Chapter 12

"That was a complete disaster."

"Agreed. I'm proud of you though."

Gabriella looked up at Baron in confusion, raising a slow brow. "What for? I didn't do anything…"

"Yeah you did. You stopped Roman and Lilianna from sayin' shit to each other they would regret later. You possibly saved their engagement." Baron argued, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and smiled as she leaned into him for comfort. It was moments like these he cherished with the fiery redheaded beauty the most. "You're a gem, Gabi."

She smiled at his special nickname for her. Nobody else called her that, not even her own parents or the man she was currently sleeping with. "Thanks Wolfie." Gabriella winked up at him and snuggled further into his side while they continued walking the streets of downtown Pensacola.

Baron rolled his eyes with a low deep chuckle, kissing the top of her head. If people didn't know them any better, they looked like a happy couple walking down the street together. The dress/tux shop fiasco had everyone on edge, so they all went their separate ways for the rest of the day to let the soon-to-be married couple cool off. Baron had no problem with that; it just meant spending more quality time with Gabriella. He knew Jon and Jecina were on their way back to the hotel for more making up for lost time, not bothering to ask if they wanted to join in on the walk.

"By the way, thanks for telling me you were one of Roman's groomsmen." Gabriella rebuked playfully, nudging Baron with her elbow and smirked at the sheepish expression adorning his handsome face.

He was far too good for her, which is why she never tried making them more than friends. Any woman would be lucky to have him and she was thankful to have him in her life in any way, even if it was only friends. Besides, she had her lover keeping her bed warm at night whenever the opportunity presented itself and was convenient for him. It might've sounded selfish, but he had so much going on in the company lately it was hard finding time for Gabriella and she understood. Hell, Baron thought of and treated her more like a little sister than anything, so she felt incestuous just thinking about the possibility of having a relationship with the Kansas country man.

"Sorry, it was a last-minute thing. Roman called me up and asked if I wanted to be in the wedding since you were. I didn't see a reason to say no, so I accepted. Never had a problem with the big man, we just don't hang out like I do with Moxley, Bryan and Styles." Baron shrugged nonchalantly, not thinking anything of it and knew Lilianna was probably the mastermind behind Roman asking him. "Hey look! There's a park, wanna swing?"

Sometimes Baron was a big kid at heart, which was one of the many things Gabriella loved about him. He knew just what to do and say to make her feel better on her worst days. Swinging at the park was one of her favorite things to do. It was also one of the very first things they did together down in NXT shortly after meeting. Gabriella didn't want to go to the park alone since she wasn't familiar with Tampa that much and asked Baron to come with her. She thought he'd decline, but was surprised when he challenged her in a running contest to see who would get there first. She beat him; they ended up having lunch on him after spending 2 hours swinging at the park talking. Now that they were on the main roster, there was no time to go to a park in the cities they visited and performed in. Therefore, this was a rare opportunity Baron couldn't pass up as he took Gabriella's hand and ran with her to the swings.

"Do you think I did the right thing getting between Roman and Lili?" Gabriella asked after a long stretch of silence between them, closing her eyes every time she swung forward as the warm wind blew through her fiery red locks.

Luckily, it wasn't that hot in Pensacola, though summer was on the horizon and soon it would be too humid to step outside without having a hard time breathing. Tampa was the same way, unfortunately. She really wanted to move out of Florida and to another state where she didn't feel like she was in developmental. Gabriella recalled Dean Ambrose feeling the same way, though he stayed in Tampa due to his family living there and he didn't want to be away from them. Her family was in Missouri; there was no way she'd move back there because it was the most boring state in the entire country.

Baron could tell her actions bothered her and he wished he could do something to ease her mind about it. "You did what you thought best, Gabi. You can't fault yourself for it. Just gotta keep moving forward and hope everythin' works out. If it was me and my fiancée you stepped in front of, I would've been pissed at the time, but then once I cooled off, I would've thanked you for bein' the voice of reason."

"But do you think I did the right thing?" Gabriella reiterated, refusing to let him slide past the question. "Or should I have stayed out of it?"

Why did she insist on hearing his answer? Baron honestly didn't know if it was the right thing to do or not. He just saw the end result being Lilianna and Roman not screaming at each other in the middle of a dress/tux shop. They truly loved each other, that much was obvious, but Baron also noticed how imperious Roman's mother was too. He didn't blame Lilianna for finally speaking her mind; it was her wedding after all and not just Roman's and his mother's. Still, Baron didn't know if he would've gotten involved in the situation, but he knew how big Gabriella's heart was and she didn't want to see her friends suffer.

"It was the right call. Now stop worryin' about it and enjoy the park."

Hearing those words settled Gabriella's mind along with her qualms as she began swinging more enthusiastically, smiling brightly.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOUR WOMAN, BRO?!"

Roman had asked himself that same question several times over the past 5 hours, stroking his thick black brow while nursing a beer. "I have no idea, man." What could've possessed Lilianna to make JON MOXLEY, of all people, one of his groomsmen? It made no sense! Didn't she despise him as much as they did? "Maybe Jecina is a witch or something…"

His temper was up. Dean didn't lose his cool often, but currently he was irate at Lilianna and wanted to snap her in half for the stunt she pulled earlier in the dress/tux shop. "This is HORSESHIT!" How could he stand up at a wedding with his evil twin brother in the party? "This was supposed to be MY weekend to talk to Cina without that asshole around!"

"I know…I don't know what the fuck is going through her head right now. I wish I did, man." Roman didn't blame Dean for being angry at his fiancée, hell he felt the same way. "My Mom went home crying and told me she's not coming to the wedding now."

Why was everything screwed up? Dean shook his head in disgust, gritting his teeth to the point of gnashing them. "You know whose fault all of this is, right? That mother fucker Cina brought with her here. I swear to god, every time Moxley steps into a room, chaos ensues! Lilianna should've known better than to let that asshole come with and should've told Cina to leave his ass behind!"

If Roman was thinking rationally, he would've pointed out Jon Moxley had no part in what his devious fiancée planned. However, with a slight buzz from the amount of alcohol they consumed over the past 5 hours, his mind was one-tracked and inclined to agree with his best friend. Dean made a good point; Jon Moxley brought anarchy wherever he went and something told him the dick convinced Lilianna to make him a groomsmen. Once again, this was Roman's mind refusing to see the cold hard truth and being agreeable because of his own anger, blinding him.

"We gotta get rid of him, bro. There's gotta be a way…" No amount of alcohol he drank would've given Dean Ambrose a buzz at that moment because he was too angry. His rage fueled his sobriety, which angered him even further. "Cina is blind, she doesn't see how bad he is for her. I gotta get her away from him…"

"Short of sending him packing out of the WWE, I don't see that happening, Ambrose." Roman snorted, shaking his head and finished off another longneck before tossing it in the nearby trashcan the bar offered. He wasn't going home for fear of strangling his beautiful fiancée. "I can't believe she did that to my Mom. I always said I'd marry a woman who got along with my Mom because they'd be the two most important women in my life. I thought Lilianna was the one…maybe I'm wrong…"

"Or maybe she is and her mind's been corrupted by that dickhead Cina is shacked up with." It still didn't register in Dean's mind how she could actually LOVE his evil twin – to choose that sack over him. "You need to get Lilianna alone, once we're back on the road, and make her to tell you the truth about why she made that shithead a groomsman."

Roman scoffed, ordering another beer with a shot of Jack Daniels, needing something more to take the edge off. Straight beer wasn't doing it for him tonight. "Trust me, I plan on getting the truth out of her. I just gotta figure out how to go about it without pissing her off further." Demanding her to apologize to his mother would be something he'd have to ease her into since Lilianna was headstrong and stubborn.

"So, is the rest of the wedding planning gonna happen during these days off or not?" Dean had to get his mind off Jecina and Jon Moxley before his head exploded, taking a shot alongside Roman.

"As far as I know, she hasn't cancelled anything and neither has my Mom." Roman sighed heavily, looking down at the amber liquid filling his glass and downed another shot, pinching the bridge of his nose. "I need to get them on the same page somehow…"

There were two major obstacles Roman had to overcome in order to marry Lilianna and both would be close to impossible to achieve. First, he had to convince Lilianna to nix Moxley out of the wedding party. Then he had to sit both his mother and his fiancée down to talk, believing they could overcome their differences if his mother would get to know Lilianna a little better. Now that he thought about it, Lilianna's hair was also a major issue when it came to his mother and Roman had no idea how to go about trying to change her mind to change it just for the ceremony. Hell, if he was being honest, he didn't want to see his wife have blue hair in their wedding photos. The orange didn't bother him, but for some reason blue didn't set well with him or his mother, understandably so.

"Do you really think Jecina still loves you?" Roman asked out of left field, changing the subject and putting the focus back on Dean with all of his issues. "You really think Moxley has corrupted her and Lili?"

Dean nodded without hesitation, slamming another shot. "She loves me still. She may not want to admit it, but we had a connection and she can't deny what we had. I nearly had her and if it wasn't for Moxley," He practically spat that name out every time it came out of his mouth, growling. "She would be mine right now and we'd be happy probably planning our own wedding."

Not doubting that, Roman remembered all the times he caught Jecina staring at Dean whenever they'd come into catering to eat…before Jon Moxley came into the company. Then she started hanging out with him and suddenly, Dean wasn't the center of her universe anymore. A blind man could see how much Jecina wanted to be with Dean, but the man never made a move on her…until Jon Moxley waltzed into her life and supposedly stole her heart. He didn't think Liliya and Dean had a future together, even though she helped him partially get over the Jecina situation after she made her choice between the brothers. Maybe Dean was right, maybe there was still a spark with Jecina hidden deep inside of her and Roman wanted his friend to get his happily ever after the way he had with Lilianna.

Or so he thought.

"Hell, we'd probably be having a double wedding right now." Roman muttered, wishing that had come to pass and slid a hand through his long ebony tresses, having taken the tight bun out to let it hang free. "You said earlier you wanna get rid of Moxley. Any idea how to do that? If we could get him sent packing back to the Indies, you'd have a chance to get back with Jecina again…"

"Not while we're a tag team." Dean absolutely loathed working with his twin brother, tightening his grip on his longneck and took a deep breath to rein his temper in. "And I've already pitched several ideas to Stephanie and Paul about splitting us up. Not happening, we're too popular apparently."

Roman didn't want to point out the fact that, while Dean was a great talent along with his evil twin, there really wasn't anything for them to do if they weren't a tag team. If they were to split up A & M, there would be nothing for the men to do to further their careers short of being mid-carders. Of course, Roman kept that information to himself, not wanting to upset his best friend further and drained another longneck, setting it on the bar. However, getting Moxley out of the company was the most logical step in order for Dean to have his shot with Jecina. They had to brainstorm and figure out to go about doing it since the company was high on what A & M brought to the table currently in the tag team division.

"What if you started befriending Jecina again and show her you just wanna be friends?" Roman held his hand up before Dean could bite his head off, telling him silently to hear him out first. "Just listen. If you can SHOW Jecina with actions instead of words you want to be just friends, maybe it would make her see the error of her ways."

"How the fuck do you figure?"

"Well, while you're being her friend and being there for her, we can slowly start a dissention between her and Moxley. You DID notice the tense look on the man's face when you mentioned them living in separate states earlier, right?" Roman wasn't surprised when Dean nodded, both of them forming identical smirks on their faces. "We could play off of that and use it to our advantage."

For once, Roman had a splendid idea and Dean clinked his longneck with Roman's fresh one, the gears in his head already turning on how best to increase the rift between Jecina and his evil twin.