Thank you to justkimmy, wwefanatic365, maddieclaybourne, broguekicking, too much drama 1225, jouetdedestin, Tammy, IRENELOVE83, DeeMarie426, princessreigns, ChelleLew,benova13, Olivia Reigns and Shield316 for reviewing. Nice to see some new faces. I truly appreciate you guys and all of your feedback.

"You're a psycho, you know that?" Sasha commented as she and Pam left another store with half a dozen bags between them. "Why the hell did we buy all of this?"

After Sasha confided in Pam about her and Joe's decision, the first thing the petite woman did was take Sasha shopping. And not just any kind of shopping, either. The horrified mother-of-two was dragged to every lingerie store in the mall, from Fig Leaves to La Perla to Victoria's Secret, and she stood by bewildered as Pam chose pieces she thought would look good on her friend. G-strings and stockings, babydolls and teddies, cotton and lace; Pam picked them all. Sasha wondered how she kept letting herself get talked into situations like this. "We said we're taking things slow, Pam. Buying new underwear is not taking things slow."

"No, it's being proactive," Pam stated matter-of-factly. "You gotta be prepared, girl. Joe will be back before you know it, and you never know when he might decide to strike, if you catch my drift."

"But the bras and panties I already own are fine."

"Honey, there's bras and panties. And then there's lingerie," Pam corrected. "Lingerie is exactly what you need if you wanna get the ball rolling with Joe. Ooh, you're gonna look real sexy in that white babydoll outfit. Maybe you should wear that one first."

"I'm just surprised Victoria's Secret had sizes big enough for my butt." Honestly, the thought of exposing her body to Joe was terrifying. Having squeezed out two babies and left with stretch marks on her stomach and hips, sexy was the last adjective to describe her with. Sasha wasn't fat, but next to her best friend she looked relatively out of shape. Thanks to her line of work, Pam was a trim, toned specimen. And Joe…well, he was perfect, plain and simple. Intimidatingly perfect.

Damn, she really shouldn't have let Pam waste her money.

"Oh, quit your whinin'," Pam reprimanded her. "Do you know how envious I am of your body? I gotta work my ass off to look like this. You've popped out two babies, hardly exercise and you still look like a video ho."

"I resent that."

"You know what I mean, you dummy. Anyway, trust me on this, the lingerie is a smart decision. I know the Samoan Adonis will appreciate the gesture." She wiggled her eyebrows, and laughing out loud Sasha shook her head. "You are so excited about this," she said, "Maybe we should switch places. You go hump Joe in the sleazy underwear and tell me all about it."

"Naw, honey," Pam countered, "As tempting as that sounds, it ain't gonna happen. He couldn't take his eyes off you that time you introduced us. He's all yours and you will make the most of it, alright? You can thank me by screaming my name while he lays the pipe."

"Oh God." Sasha covered her face. Pam was incorrigible. "You a crazy bitch, Pamela."

"I love you too. Now, let's go get our hair did."

The salon she and Pam regularly went to was a conveyor belt of living, breathing Tyler Perry screenplays. Gossip flowed like cold water on a hot sunny day. Whether it was the salon owner's ex-husband and their divorce battles, or a customer bragging about using her child support payments to buy her new boyfriend speakers for his car, or the hairdressers griping over their pay, nothing and no one was off limits. One time there was a full-blown catfight in the middle of the salon. A lot of drama went on in front of paying customers and there was no time Sasha came there without feeling as if she was in a sitcom. But she'd be lying if she said it all wasn't entertaining.

The mother of two opted for a dark, wavy weave with side bangs, and showed her hairdresser the picture in the magazine. The last thing she wanted was some ratchet-looking atrocity on her head, like some of the things she was seeing right now inside the salon. With Pam sitting to her left talking on her cell phone, Sasha honed in on the conversation to her right. A lady in her early forties was talking to her friend and another woman about her niece who was dating an NCAA football star and he'd apparently cheated on her.

"Never date them sports stars," the lady's friend was saying, shaking her head sadly. "They eyes always wander. Left, right, up, down. Football players, basketball players, baseball players. All cut from the same damn cloth."

"Boxers are the worst," the fourth woman chimed in. "They got a shitload o' money but I'd never go out with 'em. They treat their women like shit."

The lady's friend nodded in agreement. "Yeah. Floyd Mayweather beats on his baby mama every day but she sit there and take it simply 'cause she gettin' his money."

"At least she gettin' his money," the lady said. "And he can't get rid of her, not unless he wanna end up in court and get child support bills shoved up his ass."

The lady's hairdresser, a notorious loudmouth named Juanita did not hesitate to put in her two cents. "What about wrestlers? Them Hulk Hogan types?" she asked. "I like them."

The lady gave Juanita a strange look. "Now honey that's just desperate. They're the worst of the worst."

Sasha stiffened, listening more intently now.

"But they're so hot," Juanita sighed. "The Rock is just delish."

"Sure, they hot, but they got more demons than Legion," said the lady's friend, suddenly an expert in sports psychology. "All them steroids and shit they keep takin' to look huge like that? Gets to the brain, turns them into total psychos."

Sasha knew for a fact that neither Joe nor his friends took steroids. The Samoan had mentioned this as one of the many unfortunate stigmas imposed upon wrestlers by the general public. She wanted to refute the claims, but she did not fancy getting her head bitten off by the women who were evidently steadfast in their beliefs.

"I know right?" said the fourth lady. "Remember that wrestler a number of years ago? The one that killed his wife and kid then offed himself?"

Juanita nodded. "Oh yeah, I remember that. It was all over the news. That was terrible."

"Nah, Rashad know better than to get into that steroid shit," the lady scoffed. "He'll kill his career before it's even started."

"Why you give a fuck about this Rashad guy anyway? He cheated on your niece. She should leave his ass. Once a cheater, always a cheater," the lady's friend said, rather bitterly.

"Hell no," the lady said. "He ain't the first man to ever cheat. She'd better stick with him. He gon' start makin' that big-time paper soon. We talkin' NFL kinda paper. At least if she's with him she'll be able to take care of her kids. They can sort out that other stuff later."

'That other stuff'? So his money was more important than his faithfulness to her niece? To each their own, Sasha supposed.

"They his kids?" Juanita asked the lady.

"No."

"Wow."

"Wow?" The fourth woman voiced the exact same question running through Sasha's head.

"Yeah, wow. Ain't no man gonna take care of kids that ain't his, no matter how much money he got," said Juanita. "Maybe that's why he's steppin' out on her anyway."

"That ain't true. Some men are good like that," the fourth woman argued.

"Naw, I agree with Juanita. Men like that don't exist," the lady's friend said. "Either they pretending from the start or they think they heroes, comin' to rescue the poor burdened woman. One day the woman will become a burden to him. He gonna get tired of saving the world and bail on her ass. That's a guarantee."

As the women continued to debate, Sasha sat there, feeling like someone had opened the book on her foreseeable future and was ripping it to shreds. Was this Joe's line of thinking too? Did he have a hero complex, and was only with her to feed his ego? And then when he got tired of her, he would bail on her as well?

Stop it, she told herself sternly, before her paranoia could set in like it always did, and focused on the girl doing her hair. Joe didn't think she was a burden. He wasn't like that. He was different.

Monday was a busy day for Sasha. She and Reggie spent half the day interviewing prospective staff and for some reason there was more considerable traffic than usual at the Grill. Not that Reggie minded. Sasha looked forward to watching Raw tonight, to see Joe do his thing live. She couldn't call him because he was so busy, but they exchanged texts when he had time. Sasha wondered what T.K. would think if she joined him and Mia to watch the show at Pam's apartment. It was going to be an interesting night.

Speaking of her teenage son, she was surprised when he showed up at the Grill late in the afternoon. Normally after basketball practice, he hung out with his teammates before coming home. He rarely came to the Grill. He was still wearing his Mason Hill High Knights t-shirt, and there was a look on his face that told her something was bothering him. "Hey, baby. How was practice?"

He shrugged. "Good." And that was it. He usually went into detail with all things basketball and WWE. Something was definitely up. "Everything alright?" she asked. "Shouldn't you be with the boys?"

"I was with them but I had to leave," said T.K.

"Why?"

"I don't want to talk about it. Not yet, anyway."

Sasha grimaced. "Ty-"

"I'm fine, mom. I promise," T.K. said, finally looking at her. "Don't let me get in your way. I'll just wait until you're done with your shift."

She eyed him skeptically, but she had to let it be. Whenever T.K. got like this, she had to wait it out. It could take minutes or hours or even days, but it wasn't coming out until he was good and ready. It was a bad habit, bottling things up inside, and T.K. was very good at it.

When she was finished with work, her son was still sitting at the table she'd left him at, staring at his empty glass of Coke that Amber had brought him. The brunette had sat with him for a couple of minutes but Sasha was sure she hadn't gotten anything out of the teenager either. Sliding into the booth, Sasha gazed at him. "You gonna tell me what's wrong now?"

Rubbing his short wavy hair awkwardly, he sighed heavily. "Um…so the guys and I were hangin' out at that new fast food joint after practice, just chillin', when I look over in the corner and see my sperm donor-"

"Tyson," she warned.

"What? He is." He shrugged and glared at his mother, but she knew his anger was not directed at her. "Yeah, so I saw him with that psycho wife of his and their daughter. I got pissed, so I left. Came here." He'd left out the more important chunk of the story – that he and his father had locked eyes from across the restaurant, looked each other right in the eyes, only for the older man to turn away as though he had never seen the boy in his life. Again. That he was playing happy families with some other people and treating T.K. like he did not exist ate at the teenager and unable to take it anymore, he left his friends and found his way towards the only parent he had left.

Sasha should have known this was the reason he was in this mood. "I'm sorry, baby."

T.K. shrugged. "Don't worry about it, Ma."

But she worried. She hated that he was carrying this anger and bitterness and guilt around with him, wondering why he wasn't good enough for his father. What happened between her and Tyson Sr. was not his fault and she always tried to make him see that. And though the influence of a father figure wasn't that easy to replace, she would never stop trying to fill the void.

Feeling her phone vibrate she pulled it out, and grinned when she read Joe's new text, thawing the tension she was currently feeling.

Jon n Colb say hi. Like they made me text u just for that sole purpose. Smh. X

T.K.'s eyes were on his mother. There was only one person that made her smile like that these days. "So are you and him dating now or somethin'?"

Looking up from her phone, it was Sasha's turn to feel self-conscious. "Not quite. We're just taking it slow, seeing how it goes," she replied, holding his curious gaze.

"I noticed the fridge was stocked the other day," he said. "And Mia's new sweater. I'm guessing that was all him. I don't know if I would turn down a guy that does nice stuff like that, either."

At his implicating words, Sasha's expression darkened, and she was taken back in time to the unsavory discussion in the salon a couple of days ago. "That's not why I'm seeing him, Tyson," she ground out, offended that her own son would think such a thing about her.

"Mama, relax," T.K. laughed, raising his hands to placate her. "I know that's not why. You never needed a man to take care of us and you ain't about to start now. Besides, I know what you're like. You probably cussed his ass out for buying the food anyway…ow!" His deep voice morphed into a squeal of alarm when Sasha smacked the back of his head. "Mama!"

"What'd I tell you about cussing, especially in public? Next time I'ma whip your butt in front of everybody," she scolded, in full Mom mode.

T.K. shook his head, wincing as his head stung a little. "Sorry." Looking back at her, he gently nudged her shoulder with his. "So…you gonna watch Monday Night Raw with us at Aunt Pam's?" His smile widened when Sasha looked surprised. "Am I invited?" she asked, hesitating.

"Yeah, why not?" T.K. shrugged. She returned his grin, hope swelling within her. She still didn't know if this meant Tyson had fully accepted this new development in her life, but she supposed this was a start of some sort.

Thoughts? Did it get too serious at some point? Top-to-bottom reviews will be much, much appreciated. Love reading that kind very much :)