BEFORE our Philly live show, I had a lot of time on my hands to work out, change, listen to music, and just about anything else that I needed to do. Such as, but not limited to, keeping my eyes glued onto Tommaso and texting him.

Did he just really say that?! I couldn't believe it. I was in shock. He would've known how weird he was?!

Is this real life right now? Tommaso is trying to sext me, not me with him. I am disgusted... But also kind of intrigued, but not in the way that you would think.

I began to type away on my phone, hoping that this would get even weirder, for me to break his walls down more and more. Of course, I would have to delete the texts before Pete ever sees them.

Well, it didn't get as weird as I wanted it to be, but I wasn't about to text him back when he wasn't even standing that far away from me right now and I could talk to him.

So, I pushed my phone down into my back pocket and made a beeline straight to Tommaso, who wasn't paying attention as he was still staring down at his phone.

"Hey," I said to him, starting it off as simple as possible. "Waiting on me to text back?"

"Fuck," I heard him mutter under his breath and roll his eyes before placing his phone into his side pocket. "What do you want?"

"It's obvious you want something from me, actually," I countered, which automatically made him roll his eyes once again and cross his chest with his arms. "I don't get you, Tommaso. Really, I don't. I'm finally willing be your friend and, yet, you don't want that anymore. Then, you're now willing to text me back, but you don't actually like to talk to me in person. What's your deal?"

"My deal?" Tommaso repeated, signaling towards himself. "You're kidding."

"I'm not—"

"You're the one, who is so damn bipolar that you can't decide what's up for you and what's down," he blabbed and, for the most part, I didn't understand what he was saying. Maybe he realized that and, so, he just glanced up to the ceiling above us and shook his head, facing me again. "You know what? Forget it. You will never realize anything, even if it hit you right in the face."

"Hey," I immediately called out and grabbed ahold of his bicep before he could get away from me again. We faced one another once again and the heat between us was heavy. "That's exactly why I want us to talk, because I don't seem to understand anything about you while you apparently can read me like a book, though."

For once, it looked like he finally understood me for a change. He seemed to understand what I was saying and his wide eyes proved it, too. He gulped and shook his head, almost hesitating whatever he was feeling and fighting against it.

"You're a different shade than any other woman that I have ever encountered," he suddenly said and, yet, I couldn't tell if it was a compliment or not right off the bat. "You keep things interesting, Nicole. I'll give you that much."

Without another word, he looked me over from top to bottom, winked, and turned his back on me once and for all. I didn't understand him, but he didn't care as he left me speechless again.

FOR our Philly live event, it was already a great show with a very great and loud crowd. It was awesome being here, even if I couldn't hear my own thoughts while in the ring with a tag-team match with Johnny against Tommaso and Velveteen Dream. They weren't working very well together while Johnny and myself were, though, as always.

Johnny ran into our corner and I tagged-in, but walked in slowly as Tommaso was tagged-in as well. He was slow to get in, which this would be our first encounter with one another in this match-up so far.

He smirked and slowly approached me, then laughed, as if, I was some kind of joke. I shoved him backwards and he tumbled, but didn't fall on his ass, as I wanted him to. He shrugged it off before he jumped on me, taking his biceps and wrapping them around my face. I shrugged there for a second before he let me free, shoving me backwards as I caught myself before I could fall on my ass.

"Crawl back to that women's division like you are supposed to," he voiced himself while the crowd booed at him in return. He always got booed. Hell, he didn't even have a theme song because he wanted to hear them boo at him the whole way down and up. "You don't belong here, Victoria Valentine! You're nothing, but a pretty face that thinks she runs this dysfunctional place! But you don't because I do! I'm the NXT Champion and, in two weeks at TakeOver, you're gonna finally realize that once and for all!"

He probably could've talked the whole night if he wanted to, but I quickly leaped forward and decided to slap him right across the face. Maybe it would make him be quiet, finally. He took it and trampled until he hit the ropes, using them to hold him up.

All I heard next was: "You bitch!"

And, then, we were going at it in the center of the ring with hits back and forth. Before long, the kicks came out and we started going with that, too. Somehow, he got tossed out of the ring and, so, I took that chance and bounced on the other ropes before flying through the others, diving right onto him. We clashed together, like a head-on car accident, leaving us both paralyzed from already being so tired to get up and start new.

Alas, we both began to slowly crawl before we climbed to our feet and went back inside the ropes before we almost got counted-out. As soon as we back inside, he kicked me in the gut and set-up his finisher move on me, being called Project Ciampa. He got it on me and went for the pin, which the ref counted to two and a half before the pin was interrupted and, apparently, by Johnny.

Tommaso jumped up and got ahold of Johnny (and his trunks, too), shoving him out of the ring and he even collided with Velveteen, too, on the outside. Tommaso didn't care, for someone who thought that all he needed was himself and just him. He had his arms out and talking shit down to Johnny, who was out of it at the moment.

I took this chance and scooped up Tommaso from behind, sliding him over and hearing the ref bring his hand down to the mat for the pin, along with the NXT Universe.

"One! Two! Three!" The ref signaled for the bell as the match had came to a close. I rolled out of the ring and the ref quickly caught up with him, holding my arm for the win. The crowd was screaming over my entrance music, happy that it was Johnny and myself that came out with the victory than Tommaso and Velveteen.

I smiled while Ciampa was kicking the ropes on the inside and screaming his head off for losing to a — you guessed it — girl. I walked over to Johnny's lifeless-like body and helped him up, having to tell him what just happened. Alas, as Johnny and I were making our way up the ramp (walking backwards), the ref came between us and held our arms up for the win together.

Going backstage, Johnny hugged me — as we both equally sweaty and gross — and I joked: "You're disgusting."

"Yeah?" He laughed, shaking his head after being handed a water bottle. "Well, so are you... Loser."

"You're the loser," I countered, with my eyebrows together in a sarcastic look on my face to match. "I'm the one, who won the match for us."

He shook his head, already having his back turned on me, as he walked away to get in the shower. He signaled a peace sign before he eventually disappeared into one of the locker rooms.

Right about that time, both Tommaso and Velveteen had trampled through the curtains to backstage. I was somewhat waiting on Tommaso, to be perfectly honest. However, I had to get on Patrick first.

He tried to avoid me while he passed by, but I poked his side and teased: "Hey, loser! Where you going?"

"Asshole," he commented, but gave me a smile to reassure that he was only kidding. "Next time, I'm kicking your ass."

"Uh, huh," I laughed and shook my head. "We'll see about that, Patty-Cakes!"

He flipped me off with a big grin on his face before he disappeared into that same locker room as Johnny did. That, of course, left just two... Just myself and Tommaso.

I glanced over my shoulder once to see him and, then, looked again. He was using a white towel to wipe the sweat from his neck before my eyes slowly traveled — without my permission — down to his hardcore abs. Most times, I never seem to see them in the ring because my mind goes immediately to just wrestling and nothing else.

However, as of right now, my eyes couldn't stop staring at his hairy and sweaty abs. I gulped and that was what somewhat drew me away from staring before I looked up to his eyes, which weren't staring back at me. Thank God. That could've ended up really bad, if only he had noticed. Now, he was using the towel to rub off the sweat from his abs, too.

He started walking and, so, I began to walk next to him, somewhat closely stalking him. "What now?"

"Nothing," I shook my head as we stopped next to the door of the locker room. He pressed his back to the cold and concrete wall while I only had my shoulder on it. "I'm not going to bother you anymore, if that is what you really and truly want, Tommaso."

He didn't comment immediately, as I expected him to, and he didn't even look my way, either. He just kept using that towel to rub his body down from all the sweat. Finally, after he brought the towel over his bald head, he shook his head, gave me a dirty look, and asked: "Don't you have a fiancé to bother?"

He dipped into the locker room and, he better be lucky that I'm not a man because I would've followed him in there. However, he didn't exactly answer my question. I expected him to reply something like: "Good. Now, fuck off already." Then, he would go in that locker room and celebrate because I have finally decided to leave him alone.

He didn't do any of that whatsoever; but, instead, he had the nerve to ask: "Don't you have a fiancé to bother?" He always knew how to leave much to the imagination and with more questions than answers, too.

IT was thirty minutes after midnight and my mind was running like it was on a marathon. Tommaso... Tommaso... Tommaso... He was on my mind and, unlike my fiancé, he was who I wanted to talk to right now.

I decided to take a chance and text him, hoping that he was still up while Candice and Johnny were peacefully sleeping in the bed next to me. I pressed on his name on my recent text messages and began to type out two messages.

What?! He basically just did. I was getting legit whiplash from his weird answers. He said that I was bipolar, but, really, I think it's the other way around. He said that he liked when I didn't bother him, but... I'm conflicted and, apparently, so was he, too.

I wanted answers and I was now demanding them, no matter what.

Was he nuts? Or, possibly... Was he telling the honest-to-God truth, though? It was like he was in my mind than outside of it, and it was kind of scary, too.

What do I say back to this? You know what, Tommaso? You absolutely right. I think about you way more than I would like to admit. Hell no, I can't reply that.

The very next time that I see him, I'm going to throat-punch him so hard that he'll cough up his tongue or something. I didn't care, unless it didn't hurt and I wanted it to hurt.

Somewhat, I didn't want this conversation to end, though. It seemed like, to me, that he talked to me more than most people do. Other than Johnny and Candice, of course, he was the only other person that I usually spoke to. It was weird, too.

I decided not to even text him back, to give him this satisfaction or to feed on to his growing ego. He was just trying to fight fire with fire... But I didn't want this to end in flames.

What worried me the most is not this situation would, but... I would.

• ALL THE TEXTS THAT THEY SHARE GIVE ME GOOSEBUMPS 😍 This chap was supposed to be better, but... It's whatever. The next chap, tho, SHOULD be better 😘 All the love .xx •