Unsurprisingly, the first thing Erin asked Jay about when she got home that evening was how his day with Clementine had gone. Aware that what he had to say wasn't going to be what she was expecting, he gave her a summary of most of what they had talked about, neglecting to mention the marriage stuff.
"So, we didn't get onto talking about her character changes at all," he confessed. "That's on me. Although, you don't seem annoyed."
"I'm not," Erin said. They had settled down together on one of the couches in the living room, while Kayla busied herself in the kitchen fixing their dinner. "Talking about the character changes was one of the objectives. Another was to establish yourself as Clem's agent and producer. You've clearly done that, so I'm pleased. It sounds like you had pretty deep conversations, so on a personal note, I'm very proud of you for that."
That meant a lot to Jay, but he didn't interrupt her.
"Professionally, you'll need to find another time to get together with her and talk about the character and creative direction. You need to do that, and soon. Can I leave you to organise it?"
"Way ahead of you on that," he said with a smile, happy to be presented with a perfect segue to the other thing he had omitted from his summary. "Clem invited me down to their place. We'd talk business, have dinner, I'd stay the night there, then fly home the next day."
Erin looked surprised, in a good way. "And you agreed to that?"
"I did," he was pleased to say. "Shame you can't come down too. We could even try and get Raquel and Z in on it too. Clem and Alexa live in Orlando, and so do they."
"It wouldn't be right for me to socialise with Clem and Alexa. You already know the awkward position being friends with Z and Raquel puts me in."
Jay's newfound confidence reared its head. "I think maybe you could relax a bit on that."
"Sorry?" Erin asked, surprised more by the fact that he had challenged her than what he had actually said.
"The whole thing with you not wanting to socialise with employees. I think you imagine people being more bothered about it than they actually are. I'd like it if we spent more time together with Raquel and Z. I'm sure they would too. Anyway, who cares if a few people are a bit bent out of shape over it? You're the boss for God's sake."
"I'll give it some thought," Erin promised, sounding impressed with his counter-argument.
While the going was good, Jay pressed ahead. "Also, hearing Clem talk about how happy she is with Alexa today made me think that we really should get to planning our wedding. We keep talking about it but not doing it. I know we agreed we'd get married at your dad's place, in his garden, so that means we'll want to wait for summer weather. That doesn't stop us planning it all now."
Erin moved closer to him, put her hands on his cheeks and kissed him. "What's happened the past few days? It's like a new Jay. New and improved."
"I'm feeling good," he said simply, downplaying it.
"I can tell. And you know what? I'm going to listen to you. At some point in the next few weeks, we'll both go stay with Raquel and Z for a couple days. Assuming they want to invite us obviously. And we'll sit down next time we have a full day at home together and start wedding planning. Definitely, this time."
"That's great," he said happily. "And of course they'll want to invite us. I'll catch up with them at the next event and mention it."
"Okay. Love you," she said, and Jay could tell that somehow she meant it even more than ever.
The one negative that had been on Jay's mind over the past few days had been lingering there since the day he had spent with Clementine. It was the feeling that he hadn't been as much of a friend to Raquel as she had been to him. It made him feel guilty in a way that he never had before – in a way providing evidence of his self-improvement. Now he was better able to take Raquel's feelings into account and consider what she might need from him. He was determined that today was the day he was going to start living up to his end of their friendship.
As was common for them, they had found somewhere to talk with privacy. On this occasion it was out in the arena, hours before fans were due to be admitted for that night's show.
Before Raquel could start a conversation, Jay got in as soon as they sat down, going straight for what was on his mind. That was how he best dealt with important things that he needed to get out. By now, Raquel was well aware of that so he knew she would take it in her stride.
"There's something I've been thinking about a lot the past few days, after it occurred to me," he said, leaving out any mention of Clementine.
"What's that?" Raquel enquired, making herself as comfortable as possible on the cheap plastic seat.
"Been thinking about when we first started to become friends. A lot of people didn't like me at the time. Z definitely didn't, yet you persisted. You saw that there was something of value in me, and you understood, or suspected at that time, why I was the way I was. I've just got to figuring that might have been because you had similar childhood experiences yourself."
Raquel looked down at the floor and didn't say anything. That told Jay that he, or rather Clementine, had been right.
"I'm right, aren't I?" he asked gently.
She didn't look at him. "Let's just say I wasn't always six foot one and built like this, with army training behind me. I was a vulnerable little girl once, and that was taken advantage of."
Jay knew to be very careful. This was a very hard subject as a victim. "I hope it wasn't one of your parents?"
"Uncle," Raquel said. "He ended up going to prison for an armed robbery. Lived eleven years in there alone and miserable before dying suddenly of a massive stroke, wallowing in his own shit. And I don't begrudge him any of that."
"I hear you," Jay said, wishing that the bastard was still alive so that he could kill him himself for hurting Raquel. It was an almost animalistic feeling, and in a way it was scary. But he knew better than to show that to her. She needed the opposite kind of emotion, so put an arm around her and rested his head against hers. "I love you, you know."
"I love you too," Raquel said, sounding choked up. After a moment, she literally shook it off and pulled away from him. "Thank you for... you know. But I'm not going to talk about it anymore. Ever. Is that a problem for you?"
"No," he assured her, totally understanding.
"You've come so far, Jay. As a man, I mean."
"Thank you. I am trying my hardest. I know this isn't the time, but I also want to talk to you about your service as an army diver. We've never talked about it, and I feel like I've not been much of a friend."
She looked at him and shook her head. "Don't say that. You're a very good friend to me. Anyway, there's a lot of it I can't talk about. Sometime we'll have a drink and I'll tell you what I can."
"Okay," he said, taking that at face value an appreciating it.
The conversation with Raquel stayed in Jay's mind for the rest of the afternoon, causing very mixed emotions. He felt angry about what had happened to her. Although she hadn't said what that was, it wasn't hard to guess. He also felt happy though, because he knew the moment they had shared where they had expressed love for each other had further strengthened their already strong friendship. Lastly, he felt proud of himself for being able to approach her about a difficult subject, and for making her feel understood and supported. At least, he hoped that was how he had made her feel.
Today's event was non-televised, meaning a much smaller backstage team on hand, no TV crew at all, and no Erin in attendance. Recently, Jay had taken on the responsibility of producing the women's matches for such events. Truthfully, it wasn't a lot of work since there were only ever one or two women's matches per show at this kind of event, and they could often work out most of their moves on the fly in the ring. It was only the finishes that he really needed to help them with. What it did do, though, was maintain his status of seniority for the women. For that reason, he wasn't surprised when he received a test from Clem asking if he could meet her at the catering area.
Jay replied to say no problem, and started heading their right away. Clem wasn't going to wrestle on the show because of her new lighter schedule, but she had still come to the event, mostly, he assumed, because she genuinely loved the wrestling business and spending time with the other women. He soon discovered that there was a better reason.
When he walked into catering, he found Clem standing with Hailey Upton. He went over to them. "Hey. You wanted to see me?"
"Jay," Clem said in a friendly tone.
"Hi," Hailey said. To him, she looked like she had been struggling with something.
"What's going on?" he asked them both.
"We've just sat down for an hour and had a productive conversation," Clem said. "We've ironed out some things and Hailey got some things off her chest to me. There's something she would like you to pass on to Erin, if you would?"
"Sure," he said.
Hailey spoke next, taking a deep breath first and then dropping a bomb. "Tell Erin I've changed my answer about Maya Mizrachi. I'm not saying no anymore. I'll work with her, if that's what Erin wants. The fans know what happened between us that night years back, so maybe we use that to draw some money."
That was a very professional thing to say, Jay thought. He was impressed, and he could tell that Clem was too. She may have helped Hailey to come to the decision, but it was definitely Hailey's decision, which was how Erin had wanted it to be.
He nodded his approval. "I'll pass that on. Erin will be delighted, I'm sure. I'd imagine she'll call you."
He thanked them both and sent them on their way. As he did so, he looked forward to giving Erin the news. Her dream of bringing the woman she admitted had been her favourite wrestler when she was younger back to WWE looked like it was going to come to pass.
A/N: Jay was able to bring up a difficult subject with Raquel and try to support her. How do you think he did?
And it seems Maya 'the wildcat' may be coming back to WWE after all. How might Erin manage having her and Hailey on the same roster?