∆FLASHBACK∆
OCTOBER 10TH, 2016
OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA
RAW

"Memory"
defnition; something remembered from the past; a recollection.

***

SASHA

My adrenaline couldn't of been even more far gone than it was when the match was over. I was nervous, probably more nervous than any match I had been in. This wasn't any regular mixed tag match. He was my partner, a guy that I remember having a crush on years ago. Even though I had just gotten married, and he was married, I couldn't help but get nervous every time I was in his presence. A part of me was guilty of that matter, it was still so sureal to me. I never would've thought that this day would've come, or even the amount of chemistry we had in that ring, especially the chemistry we had shooting the backstage segment. The way he flew over my head doing the spear had me in awe, the way he held my hand up when we won, and the hug he gave me caught me off guard. The whole situation had me in disbelief, but that was just the start.

When me and Roman made our way back into the Gorilla, we got an applause from everyone, my best friend Pamela rushed up to me, jumping up and down, squealing. I tried my best to shush her while Roman went off to talk to Vince McMahon who was in the back of the room where he usually was.

"Mercedes! Did you see the way Roman looked at you when you guys won? He's totally into you-" I cut her off as fast as I could, punching her in the arm. I looked around, hoping no one heard while she winced at the pain.

"Shut up! Pamela, you know he's married with kids. I'm married as well, I thought I told you not to mention anything about my crush on him I had years ago!" I whisper to her. Pamela rolled her eyes playfully, since she was one of the closest people to me, she knew everything about me, including how crazy I was about Roman during my NXT days. So, when she found out we were going to be having a match together, she would be teasing me about him nonstop. She honestly cared less that we were married, and it didn't help that she didn't really like my husband either.

I loved Sarath, but as of late, he just wasn't the same person I married. He began to be very controlling, intimidating, and if he knew that Pamela was joking around about Roman, he would be upset, and that was the last thing I needed right now. Hell, I feel like he was upset regardless with the match I had with Roman. When I told him about the news, he didn't like it one bit. I just really hope he wasn't mad at me.

"Well it's hard not to, you know the fans are already shipping you two together right? They even brought up that tweet you made about him." She said in amusement, even though I didn't find it funny. Fuck.

"If it's the tweet that I'm thinking about.." I trailed off. Pamela instantly pulled out her phone, going to twitter and showing me the tweet.

I sighed heavily, face palming my forehead. Goddamn it. I could've sworn I deleted that, why did I even post it to begin with? I don't even remember that at all. I was beyond embarassed. What if Sarath sees it? What if Roman sees it?

He probably already did. I slid my hand down my face, "I swear I deleted that. Why are they bringing it up? That was such a long time ago."

"One, probably because you didn't delete it after all." Pamela starts, "Two, you guys just had a match together. So of course they're gonna try to find more things with you two."

Just what I needed, seriously. I shook my head, adjusting the title on my shoulder as I looked to the back of the room. Roman was still in a conversation with Vince McMahon, I didn't realize how long I was staring at him until he eventually caught my stare, and I quickly turned back around. Pamela was still on her phone, now scrolling through her own twitter. I grabbed her arm, bringing her closer to me and whispered in her ear.

"We will not talk about this anymore, understood?" I said sternly. Pamela cringed at the tightness of my grip, and shook it off. "Alright, damn Mercedes." She replied.

"Good," I said back. Sighing in annoyance, I slightly freeze from the feeling of someone's eyes being on me from behind. It was him, I knew it was, I could tell. I cleared my throat, and said, "I'm going to the locker room."

Before Pam could reply, I rushed out of the Gorilla and made my way toward the locker room. Once I reached the locker room, I changed out of my ring attire, switching to some sweatpants and a tank top, along with my air force 1's. Since it was getting close to the end of RAW, I got a head start on packing all of my things. As I zipped my suitcase, my phone started to ring from my back pocket. I quickly took it out; I didn't see what the Caller ID was either, but I slid the call button to the left, and put it to my ear.

"Hello?" I spoke into the phone.

"Where are you?" Sarath replied back with an intense voice. I froze in fear, and my hand slightly started to shake with the phone in my head. Shit, this is exactly what I was afraid of. Something in my gut was telling me that he ended up finding out about the tweet.

"In the locker room." I said in a shaky voice. My heart was beating out of my chest; Chills were scattered throughout my body. I closed my eyes, fearing about what he was going to say next. "Meet me at the car, we need to talk." He demands, then just like that, he hangs up.

I slowly bring the phone down to my lap, sighing heavily. It's like I could never catch a break. Here it goes. I found the strength to lift my body off of the ground, and walk out of the locker room. As soon as I stepped to the left, I bumped into someone that was as hard as a rock. Thankfully I didn't fall, but I did stumble backwards a bit.

"Oh shit. My bad, Sasha." The deep, familiar voice said. His hand grabbed my wrist gently so I didn't stumble any farther, and he chuckled. I looked up to see that the brick wall I had bumped into happened to be Roman. I smiled shyly in embarrassment, feeling so small under his tall, muscular frame.

"You're good," I shake off, not minding at all. He then let's go of my wrist gently and says, "I was actually just looking for you."

"Me?" I said in shock. Mentally, I slapped myself across the face in my head for saying something so stupid. Really Mercedes?

He smiled, shaking his head, "Who else?"

I cringed, feeling even more embarassed. I face palmed my forehead and apologized, "I'm sorry."

"Don't worry about it," He reassured sweetly. I smiled back, appreciating how kind he was, it really calmed me after being overly nervous about talking to Sarath. Hell, I'd rather stay here as long as I could to avoid it. I slightly gulped, and rubbed the side of my arm.

"So, what's up?" I ask him out of curiosity. Roman reaches inside his back pack that was hanging on his shoulder to grab something out. "I wanted to give something to you."

He takes out a pink envelope and hands it to me. It was labeled, "From: Joelle To: Sasha" and a red heart was drawn next to my name. My heart melted, I take the envelope into my hands, looking down at it as he speaks up.

"This is from my daughter. She really loves you and looks up to you a lot. When I had told her we we're going to have a match together, she was very excited." He laughed, and I laughed along, "So she made a little picture and note for you."

I continued to stare at the adorably cute envelope, dying to open it. My eyes drift up to Roman, with a soft smile, "This is so sweet, tell her I said thank you. I hope I'll get to meet her soon one day."

Roman smiled back and nodded his head, "I'll see what I can do."

After that, there was a comfortable silence between us. Our eyes were still in contact, and the gentle smiles on our faces were still
in appearance. He's so handsome, I said to myself in my head. I then realized how long we were standing there, so I awkwardly looked down, tucking a piece of my hair behind my ear. He cleared his throat, as I looked back up, he opened his mouth to say something but got interrupted by a recognizable voice behind me.

"Mercedes." Sarath said in an intense tone, Roman looked up from me to him with a confused expression on his face. I closed my eyes in fear, shit. I turned around, opening them to see him with his arms crossed. There was an angry look on his face, and he gave me a cold stare. I bit my lip, slowly turning my heel to face Roman.

"Hey, thank you so much for giving me this. It means a lot, I'll talk to you later okay?" I said to him in a hurry, Roman nodded his head, acknowledgeding that I had to go, but there was a look of concern on his face as well, he could tell something was up. I turned back around, walking over to my husband.

Sarath stared down Roman for a couple of seconds before looking down at me. I avoided eye contact with him as I said, "Hey." I trailed off for a bit, "What's wrong?"

He didn't reply, instead he nodded his head to the side, signaling for us to talk in the corner where it was private. I sighed as quietly as I could, and walked into the corner where no one else was around while he followed behind me. When we were both in private, he pulled up his phone; Just like I expected, he showed me the tweet that happened to be number four in trending. I cringed as the sight, feeling even more embarassed. If I had known that my old tweets would've been brought up to this day, there's no way I would've posted them to begin with. Especially now that Sarath knows, I knew I was screwed. I just prayed that he was going to give me the benefit of the doubt since this was so long ago.

"What the hell is this, huh?" Sarath spat in anger. My hands started to shake, and my heart began to beat very fast. I gained the courage to make eye contact with him and tried my best to speak, "Let me explain-"

He then grabbed my arm harshly, making me wince in pain. His grip was slowly but surely getting tighter and tighter by the second, and it took everything in me not to shed a tear. I was scared, not sure what he was going to do. He was so unpredictable, even though I was use to a couple bumps and bruises from wrestling, receiving them from your own husband was different. It broke my heart, and this has been going on for months now. It hurt me even more, that I had to keep my mouth shut about it.

"I'm going to ask you, one more damn time. I swear, if you lie to me, there's gonna be hell to pay. What is this, Mercedes?"

I shook my head quickly, denying what he was saying, "I'd never lie to you, you know that. Sarath, I made this tweet a long time ago. It was way before we got married, and way before we started dating. I love you! I'd never do that to you-" He cut me off with his hold getting ridiculously tighter, and I was damn near starting to loose feeling in my arm. Tears were staring to brim onto my eyes, and he darkly said.

"Do you take me for a fool, girl?" I shook my head no, looking down at the ground, shutting my eyes tightly. Don't cry, I said repeatedly in my head.

"I swear, I get tired of your excuses because it's nothing but bullshit coming right out of your mouth. You keep testing me. Keep it up, Mercedes, or you're really gonna get hurt. I don't want to see anymore of this, you understand?" He demanded with his teeth gritted together. His face was so close to mind, and I still refused to look him in the eye. I nodded slowly, and instead of just my hands shaking, my whole body was shaking. He roughly let go of my arm, making me stumble back a little. His hand rubbed over his face in fustration before he gave me one last look, before walking away.

I could no longer hold back my tears, the weakness inside of me immediately gave out. My sadness overflowed, then I leaned against the wall, sliding down. I brought my knees to my chest, putting my head down and silently crying in the corner. Why do I let this keep happening to me? Why can't I just work up the courage to get up and go?

I will never know.

➰

∆PRESENT DAY∆
AUGUST 23, 2020
ORLANDO, FLORIDA
SUMMERSLAM
4:00 PM

***

SASHA

It was four o'clock. The minutes continued to fade away closer to show time, meanwhile I wasn't close to being ready. I still had to get my hair, makeup, and throw my ring attire on--but I didn't give a care in the world. I was at catering, eating my blues away. My glasses hid the tears that threatened to gloss over, and my mask hid the trembling of my lips. Not even the long hiatus I took away from WWE to find myself helped me get my shit together. I couldn't hide forever, I had to come back. However, I wonder how I have the energy to go out there, pretending like I'm okay, when deep down, I'm mentally exhausted. I've been exhausted for so long.

I'm hurt, I'm depressed, I even feel like I'm rotting in hell sometimes. Wrestling does create that escapism for me in a way, but it hasn't been enough to help me heal. I need more help, I need to shout for help, I need to use my voice, but I can't. I noticed from the jump, that he was changing. I should've listened to my gut when things were going wrong and the signs were clear as day. Instead, I ignored it, and he's changed into a completely different person that I don't know. He is not the man I married. The controlling, turned into hardcore manipulation. The anger, turned into rage. The grasps on my skin, turned into swings, harsh punches to my stomach. The intimidation, turned into complete fear, the fear I had for him was terrifying. I was no longer in love, but there was nothing I could do. I was his puppet, his mannequin
He never failed to use me to his full advantage.

He needed the job as my attire designer, or else he knows he would have nothing to fall back on. Not only that, the money I have earned, the light that shined on my name, and my worth, because without that, he knows he'd have nothing. I felt like such a toy to him. Many times, over the years, I've tried changing myself, desperately trying to figure out what's wrong with me and get him to fall back in love with me, not hate me so much. After while, I lost the energy. I was in a jail cell that I couldn't escape, if I threatened to leave him, I would be dead. If I spoke up about our relationship to the authorities, he would be fired, and he would reveal a secret of mine to the world that no one knew. It could cost me everything, my job, my reputation, and the way I live.

I was blackmailed, and this has been an ongoing battle of mine for a long time. I didn't dare to tell anyone, and I felt so alone.

My head rested on my chin as I continued to use my fork to play with my food in silence. Thank god I was the only one in catering, I would've looked like a loner. Then, I heard fast footsteps coming up to the table I was sitting at, and I look up to see Pamela.

"Why aren't you dressed? Mercedes, our match is coming up!" She stressed, throwing her hands up in the air. Pamela was already fully dressed, with hair and makeup.

"Does it look like I care?" I say back. She rolled her eyes, and took a deep breath in patience. Pulling out a chair, Pam sat next to me along with a concerned look on her face. Even though half of her face was covered with the mask she was wearing, I could tell apart her facial expressions.

"What's been going on with you, girl?" She asks with honesty, giving me her full attention. I stare at her for a couple seconds, then look down back at my food, staying silent.

"Is it about Sarath?" She suggested. I normally tell her everything, but my relationship I kept private because I knew Pamela would refuse to keep it a secret. She most likely would've buried him six feet under if she really knew what was going on, and that's what I love about her, she always had my back, however that was exactly why she couldn't know. No one could.

"What makes you think that?" I question, pretending like I had no clue what she was talking about.

Pam gave me the 'seriously' look, then she continued, "Cede, your my best friend. You think I haven't noticed how much you've changed over the past four of years? Mainly based on the fact that everytime your around him, your whole demeanor changes? I barely see you anymore. I know we're in a pandemic, but you never reply to my texts or calls. You're always isolated or with him back stage, and you look terrible."

I shot her a look, trying to understand what she meant by that. She realized that I took offense to her last comment and she corrected to herself, "I didn't mean it in that way. You're beautiful."

I couldn't help but crack a small smile, but I continued to avoid eye contact with her. "I'm trying to say that you haven't been yourself for quite some time. I'm worried about you."

Words couldn't even explain how much I wanted to tell her the truth. It felt so guilty not telling the closet person to me what's been going on, but I refused to drag her into my mess, let alone create a situation. Instead, I deny it, looking up and finally making eye contact with her.

"Look, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to snap at you like that." I apologize for how I reacted to her at first, "And you're right, I have been kind of distant. I've just been going through some things that I'm still trying to work through. It's nothing personal either, but you don't have to worry about me. I'll be fine."

"Are you sure? You know can come to talk to me about anything." She reassures. I nod my head and smile, reaching over, pushing her shoulder playfully, "I know, Pam. Come on, don't get all cheesy on me now."

"Sorry for caring, bitch." She playfully said back and we laughed. Pamela got up from her seat, "Seriously though, come on. Our match is coming up soon."

I sighed heavily, getting up from my seat. I walked away from her for a quick second to throw my trash away and then we met back up, walking to the locker room. As we stroll down the hallway, we see Alexis walk out of Mark Caranno's office with a very pissed off facial expression. She passes us, without any acknowledgement. Not that I cared, even though me and Alexis had a history of not getting along, we buried the hatchet not too long ago. So, the only relationship we had was only on a professional level, but we still weren't friends.

I turned my head around slightly, watching her walk of as we continued walking in the other direction. I raised my eyebrow out of curiosity, then I looked at Pamela, "What was that all about?"

"You haven't heard? She was suppose to be in the main event with The Fiend and Braun Strowman tonight for her new storyline. But that got cancelled." Pamela responded.

"Why did it get cancelled?" I replied. She shrugged her shoulders, "Nobody knows."

"That's weird." I said confusingly. But, I didn't ponder on it for too long. We made it into the locker room. After getting dressed, I got my makeup and hair done, and before I knew it, my match against Asuka for for the Raw Women's Championship was next.

Unfortunately, the script had planned for me to lose the title to Auska. A part of me was extremely disappointed because for years, the company has never given me at least one decent title reign. It was a blessing to be holding the tag team titles with my best friend, along with the Smackdown and Raw Women's Championship; I never would've thought we would have the opportunity. However, my goal was to have the longest title reign of all time.

Pamela set the bar pretty high. Not only was she the first Grand Slam Championship, she's the longest reigning Smackdown Women's Championship. She deserves it as well, I've seen how hard she's worked over the years, and no one has earned it more than her. However, I had high hopes for myself as well. I just prayed that I would get the same opportunity one day, and maybe, do it even better.

➰

The match was successful. Well, not how I had envisioned, but everything went as planned. I missed the crowd, but at times like this, it has its benefits. Auska, Pamela and I walked back into the Gorilla, getting a round of applause from everyone in the back, it's what they usually do after someone finishes a match. I congratulated Auksa, wishing her the best as Pamela did the same. Then, we headed out to the locker room.

As we walked down the hallway, I came across Sarath, who was sitting down at the table he usually works at near the makeup artists. I guess I couldn't avoid him all night, like I've tried to do all these years. I sighed, and nudged Pamela in the arm, "Hey, I'm gonna go talk to Sarath."

Pamela looked over at him, then gave me a worrying look for about a second but then let it go, not wanting to make it obvious. She nodded, and we parted ways. I walked over to his side slowly, slightly tightening my grip on the tag title I held in my hand; His attention was strictly focused on the sewing machine as pieces of fabric were being put together. He didn't notice I was there at first.

"Hey," I said nervously. He glanced from the table to me, then looked back down without saying a word. Ignored, but it didn't phase me since it was something I was so use to. I looked down at what he was working on and noticed he was making my ring attire I was going to wear tommorow at RAW. One thing that I couldn't take away from him was that he was extremely talented at making clothing, however it sucked that I was never able to contribute any ideas to him. It's very rare when he lets me choose the design, color, every aspect of my attire from top to bottom fully by myself. Other than that, he makes it strictly clear that whatever he makes, I wear.

"Did you see my match?" I ask, hoping he at least payed somewhat attention to me. He nodded his head a little and said in a very uninterested tone, "Oh, yeah."

Liar, of course he didn't. I could tell he wasn't telling the truth. I didn't say anything back, instead I just nodded my head slowly meanwhile my feelings were hurt all over again. I should've known better than to expect something different from him. Same phrase, same excuse, everytime.

All of a sudden, I hear a lot of commotion come from the nearby television behind me. I furrow my eyebrows, "Oh my God, it's Roman Reigns!" Michael Cole's voice blasts from the speaker in excitement. My eyes widen, Sarath's head finally snapped up to look at the TV and I turned around to look at it as well. Everyone in the area instantly stopped in there tracks and their eyes were glued to the TV in shock, then everyone started to clap in excitement as well due to him being back, except for Sarath. I was still frozen in shock, looking at the screen.

Roman's back? So this was why the original planned segment with Alexis got cancelled. Absolutely no knew about him returning. Although I was pretty shocked, a part of me felt very happy, because it truly wasn't the same here without him, however I felt pretty nervous and a little awkward knowing that my husband was extremely jealous of him. Not only that, what had happened between me and Roman.

When the mishap with me and Sarath went down a couple years ago, which was after I had talked to Roman. Later on, he had dm'd me on instagram, asking if everything was okay since he did notice some tension between me and Sarath. Of course I didn't tell him the truth, instead I lied and told him I was fine. To be honest, I thought our conversation was going to be short, but from then on it grew. Ever since that night, Roman and I became really close friends.

Our friendship was more on the low, we would interact in person or at work from time to time but it wasn't a lot. We weren't so obvious with it because for one, I was aware, and he was aware about how the fans shipped us together. I still have no idea if he saw my tweet or not, he most likely did lord have mercy; Anyway, we didn't want rumors to go up in the air about us being together, I know Pamela would've killed me knowing that I hadn't told her this but I knew she wouldn't keep her mouth shut about it. Secondly, out of respect of our spouses, we wanted to create boundaries.

Just to be clear, there was no funny business. Yes, I did have a small crush on him back in the day, but it was so long ago. Things change, I've changed, and I was married, I only viewed him as a friend. I remember so vividly the conversations we use to have. He would always catch me up on how his children were doing, his wife, and even surprised me with the fact that he was having another set of twins which I thought was wild. I couldn't imagine having five kids, let alone one, even though baby fever did get to me now and then. I adored how much of a family guy he was, also how extremely down to earth and caring he was.

When I had left the company for awhile to work on my mental health, I got so much love from everyone wishing me well, including him. He'd always check on me, making sure I was okay. I did the exact same thing when he had left due to him having leukemia, which I had no clue about. He kept it a secret for so long because he didn't want others to pity him, which was sort of the reason why I refuse to let people know what I was going through. Even when he had no clue as well, I could still relate to him. We had a lot in common, and his friendship really meant a lot to me.

However, we had fell out of contact not too long ago. I feel so guilty, even to this day because I felt like it was my fault. The disconnect was the night I had last saw Roman to be exact. He had called me on the phone saying that he was going to be staying home for awhile since he didn't think it was save to be at work since covid was spreading, and it was really important to him to protect his family--Which I respected a whole lot.

After our call, I decided to take a shower. I was home with Sarath, and while I was in the shower he had gotten a hold of my phone. I had nothing to hide of course so he had easy access to it, and he ended up coming across my texts with Roman; Even to this day, talking about his reaction still scares the crap out of me. To sum it up, his response to it wasn't pretty. He had forced me to cut all ties with him completely, and never speak to him again; It was all built off of jealously, the texts between him and I were friendly but Sarath hated the idea of me and Roman being cool. In fact, I've noticed that Roman is probably the only guy that he feels threatened by, any other guy he wouldn't make a big deal out of. However, he was still very possessive over me, and he didn't care for me having relations with anyone, which is why I rarely associated with my friends in awhile or anyone backstage so he wouldn't freak out.

I still felt so bad about cutting him off like that, I never wanted to in the first place. He had tried reaching out to me a couple times, and each time, I painfully ignored them. After awhile, he stopped reaching out. I hadn't seen, or heard from him in forever, even though it didn't seem that long it felt like it.

As he was beating the hell out of The Fiend and Braun Strowman, I noticed so many things different about him. He didn't change drastically, but there was a difference. He was slightly tanner, his build-physique was so sculptured, his muscles damn near showed right through his shirt. Speaking of his shirt, it read 'Wreck Everyone & Leave'. I loved it, he was already playing the hell out of his heel role and he had just returned. This was a great way to comeback, he looked great. Not only that, his smile. Lord, his smile, I wasn't quite ready for that. Wow, he just looked so amazing.

I didn't even realized that I was staring at the screen until I noticed Sarath calling my name, "Mercedes?"

I quickly snapped out of it and turned around to look at him. He threw the ring gear at me and thankfully I caught it just in time before it came close to my face. As I looked down at the gear, I noticed a few of the makeup artists next to us were side eyeing what was going on; I could tell they tried their best not to make it obvious but it was clear that they were watching us the entire time.

"Go and get your things. I'm ready to go home," He says. I sigh quietly to myself, holding back my tongue like I always did. After SummerSlam was over, I promised Pamela that we would go out to eat for a girls night out since we haven't had one in so long; Mainly due to this right here. I felt bad, and I had no idea I was going to break it to her but I just couldn't risk him getting upset with me.

I turned around and headed to the locker room to get my stuff. Once I gathered all my belongings, I left the room but then quickly stopped in my tracks. Shit, my glasses. I patted myself a little before briefly checking my bag before I remember that I had given them to Gionna before I went into the ring.

"She's probably still at the Gorilla," I said to myself. I turned back around, walking for what it seemed like forever until I finally got there. Pamela and Gionna were in the corner messing with Hunter, like they usually did when they happened to be together; Of course, there she was wearing my glasses. I shook my head playfully and walked over to them.

"Alright, miss." I hold my hand out, "Give it here, I have to go."

"I don't want to take them off, they're so much better than the ones I have." She groaned, slowly taking them off. I chuckled, "Maybe I'll lend you a pair, but seriously I have to leave."

Once she gave me my glasses back, Pamela crossed her arms and lowkey looked at me sideways, "Leave where? I thought we were going out tonight."

Before I could speak, there was huge round of applause coming from behind me. Then I heard, "Yessir, Uce!" from Josh. My eyes widened, and my nerves shot up. Roman was right behind us. I quickly turned my head slightly, and there he was. Josh dapped Roman up, and they brought each other into a brotherly hug. Before I could turn my head back around, Gionna yelled, "Hey Roman-"

I finally turned around fully and hit her arm, hoping he didn't hear her. She winced and rubbed her arm, "What was that for?"

"Don't call him over here!" I pleaded, nervous out of my mind because I wasn't ready to be face to face with him yet. Gionna tilted her head at me slightly, looking confused as hell meanwhile Pamela, even though I could see her face fully due to the mask she had on, I could see her smirk right through it, knowing exactly what I meant.

"Why not?" Gionna asked. Then Pamela added, "Doesn't matter, he's on his way over here."  She winked at me, I could tell she was enjoying every minute of this.

Shit, here it goes. My lip damn near started to bleed from how hard I was biting it; I could've had a heart attack right then and there. Before I knew it, he was right next to me but I refused to look at him.

"What's up, Uce?" Gionna said, playfully mocking Josh but that's something we all did whenever we talked to him, or his brother Jon. Gionna and Josh dapped each other up while Pamela gave Roman a hug, welcoming him back. Pamela and Gionna then switched gears; Gionna gave Roman a big hug, practically almost crushing him   while Pamela goofed around with Josh. It kind of made me giggle, Gionna was a huge hugger and a people person so I wasn't surprised, and she missed Roman just like everyone else did.

I was still standing awkwardly to the side, watching them interact. I didn't really know what to say, I felt so goddamn embarassed. When Gionna and Roman had broken their hug, all three of them except for Roman went into full conversation about something I wasn't sure of, but then it just left me and him there silent.

I also wasn't sure if he noticed that I was standing there. Maybe it was the mask that I was wearing that was hiding my identity, but I felt like my blue hair would've gave it away; Maybe it was me looking down the entire time, that probably wasn't helping at all, or maybe he was just side tracked by their conversations and everything else that was going on behind us. However, that mystery was broken when I felt his large hand on the small of my back and his breath shortly linger in my ear while he whispered in it.

"Hey.." His deep voice spoke. I turned my head and our eyes met, and I couldn't help but fall a deep trance. I smiled nervously, even though he probably couldn't see it.

"Hey," I said as calmly as I could. We stared at each other for about two seconds before we both pulled each other into a warm hug. He was as tall as I remembered, and had the same sweet alluring smell. My head was laid onto his chest while his arms were tightened around my back.

"I missed you," We both say at the same time. He look down at me while I looked up at him, and we both laughed. Just like the old times, I said to myself. After we broke our hug, he opened his mouth to say something until Josh beat him do it.

"So what's the move tonight? Me and Joe were gonna head to IHop after the show."

"Me and Mercedes were going to do the same thing," Pamela adds, "Why don't we all go?"

I cut my eyes at her since she knew that I couldn't come. I should've known that was going to happen, there was no way she was going to take no for an answer. Gionna nodded her head along with Josh and Roman.

"You down, Uce?" Josh asked me. Pamela smirked, and she wasn't slick at all cause I knew exactly what she was doing. You can't say no now, huh? was the look on her face. Sarath was going to kill me, but there was no way I could say no, especially that Roman was here. I still couldn't believe we were face to face after so long. There was so much that needed to be explained and discussed, hell, there was so much that we had to catch up on.

He was my best friend at one point, and I didn't want to disappoint him again. Deep down somewhere inside of me, I should've just stuck with my gut and did what Sarath told me to do because I knew there was always consequences, but I just have to take that risk.

"Yeah, I'm down." I agree, looking slightly to the right to find out that Roman was softly smiling at me. When he noticed I had caught him, he looked away and I smiled to myself in response. Thank god I was wearing a mask, they would've wondered what was wrong with me.

"Alright, I'm going to go get changed. I'll meet you guys there." Roman insisted, Pamela and Gionna daped him up as in like a see you later gesture while he gently nudged my arm, and shortly winked at me with a small smile, "Bye." He says before leaving the Gorilla with Josh.

I watched him as he left and turned around to see Gionna and Pam stare at me in disbelief, "Did he just wink at you?" Pamela asks while Gionna pulls me closer to them.

"I thought he was married," Gionna says in a questioning manner. I turn my head and sternly look at the both of them, "He is married, and we're cool. Don't even start jumping to conclusions."

You could tell by the look on their faces, especially Pamela's that they didn't believe me by a long shot. However, they decided not to push it.

"Besides, I told you I had to go home." I say, feeling a little fustrated. Pamela rolled her eyes and crossed her arms, "Why? This will be the first time we've hung out in such a long time. Seriously, is it about Sarath?"

There she goes, once again. She was clearly onto me, and being the best friend that she was, Pamela wasn't stupid. Gionna looked between us with a confused expression, not having a clue on what we're talking about.

"Are you talking about your husband?" Gionna questions. Me and Pamela look at each other for a hot minute before I decided to quickly push the conversation under the rug. Fuck it.

"You know what? I'll go, but your paying for my food." I said in a serious tone, however the both of them laughed and nodded in excitement.

"I'll go get the car ready," Pamela says, then walks away with Gionna following behind her. I sigh to myself. Jesus, take the wheel.

***

A/N; Just some quick clarifications. People that are mentioned in this chapter in case there's some confusion.

Pamela aka Bayley
Gionna aka Liv Morgan
Alexis aka Alexa Bliss
Josh & Jon aka The Usos
Sarath aka Mikaze, Sasha's Husband
Hunter aka Triple H/ Real name is Paul but that's one of his nicknames.

The "Gorilla" is where the members of Production sit and the wrestlers wait for their cue to go out into the ring. That's what they refer it as.