Ricardo stares at the brackets for the Florida Cup. He sighs, biting his nail. His partner from a few weeks ago, Chasyn, will be his opponent tonight in the first round of the cup. Not sure how to feel about that, he turns to look out at the crowd and smiles, Sofia waving at him from her place in first row. He winks at her before ducking back behind the curtain, determined not to fail.

It's a good back and forth match, one that Ricardo eventually comes out ahead on. After shaking Chasyn's hand and thanking him for the match, he rolls out of the ring and heads right for Sofia, hugging her. Alberto's in Mexico again and Ricardo wishes that he could've seen the match as well, but he doesn't begrudge his friend the chance to compete in their home country. Kissing Sofia's cheek, he slowly pulls away from her and goes backstage to reorient himself, re-focus on what's to come. The second round, when his competition will surely be more intense, just because he and his opponent will be determined to make it to the finals.

He breathes deeply, in and out, trying to keep calm, centered, while watching Aaron Epic out of the corner of his eye. They'd both won their matches and would thus face off in the second round. He'd wrestled him before, a few months ago, and he thinks he'll have a decent shot, but still... Aaron's tough and Ricardo releases a breath, re-applying his wrist tape before heading out towards the ring once more. Sofia looks happy to see him and he waves at her as Aaron makes his way to the ring, her smile faltering as she gets a good look at his opponent.

He is a tough competitor, and it shows as he overpowers Ricardo at nearly every turn, shouldering him into the corner and each strike enough to rid him of the oxygen in his lungs for a few seconds. He just can't gain any sustainable traction against him so he's not all that surprised when he ends up eating the pin before long, staring up at the ceiling in a daze. There's no show of good sportsmanship between them, Aaron smugly celebrating his victory while Ricardo stumbles up the ramp.

He's only just sat down, wiping sweat off of his forehead with a handtowel, when Sofia slips backstage and joins him, her fingers cool on his neck. He smiles balefully at her, unsurprised when she leans down and kisses his forehead, brushing his hair out of his eyes. "I'm proud of you, mi hijo," she says quietly. "Come, go get cleaned off and I'm going to find somewhere that's still open, we'll go out to eat somewhere. My treat."

"Oh, Sofia, you really don't have to," he protests, catching her hand and squeezing it. "I'm not that hungry." But he gets up and walks gingerly towards the showers, her eyes tracing his every movement as realization dawns on her and she groans, shaking her head at herself.

"Foolish woman, you've watched them nearly kill themselves in this business for how long by now?" she chides herself, moving over to his bag and finding comfortable clothes for him to change into. His favorite black sweat pants and a dark sleeved shirt, which she exchanges with him for his wrestling gear that she folds carefully before putting into his bag. Once he comes out, looking a little better, though still tired and sore, she cups his face and smiles at him. "Plan B. Let's instead get comething for carry out, go home and eat while we watch Modern Family. Si?"

His eyes immediately light up, some of the weariness leaving him. "Si!"

She beams and hugs him, relieved that she had figured it out, aware that he would've forced himself to go through with her original plans if he had thought it would make her happy. After a quick stop at a nearby Mexican restuarant who tends to have decent enough food, Sofia drives them back to the mansion and, while Ricardo drops his things off in his bedroom, begins to set up their meal in the living room in front of the TV. Such things that they tend to only get away with while Alberto's gone, though sometimes he's joined in when it's an unusually special occassion. Modern Family leaves them both laughing, especially at Phil's antics, but before too long, Ricardo's energy drifts and he starts to nod off.

She immediately turns the TV down a bit and watches as he fades, finally sinking back against the couch cushions, becoming pliant enough for her to cup her hands around his shoulders and draw him down to lay more comfortably. Unable to carry him back to his bedroom on her own, she grabs a blanket and drapes it over him, making sure he's still sleeping peacefully before she heads for bed herself.

He spends a quiet day at home the next day, helping her with cooking and cleaning, tidying up the garden. By the time the sun is starting to sink in the Floridian sun, she follows him inside and they activate the Network to watch both MizTV and Paige's divas championship match. Miz gets taken out by Sandow and Axel, Ricardo's nose crinkling sympathetically for his friend, but Paige's match result is truly disappointing. "So much for the whole Florida Cup and three times Diva champion thing," he mumbles.

Sofia hugs him sympathetically and nods when he asks if he can turn the TV off. They sit in silence for awhile before he finds his phone and dials Paige's number. The housekeeper says very little while he talks to his girlfriend, both of them relieved to learn she's rooming with Miz tonight. He'd proven, during the filming of Santa's Little Helper, to be good at keeping an eye on her, and Sofia suspects that it'll be good for both of them to have some sort of companionship now that both of their significant others are out of WWE.

Ricardo is busy with training at the dojo the next few days, determined not to let his loss of the Florida Cup keep him from bettering himself as a competitor. He had let too much time slip through his fingers- though his time as Alberto's ring announcer had brought him a great many things that he would never exchange for anything- and he's focused on never letting such a thing happen again.

On Tuesday, Paige comes home for a couple of days, the two of them so busy the entire time that they barely have a chance to do anything more than laying together in bed for an hour or two before falling asleep, but Wednesday night, she sits on one of the chairs used for fans during the monthly events and watches the training, offering Ricardo kisses whenever he comes to talk to her.

The cycle continues when she leaves for Smackdown just for Alberto to return on Thursday finally. Ricardo doesn't even bother to leave the airport after seeing Paige off, sitting in the lobby and waiting until Alberto appears. They're walking to the car, Alberto telling him about everything he's seen and experienced when Ricardo smiles at him. He stops short and looks at his friend. "What's going on, Ricardo?"

"I was supposed to go compete this weekend."

"I recall," Alberto says. "What of it, mi amigo?"

"The promoter stopped returning my calls," he says slowly, unsurprised when there's a deep expression of disgust and anger in Alberto's eyes. The bane of any wrestler's lives, a shoddy promoter. "But I think it's ok." He claps Alberto on the back. "We can watch the Champion League together... and cheer on Barcelona."

Alberto's eyes flash with warning and Ricardo laughs, walking a little faster to avoid the man as he shakes his fist at Ricardo, careful not to look too serious or dangerous, August 5th and everything that came afterwards forever more fresh on his mind. And deservedly so. When Ricardo slows and falls back into step next to Del Rio, he smiles and curls an arm around Ricardo's shoulders. "I have an idea, mi hermanito. How about we make it a cheat day? Have chips and dip and whatever else snacks Sofia will make for us... and we won't move until there's a winner."

Ricardo laughs softly and nods, smiling up at his former employer. "Sounds perfect, Alberto."