Paige tilts her head, crosses her eyes and smirks as Alicia walks up behind her, neither paying much attention to the other while they read the match listing. Finally Alicia releases a gusty breath of air and peers over at Paige. "How's Ricardo?"
"He's fine," she says, rocking forward. "Enjoying the last few weeks he has in India." She can feel the weight of Alicia's stare as she prepares to walk off.
"And Kevin?"
Paige huffs. "What's it to you, Alicia? You know that's fake, you helped me play it off for the cameras. What do you want?"
Alicia's voice is weak. Gives Paige pause. "You know Daryl from Total Divas?," she asks faintly. "It... I... while... While... while Alex was... at the gym almost every waking hour, and so angry about his status in the WWE, we started hanging out more. At first it was just funny, because of Total Divas, and everything... but once I got to know him, well... He's... lowkey, he's... fun. I can just be myself... and not worry about triggering another yelling fit from Alex, and..." She looks devastated when Paige turns around and stares at her. "I don't know what to do. I love Alex, I want to stay married to him, but Daryl's older, Daryl's more mature, and he's just... calm and stress free, and..." She gasps, pressing a fist to her chest. "This hurts, so much. I don't know what to do."
Paige stares at her for a long time before stepping forward and hugging her, their issues slowly melting away as she focuses on trying to comfort her former friend. No matter what she thinks about Alicia or Alex sometimes, she knows how this feels. She'd put Ricardo through it with both Bradley and Kevin, though those had never become real relationships, but it seems that Alicia's grown real feelings for this Daryl guy. Paige sighs, running her fingers through Alicia's dark hair, pulling away to look her in the eye. "I'm not sure what's going to happen from here, or what you're going to decide to do, but I'm going to support you every step of the way, alright? It's going to be ok."
Alicia rubs at her eyes, swallows hard and nods, struggling to smile. "Th- thanks, Paige." She releases a painful breath and squares her shoulders, swallowing. "Darryl's episodes in Total Divas will be airing soon... I, I guess I should tell Alex soon, huh?"
Paige nods, kneading her shoulders. "Yeah, Foxy, I think so." She swallows. "If you need anything, you know how to reach me."
"I do," Alicia nods. "Thanks, Paige." One last hug and the women go their separate ways, Paige peeking over her shoulder to frown, worried for her sometime friend.
She's not booked for Raw or Smackdown, only competing on Tuesday night for Main Event. She's on the losing end of a tag match with Natalya against Naomi and Tamina, breathing heavily after the loss. She heads home to Florida the next morning, staring out of the airplane window, thinking about Ricardo, busy training his students in India. Sighing, she presses her face against the cool glass and closes her eyes, relieved. At least Alberto is recovered enough to wrestle on Smackdown this week, which means he'll be less angry and Sofia will be less worried.
Ordinarily Paige would hang around, spend time with Mike and Alberto because- oh hell, AJ could have the baby at any time and if Mike's stuck with only Alberto for comfort at the time... But she's on the plane and there's no way she's getting back on a plane just to fly back in case something changes. Too tired to even focus on any of this, she settles back in her seat and tries to focus on happy things, on less stressful things. Breathing in and out quietly, she eventually dozes off in her seat.
When she lands in Florida, it's mid-afternoon and she drives slowly through town, in no hurry to return to Alberto's mansion. Breathes in that Florida air, watches seagulls float through the sky, and smiles as her skin is warmed by the sun overhead. She even stops by a park and sits under a tree for awhile, listening to the calm and peace around her. Takes a couple of pictures to send to Ricardo before getting back into the car and driving the rest of the way home. It's late now, and Sofia is already making supper, so Paige quickly gives her a hug before heading outside to sit by the pond and hug her knees to her chest, watching the sun set.
Sending those pictures to Ricardo, aware that he won't see them for awhile, Paige sighs and lays back in the grass, reflecting on the last few months. How hard it had all been without Ricardo, but how, somehow, they'd all made it through. She yawns and murmurs before running her fingers through the prickly blades of grass, wishing that he was there with her, at their pond. Dipping her toes in the cool water, she sighs and lifts her phone, staring at her favorite picture of Ricardo that she saved on there from shortly before he'd left for India, a rare, but beautiful grin on his face as Alberto had uncharacteristically thrown a dinner roll at him, starting something of a food fight that had only stopped when Sofia came in, all of them freezing in guilt... until she'd upended a bowl of jello over Alberto's head, leaving him sputtering and declaring war in Spanish.
Soon, Paige thinks dozily. Soon, Ricardo will be home... and we'll have more of these moments...
