"There's something I've had on my mind since this time yesterday," was Jay's opener over breakfast a couple of days after the trip out to Whitecaps. They were now home at Eagle's Nest, and Erin didn't have long to stay and eat. There was a hectic day ahead of her at the office. Jay had his own creative work to do, but he was able to do it from home.

"Oh?" she asked, buttering a slice of toast.

"Found myself lying there thinking about it last night too, wondering whether I should ask you about it or if I should forget it."

"You should always talk to me, especially if it's something that's troubling you. I'm always here to listen to you, Jay. So, what's on your mind?"

Despite what she had just said, Jay felt his confidence doing its best to desert him. "It's a work thing."

"Talk to me," Erin said, her tone encouraging.

He took a deep breath and forced himself through the wall his brain had tried to start building. "I'd like you to let me sign someone."

Erin chewed her toast while processing that. "Interesting way you put that. Not that you want me to sign someone. You want do it?"

"That's right, I want to do it. I know what you've been doing, honey. All this gradually giving me more responsibility, building up my confidence working backstage. You want me to have a greater role in helping you run the company. We both know how much I'm enjoying it now that I found my place working closely with Clem. So, will you let me try to sign someone?"

"Not without knowing who it is," she said reasonably.

"Alexa Bliss."

Erin froze mid-chew for a second. "Clem's girlfriend?"

"Yeah."

"Clem's girlfriend, the FBI agent or whatever she is?"

"Yes."

Erin seemed to realise that for once she wasn't helping with his confidence. "Okay, I'll hear you out, but be quick because I've got to get my butt to work. Forget the fact she's already got a job for now. Why do you want to sign Alexa to WWE?"

This was the moment Jay had literally been losing sleep over. He had to put over his vision effectively enough for Erin to see it and buy into it.

"The way I see it, the biggest job we've got right now in the women's division, maybe the whole company, is to get the presentation of the 'new' Clementine right. We've got to get her over as a heel without losing any of her star power. Actually, we've got to make her seem like even more of a star. We've got to make 'The Final Boss' a huge damn deal, without her appearing on many shows and without her having many matches at all. Maybe in time we can have her on TV more often, but right now we're going with the whole 'Clem doesn't even bother showing up for work when she's the champion' thing."

"Okay, I'm with you on all of that. We all know that's the plan. Why do we need Alexa?"

"Picture Clem doing a backstage segment. Maybe she's angry at Maya the wildcat about something, or she's watching a Maya match on a big TV. She's relaxing on a comfortable couch, in what looks like the best locker room in the building. With her she's got Raquel, her six foot tall bodyguard, and Kylie, her young and hungry understudy. To me, that picture is good, but it would look so much better if she had her girl there too. You well know how good-looking Alexa is. She wouldn't be at all out of place on TV."

Erin finished the toast that she had quickly eaten. "I see the picture you're painting. Can't argue with anything you said. But you're suggesting I, sorry not I, you, sign Alexa to a contract and pay her a salary so that she can show up with Clem, who we're already not going to have on TV regularly, and all she's going to do is sit or stand around in a camera shot?"

"Forget I mentioned it," Jay said, disheartened but what felt like pretty strong criticism of his idea.

"No, don't be like that. I'm not outright rejecting the idea. There's something in having Alexa with Clem on screen, and I hadn't thought of it. I want to know if she can cut a promo. If she can talk, we can use her. Not just backstage, we could use her in segments in the ring. So, assuming she's interested, which I doubt because she has the FBI job, we'd need her to go to the Performance Center for promo classes. Then, assuming she does well there, we'll have something to talk about."

"So... I can pursue it?" he asked hopefully.

Erin looked at him for a couple of seconds then smiled at him. "Yes, you can. I trust your creativity and your judgement. You can make contact and tell her what we've discussed. If she's interested in the job, tell her we can pay her two hundred grand a year. Again, assuming we get good reports on her from promo class. If she's no good, the deal is off. I'm not paying that kind of money for a window ornament."

Jay felt delighted. His idea had essentially been accepted, with a couple of caveats. "Thank you, honey. Your trust is very important to me. I'm planning to go down to Orlando to spend some time with Raquel soon, so I'll arrange to call in and see Clem and Alexa while I'm there."

"Excellent idea. I'll leave you to sort it all out," she said, getting up from the table. "I've got to get moving, Jay. Love you."

"Love you too," he said after they exchanged a peck on the lips. "Drive safe, and I hope you have a good day.".

"You too. I'll make dinner tonight. Shouldn't be home late."

"Awesome," Jay said happily.

A couple of hours later, Jay was sitting at the dining table at work on his laptop. He decided to take a break and make himself a coffee. So far, he was making good progress with the writing work he was doing for Clem's storyline.

He went through to the kitchen, where he found Kayla, their housekeeper. She was just taking a bucket of cleaning supplies out of a cupboard, and she was wearing blue rubber gloves. Thanks to Erin, he couldn't fail to notice that.

"I'm about to go clean the bathrooms, Jay. Last call if you need to go," Kayla said cheerfully. Somehow, she enjoyed her job. Jay couldn't relate to enjoying housework at all, but he supposed everyone was different.

"Go ahead, I'm fine for now," he replied pleasantly.

"Cool," she said, and left the room with the bucket in hand.

Jay got the coffee machine going. As he waited for it, a thought came to him. It was often on his mind lately that he knew Erin wanted then to embrace their kinks more in the bedroom. In fact she had outright said so. She was doing her part too, sending him pictures or short videos of herself with her mouth taped or wearing gloves, sometimes both, on a fairly regular basis. Honestly, she had done that for most of their relationship. He knew he hadn't put in the same effort himself, and that they were not getting kinky in their sex life enough.

The stupidest thing was he had no idea why that was the case. He had the most beautiful woman he had ever known actively wanting him to indulge in his fetish and tape her up. And all she wanted to satisfy her own desires was for gloves to be involved in the experience. They didn't do much for him. Sure, leather ones looked nice and the nitrile ones felt nice sometimes, but that was all. Whether he particularly liked them didn't matter though. Erin got off on them, so he had to get into the experience with her. That was what would help them have great sex, and in turn keep their relationship healthy.

Or maybe he was wrong, he suddenly thought. Maybe he did need to get into the whole glove thing. After all, Erin had fully embraced the tape fetish. Either she enjoyed it as much as he did now, or she did a hell of a job of making it seem like she did. That was what he needed to reciprocate if he could.

Even little things could help with that. When Erin had been about to head out to work, he had sat and watched her putting her coat and leather gloves on. He could have commented that they looked sexy on her. Obviously she wanted to feel sexy, and to feel reassured that he found her sexy. He could have shown that and brought the gloves into it so easily, but he hadn't. That wasn't good enough.

Okay, so do better, he told himself. There was no better time to start than right now. He took out his phone and wrote out a quick text: Watched you putting those leather gloves on this morning. Looked so sexy. I didn't want you to go to work.

It was short and to the point, but it was a lot better than the nothing he had been doing before as far as that kind of text was concerned. Feeling somewhat good about himself, he fixed a coffee and went back to work.

Focusing his mind back on his writing, the creativity taxing his brain to the fullest, he forgot all about the text he had sent until nearly an hour and a half later when his message tone interrupted him.

The reply from Erin read: What would you have done if I stayed home?

She's trying to have a bit of text sex with me, he thought, wondering if that was something people did. Apparently it was. Now he had to come up with a good answer.

He took a couple of minutes to think about it before sending back: I'd have wanted you to give me a handjob while wearing them. After you had done that I would have taped you up, texted Kayla not to come in, and I would have kept you in the bedroom all day. Might have found some gloves to pleasure you with too.

He sent that off, feeling very pleased with himself now. This time the reply from Erin came quickly: Damn, Jay. I'm about to go into a meeting that I'm not going to be able to concentrate on now. I guess we know what we're doing tonight.

I guess we do, Jay thought, smiling to himself as Kayla walked into the room with a mop and bucket, ready to do the floor. "Good news?" she asked him, noting the smile on his face.

"You could say that."