Lessons

Cassie balled her hands into fists and counted to 10. Who did he think he was talking to ? She went to go after him and bawl him out and tell him exactly what she thought of his cheating , lying ass when Jey came onto the scene just in time to see Joe walk past him fuming. Cassie didn't look much better " Yo what's up here , what happened?". Cassie stalked past him " Ask that asshole" she said storming away. This wasn't good for Jey , with Cassie on board he was finally getting the attention he needed , it couldn't stop now. He went after the devil he knew best and followed Joe who was walking so hard and with such purpose he knew his cousin was mad, really mad. " Uce wait up" he called but it was no good. He eventually came to a natural stop and was pacing up and down by the time Jey got there. " Whats going on man. Did something happen with Cassie , y'all are usually like Bonnie and Clyde ". Joe fixed him with a glare, " She ... is ...the most frustrating woman on this planet, seriously man. ". Jey had a hard time believing Cassie would just go off on Joe without reason. "What did you do?". Joe didn't bother to protest , Jey was family. " She was in the dressing room when I came back...with company". Jey smirked at him " the same company you had last weekend ?". Joe nodded. "OK so she saw you and got mad at you for that". Joe suddenly stopped pacing " No, she ain't mad over that man , she mad because I am cheating on my wife and she thought better of me". Jey looked at him "You mean she doesn't know then?". Joe wasn't listening he was off on a rant "Who made her judge and jury , they way she looked at me all disappointed and shit ". Jey put a hand on his shoulder " You have to be out there in 10 minutes , you need to pull it together man, chill. For what it's worth she is only going on what she knows , which from the outside looks a certain way.". Joe took two calming breaths, he had to be professional , this was a work place. He needed to remain calm and show restraint. "OK let's go back" he said. Jey followed behind dutifully, Cassie had really got under Joe's skin. It had been a long time since he had seen him that mad.

Cassie stood with Paul , instructing herself to breathe. She had to remain calm , even if she wanted to gouge Joe's eyes out for the way he spoke to her. Paul had been too distracted with Vince and production to really notice that anything was amiss. " There you are , Joe you should have been here earlier". Joe didn't even look in Cassie's direction " OK you all good on the promo , do you need to run through it quickly with Cassie?" Joe popped a chewing gum into his mouth and stood with his back to Cassie "No I am good" he said. Cassie tutted "Arrogant prick" she said under her breath to the astonishment of Jey , who was seeing this uptick in his career go down the pan. Joe was going to be mad but he had to fix this. Once the show started and the Roman Reigns music hit , Paul and Joe disappeared and left Jey and Cassie to watch the monitor. " Uce told me what happened. I don't like getting all up in people's business , but what you think you know about cuz isn't the full story". Cassie rolled her eyes " Oh you are making excuses too for him ? So he isn't married". Jey looked around Gorilla , Joe was going to murder him " Yeah , he is . For now, but they ain't together like that no more". Cassie sniggered " Sure. They have babies that are a few months old". Jey sighed " Listen it ain't my place to tell you all that. Joe don't open up to people, that's why no one really knows. His private life is real private ". " Except when he is fucking his co workers in a public arena, yeah sounds like someone really private to me", she said pointedly.Jey looked her up and down " You know what C , you seem like a real cool girl, but I am disappointed right now in you , I thought you was more understanding than that". He walked off , leaving Cassie standing there alone.

She was waiting when Joe and Paul came through the curtain and spoke briefly to Vince. Paul signalled Cassie over to join them " Cassie , can you Change the scripting around this backstage segment piece , I think I would like Jey to talk about having Romans back a little bit", Vince asked. She nodded , suddenly feeling hot under Joe's gaze, she didn't dare to look at him directly ." OK you two go do that , you got about 30 minutes". " We will go to the dressing room" she heard Joe say gruffly. " Hope you cleaned up" she retorted and she took pleasure at seeing the tension fill his shoulders as he strode in front of her. They reached the dressing room and Joe didn't totally forget his manners , holding the door open. She avoided making eye contact with him , instead sitting down at the table and pulling out a pen and a copy of the script. He sat opposite " OK so I think we leave all this bit and add in the piece about Jey offering to have your back. I don't think you need to say anything to that, but like we discussed maybe when he walks off, change your expression to a more serious one. What do you think?". " Sure" he said in a deflated voice. She looked up in surprise, she had expected more anger but he just looked resigned when his eyes met hers. " Jey mentioned I had you all wrong, why would he say that?". She didn't want to get Jey into trouble but she also wanted to see if their stories matched up . "Because you do" he said simply. " How? I saw you come in here with Liv , I definitely know where that was going". He smirked , she wanted to strangle him. "No I am definitely having sex with Liv. You got that part right". Cassie faltered " So then your not married , that's why you go around with that wedding ring on preaching that you are a family man". His eyes flashed with anger again and she knew she had triggered him " I love my family and my kids to death , and yes I love my soon to be ex wife too". Cassie gulped " But your babies are only a few months old". Joe looked a little sad " Yeah they are , but they were a surprise that we hadn't been counting on. We were going to announce the separation before she got pregnant but when we got the news, we decided to give it another go. It didn't work, clearly. We will be announcing the divorce soon, it's all on good terms. We love each other but we are not in love with each other. Now is that enough information for you. Would you like my social security number also?". Cassie felt like a right fool , but she was too proud to admit it. "and you expect me to believe that?" she said haughtily. "I don't care what you believe, just don't accuse me of being something I am not". He got up and walked off taking the sheet of paper from the desk.

She found Paul in Gorilla with Jey , they were prepping the next segment. "Walk with me to where we are going to film". They went to a locker area where Joe was being prepped by a producer , he did a quick run through with Jey. They had five minutes till air time. Paul looked at them all with a look of pride in his face, he held up Cassie's new contract. "Here it is boys , written in the stars, a contract for my niece here to finally become part of WWE , with scope to work on , create and expand one Roman Reigns ". Three very uncertain faces looked back at him " Yeah , we need to talk about that Uncle Paul, I'm not sure about signing that". Cassie said. Jey and Joe exchanged looks , Cassie looked very deflated and down. Joe in particular was finding it hard to watch her. They filmed the segment and that was Joe done for the night, Jey would be wrestling a match and winning the right to challenge for the title later on that night. Cassie was beginning to feel more and more out of place by the second, what had started as a great opportunity was becoming a bit of a nightmare. All she wanted was to get home and climb in bed next to Aubrey and snuggle her. They would have to debrief at the end of the show and Cassie realised she would have to wait around until then. Had all of this been a big mistake she began to wonder. "So um I am sorry you saw that earlier , so embarrassing" a whiny voice said. Liv. "Its cool" Cassie replied, not wanting to engage with this situation any longer. "It's just when Joe wants to have his way with me, it's like he is blind to everything around him". Cassie tried to keep a straight face, Liv was marking her territory. "Don't worry about it Liv no harm done" she said calmly , smiling at the blonde. " Sorry" a male voice said causing them both to turn . It was Joe. " Can I talk to you?" he said . Liv stood " Sure" she said confidently. " Um not you , I meant Cassie sorry". The look on Livs face was priceless, Cassie walked past her and gave her a little smile before walking to Joe. He was calmer now she realised and he even looked a little contrite. They walked in silence back to the locker room for what felt like the millionth time that night. When they entered , Cassie sat down wearily. Joe sat next to her on the couch. There was more silence , eventually he nudged her shoulder with his in a friendly gesture , she met his eyes. "So I guess I was a bit of an arrogant prick earlier" , Cassie blushed " Oh you heard that?", she said . He nodded but a smile began to play on his lips " For what it's worth everything I told you about my marriage is the truth". Cassie looked at him this time, really studied his expression , he was telling the truth , she just knew it. "I shouldn't have jumped to conclusions", she conceded. More silence. " I never cheated on my wife , ever , for what it's worth. I have my own place and everything, but I am with the kids everyday helping out. It really is that cliche of we fell out of love". Cassie was more familiar with this concept than she ever dared to admit to herself, so she got it , all of it. She understood. "I would really like it if you signed the contract and if you would keep working with me". Cassie smiled at him "Ok" was all she said. A knock on the door interrupted them and Jey poked his head in, " Come on Y'all , main event is starting". He took off again and they stood "Some temper you got on you there young lady" Joe said with a large smile. "I think you more than matched my temper with your own there young man" she teased. He wasn't sure why he did it , but Joe put a hand on her shoulder and turned her back to him. "Friendly hug to make up for it all" he asked with a smirk. Cassie rolled her eyes at him " No thanks , I know what those hands were doing earlier". He laughed loudly " Oh, now, you got jokes?". She giggled as they went off to watch the main event