Jay wasn't sure why everyone at WWE used the term 'Wrestlemania weekend'. The company put on events from Thursday through Monday, which was a lot more than a weekend as far as he was concerned. This year, it was all taking place in Los Angeles, with the tag line 'Wrestlemania goes Hollywood'.
To kick things off on Thursday, there were the first three meet and greet sessions. Held morning, afternoon and evening on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, the sessions allowed many thousands of fans to line up at the various stages in a huge convention centre in the hope of meeting one of their favourite wrestlers. For the top stars, like Jay, and this year like Raquel, a separate VIP ticket had to be purchased to guarantee a meet. Jay found it odd that his VIPs always sold out like hot cakes. Nearly two hundred bucks to shake his hand and get a photo taken, and the fans lapped it up. Naturally he didn't enjoy the experience at all, but he made sure to put a brave face on it, be nice to people, and try to provide them with value for their money.
The only person fans never got a chance to meet was Hank Voight, and this year, her first working away from WWE HQ, Erin was added to that list. The Voights were like wrestling royalty in that regard, although Jay suspected that if the decision had been Erin's she wouldn't have minded doing a meet a greet. But the situation was what it was.
Jay's meet and greet session was Friday afternoon, so he hadn't needed to arrive until Thursday evening. He and Erin had flown in together, having spent the previous night at Eagle's Nest. He was now sleeping there sometimes, and as he had expected, it didn't feel like home at all. He was hopeful that would change as time went on.
Another thing he had been hopeful of was that the airport might not be too busy with wrestling fans as a lot of them might have arrived already. He should have known better, he soon realised. At baggage claim, there were people wearing WWE merchandise everywhere. Most were either too shy or respectful to approach him and Erin, but some could not help themselves. The vast majority of fans were wise to the scripted nature of the show, so while they would boo and hurl abuse at heel characters during a show, they were excited and polite if they happened to encounter the 'real' people. Given what Jay thought of as the Voight royalty status, meeting Erin was especially exciting for them. There was also the fact that a lot of male wrestling fans fell over themselves to meet any of the sexy women they saw on TV every week, and Erin was definitely on that list.
One such fan approached Erin and Jay while they were trying to mind their own business near the baggage carousel, which was predictably taking an age to get started. The guy looked about twenty, and was wearing a Kevin Atwater hoodie.
"Hi, Erin? Could I be a huge pain and get a picture with you?" the guy asked timidly, but politely.
Jay sighed but kept his mouth shut.
"Sure. What's your name?" Erin asked, smiling at him. Jay got the impression that she wasn't faking it. She was enjoying encountering the fans. He supposed she was often shielded from it, so it had some novelty for her.
"Joe," the fan said. "I wouldn't normally do this, but I couldn't live with myself if I didn't say hi to you," he said as he messed around with his phone, trying to get the camera app opened.
"Ah, that's sweet," Erin said. "Where are you flying in from?"
"Wyoming."
"A lovely part of the country," Erin said.
Joe finally had the camera ready. Erin smiled for the selfie, and Joe took it.
"Thanks, Erin. You rock. Hi, Jay. I'll leave you guys be."
"Hey," Jay said before Joe walked off, deciding politeness cost nothing. Joe didn't seem like a bad kid.
"I rock, apparently," Erin said, smiling at Jay.
He looked at her for a moment and smiled back. Yes, she was having a great time, he saw. Dressed casually in jeans and a leather jacket, she still looked incredibly beautiful. Now that it was April, LA was way too warm for wearing gloves to be viable, which disappointed her, he imagined. Thinking about that made him want to chuckle.
"Hey, Erin! What's it like when your dad's dating someone younger and hotter than you?" a male voice shouted from somewhere across the huge room.
Jay didn't know who had shouted it, not that he could have done much anyway. He could hardly get into a public altercation with a fan in an airport. In any case, he didn't know what the guy was talking about. Trish, Hank's squeeze who he had met at the house a few weeks ago, was neither younger nor hotter than Erin.
There was some laughter among the throng of people, while others booed or shouted at the loud mouth to shut up or fuck off, or called him an asshole.
"What's that dick talking about? Are you okay?" Jay asked Erin. Like him, she was trying not to react, he saw.
"I'm fine. Ignore it. I expected some comments this week anyway. My dad's dating some woman called Amanda now. Amanda Rose. She's a model or something. She like, thirty? And yeah, she's super hot if bleached blonde bimbos with lip fillers and butt implants are your thing. My dad being with her is embarrassing, but it's hardly new behaviour for him. I guess it's all over social media now, by the sound of it."
"What happened to Trish?"
"They split a week ago or something," Erin said.
Jay raised his eyebrows. "And your dad is already dating this Amanda?"
"She likes to be called Mandy," Erin said, her tone when saying the name making her distaste for the woman clear. "He was probably seeing her at the same time as Trish. Don't ask me to answer for my dad where his relationships are concerned. In fact I don't want to talk about it. I was going to ask him later if he had brought her over here with him. He's going to want us to have dinner with them tomorrow night, so I thought I might have to give you the heads up on her. Anyway, now you have it. Look forward to that, I guess."
"Can't wait," Jay grumbled.
An hour later, Jay and Erin were at their hotel. For 'Wrestlemania weekend' WWE always provided the hotel accommodation for everyone on the roster, and it was always at a four or five star hotel. Jay didn't care all that much about the finery, but he liked that it kept most of the fans at a distance. Most of them stayed in cheaper places.
"The next few days are going to be insane," Erin said as they rode up to the 45th floor in an elevator. They had been booked into a suite, as Erin always was. She was in a better mood now that Amanda Rose had been forgotten about, for the time being.
She was right, Jay thought. He had a meet and greet session to do on Friday afternoon, the Hall of Fame ceremony Friday night, which also meant walking the red carpet with Erin. Every wrestler on the roster was invited to attend the ceremony, and the invite was not optional. Neither was the black tie dress code. Then there was night one of Wrestlemania on Saturday, which was going to feature Erin's match with Sylvie Brett, and Raquel's match with Bayley Martinez for the Raw Women's Championship in the main event, which they already knew Raquel would win. Sunday was Wrestlemania night two, which Jay would be main eventing against Kevin Atwater for the WWE Championship, where Jay would become the new champion. Then, to close out the busiest week of the year, Monday night would the season premiere of Monday Night Raw, the first show that would be written at Erin's direction, and with her input and final approval on all of the show's segments.
"Does room service for dinner work for you tonight?" Erin asked, not waiting for him to respond to her previous comment. "I'd like to cosy up with you tonight and enjoy some down time before things go crazy."
"That sounds absolutely perfect to me," Jay said as they stepped out of the elevator on their floor. He was surprised to see who was walking towards them. It was a wrestler by the name of Clementine, an attractive black woman who always wore her hair in pig tails, under her trademark baseball cap. She was a former Women's Champion, one of the fans' all time favourites on the women's roster, as well as being a very talented performer both in matches and in her character work in speaking segments, known as promos. She had been out of action with a serious knee injury for well over a year.
"Oh, hi!" Clementine said, smiling broadly when she saw them. "Erin. We've not met. It's a pleasure."
"Clementine, hey," Erin said enthusiastically. They greeted each other with a hug, which suggested some instantaneous personal chemistry, and showed once again Erin's down to earth nature. "I've been looking forward to meeting you. And to working with you."
"That means a lot," Clementine said seriously. "And call me Clem." She looked at Jay and smiled. "Jay. How are you? How about the White Socks?"
Clementine, like Jay, was from Chicago. They were both White Socks fans, which was often a burden. On the few occasions Jay had spoken to her in the past, considering his general avoidance of social situations, a few words about baseball had been the extent of it. He wanted to start getting better at his interactions with others, not just those closest to him. But finding the words was difficult for him.
"They suck, don't they?" he replied regretfully. "How's the knee? Are you returning this weekend?" His question meant would her character be returning to TV. After being out for so long, he assumed the return was imminent. The season premiere episode of Raw was known to often have multiple returns, so he suspected that was in the pipeline for Clementine.
"I'm here for the Hall of Fame tomorrow night. After that, I can't say too much." She looked at Erin. "Maybe I'll speak nicely to the boss lady."
Erin laughed, also giving nothing away. She didn't discuss what happened or what she knew through her soon-to-be official promotion to Vice President of Creative with Jay. Church and state rules applied in their relationship, and he respected that.
"Well if and when you do return, the fans are going to lose their minds. How long is that you've been out?" he asked.
"Fifteen months. I wrecked my knee in last year's Royal Rumble."
"That's right," Jay said, now recalling Clementine being helped from the ring walking on one leg, being held up by two referees. It had a very sad sight. Serious injury was every wrestler's biggest fear. "Well, I'm glad to see you walking fine, and I hope you do make it back soon. You've been missed."
"Oh, thank you. That's real kind of you," Clementine said with a warm smile. "Have a good night, guys."
"Yeah, you too," Erin said as they parted ways. She and Jay resumed walking, and she smiled at him. "This is going to sound incredibly patronising, but I don't know how else to say it. So don't take it the wrong way. Well done back there. I know that took effort, and she appreciated what you said."
Jay didn't take offense at all. He liked that his effort being recognised and appreciated. "Thanks. I'm just glad you understand what I have to battle with."
"I do my best to understand. Give me a kiss."
They stopped walking and Jay pecked her on the lips. "Love you, boss lady. I'm going to have to start calling you that now."
"Don't you fucking dare," she said menacingly.
Her rare use of profanity made Jay laugh loudly.
A/N: Readers of my previous Jay/Erin storyline will have encountered a couple of familiar faces in this chapter as we welcome Amanda Rose and Clementine to the story.
Erin now has to deal with her dad dating someone who is younger than she is. How do you think that will go down?
And will Clementine's big return from injury be one of the first things Erin has to write in her new job?
