Wednesday: July 8, 2009 8:00 A.M.

"Okay, Marissa. If you don't get your ass out of bed, I'm going to go to the gym by myself." Randy tells me as I start to wake up.

I look at him tiredly. "Give me about a half hour, and I'll go with you."

"Fine, Marissa, but I'm not waiting longer than that."

"Got it, Randal." I slowly climb out of bed and head towards the bathroom.

Randy grabs my arm. "Did you call me Randal?"

"I'm sorry, but I like your full name."

"I guess for you I could make an exception."

"Thanks." I give him a kiss and walk into the bathroom.

"Don't forget you have lunch with Stephanie this afternoon."

"I won't." I tell Randy as I start washing my face. "It's like the biggest thing I've got going on today."

"Bigger than spending time with me?"

I roll my eyes. "You and I always spend time together. This is something I have to go out of my way to do. I don't even think there's been a day we've not spent time together since we started dating."

"You know what? I didn't think about that until now. I think you're right though."

"We're on the same schedule, and neither of us have too many friends in Saint Louis. Who else are we going to spend time with?"

"Well, we could always spend time with my family."

"Are you ready to tell them we're dating?"

"I mean I don't think they'll have a bad reaction to it. I just think it's going to be a weird conversation to have."

"They can't be mad. I've always been on good terms with your family."

"Sometimes I think my parents like you more than they like me. Are you ready to talk to them about it?"

"Your parents and siblings I'm fine with talking to. Maybe a little anxious about the weird conversation, but I'm not afraid of their reaction. I'm more concerned about getting Al used to this."

Randy stands in the doorway of the bathroom and looks at me. "She adores you. I don't think it'll be a huge issue."

I walk into the gym with Randy, and the first people we see are none other than Michelle and Chris. I try to leave, but Randy points over to where John, Ted, and Cody are on treadmills. We head over to them. The guys look at us.

"So, Marissa," John says as Randy and I walk up. "I heard you told Michelle that you were a psychotic bitch and would enjoy every second of putting her through pain."

I get on the treadmill next to John's. "Who told you?"

"Dolph."

"Oh yeah. I forgot he had been there. Though I corrected it to be sadistic. I did say that though."

"I hope that goes the way you want it to."

"Me too. We haven't talked much lately. How have you been holding up?"

John sighs. "I know I shouldn't have slept with Mickie and consider that to be cheating on Michelle, which I regret, but after knowing what Michelle did, things just look different. I don't really know how to react, and now, she's shoving her tongue down Chris's throat. How'd you take that news?"

"I was pissed, but that's because she knows how he was with me."

"Maybe those two have some stuff in common."

"Maybe, I'm not gonna concern myself with it. I've moved on from Chris, and I'm happy." I glance over at Randy, who's working out on his own treadmill a bit further away and talking to Ted and Cody.

"Have you noticed how much happier Randy's been since you started dating?" John asks.

I nod. "He's been really great, and I'm happy too."

"Yeah, I see it affecting you for the better too. I'm happy you two still managed to find happiness with each other despite everything."

"Me too. We've moved on. Michelle is glaring in our direction."

John rolls his eyes. "Well, it's too bad. We can spend time together without her."

I work out with the guys for a while while Michelle glares at me before I go to lunch with Stephanie. Most people would be freaking out if Stephanie wanted to have lunch with them, but I wasn't.

I pulled my rental car into the parking lot of the address Stephanie told me to meet her at. I notice it's an I-Hop. She knows me so well. It was one of my favorite restaurants. I walked in to see her sitting by herself hoping no one would notice her as fans knew most of the wrestlers were still in town. I sat next to her.

"Thanks for lunch or should I say brunch, but you didn't have to pay." I comment as I greet her.

"Consider it a late birthday present. You just turned twenty-seven." Stephanie tells me as we order some pancakes.

"Okay...so what happened after I left yesterday?"

"Well, Michelle tried to get me to tell you can't touch her until Night of Champions, but I told her I wouldn't. She pretty much threw a fit, slapped Maryse and Brie, so I had her escorted out, but not before Nikki challenged her to a match on Raw, and Michelle accepted."

"I was expecting Nikki to do that soon. Michelle was being a total bitch to her the past few weeks. Nikki was getting fed up with it."

"I knew Nikki really wanted it, so I already put it on the match card. Enough about that, how's everything with Randy?"

"Pretty good. To be honest though, I never thought we'd ever actually date, especially considering we weren't even talking much a few months ago, let alone on good terms."

"Well...things change. Plus, I put you in a storyline together, so you were stuck talking to him." Stephanie says as we get our food.

"I know, but even if I tried to be nice to him, I didn't think he'd want to talk to me politely before the storyline. You know how it was. We were clashing over everything."

"Let me tell you something. Randy always was trying to get me to give you more shots at the Women's Championship ever since you returned from injury in 2007 until you won that number one contender's match in April. He didn't want you to know because he thought you would think he is meddling in your business, but it was because he was really sorry. Plus, his real reason for hitting you with the RKO was because my dad wanted to have you speared through a barricade by Edge because my dad thought it would be entertaining, and Randy didn't like that. He never wanted to hurt you that bad intentionally."

Tears form in my eyes. "You mean I wasted almost two and a half years being mad at him? We never discussed it in detail. I was just angry because he cost me seven months of my career, and I didn't understand why."

"You weren't always really mad at him all the time. You did spend a week sharing a hotel room with him because of the Chris Jericho thing."

"I know, but for most of the rest of that time I was."

"Well, look where you guys are now. Randy has stopped having one night stands since you started dating. He loves you a lot. You can tell every time he's around you. I know you feel the same way."

A tear rolls down my cheek. "I do. I'm going to buy him some pancakes. Randy loves I-Hop."

"You go ahead."

I knock on the hotel room door even though it's my room as well. Randy opens the door.

I held out the box containing the pancakes to him. "We went to I-Hop. Brought you some pancakes."

Randy takes them and lets me in. "Are you okay?"

"No, I just found out I wasted two and a half years being mad at you." I tell Randy as the hotel room door closes.

"I take it Stephanie brought up the RKO thing." Randy sighs.

"Why didn't we ever truly discuss the whole thing?"

"I don't know."

"I wish we would've. I feel like these two and a half years I've been mad at you were a waste."

"That doesn't matter." Randy put his hand on my back. "We're dating now. You know I'm sorry, and we've moved on."

"I know, but I still feel like I wasted time being angry with you. I would've understood a lot more if we'd talked about it."

"We're doing great now. I should've told you before anyway."

"We're okay now, but what about all that time in 2007 and 2008? With the exception of the week of WrestleMania 24, which was when I found out Chris was cheating, I was mad at you."

"Let's be honest, I deserved it a lot of the time." Randy laughs as he sits down at the table in our hotel room.

"And if you even did deserve it, two and a half years is a bit much."

"We were arguing a lot. I can see how that happened. I really should've just tried to explain it to you."

"If I would've listened. I was already angry with you, and well…my relationship with Chris didn't help my situation with you."

"I should've just left you a voicemail and explained and apologized. Would you have listened to that?"

I sigh. "I know I didn't respond, but I read every text and listened to every voicemail. I never deleted your number either."

Randy pulls me over to sit on his lap. "I had a hard time with the idea of apologizing to you. I don't know. Maybe I was afraid you wouldn't forgive me. I just know we should've spoken."

"I agree. I'm not sure if I would've forgiven you at this point if you were anyone else. I just still happened to have a bit of a soft spot for you."

"We're dating. I think it's a little more than a soft spot." Randy laughs. "But we're dating now, and this is a new chapter for us. This one will be much happier."

"Agreed." I kiss Randy on the lips.