"Mr Halstead? Mr Voight would like to see you in his office."
Jay looked at the backstage crew member with annoyance. He was sitting in the catering area, trying to enjoy a cup of coffee in peace. There was no such luck, as he might have expected.
A summons from the boss couldn't be ignored, so he got up and trudged out of catering. He wondered if he might be about to get the riot act for spending too much time with Erin outside of work. But no, that wouldn't make sense. Hank wanted them to be seen together to get the storyline over with the audience. He had no way of knowing that things were heating up between them for real.
Jay had been extremely frustrated after the opera date and the kiss. He had genuinely expected more that night, but Erin had left him with blue balls. As time had passed though, he had been able to take the positive from it. The kiss had come entirely from her, so she was definitely into him. She was simply enjoying the game-playing, making him wait for more. For that reason, he had managed to resolve himself to cooling off himself. His reasoning was that two could play that game. The next move would now have to be Erin's. At least, that was his current plan. What he would do if she failed to make a next move was something he didn't have an answer for.
Paper signs taped to the arena's walls directed people to 'Hank's office', always the busiest location backstage. Jay followed the signs and wasn't surprised to find several people waiting outside to see the boss. Adam Ruzek was one of them.
"Hey," Jay said, exchanging a fist bump with his friend. He ignored the other people. "Do you know who's in there?"
"Hank, Erin and Sylvie Brett."
That left Jay with even more questions rather than answers. He knocked on the office door and walked in.
"Jay! Come in!" Hank said in what was as close to a cheerful manner as he ever got. The boss was in a good mood.
At every televised show, the backstage crew put together the same setup for Hank's office. There was a desk with a comfortable office chair for Hank on one side and a couple of cheaper ones for other people on the other side. For less formal conversations there were two black leather couches, with a low glass coffee table between then. Hank and Erin were currently sitting on one of those couches, with Sylvie Brett on the other. She looked quite nervous again, mingling with WWE's higher-ups.
"Hank. Erin. Sylvie," Jay said as he walked over. "How's everyone doing?"
"Doing good," Erin said with a smile. Jay noticed the gorgeous dimples appear for a second.
"Very well, thank you," Sylvie said quietly.
"We're all good. Have a seat, Jay," Hank said. Small talk was never his thing.
Jay sat down next to Sylvie, waiting to see what could possibly involve him and her.
"Jay, we've just been talking about plans for Wrestlemania," Hank said.
Wrestlemania was WWE's biggest annual event. It took place over two nights, on a Saturday and a Sunday, in sold out stadiums seating up to and sometimes even over 100,000 people. No expenses were spared on the event, which made it an attraction like no other for the audience. Matches that would never happen at any other event just might happen at Wrestlemania, sometimes even featuring celebrities.
"Erin's going to wrestle, and it's going to be against Sylvie," Hank went on.
"Sorry, what?" Jay asked, taken by surprise. He looked at Erin. "You're going to wrestle? You didn't say anything about training."
"Why do you think you're here?" Erin said dryly.
"We've got four months until Wrestlemania," Hank said. "That's plenty of time for Erin to learn some fundamentals, and for Sylvie to gain main roster experience. Jay, the reason you're here is I want you to help train Erin. It makes sense, considering you already have a relationship."
Jay almost shit himself, until a second later when he realised that Hank meant a working relationship. He managed to hide his reaction. "Okay, I can do that. But why do you need me? We've got coaches down in Florida."
"Erin's going to be on the road too much to spend a lot of time in Florida. She'll get down there when it's practical, but in addition I want you to help out before shows and such. There's always time to use the ring for training. Focus on the basics. You know what she needs to learn."
"Of course. No problem," Jay said. He looked at Erin again. "I'll try not to go too hard on you."
"You've done it before," Erin said casually.
The sexual innuendo horrified Jay, with Hank sitting right there. He felt himself beginning to blush. But of course only he and Erin knew the comment was a sexual in nature.
Hank actually laughed. "Yes, Jay's not exactly polite with people at times, a bit like myself. You'll get used to it. So, Jay, it's agreed?" He meant the training.
Jay nodded. "It's agreed. Happy to do it."
"Alright, good. The two of you can go." He waved Jay and Sylvie to the door. Apparently Erin would be staying behind, to Jay's annoyance. He had a serious bone to pick with her over what she had said. Acting like that in front of her dad was not on. The more he thought about what she had said, the more it angered him.
On the way out of the office, Jay at least remembered his manners and held the door open for Sylvie. He had no plans to speak to her though. All he wanted to do was go sit in the locker room and stew about Erin. To his surprise, Sylvie spoke to him as he set off along the hallway.
"Uh, excuse me, sir? Can I speak with you, please?"
Jay turned around, irritated by her manner. "Sylvie, enough already. Enough with walking around the place like you don't belong here. Enough with sir and ma'am. You're here, presumably, because Hank sees a lot of potential in you. Start acting like it, or you'll end up getting chewed up and spat out by this business." As he spoke, he saw in her expression that he had come across harsher than he had meant to. He softened his tone. "You seem like a nice person. Just don't be too nice, that's all I'm saying."
"Okay. I hear you. What I was going to ask you is what is Erin like to work with? The last person I expected to work my first program with was her. I'm new to the main roster, and I'm going to be the senior worker in a Wrestlemania match. It's..."
"Crazy," Jay finished for her. Now that she mentioned it, he agreed with her. Hank's strange decisions happened from time to time. This was one of them. "I think you'll be fine with Erin though. She knows her stuff, she works hard, and I'll make sure she has her basics in time for your match. I've got to go now."
"Of course. Thank you," Sylvie said.
Jay walked off, part of him thinking that he should have added in a mention of Erin being a game player. But he supposed he was the only one on the receiving end of that treatment. Well, no more, he had decided. She had pissed him off, and in doing so had change his perspective on what had happened after the opera.
Not long before Monday Night Raw went live, Jay encountered Erin in a hallway. Rather than getting together with her to run over their segments for the show like he usually did, he had stayed in the locker room and avoided her. It didn't take a detective to figure out that she wasn't best pleased with his behaviour.
"There you are," she said. "I thought you had left or something."
"No, didn't leave. Just had no interest in speaking to you. Had enough of the games and the bullshit," he said in a sulky manner.
"Games?" Erin said, now annoyed herself. "This isn't about games. We've got a job to do in less than half an hour."
"And we will. A job is all it's going to be from now on."
"What the hell is your problem?" Erin snapped, lowering her voice so that their exchange, which was getting heated, wouldn't be easy to overhear.
Jay replied in kind. "My problem? You and your game playing, that's what my problem is. You invite me out, flirt all night, kiss me, then give me the cold shoulder. Then, even worse, you start dropping innuendos in front of your old man, knowing full well how he might react to me if he found out what's been going on. So, forget it. I'm not interested in someone who plays games. No doubt you can find some asshole around here who will go for that. I damn sure won't."
With that he stormed away, leaving Erin standing there trying to process what had just happened.
That night, Jay was in his hotel room alone, about to get ready to go to bed when the sports news show that he was watching on the TV wrapped up. Then there was a knock on his door.
"Really?" he groaned as he got up off the bed. He had been in one of those bad moods that just wouldn't go away all afternoon and evening. Someone showing up at his hotel room wasn't likely to improve matters. He hadn't ordered room service, and he certainly hadn't given anyone his room number.
Preparing to give whoever had disturbed him a distinctly unpleasant send off, Jay looked throw the little peep hole in the door. It was Erin who was standing outside.
A/N: The question this time is the obvious one. What is going to happen next?