IT took another day, but I finally worked up the nerve to talk to Johnny and Candice again. For the most part, Pete was right. They were all that I had than Bianca. I had to make things right with them, especially before Tommaso.

Most of everyone was at the Performance Center when I walked through the doors. Some were actually practicing while others were sitting around and chatting. Walking in, it felt like I was walking on thin ice or even lava, for that matter. Either way, I was going to leave with a burn.

I stood in the middle of all the rings and looked to my right before slowly looking to my left. To my left, I spotted Candice and Johnny on the ring apron and talking together. They hadn't seen that I was here yet, thankfully.

I steadily made my way over their way, being careful not to make that much sound as I didn't want the death-look on me while I keep going that way. If I received that, I would quickly turn away and leave. I would chicken-out and, then, before you know it, we're back to being total strangers.

"Hey," I breathed out once I was officially standing there in front of them, but with a descent distance between us, too. She stopped talking and looked up at me, dropping their grins for frowns. "Could we talk?"

"Depends," Johnny spoke before Candice did, which kind of surprised me — because she usually speaks before him. At first, his attention was occupied by his chipped nails before he finally looked up at me, crossing his arms below. "You still pissed at us?"

I glanced down before, finally, looking back up and shaking my head. "Not anymore," I shrugged. "I was mad, but I shouldn't have been. It's just that... If somebody was in love with Candice and I knew about it, even though she was married to you, I would tell her. I wouldn't keep it as this forbidden and hidden secret."

"Nik, look—"

"Just hear me out, okay?" I quickly cut Johnny off real quick, so he nodded and was quiet again. "You two are my best friends in this whole entire world. You mean everything to me. I never don't want you in my life. I want our kids to be best friends and wrestle together. I want us to be neighbors that have barbecues and go to church on Sunday mornings together. I want us to always have movie marathons and watch pay-per-views together. For the rest of our lives, that is how it's gotta be. But, before that, we can't keep secrets anymore — not from each other ever again. Promise me that and I'll let it all go."

It took a good minute for Johnny and Candice to process that, but, when they finally did, they looked at each other and, then, at me. Candice smiled and said: "Okay. We can do that."

I looked to Johnny and he nodded, adding: "We promise."

"Thank you," I thanked them with a reassuring smile. Then, Candice hopped off the apron and we embraced, hugging it out like we always do. I felt another pair of arms consume us, which belonged to Johnny, as we all hugged it out. Maybe everyone was looking at us sideways, but I didn't care and I could only hope that they didn't, either.

Finally, after we hugged it out, we let go of each other and, to my surprise, Candice was wiping away some tears from underneath her eyes. She was crying? Damn.

"What's wrong, baby?" Johnny asked, placing his hand on her arm. We were both very concerned for what made her cry.

"Ah, nothing," she tried to cover up, laughing it off. "I just really love you both so much and I can't imagine my life without you."

"Awe," Johnny and I said in unison before we all hugged it out again. Now, we were all crying it out.

Alas, it was over again and, before I knew it, I looked to my right and spotted a very familiar pair of blue eyes on me. I gulped when I noticed that it was Tommaso, who just stared for a moment, looked me up and down in disgust, before slipping into the next room, where all the weights were at.

It's time, my mind told me. Go on now.

"Hey, so," I gulped out to them. "I need to go lift some weights. Maybe I'll see y'all before we split ways today?"

They both grinned and nodded, then Candice spoke: "Okay, we'll see you. We love you."

"I love y'all more," I winked before I turned my back on them and headed into Tommaso's direction of where he was. I was on a dedicated mission now.

I opened the door to the weight room and, to my left, I spotted him. At the moment, he had his back to me while he was setting up his weights on the machine. I made a straight-shot there and, just as I was about there, he had sat down and saw me. He rolled his eyes and laid back on the machine, immediately distracting himself with lifting the weights.

"We need to talk," I said and, just as I expected, he didn't reply. "Tommaso? Hello?" I looked down and realized that he had his headphones on, probably blaring music so that he wouldn't have to hear what I had to say. I bent down and slapped his knee. "Tommaso, come on."

Again, he ignored me and I just rolled my eyes, having my arms crossed against my chest. "You're seriously going to ignore me now?" I kept talking, but I didn't know why. He couldn't hear me. "Just like before? Really?" I threw my arms in the air and they smacked my sides when they finally came down. "Why do I even try...?"

Finally, after all this, I bent down and snatched one of one buds out of his ears — which made him sit up immediately and throw the weights down. "What?!"

"We need to talk," I barked back after feeling everyone's eyes on us. "Let's go somewhere else to talk, though."

He stood up, making sure to almost bump into me when going around the bench, and bent down to pick up the weights. "I have nothing to say to you anymore," he growled back and, then, placed the weights on the bench. "So, do me a favor and fuck off already."

I took his words in, but didn't hold them against him. I understood, for once, why he was being so bitter towards me. Yet, it didn't help when I squinted my eyes together and frowned.

So, against all odds, I decided to finally say: "I need to apologize to you."

With his back turned, he didn't move for a second and, then, he said over his shoulder: "Off your period now?"

"Shut up," I spat back, even if it didn't help my case in the end. "I heard you out the other day. I did. Your words hurt, but they were truthful. I shouldn't be so mean to you, even if you're mean to me. Right when you began to warm-up to me, I became more cruel towards you. And, for that... I'm sorry, Tommaso. I really am."

At first, he did hesitate, like he wasn't going to reply to me at all. He was quiet for a while, probably debating on rather or not if he wanted to say anything at all. I would understand, though. For once...

I noticed that he had gulped, even with his back turned to me, and, then, a beat later, he nodded. "Whatever, Nicole," he said, but I didn't understand what it meant in his terms. "It's not like I ever cared, anyways."

But he does, I thought to myself and felt more weight on my shoulders than before the apology. I shook the thoughts away and stepped forward, where I directly behind him now. "You can't do that," I barked back. "You can't just say you don't care when I know you do and you know it, too."

"I don't," he simply spat back and placed the weights back on the rack, which cause distance between us once more. "So, fuck off already."

I sat back for a minute, debating on what to say or do next. I bit down on both my bottom lip and tongue on two different occasions in deep thought. Finally, I gulped and slowly nodded.

"Nope," I said and shook my head. "Not you."

Then, with one swift motion, I grabbed ahold of his left wrist and pulled him. He didn't fully grasp what was happening until we were practically where we needed to be. I had us hidden away in the small hallway, where the individual bathroom doors were at.

"What the hell?" Tommaso cursed, throwing venom my way when he said it. "I told you to fuck off, didn't I?"

He went to leave again, but I grabbed him again and brought him back to me. "We're gonna talk this out," I demanded and pointed in my face. "Once and for all. So, save your fuck off's and whatever else you have up your sleeve, and just listen to me."

Somehow, that worked since he didn't immediately try to leave again or talk back. So, then, I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and tried to clear my mind real quick of all the negative thoughts.

Alas, I reopened my eyes and stated: "What you said to me yesterday has continued to stick with me. You admitted that you cared. I know you did, but you keep denying it, but I know the truth. So, what else is there to know?"

"Nothing," I stepped forward and said through gritted teeth. "Absolutely nothing. I only said that to get your attention and to make you mad."

"No, you didn't," I countered and threw the venom back into his face. "I looked into your eyes, Tommaso, and saw everything that you were trying to tell me. You were clearly hurt, for whatever reason, and it's because I have an attitude with you?"

He shook his head, using his right hand to place a hand over his bald head, and muttered something under his breath that I couldn't understand. "What was that, Tommaso?"

"I said that this little 'talk' of ours is bullshit," he spat in my face and he was now really blowing the fuck up. "You expect me to actually care about you after everything? For God's sake, you're with a man that doesn't give two flying fucks about you. Obviously, that only means that you don't care about yourself at all or anyone around you."

"What does Pete have to do with any of this?!"

"He has everything to do with this," he exclaimed and got right in my face now. "He isn't good for you, Nicole! I have seen guys like him my whole entire life and, in the bitter end, he's gonna leave you for somebody else. He 'claims' that he's changed, but I call bullshit on that."

"What does that even mean?!" I snapped back, feeling anger and confusion all wrapped into one. "How do you know anything about us, anyways?!"

"I know more than you think that I do," he growled and was now completely in my face. "I know that somebody is always somehow 'left behind' when he wants to go hang-out with friends than you. I know that somebody was cheated on multiple times by her so-called fiancé. I know that somebody isn't happy with herself or her engagement, either, and who only finds joy in her career. And, how do I know all of this? Because I'm just like you, Nicole. You just can't see it."

With that said, he had enough and stormed out of the hallway, back to where he once was. I had to swallow a pretty big ass pill, too. It was bitter and tough.

I wanted so badly to run after him and make everything better somehow, but I knew that I would just make it worse between us today. I'll leave it for another day.

• It is what it is 🤷🏻‍♀️ Now, for bed... 😘💤 Goodnight! And, as always... All the love .xx •