"Heath," Ricardo laughs helplessly as his friend sings to himself over the video call. "What do you want to talk about?"
Heath blinks owlishly and then focuses back on him. "Oh! Yeah, right. So we can't really get together to watch Wrestlemania or anythin', but Maryse was thinkin' about hostin' a sorta video call watch along next week. Us, you guys, AJ, anyone else interested in bein' part of it. What do you think? We can cheer on Tamina, Miz and John? Sound good?"
It sounds like it'd be a lot of trial and error to get everything synced up, but he misses his friends, seeing them and dealing with their hyperactive, inane chatter. Besides, wrestling is wrestling and even spending two nights watching it on a screen with some of his closest friends sounds better than nothing right now. "Sure," he says. "I'll talk to Alicia about it. We should be free." He laughs dryly as Heath snorts at him.
"Hey, fancy that, us too. Ok, I'll call AJ and let her know our thoughts. Talk to ya later about it, Ricardo."
"See you, Heath," he says, signing off. Looking up with Alicia joins him, he smiles at her and pushes his phone back into his pocket. "So Heath wants to do a virtual watchalong of Wrestlemania with as many of the group as we can manage."
Alicia's eyes light up. "That sounds like fun," she says, smiling at him. "God, my first Wrestlemania not with the company. That's wild. So much has changed, but it feels like so much has stayed the same." She traces her fingers along his jaw and smiles softly. "I still have the best husband in the world, still have some really incredible friends always willing to support me no matter what, still am the luckiest girl in the world."
He clicks his tongue at her and shakes his head. "I'm the lucky one, that you'll stomach going all around the country at my whims and always encourage me, no matter how far out there my thoughts are. You're incredible, Alicia, and all of your friends and I are beyond lucky to have you."
Her eyes soften, a flood of emotions on her face, and she leans in to kiss him. "You're an amazing man, Ricardo Rodriguez. Thank you."
He smiles back at her before pulling away when his phone beeps. "Gee, I wonder who this could be," he laughs, pressing a button to allow a video chat. "Hey, AJ."
"Hey," she says. "Heath wants to do a Wrestlemania watchalong?"
"Apparently," Ricardo says. "What do you think?"
She hesitates over it and then nods. "Yeah, it sounds like fun." There's still something odd here and he searches what of her face he can see over the small screen. Before he can ask, however, her face clears and she smiles. "I'll be looking forward to it! It feels like forever since all of us hung out! And hey, who knows, maybe Tamina will walk out champion. That'd be amazing."
"It really would be!" Alicia exclaims, and Ricardo loses track of his phone as the two women begin talking excitedly about the womens' matches, who might win, what their gear will look like, on and on.
He chuckles and leans back, content to listen to their happy chatter, glad for both of them that retirement hadn't completely killed their enjoyment of the business. His own, brief retirement had only left him aching for something he wasn't sure he could ever get back, until he'd decided he didn't want to retire and had slowly made his way back into competing and training like before. He was just starting to feel normal again, proving it by winning that championship during the holidays- was it really only a couple of months ago? Feels like years- when everything had ground to a halt thanks to this pandemic, and he hopes he'll be able to get it all back once shows can resume, whenever that might be.
Alicia draws him back to the moment when she begins toying with his fingers with her free hand, now talking excitedly to AJ about her designs, even showing a couple that are on hand off to the girl.
"Wow," AJ breathes out. "That looks gorgeous, I'd like to wear that some day!"
Alicia giggles. "Maybe some day you can, all goes well!"
"I know it will," AJ tells her. "You're incredible, Alicia."
"Si, she definitely is," Ricardo pipes up, Alicia's pleasure growing along with her blush.
"You guys," she almost whines, waving her hands around as Ricardo leans in to kiss her temple. "What did I ever do to deserve this?"
"You were just your amazing, creative self," AJ tells her cheerfully. "That was more than enough." She pauses as a soft cry fills the air and chuckles. "Well, there's George. We'll talk soon, ok? Looking forward to watching Wrestlemania with you guys next weekend! Bye!"
She's gone as quickly as she'd come and Alicia giggles, snuggling closer to Ricardo and humming. "I know the world's a really scary place right now," she tells him. "But I've really never been happier."
He strokes her hair, kisses her again. "I know. Me too," he confesses. As much as he aches for wrestling, for normalcy, he knows they have it a lot better than a lot of others do right now. "Me too."