Chapter 47

"Gabi! Gabriella!"

For the past several weeks, ever since catching Baron with a ring rat, she had avoided him like the plague. Alexa too. She really didn't need the woman telling her for the umpteenth time to talk to Baron and reveal her feelings. It wasn't happening. Maybe she was being a fool considering he hadn't cheated on her with the rat. However, that's exactly what it felt like to her, though. She truly felt like he had cheated on her and it wasn't fair to him; Gabriella knew that as well.

It still didn't piss her off any less because, every time she shut her eyes, she couldn't get the image of him with that blonde rat out of her head. If only there was a way to burn certain images out of her brain permanently – that would be the first to go. She shut her eyes upon hearing Baron's voice calling out to her and kept putting one foot in front of the other. That was until he caught up to her with those long legs of his and grabbed her upper arm, whipping her around to face him. Gabriella recoiled from him, acting as if he'd just burned her and took a few steps back to put distance between them.

"Hey, I'm tryin' to talk to you…what's wrong?" Baron demanded, freshly showered and dressed in black slacks with a black dress shirt, the buttons completely undone. His hair was down and draped over his shoulders since he didn't feel the need to pull it back. "I haven't seen you around…"

Shouldering the Women's championship on her shoulder, Gabriella pursed her lips tightly together. He really was oblivious, wasn't he? "My mistake, I thought you were too busy fucking ring rats and didn't want to interrupt your sexcapades." Whoa, Gabriella regretted those words almost as soon as they flew out of her mouth, her sky blues narrowing.

"What are you…?"

"Oh don't give me that shit, Corbin! Don't you dare stand there and try to feign innocence! I know, okay? I know what you've been doing and how you spend your nights!" Gabriella could feel her heart twisting violently in her chest all over again, another flashback piercing her mind of that night. "I didn't think rats were your type, but BOY was I wrong!"

Now Baron's dander was up, his dark eyes narrowing and folded his arms in front of his chest. "What's it to you how I spend my nights, Gabriella?" He suddenly shot back, a hint of anger lacing his voice. "You're not my momma and you know how loneliness develops on the road!" She didn't want him since she had her lover, so what was wrong with him scratching an itch once in a while? "I haven't done a fuckin' thing wrong and I don't deserve to be treated like shit for doin' somethin' in the PRIVACY of my fuckin' hotel room!"

She opened her mouth to keep the fight going, but honestly, his words made complete sense. What the hell was she doing? They weren't together! They weren't a couple! That was on her for not opening her mouth sooner and telling him how she felt. Angry tears began sliding down her cheeks as Gabriella looked away from him, knowing she was in the wrong for snapping on him the way she did.

"You're right…"

Baron's features softened slightly as he stepped forward, still keeping enough distance from her. "How did you know what I was doin' anyway? Who told you?" He hadn't told anyone about taking women back to his hotel room because he knew how gossip tended to get twisted and torqued in the company.

There was no point lying to him, not anymore. Gabriella wiped her tears away, clutching her title and inhaled shakily. "I saw you. It was after Smackdown! a few weeks ago." Her voice had lowered considerably, the anger draining out of her body for the moment. "I was…coming to your hotel room to talk to you. And I saw you with some blonde and your tongue down her throat. I should've left as soon as I spotted you two, but I couldn't. I just stood there and watched until your door slammed shut." She refused to tell him about going to her lover's afterward, shuddering at the memory of that fateful night.

Baron remembered that night as well.

The blonde's name was Cora and she'd actually been leaving the arena, after the show, but some dick had slashed her tires. Baron couldn't leave her stranded, asked if she needed some help and they began talking. One thing lead to another; somehow they wound up in a bar together for whatever reason, with way too many shots of tequila. Before he knew it, they were at his hotel room and Baron was single, saw no reason to deny her. He'd helped her with her car by having it towed and even paid for a new tire to be put on it. She wanted to thank him properly, her words, so who was he to deny her? Of course he knew she was a wrestling fan since she'd been at the show, but that didn't bother him, even if she was a fan of his.

"Why were you comin' to my room that late, Gabriella?" Now he was concerned, knowing Gabriella wouldn't have come to him unless it was for a reason. "Did somethin' happen?"

More tears fell. "Yeah…" She had finally decided that night it was time to tell him how she felt, to take the risk and wound up with a broken heart. Alexa had warned her. Baron would be taken if she didn't act soon. "It doesn't matter anymore. I'm…sorry for snapping on you. You're right, I have no right to belittle you for something you did in the privacy of your hotel room. I…I should really go…" Gabriella felt like a complete fool and probably just destroyed her friendship with Baron over her outburst.

Baron stopped her from walking away from him again and this time brushed her tears away with his thumbs. "Why did you come to my room that night?" He had to know, the curiosity burning within him while staring into those red-rimmed sky blues. "Tell me."

"It doesn't matter…"

"Yes it does."

Gabriella shook her head, sniffling and opened her mouth to tell him when she spotted Shane McMahon headed their way. "I need to go. It looks like Shane wants to talk to you about something." Before he could stop her again, Gabriella took off down the hallway to her dressing room and cried the whole way, hating herself for being a coward.

"Gabi…" Baron whispered, frowning and immediately turned it into a smile as Shane came up to him to shake his hand, congratulating him on a job well done with Dolph Ziggler tonight.

"So, you and Rollins now, eh? I wonder who's next on your list, Lilianna? Maybe you'll take Ambrose for a ride since you've already had 2/3rds of the Shield boys now."

There was only one man on the planet that had a smarmy tone like that and Lilianna continued stirring her coffee, contemplating if she should acknowledge his existence. "Shouldn't you be with your new wife and kids, Orton? What do you care who's in my bed these days? It's definitely not you." Shortly after Roman saved her from Randy, he had taken some time off and gotten married to a woman named Kimberly.

Randy stepped up beside her to grab a cup of coffee himself, smirking at her cool tone. "You know, you can fool A LOT of people in this company, Lilianna, but you forget I KNOW you. Inside and out. I know you're so desperately aching for someone, ANYONE, to love you and marry you. Being one of your former lovers, the best you've ever had, I might add," Pausing, Randy poured some creamer in his coffee and began stirring it, not missing her eye roll. "I feel it necessary to tell you something."

"And what might that be, Mr. High and Mighty?"

He leaned over to where his mouth hovered over her ear. "You're not the settling down kind, baby. You never were. Why do you think I left you at the altar? Because deep down, I knew you didn't want to marry me and be tied down. You're just gonna fuck your way all through the WWE roster and, when there's nobody left, you'll leave, call it retirement and that will be that. You and Rollins will NOT last. I mean, hell, he was with your former best friend, a former member of the Lilies, remember? Your old tag team partner that you raised hell with? Yeah, her. And how did that pan out for him, hmm? She wound up a mental institution and something tells me he's the one who sent her there. Do you honestly think he won't do the same thing to you?"

Lilianna started laughing, the humor not touching her golden brown eyes, which were darkened with barely contained rage. She still had anger issues, but had learned to channel it over time. "Liliya was a psycho bitch, who sent herself to the nuthouse. I'm NOTHING like her, Orton. And if Seth and I don't work out, that's between US, not you or anyone else in this company. So here, it looks like YOU need a cool down." Splashing her coffee in his face, Lilianna stormed away from the table while Randy roared out in pain at the HOT coffee burning his skin.

Served him right.

It was time to go check on her man and make sure he hadn't completely demolished his dressing room. She had left to give him a few minutes alone, knowing he was irate at losing the title to Ambrose. Stephanie and Hunter were floored when they came through the curtain because, apparently, the ONLY person who knew the briefcase was being cashed in the same night it was won was Vince and Dean. Nobody else. Seth had ranted and raved until Vince came up to him, with a grinning Dean, and ordered him to calm down or he would be suspended. Since he'd just returned to the road, Seth had nodded stiffly and stormed off to his dressing room to let his anger and frustration out.

"Well, the place doesn't look TOO bad…" She commented, stepping around the debris from broken steel chairs he'd tossed against the wall. "You know you'll get the title back, right? Vince wanted the shock factor and that's the ONLY reason Ambrose cashed in that briefcase tonight."

"Shock factor. Sure. No, something tells me it's more than that with the draft coming up." Seth refused to get annoyed or angry with her because none of this was her fault. He just couldn't believe he'd come back, won the title he NEVER lost, only to lose it in 9 seconds because of a cheap shot! "You have coffee splattered on your chest."

Looking down, Lilianna began chuckling and hadn't even noticed it, shrugging. "I had to teach an asshat a lesson while getting some. No big deal." Seth didn't need to hear about her run-in with Randy, not tonight anyway. Maybe tomorrow when he was less likely to storm down to Randy's locker room, or go on the man's luxury bus, and kill him. "You're still the champion to me, Rollins. Just remember that."

Seth cracked a smile, despite how lousy he felt and closed the distance between them to give her a soft kiss. "Champion of your heart, eh? Wow, that sounds corny." They both laughed and he placed a hand against the side where her broken ribs were. "I'll never say that again, I promise."

"Yeah, that was pretty bad." Lilianna hated she couldn't even laugh without wincing, which was why Seth had placed his warm hand against her side. "I'm fine. Go shower and then we'll get the hell out of here."

"I'd ask you to join me, but…no, I'm not even giving myself the temptation. You can shower on your own when we get back to the hotel."

Her giggles followed him to the bathroom and he groaned because even those sounded sexy.

While Seth was in the shower, Lilianna received a visitor in Jecina and lightly hugged her, stepping out into the hallway to talk. "I'd go outside with you, but he won't take very long and then we're heading to the hotel. He's bushed and still angry at what happened."

"I don't blame him. I can't believe Dean is the champion. Jon threw a fit when it happened because Dean had knocked him off the ladder onto Kevin Owens to grab that briefcase." All was fair when it came to war, but Jon had been seconds away from winning the briefcase and Dean took it away from him. "I'm assuming Seth had no idea what was going down."

"Nope. That's why he's so pissed off. Not even Stephanie and Hunter knew. Only Vince." Lilianna nodded at Jecina's wide-eyed expression and leaned against the wall, knowing she would need to pop another 800 when they got back to the hotel.

Jecina noticed the grimace and frowned, emerald eyes full of concern for her friend. "I can't imagine what kind of pain you must be in right now…I wish there was something I could do for you."

"Hell, you and me both. You have no idea how hard it's been not jumping Seth." Lilianna confessed, a longing in her voice and scrubbed a hand down her face. "No, it hasn't been hard. It's been torture, actually."

Jecina tried not to laugh at Lilianna's expense, but it was hard not to when the woman actually groaned out, claiming she wanted to castrate Roman. "Now – now, there will be no murderous tendencies, as much as he deserves it. Just think, all the waiting will be more than worth it when you two can finally come together and…"

"Fuck each other like bunnies, yes I know."

Jecina laughed harder, placing a hand on her friend's shoulder and could tell Lilianna was extremely sexually frustrated. The poor woman had been through hell and now she'd finally gotten her chance with Seth, but couldn't do anything about it. She didn't know what she'd do if she had to go 6-8 weeks without having sex with Jon. Granted, she had to do it when he was in the hospital, fighting for his life, but time had seemed to fly by then and it took him a while to regain strength after awakening. Jecina had been more worried than sexually frustrated, but when they finally were able to have sex, it had been explosive.

"Okay, change of subject. So, Jon and I did something kinda crazy on our days off…"

"Lord, what did you two do now?" Lilianna braced herself mentally, not sure if she could handle another bombshell dropped on her such as the engagement.

Jecina proceeded to tell her their trips to Maine and Colorado to look at houses before settling on the one in Colorado.

All Lilianna could do was be supportive of her friend, but deep down, she really hoped the company didn't destroy Jon and Jecina's happiness by putting them on separate shows with the upcoming draft.