without snapping at someone to go away. She said, 'Ten minutes if my time can leave fifteen, twenty people walking away feeling like their day has just been made. For some of them it's something that they'll never forget. That's such a humbling thing, and it's the least I can do.' I thought that was pretty amazing."
Thea nodded in agreement before asking her next question. "You've seen encounters like that plenty of times, I'm sure. There must be some pretty remarkable reactions from some people when they meet Ronda?"
"Bear in mind that you're talking to someone who cried her eyes out when she first met the Shield guys and Ronda," Maggie said with a laugh. "But yeah, people crying is quite common. I think the funniest thing I've seen was some guy who asked Ronda to record a quick video message for him. He said a friend of his owed him fifty bucks and he wanted Ronda to say that she was on her way over to kick his ass. She recorded something real quick and the guy couldn't stop laughing."
"One more question," Thea said, thinking that her point had been missed with an earlier question. "You've said that Ronda loves to make time for people and tries her best to always do so, but it must get hard for her to deal with sometimes?"
"Yeah, sometimes it does," Maggie said reflectively. "Like, sometimes we'll go out to eat and we'll just want to have a nice meal in peace, but people will come over and ask for pictures or signatures. Sometimes she'll have to say, 'I'm on personal time right now, but I'll sign something for you when I'm done eating.' Most of the time people turn apologetic then, but sometimes they act like she's being out of order to them, and that gets to her. I mean, like I said before, she's human just like the rest of us."
"Thanks, Maggie. That'll do it for now," Thea said, and Adam turned the camera off.
"That wasn't as bad as I expected," Maggie grinned. "Will we be doing that again at some point?"
"Probably, if you're okay with that?"
"Yeah," Maggie nodded, pushing her chair back and standing up.
Thea did likewise as she said, "I'm going to ask Seth some similar questions, and then we can think about eating. Can't wait to try this place out."
Seeing that the interview was finished, Ronda walked over to them. After asking Maggie how it had gone and getting a positive response, she turned to Thea, noticing that the camera was back rolling and focused on them. They were taking the idea of filming all of the time quite literally. "You're going to interview Seth too, right? He's just gone through to the kitchen."
"Yeah, I'd like to," Thea replied. "And just to be clear, when we're at Smackdown tomorrow night, I need to talk to some of your detractors. Paige, for example. We need to get both sides of the coin for this documentary. I want to be up front with you about that."
"I appreciate that," Ronda said honestly, before a frostier tone took over. "If you want to get opinions from fucking idiots, go right ahead. Just bear in mind that people like Paige like to project their insecurities, weaknesses and self-doubt onto me. I don't like that and I don't let them do it. They hate on me because of their own shortcomings."
Thea was quickly getting used to how to talk to Ronda to get the right reactions. It actually wasn't all that hard. "Be that as it may, it's my job to get both sides, and that's what I'm going to do."
Ronda considered that for a second, then nodded. "Sure. Sounds like we have a plan for tomorrow night then."
A/N: I know this story has been a bit slow paced so far, but stick with it guys. Things are going to pick up soon enough, I promise. ;)