After breakfast the next morning, Erin had left to head up a production meeting ahead of the upcoming Hall of Fame event. Because she was going to be seated front row for the ceremony, producing and directing the TV coverage would be out of her control. With that in mind, she needed to thoroughly run through the planned proceedings with the team.

Her absence left Jay at a loose end in the suite. His first idea had been to meet up with Raquel, but she had replied to his text by saying she and Zelina had ordered room service breakfast to eat in bed.

The next thought that occurred to him was to see if Alexa would meet up with him, for two reasons. Firstly, he wanted to get to know her better since they were going to be working closely together. Apart from her former job with the FBI and the fact that she was originally from Ohio, he knew next to nothing about her as a person. And secondly, he wanted to work on bettering his social skills. For him, asking someone he didn't know well to meet up with him for coffee was a major mental undertaking.

Before he could text Alexa, he had to think about how to word the message. Overthink how to word it was closer to the truth. He wanted to ask Raquel for help, but he resisted. Doing that wouldn't be improving his social skills, it would be borrowing hers.

What he did realise was that if he expected Alexa to open up to him about her life, it was obvious she would expect him to reciprocate. And rightfully so. Talking about his life with the human lie detector machine who had already figured out he had suffered childhood trauma was going to be very difficult indeed. But it would need to be done if they were going to become friends.

Whenever that conversation happened, Clem ought to be a part of it too, he thought. After all, he had been working on becoming friends with her for a lot longer than he had with Alexa. It was just that he felt so invested in Alexa now that he had signed her to WWE. It had been his idea to use her on TV. He had sold it to Erin. He had negotiated the deal with Alexa. He had arranged her evaluation and training at the PC. He had created and written her character, and he had helped her get through her first promo out in the arena. In a way, her successes were his successes too, which made him proud of her and of himself.

The message he eventually sent to Alexa was: Morning! Are you free for coffee at some point this morning? It would be good to get to know you a bit more. Sorry if this seems awkward.

After he sent the message, Jay sat there in the suite worrying about almost every word he had chosen and obsessing over how he might have written the message totally differently. Luckily for him, he only had to do that for two minutes before a reply arrived.

Alexa Bliss: Morning Jay. That sounds like a nice idea. I'd like to get to know you better also. Clem and I were about to hit the gym but I can get coffee with you instead if you can meet up soon?

"Woah, she went for it," Jay said to himself, surprised by his own success. He wrote a message back to say that he could get down to the hotel's bar straight away if that worked for her.

Alexa replied immediately to say that was fine, so Jay quickly smartened himself up in front of a mirror before heading out of the room.

Thanks to a very fast elevator, Jay was soon down on the ground floor, where the bar was located. The next problem to contend with was finding Alexa. Was she going to be in the bar already? If so, where? If not, should he take a seat? Or wait for her outside? Why did he have to overthink everything? That was the real question. It was so annoying, but it was how his brain worked.

On this occasion, he was given an easy out. The entrance to the bar was near to the bank of elevators. He hadn't even made it over there when he heard Alexa's voice behind him.

"Jay!"

He turned to greet her, realising she had stepped out of a different elevator right behind him. "Alexa, hi. Now that's what I call timing."

"Right?" she said, and they hugged briefly. She had a very casual look at the moment: hair in a simple ponytail, wearing a pink hoodie and black pants. Somehow, she even made that look good.

"Is that your Hall of Fame outfit?" he asked, risking a joke.

"It is actually," she said, playing along as they made their way into the bar. "Funny you should mention Hall of Fame outfits actually. I wanted to talk to you about that. Let me buy you a coffee first. What'll you have?"

"No, I'll get them," Jay countered automatically.

"Jay, you gave me a job that pays two hundred grand a year. The least I can do is buy you a coffee."

"Fair enough," Jay said, chuckling at the humour. Things were going well so far. He realised that the previous immediate defensive posture his mind had adopted around the human lie detector machine was no longer happening. That really did show progress.

He gave Alexa his coffee order before going over to an empty table in a quiet part of the bar and sitting down. She joined him a minute later, announcing that the drinks would be brought over.

"So, you have me intrigued," he began. "What did you mean when you said you wanted to talk to me about Hall of Fame outfits?"

"I'm super glad you wanted to meet up actually because I was going to have to text you about this. Tonight, I'd like to wear a tribute to Erin."

"What does that mean?"

"It means I'd like to go wearing that unique style of hers. The leather top, leather pants and leather gloves. It's such a good look, and she's perfected it. I was thinking I could post a picture of myself before the red carpet and caption it 'tribute to the boss' or something so that people know it's done out of respect, not because I'm stealing her style. Do you think Erin would like it? I won't do it if not."

Jay smiled. "I think she'd love it. And I think she'd feel touched by it. It's a very nice idea, Alexa."

"Awesome. I'll do it then," she said happily. "What will you be wearing?"

"Well, Raquel talked me into being a bit more adventurous this year, and she came with me to buy my outfit. I've got an old fashioned 1920s style suit with a bowler hat and a pocket watch on a chain. Even if I say so myself, it looks very smart. Erin's not seen it yet, but she did agree to go with a vintage look too. Hopefully we'll look good together."

Alexa raised her eyebrows. "Seriously? You guys always look great together. You're not the First Couple in name only. You fit the part."

Jay hadn't even known people called him and Erin the First Couple, let alone whether he fit the part or not. But he appreciated the compliment.

"Thank you. That's nice to know," he said.

The drinks arrived at the table, causing a natural break in conversation. After thanking the bartender, Alexa changed the subject.

"So, you said it would be a good idea to get to know each other better. I agree, but at the same time I'm aware it's not easy for you to talk about yourself. So why don't we do this: Today we'll talk about me. Next time, when you're ready, we can talk about you?"

Jay greatly appreciated that. It showed understanding and respect in equal measure. It was the kind of thing Erin or Raquel might have said to him. For the first time, he felt confident about forming a friendship with Alexa.

"Sounds like a plan to me," he said, hoping that sufficed to show his appreciation.

"Alright then," she said with a smile on her face. She took a sip from her coffee cup before getting down to business. "I think we talked before about how I'm from Columbus, Ohio originally?"

They had, and she had mentioned being an only child. Childhood wasn't a subject he wanted to get into though. That was one thing he knew she would understand since she had figured out that he was an abuse victim. "That's right. How did you end up in Florida when you're from Ohio?" he asked, getting as far away from childhood as he could.

"There's a few steps before that, Jay. Let's start with my first full time job, which was as a police officer."

"Your first full time job, you said. What did you do part time before that?"

"A bunch of different things. Cleaning, bar tending, retail. Even did some dog walking. Whatever I had to, really."

Jay drank some of his coffee, finding it to be surprisingly good. "Then you joined the police. No offense, but I'm surprised you weren't too short?"

She giggled. "No offense taken. And being too short was a big concern I had, until I found out that so long as you can pass the physical you're good. I might only be five feet tall but I'm stronger and more athletic than I look. The physical wasn't a problem for me."

With his interest now piqued, Jay began to feel more comfortable in the conversation. It helped that Alexa talked so freely about herself. If only he could do the same. "How did you find police work? I don't think I could do it."

"It's not easy, that's for sure," she said after another sip of coffee. "The very first call I got to respond to was a man who had been killed by his drug addict son. Stabbed multiple times in the neck. There was blood everywhere. I mean, everywhere. A truly horrific scene, and I'll never forget it."

"Your first ever call? Holy..." Jay said, letting his voice trail off.

"Exactly. Anyone who tries to tell you police work isn't tough mentally and physically doesn't have a clue what they're talking about."

Jay nodded his understanding. Perhaps due to his closeness to Raquel, the next question popped into his mind. "Have you ever shot anyone?"

"No. I did have to draw my gun on people a few times, and I tased a guy once, but I never shot anyone. I had shots fired at me once too."

Jay considered that he was talking to a tough cookie, no doubt. Physically tougher than she looked, as she had said herself. Mentally strong and determined, and obviously very intelligent as her role with the FBI and her work so far with WWE both demonstrated. And great looking too. Clem had found herself a great partner, who only paled in comparison to Erin, he thought, permitting himself a moment of satisfaction.

"How long did you do policing for?" was his next question.

"A few years. It became obvious to me, my colleagues and my superiors that the main talent I had was getting people to talk to me. Victims, suspects, anyone. One recommendation I got was to work towards becoming a detective. Then my sergeant pulled me aside one day for a frank conversation. He told me all about what FBI interrogators and body language experts do, and he told me that would be a better fit for me that policing. He was right. Pretty much from that moment, that became my dream job."

"And you went out and got it," he said, nodding in admiration.

"In simple terms, yes. You know, it was the hardest decision of my life to leave the FBI and come to work for WWE. It might not seem that way because I gave you an answer the day after you made the offer, but Clem made the difference. We talked for hours and hours about it. What tipped the scales was the fact that I trust her, obviously, and she told me I could trust you."

"How do you feel about the decision now?" he asked, feeling irrationally tense all of a sudden. He felt very invested in her WWE career, but what if she didn't feel the same way?

"Now? I feel great about it. Monday night, when you gave me that promo to do in the ring, I was absolutely crapping myself. But when our music hit and I walked out there with Raquel and Kylie, with all those people booing us, I finally got it. Truly got it, I mean. Why Clem loves wrestling so much. It felt like there was electricity running through my whole body and every hair was standing on end. It was incredible. You might wonder why I didn't experience that a couple of weeks earlier when Clem made that return in Chicago and the roof came off the place. I think that night was just so surreal my brain couldn't even process what was happening. Tomorrow night, we're going to walk out at Wrestlemania, in front of how many people?"

"Eighty thousand," Jay said, smiling. He couldn't help it.

"Eighty thousand people, and they'll probably be losing their minds for Clem even though she's a heel. I've been losing sleep over it, not because I'm scared but because I can't wait. The FBI job was something I thought I'd never want to walk away from. Now I know this is. Whatever time and effort it takes to make a success of this, I'm going to put it all in."

She's caught the wrestling bug, Jay thought. He knew the exact feeling. Such a magical feeling that was impossible to explain to an outsider. It was why people like him were lifers once they got into the business. Leaving was inconceivable for him. And now Alexa, his protégée, was beginning to feel the same way. A big smile appeared on his face.

"You get it, Alexa. That feeling is what wrestling is all about. For us, and for the fans. Keep up that determination, that work rate and that enthusiasm, and you're going to be a star in this business. Trust me."

"A star? I'm not even a wrestler."

"That's the beauty of it. It's even possible to be a star in WWE without being a wrestler. Certainly not common or easy, but definitely possible. Like I said, trust me."

Alexa suddenly looked serious. "I do trust you, like I said earlier. And after Monday night, I know you trust me. Giving me that promo was a risk for you, I understand that. I talked to Clem about all this, and she's overjoyed about how things are going. Said the three of us are going to do amazing things together for WWE."

Jay was so happy to hear that he didn't know what to say. So instead he raised his coffee cup and made like he was toasting the idea before taking a drink.