Hitting a few dead ends with getting his name out there, Ricardo falls back on familiar territory. Pulls out his old Chimaera mask and stares at it for long, quiet moments, before returning to email various companies. Sends clips of his prior matches, most with the mask, and then waits. When he's booked at a lucha event the night before Wrestlemania, he has to smile, finding some sort of success in getting what he'd wanted, which is just to be booked one last time before he goes to California.

Alicia finds him smiling at his computer and sighs softly, wrapping her arms around him from behind and nuzzling into his throat. "Hey, Ricardo. Good news?"

"Mm hmm. I have a match on April 1st."

He feels her frown against his throat as she mumbles, "April 1st? The night of the Hall of Fame?"

It's true. It is, and for a moment, he'd felt bad about it, but things would've been weird if he'd come with her, all of his former colleagues and the newer people staring holes through him. "You'll have more fun without me," he tells her. "You know my emotions are all over the place when it comes to that company anyway." She nods, but it's clear that she doesn't fully understand. "I'll make it up to you," he promises quietly, head full of plans for once they make it to California.

He kisses her wrist and watches as she smiles thinly before walking off to get ready to go. She has to fly out for 205 Live, where her secret admirer and Noam Dar will continue to bicker over her affections, unaware that it's Ricardo she comes home to every week. He shoots off another couple of emails before turning to face the doorway as she returns to him, dressed casually in a billowy white blouse and floral leggings, her arms draping around his shoulders in a loose hug as he reaches out for her. "You going to be alright in this big lonely apartment while I'm gone?" she wonders, lightly scritching at his back.

He nods, leans in and kisses her. "I'll manage somehow." She smirks at him before tipping against him for a lengthier kiss, his fingers warm against her abs. "You'd better go," he mumbles. "Or I'll just keep you here for the rest of the week."

She seems to honestly be considering it, but it's the homestretch of the road to Wrestlemania, and they all have a ton of media and promotional things to do to prepare, so she sighs into his mouth and pulls away, grabbing her bags and heading for the car, blowing kisses his way as she drives out of the driveway.

He watches until her car turns onto a side street away from the complex and disappears from sight, a tired sigh pouring from his lips. "Yeah," he mumbles, looking around the apartment. It seems even more empty without the puppy, and most of their things gone, the move becoming more and more of a reality the closer April comes. He squares his shoulders and returns to the computer, trying to finalize other things before his weekly wrestling training time this evening.

He practices with the mask on for the first time in awhile, which takes time to readjust to. His balance is off, he feels clumsy and uncertain, and it shows. The people he's training with seem reluctant to do anything with him after he stumbles while running the ropes, but he regains his composure and makes it through the night just to wake up the next morning sore and barely able to move enough to get out of bed. A hot shower helps, along with a protein smoothie that Alicia had made for him before leaving.

He's laying on the couch, a pillow over his head, when she returns home and pats his foot before putting her luggage away and slinking back into the living room. He doesn't acknowledge her outside of a quiet hola, listening to her puttering around until the couch shifts and he feels something soft and satiny against his skin. When he pulls the pillow away and looks, she's leaning there, an innocent sort of grin on her face. Her lips are done in bright red lipstick, her eyes smokey and alluring, and she has on a red negligee that feels oh so soft and inviting against his skin. He smiles at her, trailing his fingers along her arms, down the fabric. "Do I even want to know where you got this?"

"Probably not," she all but coos, laying down on top of him and kissing him slowly.