Ricardo holds Alicia close. Stares at the ceiling and thinks. Something about watching Alberto win the GFW title and consider working in TNA with him, creativity and the love for the business lurking deep inside of him had stirred for the first time in months. He can admit finally, he's been sinking lower and lower into depression since everything with Paige went down, despite his relationship with Alicia, and how successful he's proving to be as a trainer. As nice as those things are, he hungers for more. Glances at Alicia and exhales tiredly, pressing a kiss to her forehead and closes his eyes, trying to fall asleep too.
He sleeps fitfully that night and, upon waking up, stumbles out to eat breakfast with Alicia before she has to fly out for Raw. "I think I want to try something," he says quietly. "Maybe... I was a little hasty with retirement." He purses his lips. "I feel healthier now, I think I can... take some bookings for a little while. A few months. Maybe October."
She sips her coffee, staring at him for a few quiet moments. Finally touches him, her fingers warm on his arm. "I'm not surprised," she admits. "I didn't think you'd stay happy with just training. I'll support you through whatever you want to do. Semi-retirement, permanent wrestling schedules, whatever it is." Standing up, she settles in his lap and wraps her arms around his neck, kissing him softly. "I just want you happy."
He smiles against her throat, pressing his lips there and feeling her swallow. "Thank you, Alicia. It really does mean a lot." He exhales. "I'm just in such a weird place in my life right now. And I'm sorry to drag you into my mess. You have enough going on yourself-"
She interrupts him, cupping his jaw and pressing her forehead to his. "You were there for me during my divorce, you've supported me through the entire Cedric thing, and now this Noam thing. You have nothing to apologize for. I owe you more than you will ever know." She kisses his nose and settles to playing with his hair, making soft noises deep in her throat at how soft and long it is. "I love your hair."
He smirks at her and squeezes her closer, resting his forehead on her shoulder. "Do you have to leave soon?"
"Yeah," she sighs, nuzzling against him. "I'll be home as soon as I can on Wednesday." She draws his face back up and kisses him. "I'll miss you."
"I'll miss you too," he hums.
He has Monday and Tuesday off from training, opting to just do classes the rest of the week. So he gets to watch Noam team with Neville, laughing at Neville's eyes twitching at Alicia's loud encouragement for Noam. They lose and he grimaces, feeling kind of bad for Alicia- and yes, even Noam- but she rebounds quickly, sounding cheerful when she calls him, tells him all about Neville's silent intensity and how he'd looked so impatient every time she'd tried talking to him, just to look away, distracted, when TJ walked by. "Locker room gossip is still all over the place, huh?" he asks with a small laugh.
"Yes, it would appear so," she says, shifting on the bed. "I'm a little nervous about the I Quit match tomorrow."
"Don't worry about it," he tells her. "Noam's an alright guy. He'll figure it out." He shifts and looks out of the window. "Then you'll have your revenge and you and Noam can move on."
"I hope so," she sighs. "I know Noam's tired of dealing with him, and honestly so am I." She curls her hair around her finger. "Watch tomorrow?"
"Always," he promises. "But I think we both need some sleep... so I'll talk to you tomorrow, ok?"
"Looking forward to it," she says with a smile. "Good night, Ricardo."
"Good night, Alicia." As soon as they hang up, Ricardo rolls over and pets the puppy as he pants on the bed next to him, eyes closed.
The next day, Ricardo stays busy with errands and other responsibilities, making it home just before 205 Live starts. He settles in with the dog on his lap and watches all of the other cruiserweight stuff, tilting his head when a recap airs spanning over all of Cedric and Noam's feud. He watches, wincing through some of the match as Cedric throws Noam around, brutalizing him on the entrance ramp, tossing him out of the ring, Alicia trying to grab him just to fall to the floor with him. Noam eventually screams "I QUIT!" when Cedric stomps a chair onto his hand over and over again.
Ricardo bites his lip, just to sit up when Noam grabs the mic and announces that he's also quitting his relationship with Alicia. Which would be bad enough, except that then he reveals that this entire time, he's been using her just to get attention, and now she's more trouble than she's worth. His voice is so dark and ugly that even Ricardo feels a sharp spike of dread and that's before he sees Alicia wiping tears away from her eyes, crouching in the corner and shaking subtly. "That bitch," he says to thin air, digging his teeth roughly into his lip. "That absolute bitch."
They're on the same flight back to Florida. All of the Florida based people involved in 205 Live usually are, so he stands outside and watches as various people leave the airport. He waits until Alicia goes, her skin pale and her hair limp and lifeless as she walks to her car. It fuels him as he waits outside of the airport, and he raises his eyebrow as Noam finally leaves last, staring down at his phone. It's easy, so stupidly easy to grab him and drag him away. Noam's short, and Ricardo has a fair amount of weight on him, not to mention he's been recovering long enough that he has more upper body strength than he usually does, dragging Noam over to the nearly empty corner he's parked his car at. "You're going to shut up and listen," Ricardo says, pushing him against the car and ignoring his sputtered complaints.
"Let me go!" he yells, Ricardo shaking him.
"I said shut up." To prove his point, he digs his arm into Noam's throat and leaves in with danger in his eyes. "You made Alicia cry," he says quietly. "When I met you a few weeks ago, I sincerely thought you were harmless. Cedric, yeah, I could kind of see why that might be a problem. Alicia choose me over him? Yeah, right. But you..." He stares at Noam, unimpressed. "You were just this weird, heavily accented guy who I thought would never do anything to hurt Alicia. Or affect our relationship. And our relationship is fine, but again we go back to the fact you made her cry."
"Look-"
Ricardo digs his arm in tighter. "I don't want you to apologize to her. I don't want you to do anything. You see her coming, you go the other way. Understand? You don't talk to her, you don't look at her. You leave her alone, and hopefully she'll go back to her career in the woman's division. Whatever she does, it doesn't matter to you. Understand?"
Noam closes his eyes. "Whatever you say. I want nothing to do with her anyway. Now let me go," he chokes out, clearly having trouble breathing.
Ricardo shrugs and lets go of him roughly, pushing him off of the car. "Get out of here. If I hear or see anything about you harassing Alicia, I guess we'll have to have another chat."
Noam glares at him as he turns and walks off, rubbing his throat. Ricardo waits until he's out of sight before getting back into his car and driving home. Alicia greets him at the door and he hugs her, hating how red rimmed her eyes are. "It's gonna be ok," he promises, rubbing her back gently. "You're gonna be just fine."
