A video call came in from Erin only a minute after Jay had sent her a text to ask if she was still awake. He gratefully answered it, seeing his beautiful fiancée appear on the screen, lying on her side in bed. It was the definition of a sight for sore eyes.

"Hey. I was hoping you would want to talk," she said. "I missed you a lot today."

"I missed you too. Couldn't wait to see your face."

"Aw, that's so sweet," she said, giving him one of her gorgeous smiles. They always knocked him dead. "So, how was your day?"

"It's been a long day, but a good one. Jay began his recounting of the day by starting at Clementine and Alexa's house, leaving out the unenjoyable commercial flight. He laid out the conversation they'd had regarding the proposed contract.

"Sounds to me like you did a good job of selling it. Well done," Erin said, encouraging and supportive as ever.

"Thank you. I did my best."

"Do you think she'll accept?"

Jay shrugged his shoulders, not that Erin could see that because the way he was holding the phone only showed his head on the camera as he sat on the bed in Raquel and Zelina's guest room. "I figure about an even chance. There are a lot of positives, but she works her dream job for the FBI right now and it's likely she would have to quit in order to sign with us. Plus it's a whole different life to get used to once you're on TV. Not sure she wants that, or that Clem wants it for her."

"Hmmm. I'd say better than even."

"You would?" he asked.

"Yeah. Even if she had to quit the FBI to sign for us, she can always re-join them if she wants to when she's done with us. In the meantime, she gets to work with Clem, which comes with the added benefit of them getting to spend more time with each other. I think that might outweigh any concerns about being on TV."

"That's all true, I guess. Maybe you're right, maybe better than an even chance."

"Clem can be good at getting her own way too," Erin said a little pointedly. He well knew she was sore over how Clem's decision to leave WWE and the resulting protracted contract negotiation had arisen almost as soon as she took over the company from Hank. As more time had passed, Erin seemed to have formed the opinion that Clem had played her, at least to some extent. Jay disagreed, considering it to be a rare error in judgement on Erin's part.

"You know, I'm going to have to get you and Clem to sit down with each other and talk out your differences. You don't trust her, and she doesn't like you much because she doesn't get good vibes from you. It's messed up because you're both such good people. You're on different wavelengths is all."

To her credit, Erin thought about for a moment before saying anything. "That's how you see it?"

"That's how it is. You think Clem made a play, somewhat at least. I don't think that's true at all. I think she was hurt by being disrespected, underappreciated and underpaid by your dad and his team. And I think she was right to be. Yes, the timing meant you got dropped into the fire and that sucked. I get why you don't like that when you look back on it, but don't hold it against Clem. That situation was your dad's fault, not hers."

"I don't think you've ever held me to account like that before," Erin said.

"Sorry. I didn't mean..."

"Don't apologise," she cut in. "It wasn't a complaint. Actually, I appreciate it. We all need that from time to time. I've heard what you've said, and I'll think on it."

"You will?" he asked, showing the surprise he felt.

"Of course. Obviously I respect what you have to say. I'm not arrogant enough to think I can't ever be wrong. You're telling me I am in this situation, maybe you're right. Like I said, I'll think on it."

"Okay," Jay replied, feeling pleased with himself.

"How are Raquel and Z?"

Jay went on to talk about the time he had spent with their friends, before going into detail on his conversation with Raquel towards the end of the evening. Erin took particular interest in what Raquel had said about Jay making himself more available and approachable to people if he wanted to mean as much to people as Clem.

"That's good advice in my opinion," she said. "A lot of the women look up to you now that you work closely with them, and I'm sure a lot of the guys do too because they will have followed your career so closely. You can do everything Clem does if you put your mind to it. You're a plenty good enough person, I know that. Just look at what you're doing for Clem and Alexa right now. There's a two hundred grand a year offer on their table and a chance to work together, entirely because of you. The money won't change their lives because of what Clem already makes, but Alexa's change of job might, if she goes for it."

"If," he said, noting the word that was doing the heavy lifting.

"Right. Hey, here's an idea: If Alexa does agree to join, you can be the one to meet her at the office and get her contract signed. You came up with it, you can see it through. How does that sound?"

Jay smiled. "I'd like that. Thanks for the idea. Again though, if. So, tell me about your day?"

Erin told him about the meeting she and Lucy Thorne had held with executives from Netflix. He learned that there was a ten year streaming rights deal in the making that would pay WWE the frankly ludicrous figure of five billion dollars. Business deals like that were beyond Jay's comprehension, but he recognised that they had to be talking about one of the biggest television deals of all time, and Erin was behind it.

"I'm so proud of you, honey. You've done so much amazing work to make WWE more profitable and a better place for people to work. You're incredible."

"This was more Lucy than me, but thank you," she said, and Jay could see her cheeks turning a little pink even with the relatively low quality of the video.

"You're blushing. You look so cute when that happens."

"I do not," she protested, blushing even more.

"Do too. I'm going to make a point of embarrassing you tomorrow when I'm home," he said, putting some flirtatiousness into his voice.

"Oh really? How exactly will you do that?"

"I'm not going to tell you ahead of time or it wouldn't work. Let's just say it'll lead to some fun in the bedroom."

"Can't wait for that," she said, then her voice changed. "God, I miss you so much, Jay."

"I miss you too. Any time I have to sleep in a bed without you in it just feels wrong."

"That's so true. Let's stay up and talk all night?"

Jay smiled. "All night I'm not sure about, but I'm not going to sleep any time soon."

"Good. Want to talk about wedding plans?"

That was random, but Jay had no problem with it. "Sure."

The next morning, Jay sat in Orlando airport's departure area waiting for his flight that was delayed by forty minutes. Another joy of flying commercial. He was tired too, after staying on the phone with Erin for nearly two hours the previous night when sleeping would have been more sensible. She had ended up getting out of bed and making notes on the conversation about wedding planning. He had kept up his interest in the discussion, although in truth he didn't much care about the finer points of the wedding ceremony itself. The act of marrying the love of his life was the important thing to him. He was going to be proud and privileged in the extreme to do that.

His phone rang while he was idly scrolling X, in the absence of anything meaningful to do while he waited to board the plane. The call was from a cell phone number that he didn't have saved. He would have liked to ignore it, but the fact of the matter was that he was a businessman now. Ignoring calls was not an option. Reluctantly, he answered.

"Jay Halstead."

"Jay, it's Alexa. How are you?" came the familiar voice. She sounded upbeat. Good news was possibly on the way, he thought.

"Doing good. You?" he replied, opting not to bother mentioning the delayed flight. It wasn't as if she would really care, so why bother? Or was that his cynical side taking over?

"Yes, I'm good too. Jay, Clem and I spent all day talking about your offer after you left. Literally all day. We didn't go up to bed until after midnight."

"You came to a decision?" he guessed. What other reason would there be for the call?

"Yes. I'd like to thank you for wanting to include me in the story with Clem's character, and to thank you for the generous contract offer. And I'd like to accept it."

Jay laughed. "Damn, it felt like you were working up to turning me down there for a second. That's great though. That you're willing to sign, I mean." You're sounding like an idiot, part of his mind told him. He hated that part. He was surprised that the deal he had masterminded was working out so far, and he didn't exactly know what to do next.

"What happens next?" Alexa asked pleasantly. Of course that was the question.

Get a grip of yourself, Jay yelled internally. Incredibly, it worked. His brain clicked into gear for him. "Don't forget this is all conditional for now. We need to send you to promo classes at the PC, and you need good reports before we can hire you."

"I'm looking forward to giving it my best shot. Do you need to arrange it and get back to me?"

She read me like a book, even over the phone, he thought. Of course she had. The woman was terrifying! But he kept his cool.

"Yes, I do. I'll make some calls and come back to you with dates. We'll try to get it all worked out quickly. All of us are best off knowing sooner rather than later if you'll be signing with us." Then another thought occurred to him. "What about your FBI job?"

"I've decided that if I do get this job with WWE, I'm going to resign from the FBI. What it came down to is I can give this a shot now and enjoy working with Clem. When that's over, whenever that is, the FBI will snap me back up if I re-apply. They're always crying out for people with my skills."

I bet they are, he thought. "Well, that all sounds good. Let me call you back later today."

They said their goodbyes and Jay ended the call. He sat there for a moment, processing. He was on the way to employing someone for the first time in his life. Not him personally of course, but he was responsible for it. Alexa was going be putting food on her table, as Erin liked to say, thanks to him. It gave him a special feeling inside that he couldn't describe, but he now understood why Erin liked to do things like bring Maya Mizrachi back to WWE.

"Running a billion dollar company is pretty awesome," he said out loud.