After Jay and Erin had eaten most of what had turned out to be a delicious but enormous pizza, they had agreed that she would take a bath before he gave her a massage. Jay had said it was a good idea because her hip was the main problem, and soaking it would help to bring out the bruising. He had run the water nice and hot for her, adding some of the complimentary bath oil that was provided. If anything he had put too much in, but Erin had sounded happy with it when she went in there, taking a glass of champagne with her.
The only downside for Jay was that it left him in the suite with nothing to do for a while, other than lying on the bed relaxing and drinking his own champagne. He spent some time thinking about the rumble match that he had won, and about the Wrestlemania main event that he was now guaranteed. It was going to be a real career highlight.
Then he thought of Raquel, who would be celebrating her own win, probably in a lot more pain than he or Erin were. She had made herself a star though, by performing for more than an hour in the ring. It was an impressive physical feat to be able to do that. He considered texting her, but decided not to. Raquel would be winding down, likely relaxing with Z. She would probably be too tired to celebrate much, or to be bothered with people's texts, he imagined. So instead he turned the TV and put a news channel on while he waited for Erin.
Over an hour went by before she came out of the bathroom. But when she did, it was instantly worth the wait for Jay because she only had her panties on.
"Holy... Wow, you're beautiful," he said, sitting up on the bed. She didn't have big tits, but on some women smaller ones were perfect for their body. Erin fitted that description to a tee.
She smiled sweetly. "Thank you. I'll take that massage now, please. I didn't dry my back. Figured it would be best to have it wet since we have no massage oil."
"Good thinking. Not sure how well this will go without that oil, especially since I've never done a massage before. Mikami would have done a better job."
"But I wouldn't have enjoyed it as much," Erin said as she got onto the bed.
"Tell me that after I've done it," he quipped. "But I'll do my best. How do you feel after that long soak?"
"Honestly? Not much different. It was nice, but it doesn't seem to have helped. My hip still hurts. Can't believe how hard those stupid ring aprons are. I didn't want Raquel to know I got hurt in case she blamed herself." She lay down on her front, resting her head on her crossed forearms.
"Yes, I saw you hiding your limp from her. That was sweet of you."
Jay got onto the bed and started to work her left shoulder, which had gotten banged up by the Chingona Bomb. He had no clue what he was doing, but he tried to mimic what he had felt Violet Mikami do when she worked his own sore muscles.
"Jesus, that feels tight," Erin winced pretty much as soon as he started.
"It does," he agreed. "Let me get into it. I hope it's not a thing to massage someone too much or something."
"I don't know." She then moaned in pain as he started working on her more strongly.
"You must have enjoyed being in the match though, right? There's nothing else like wrestling in front of a hot crowd like that. Makes the pain all worth it."
"Definitely. I think me taking that Chingona Bomb got one of the loudest pops of the night. It helped to put Raquel's babyface turn over, which makes it good business. I was glad to do it for her. That woman is going to draw us a crap load of money once she's established as a face and we've got the title belt on her."
"For real," Jay said. In truth, he didn't want to talk about work. It was always going to be an easy trap for him and Erin to fall into, but he knew that there had to be a lot more to connect them besides wrestling if their relationship was to last.
"How's the property search going?" he asked after a few moments. "You mentioned you already told Hank you want to move out, and he gave you a budget for a place."
Erin shifted her head as his massage moved to the right side of the base of her neck. "It's going okay, but nothing has really grabbed me yet. I've looked at a few nice apartments downtown. Not sure an apartment is what I want though. A house would be better, but the couple I've seen so far didn't do it for me. I'm looking at a place Wednesday morning. Maybe you could come with me? There are no shows Tuesday or Wednesday."
Jay knew that she would be talking about New York and the surrounding area, since she had to be in the office for work. He was up for going to the viewing with her, but it would mean having to stay in the city on the Tuesday night. "Sure, I'll come with you. I'll have to get into a hotel somewhere. Safe to say I won't be welcome at your place."
She grunted a laugh. "With my dad around? I think that's a safe bet for the foreseeable. Don't worry though, I'll book us a suite somewhere. We'll stay there Tuesday night, go to the viewing, then you can head back to the airport afterwards. Does that work for you?"
"Getting a chance to spend more time with you, and getting to see how the other half live? I'm in."
"Jay," Erin complained, annoyed by him alluding to her being rich again.
"I'm teasing you," he said, laughing. "But seriously, what is the place like that we're going to?"
"I'm not telling you now," she said, pretending to sulk.
Jay laughed and continued the massage. He did it for around half an hour, unsure if he was actually achieving anything or not. Ultimately he figured that at least they had tried something to ease her tight muscles. If she still had problems, she could go to Mikami the next night before Monday Night Raw and get worked over by someone who was actually a trained masseuse.
"Thank you, Jay," Erin said after he came back from washing his hands. She was now sitting in the bed, with the cover over her. "I think that helped a bit. It was quite enjoyable too."
"You're welcome. No clue if I did any of it right, but I had a go."
"You did," she smiled. "I'm really tired now. Do you mind if we just go to sleep tonight? I know that's frightfully boring and all."
"Don't be silly," he said, starting to get undressed to join her in bed. "It was a long tough day, and anyway that pizza is starting to put me into a food coma, in a good way. Let's get some sleep."
"I'm glad you're not one of those guys who practically insists on sex every time there's even half an opportunity."
"Nah, I'm not. Besides, we can have sex in the morning when we both have plenty of energy. It'll be much better then."
"Right," Erin smiled, looking forward to it. "I didn't bring any tape with me though."
Jay felt turned on straight away, just at the mention of it. "I'll forgive you, this time. But don't make a habit of it."
"I'll try not to."
Monday Night Raw was the next day. With it being the episode after such a momentous night at the Royal Rumble, anticipation was sure to be high among the audience, as it was among the wrestlers. Jay arrived looking forward to finding out what was planned for him, and looking forward to seeing what was lined up for Erin too. He was genuinely enjoying her work on-screen lately, and saw a lot of potential in her rivalry with Sylvie Brett as they headed towards their match at Wrestlemania.
Every night, a large whiteboard was setup somewhere near the locker rooms. On it was a brief summary of each segment, to show everyone who was involved at what point in the show, and who they needed to work with. It gave people an indication before they had a chance to sit down and read the more detailed formats that were given out by the writing team.
Jay saw that he had a talking segment, known as a promo, in the ring with Kevin Atwater as the main event of the show. It was a fairly safe bet that when he read the format he would find out that the segment would end in a fight to close out the show.
"There I am," Erin said beside him. "They've got me in a promo with Raquel, Sylvie, and the Latinas."
"They're listing Raquel and the Latinas separately now," Jay observed.
"Yeah. I bet they'll officially separate in that segment. My money says they'll have me getting Bayley and Z to kick her ass, then Sylvie comes out to make the save."
Jay nodded slowly. "I wouldn't bet against you. If they have you down to take a bump, make sure you tell them you can't do it, not with that hip."
"I will," Erin assured him. Her injured hip was now all kinds if ugly shades of purple and yellow, and her limp was even worse than it had been the night before.
"You've hurt your hip?" came Raquel's voice from behind them. She and Zelina were approaching, pulling their cases along behind them.
So much for hiding it, Jay thought. Although Erin probably couldn't have masked the limp all day anyway.
"Hey, Raquel," Erin said. "Yeah, but not on the Chingona Bomb, so don't worry. I was fine from that. I landed on the apron on my hip on the way out of the ring. It's bruised up a bit."
"Sorry," Raquel said, grimacing. She had some swelling and bruising of her own around the cut on her cheek, and Jay imagined she had other war wounds too after more than an hour in the ring.
"It's not your fault. I just took an unlucky landing is all."
"Thanks for saying that. I should have been more careful with you though. It was a bit of a rush, how they popped for me taking you out. I might have gotten carried away."
"She doesn't know her own strength sometimes," Zelina said, looking up at her girl adoringly.
Raquel grinned, then looked at Jay. "Jay. How are you? Sore?"
"Hey. No, not really. I got to try myself as a masseuse last night."
"Oh, did you?" Zelina said. She smiled knowingly at Erin. "How did he do?"
Erin giggled, looking at Jay. "He was pretty good."
"Aww, look at you guys," Raquel gushed. "Do you even have any pictures together yet?"
Jay and Erin looked at each other for a second in surprise at the realisation that the answer was no.
"We don't actually," Jay said.
"Give me your phone then," Raquel said. "We can take care of that right now."
Jay took his phone out of his pocket and handed it over. Then he put an arm around Erin's waist and they stood close together, both smiling as Raquel took the picture.
"Don't they look great together, Z?" Raquel asked, passing the phone back to Jay.
"They do," Zelina said. The way she said it told Jay that maybe she was warming up to him a bit. He felt the same way about her.
"Show me the picture," Erin said eagerly.
Raquel had left the picture on the screen, so all Jay had to do was hold the phone where they both could see it. He liked the picture a lot, which was rare for him as he usually disliked having his picture taken. He and Erin looked very happy, and they looked like a natural fit together.
"I'm going to make that my phone background," he said without really thinking about it.
Erin put a hand on her chest and beamed at their friends. "Doesn't he say the sweetest things?"
A/N: Jay gave Erin the best TLC he could, and she invited him to join her on her new property viewing. What kind of place do you think she's arranged to see?
Before that, we have the next Raw episode, where Erin will be in the ring with Sylvie, Raquel, Bayley and Zelina. What do you think will happen?
