The moment Jay had literally been losing sleep over was at hand. The receptionist on the front desk at WWE HQ had just called up to his office to let him know that Clementine and Alexa had arrived, courtesy of the car he had organised to pick them up at the airport.
No deal was finalised until there was a signature on paper, he knew. That was why he had only managed to sleep three hours the previous night. His mind had decided to fixate on the idea that Alexa was going to show up and inform him that she'd had second thoughts and she was backing out of joining WWE. It was totally illogical to think that based on the conversations they'd had over the phone, but his anxieties were often illogical.
Get a grip, he told himself as he got up from his desk to go meet the new arrivals at the elevator. As agreed, Erin was going to show her face and invite Clem for a sit down in her office, in the hope that the two women could put their differences aside. That was about as important to Jay as getting Alexa, his first ever signing, to put pen to paper. But only the latter was in his control, so that was what troubled him the most.
His timing was perfect. He arrived at the elevator right before the doors opened to reveal Clem and Alexa inside. They were both dressed for a business meeting in smart suits. Clem wore a black one, with a light blue shirt and a dark blue tie, preferring what Jay considered a masculine look. She pulled it off though, there was no doubt about that. Alexa had a white blouse on under her dark blue suit and she was wearing the jacket unbuttoned. In that moment it dawned on him. He was looking at the perfect presentation for the Alexa Bliss character on television. She looked all business, and not to be messed with despite her diminutive height. Exactly what he needed.
"Morning guys. Good to see you both," he said, stepping forward. He didn't consider the office an appropriate place to be hugging people, so he shook hands with Clem and then with Alexa as greetings were exchanged.
With that, he showed them to his office. It was one of the smallest on the top floor. At the time he had been given it, it had been the only vacant one. Plus he didn't work in the office all too often, so it didn't usually matter. Today though, he felt a little embarrassed about it. A small office made him look unimportant, in his eyes.
"Clem, there's a picture of you," Alexa noticed when they walked in.
Jay had decided to decorate his walls with pictures of himself in action in the ring, as well as some of the people he was close two. He had a picture of Clem, two of Raquel and two of Erin, including one from the match she'd had with Sylvie Brett.
The picture of Clem was taken at a Wrestlemania event, from behind her in the ring as she stood on the ropes in the corner looking out at the gigantic stadium full of people. She was making her trademark diamond sign with her hands, and most of the thousands of fans in the camera shot could be seen doing likewise.
"That's breath-taking. Must be unreal to experience something like that," Alexa said, studying the picture.
"Breath-taking to say the least. You're about to be part of that world, babe. Don't expect that kind of reaction as a heel though."
"Sorry, Jay. Couldn't help looking at that," Alexa said, realising starting a conversation about the wall art may not have been the most professional was to begin a big meeting.
"You're fine," he assured her. Formality and all that bullshit wasn't his kind of thing. The more informal the vibe about the conversation the better for him. "Have a seat, guys."
"I've been so excited about this," Clem said as she and Alexa sat down across the desk from Jay. It was obvious she meant Alexa signing her contract. "Are you going to ask her to pick a character name?"
In WWE, particularly in Hank's time, some wrestlers had been forced to use different names to their own for their characters. In some cases it made sense as some names simply didn't work when you envisioned a wrestler making a grand entrance. Alexa Bliss definitely wasn't one of those, however. In fact it was a very good character name.
"Absolutely not. Alexa Bliss works just fine," he said, noting positive facial reactions from both women. He wondered if he was learning body language expertise from Alexa by osmosis. The thought almost made him laugh as he reached into one of his drawers for the contract that Kelly Severide had prepared and printed for him. He took it out and set it on the desk.
WWE contracts were fairly lengthy documents full of terms, conditions and clauses, with a place for the employee to sign and date on the final page.
"Take time to read it all if you like," he offered.
Alexa looked him in the eyes, which still felt pretty terrifying to him. "Are the conditions the same as Clem's? I read her copy of hers yesterday."
"Yes. The only differences are the salary, the length of the contract and the name of the final page. Yours is for two hundred grand a year, for two years, as agreed." Jay found the relevant section and showed her.
"That's good enough for me. Got a pen?"
"Yeah, that might help," Jay said, feeling like a dumbass as he reached back into his drawer and found a silver pen that Erin had given him. He handed it to Alexa, who turned to the last page of the contract and signed in the correct place without much fanfare. Such a simple thing, but with so much work having been put into it, and with so much meaning attacked to it for Jay, personally and professionally. He looked at the large A and large B with unreadable squiggles after them and felt unequivocally proud of himself for one of the first times in his life. He had actually signed someone to work for WWE.
"Well done, babe. That's awesome," Clem said, beaming in delight.
"It does feel pretty good," Alexa agreed, smiling back at her, then at Jay. "So, what happens now?"
Jay talked her through some of the corporate stuff, who to report to in various departments she might need to speak to, and so on. He finished by saying she could call him at any time, for any reason and he would do his best to help.
"Thank you. That's very kind," Alexa said.
Then it was time for the next subject. Jay was aware that Erin would show up any moment now and invite Clem to join her in her office. And Clem knew it too because Erin had decided to call her the day before to suggest that they might have a conversation to speak their minds and clear the air. Jay had been delighted to learn that Clem had responded by saying she would like that. A positive outcome wasn't guaranteed of course, but both sides were at least open to speaking to each other.
"Clem, if you don't mind, I'd like to say something about this situation between you and Erin before you have the chat with her," he ventured.
"I don't mind."
Jay was as ever aware that Alexa was watching and listening. He needed to get it into his head that if he was being honest, which he tried to be at all times, he had nothing to worry about. With that in mind, he went forward with telling Clem off a bit, as he had already done with Erin over this situation.
"I've given Erin my point of view on how I think she's at fault over this rift between you, and she was open to thinking about it and acknowledging that I was right in what I said. I'd like you to do the same by considering the situation Erin found herself in when you announced your decision to leave WWE. She was suddenly thrown the big chair of a company that was creatively on its ass, backstage morale was at rock bottom, there were staff changes that needed to be made, she had to find a co-CEO to work with, plus there was the investigation into Hank playing out in the boardroom and in the media. Then, on top of all that, your situation happened. Could you please try and think of it from her point of view and understand why she has looked back on that badly?"
It had ended up being one hell of a monologue, but Jay was quite happy it. He had pretty much managed to say what he had wanted to.
Clem's expression hinted at her being willing to do as he asked. "When you put it like that, I can see that I heaped more pressure on her when she was under a tremendous, tremendous amount already. We'll sit down and talk and hopefully we can resolve things. One thing I know for sure is we'd all prefer it that way."
"Well said, both of you," Alexa opined.
"Why don't I call Erin and see if she's free?" he suggested.
"Good idea," Clem said.
Jay had a speed dial button for Erin on his desk phone. He lifted the handset and pushed the button. The phone rang twice before Erin answered it.
"Hey," was her simple greeting, seeing his name on the display her end.
"Hey. Clem and Alexa are here. Alexa has just signed her contract. I was thinking of asking Clem to head across to see you if you're free? In the meantime Alexa and I will go into some detail on how her character will be presented."
"Works for me. Ask her to come down here and I'll have her shown straight in."
"Will do," Jay promised, and ended the call. "Erin said could I ask you to go see her now," he said to Clem.
"See you both for lunch then," she said as she got up, giving Alexa a smile of encouragement before leaving.
Now Jay was one on one with Alexa, and he felt intimidated again. He really had to get past that around her. At the same time, he wanted to know more about her old job. Now wasn't the time to ask questions about that though.
"Okay, let's put some flesh on the bones of your character."
"Before we do that, I have a favour to ask you," Alexa said. "I'm aware I'm not in any position to be owed a favour by you, but I'm going to ask for one anyway."
"I'm listening," Jay said openly. While committing to nothing, he did want to forge a professional relationship with this woman, and ideally a personal one as well like he had done with Clem.
"Would you consider getting a second opinion on Clem's knee? I'm not happy that she's had to reduce her schedule and she's still often in pain with it even now. Plenty of high level athletes blow out their knees and return to competing at a high level. I can't imagine they all suffer as much as Clem. She never complains, but I hate seeing her suffer. It's not right, Jay. Please try to help her, even if it means some kind of corrective surgery or whatever."
That was an understandable request, and a fair one in Jay's opinion. Even a minor knee surgery would require several months of recovery time, which simply hadn't been an option when Clem was working full time. Now though, with her character deliberately used a lot more sparingly, having her take some time off was possible. Whether there was actually anything that could be done in terms of fixing up the bad knee some more was a different matter altogether. Either way, it was at least worth pursuing.
"I don't have anything to do with the medical side of things here, but I will raise it with our doctor for you. Can't say much more until I get her opinion or feedback, but as far as I'm concerned there's no harm in at least having a specialist do some scans to see how things look."
The relief on Alexa's face was remarkable, showing him how much his positive response meant, and how much she had been worrying about this part of the conversation. He imagined she had been rehearsing how it might go in her head, possibly during a sleepless night if she was anything like him. He wanted to further reassure her.
"If something can be done in terms of surgery, and if Clem wants to go for it, I'll clear it with Erin and make sure it happens. There are some ifs there, and I also need to see Doc Mikami about it. I'll do that and get back to you."
"Thanks so much, Jay. Seriously."
"You're welcome. If something can be done to make Clem healthier and happier, I'm all for it. Obviously it's better for the company too. There's no reason not to at least look into it."
With that agreed upon, they moved on to talking about Jay's vision for Alexa's character and how the character would be used, both immediately and in the long term if everything went to plan. He had put a lot of thought into it, so the discussion went on for over half an hour. Indeed, he wasn't quite done when the door opened and Erin walked in, knocking the door as she entered. Clem was right behind her.
"Hey, Alexa. How are you?" Erin asked pleasantly.
"I'm doing great, Ms Voight. Feeling very grateful for the opportunity, and excited to get started."
"That's great to hear, but call me Erin. I wanted you both to know that Clem and I had a frank conversation, stating our opinions and clarifying some things. Clem apologised for the timing of her decision to leave WWE making my transition harder, but I told her no, I was the one who needed to apologise because that situation was my dad's fault, not hers yet I was putting the blame on her. We talked some more, and I think it's fair to say the air is cleared between us, right?" she asked, looking at Clem.
"Yes," Clem said with a smile on her face. "It was a positive conversation. I'm very glad we had it, and that we cleared everything up. Add Lexi signing her contract to that, and today is a truly great day."
Holy shit, Jay thought as it dawned on him that he had made all of this happen. He was actually pretty damn good at this job!