That night, after the meet and greet session, Jay and Erin had been driven back to their hotel. As usual, they had one of the most expensive suites on offer, this one on the top floor.
"That was a lot of fun," Erin said enthusiastically, meaning the meet and great session.
"Yeah, it was. It was great seeing you having such a good time, and seeing people being blown away to meet you. One of the best experiences I've had in WWE."
"Ah, that's sweet," Erin said, giving him a hug and a peck on the cheek. She then took her gloves off and dropped them on the bed. "It was a really good thing you did, coming up with the idea to donate the proceeds to that charity Raquel works with."
Jay shrugged, minimising his own efforts. "You agreed to that, and to joining me for the meet and greet. We met two hundred fans at two hundred bucks a go. That's forty grand we raised for the charity."
Erin kissed him on the cheek again. "Like I said, a really good thing you did. Now, are you ready to get some dinner? The restaurant will be getting busy. Or we could order room service?"
"You know what I miss?" Jay asked, looking around the suite.
"What?"
"Sitting in a small, cheap hotel room after a show, drinking a can of soda and eating pizza out of the box in front of the TV."
Sometimes, like now for no particular reason, Jay still felt uncomfortable being a rich man with an even richer fiancée, living a life of luxury and splendour. He sometimes missed what he thought of these days as his previous life, when he been an up and coming, low paid wrestler on the grind like so many others.
Erin looked at him, and he could tell she was trying to understand what he was getting at. As someone who had only ever had the finer things in life, he supposed it was difficult for her to imagine why someone would want not to have them.
"Not happier times. I'm much happier now. But simpler times," he tried to explain. "I just miss those times. And I just set a record for the number of times you can say times in quick succession."
She giggled, liking his silly humour as ever. "There's not much I can do about the size of the room. But the rest of it I think we can do."
"Seriously?"
"Of course," she said positively. "Find somewhere to order pizza from, order it and we'll eat it in front of the TV."
"Okay," he said happily, taking his phone out of his pocket. He had never shared a meal with Erin that hadn't been eaten at a table. His suspicion was that she had never eaten any other way. It was an example of the very real class difference between them. It had never been a problem in their relationship because Erin was too good a person to look down on others, but nonetheless the class difference existed.
"Are you sure you want to do this?" he asked, looking up from his phone.
"Of course. It sounds like fun."
More than an hour later – pizza places were unsurprisingly busy during Wrestlemania week – Jay's order was delivered. He had gotten a good deal on two large pizzas, garlic bread and onion ring sides, and two cans of soda.
"Can't wait for this. I'm starving!" Erin said. She was sitting on a couch that Jay had moved over in front of the suite's large TV. He had moved a coffee table in between the couch and the TV, effectively making what he thought of as a small living room within the suite. They were set for a proper TV dinner.
Jay carried the stack of boxes with the cans of soda balanced precariously on top over to the 'living room'. "Can you take these cans for me, please?"
She got up and did as he asked, allowing him to set the boxes down on the table. The next job was to identify the pizzas. That wasn't going to be a difficult job.
"That one's definitely yours," he said immediately upon opening the first box. The pizza inside had peppers, onions and mushrooms on it.
"Looks delicious. Thank you, honey." She picked up the box and made herself comfortable with it on her lap. Seeing her like that was almost bizarre, but Jay wasn't going to say that.
He opened his pizza box and settled down on the couch with it. There was a comedy show on the TV that they both enjoyed. They sat and ate the pizzas, which proved to be nice, laughing away at the show while they did so. In a lot of ways it was such a simple experience, but for Jay it was up there with the happiest times he had spent with Erin. This was them in his comfort zone for once.
"I can't eat all of this," Erin said about half an hour later, having made it halfway through her pizza.
"Didn't expect you to, honey. The deal worked out cheaper to get two large ones. We can throw out what you don't want. Did you enjoy it? That's what matters."
"I did. There's a unique kind of intimacy to eating this way. I can see why you like it."
Actually it's because I'm used to it, he thought. Most of the places he had lived in hadn't even had a dining table. Or was she right? Was it the intimacy of sitting right beside her as they ate? Yes, on reflection that was a part of it too. Suddenly he felt emotional, and he didn't really know why.
"What's wrong?" she asked, looking at him as she put her pizza box on the table.
"Nothing's wrong. At all. I have no idea why I'm feeling all weird. I'm happy, trust me." Then he burst out laughing at the absurdity of the moment.
"Oh, honey. I love you so much," Erin said, moving closer to him. Jay lowered his pizza box to the floor so that she could properly cuddle up tp him.
"I love you too." They held each other for several minutes because that was what he needed.
It was Jay who finally broke the silence. On his mind was the contrast between the loving, kind and caring way she always treated him and the negative perceptions several people at WWE had talked to him about, including Clementine. He wanted that situation to change.
"I wish you'd show people at work the real Erin more often," he ventured.
She sat up and looked at him. "What do you mean?"
"Don't take this as criticism because it isn't. This is me trying to help. You're always so busy, and I know your job is super stressful. That can maybe lead you to be short with people sometimes when you don't mean to. And you also keep a professional distance between yourself and everyone. I get the reasons for that, but I think it might help if that distance wasn't there sometimes. I know how much you value everyone and care about their wellbeing. The problem is I don't think some of them know it. So, like I said, show them the real Erin."
Erin sat there taking his words in, without the sour 'receiving criticism' look on her face. She knew this was advice, not criticism. And he got the impression she could see the wisdom of what he was saying.
"How do you think I should do that?"
Good question, Jay thought. It took him a moment to come up with an answer. "The big party we have every year after Wrestlemania Sunday. All of the talent and staff will be there. Maybe give a speech at the start of the night to reiterate that this is now your company, not your dad's. Thank them for their hard work, and tell them that it continues to be extremely important to you that WWE is a safe and enjoyable place to work. Something like that anyway."
Erin nodded slowly in agreement. "You know, that's a good idea. It hurts me that people would think that's not the case. I need to address it and make sure they all understand."
While the going was good, Jay pressed on. "At the party, maybe go around and speak to people instead of sitting with me at the top table all night like we did last year. Talk to them and be yourself rather than being the boss. Some of them know your name's Voight and they think you're a younger, really sexy version of your dad. Show them how wrong that is. The your dad part I mean, not the sexy part. There's no disputing that."
She couldn't help laughing. "I'm not sure they think I'm really sexy, Jay. Or young for that matter. But I do take your points and I will act on them. Thank you, honey. I'm so thankful that our relationship is built on being so supportive of each other. I love you."
Jay gave her a kiss on the lips. "I love you too. Want some garlic bread?"
"Sure," she said, laughing at his deliberately ridiculous subject change.