"Appreciation"

definition; recognition and enjoyment of the good qualities of someone or something.

***

ROMAN

It was the end of PayBack, and currently I was leaning against my car, waiting for Mercedes to arrive. I can't even lie, I was very caught off guard when she had asked me out. She even said it was a date, well at first before she said it was just a hangout. In my head, I wish it was a date. Why? I don't know. Actually, I know exactly why, but I just had a hard time admitting the truth to myself. My mind was telling me to forget it but my heart was trying to convince me that I indeed had a little bit of feelings for her like Truth said the other day.

Me and Mercedes always had this lingering chemistry from day one; Even if we were friends, from the minute I laid eyes on her at the performance center  until now, I did always have a soft spot for her. It was weird, especially now, because I didn't just view her as a friend like I did before. When I lay eyes on her now, I don't want to take them off of her. When I talk to her, I never want our conversation to end; When I touch her, I feel electricity run through my blood. I didn't even realize that I was still holding her hand when she was trying to leave my locker room. She probably even knew because of that, dumbass.

I couldn't help but be a little nervous. I mean, this was the first time in a long time Mercedes and I would be getting some one on one time together. There's so much I wanted to tell her when we were out with the rest of the guys, but I didn't want to say anything in front of them. I mean, I had her number, I could've reached out, but I was too shy to. I just didn't want to run her off like she did the last time, even though I have no idea why she cut me off the way she did. Hopefully, this was a way for us to pick up where we left off.

"Man up, Joe." I whispered to myself as I nervously took a deep breath. I briefly looked at the time on my phone before I looked to my left, seeing Mercedes walking along with Bayley out of the building. She talked to her a little bit before hugging her goodbye, and walked over in my direction.

She was wearing an orange, long sleeved crop top that revealed her abs with dark blue, low rise jeans along with her blue hair being pulled back into a pony tail. Even if it was meant to be a casual outfit, she still pulled absolutely anything off.

"Hey," Her voice interuppted my thoughts. I blinked twice, quickly snapping out of it so I didn't look like a fool. Nice going, Joe.

"You okay?" She says, looking at me with a bit of concern. I nod and rub the back of neck nervously, "Yeah, I'm sorry. It's been a long night." I lie.

Mercedes grinned and nodded her head agreeing, "Tell me about it. Sorry I took too long, I was talking with my husband."

"It's okay." I chuckled, brushing off the fact that her mentioning her husband sort of bothered me a little bit. Oh get over it, you knew she was married anyway I say to myself in my head.

"Let me get those for you." I take her suitcase and other belongings off of her hands, insisting her to take a seat in the car. Mercedes looks up at me with shock very briefly but I could tell she wasn't trying to be obvious with it, then she shyly smiled and looked down.

"Oh, um. Thanks." She replied in an off guard tone, then she went over to the passenger seat and sat down. I slightly furrowed my eyebrows at her reaction, then cursed to myself. Maybe I was coming on too strong, I didn't mean to be. Damn it. Get it together, Joe; Seriously, stop being pussy.

After I had put her stuff in the trunk, I got in the driver's seat and started the car. I shortly glanced over, watching her buckle her seat belt. I bit my lip, and looked away to keep my eyes ahead as I exited the garage out of the Amway Center and onto the road.

"Are you cold?" I ask, noticing that it was a bit chilly inside. "I can turn the air down if you want."

From the corner of my eye, Mercedes smiled, "I'm okay."

"Are you sure? I could put the heat on-"

"It's okay, Joe." She laughed, then reached over to pinch my cheek. Heat rose onto my cheeks. "Are you alright?" She curiously asked.

I sighed, wanting to just drive off of a cliff. I made it clear as day that I was nervous, but goddamn, I was acting like some kid with a crush. The night had barely started and I had made a fool out of myself about-shit I don't know, five times? I could've told myself to be chill, but as long as I was around her, especially alone, I couldn't help it.

I shrugged, glancing at her and took a deep breath. Then, I answered being fully honest, "Yeah, I guess. I don't know- I just.." I trailed off.

"If you're not feeling ice cream, we could always go to McDonald's or something." She suggested playfully. I furrowed my eyebrows, losing my train of thought after she replied. I laughed and she laughed right along with me. Man, I could listen to her laugh all day.

"Hell, we could do both if you want." I replied with a slight smirk on my face.

"And gain all of those calories? No thanks." Mercedes says, waving me off.

"What, are you calling me fat?" I challenged her, also teasing her at the same time. Mercedes giggled. "Joe, come on. If you're fat then I'm a fucking potato."

"Get outta' here, you're beautiful." I roll my eyes playfully, while I keep my right hand on the wheel meanwhile my left hand reached over to tickle her stomach, which made her laugh hysterically.

This right here, was a perfect example why her and I were close to begin with. We just clicked. Even though I was super nervous to reconnect with her after all this time, it didn't matter. All of that faded away within a second whenever I spoke to her, saw her, or was around her. It didn't even feel like we hadn't talked for all of those months, because we were able to pick up right were we left off like nothing happened. However, I couldn't lie and say that her weight comments about herself didn't concern me. She had said things here and there about it this entire time we were friends, which I thought was very confusing to me. Where was she getting this from? Who was making her feel that way about herself? To me, there was zero imperfections about her. I just wish she saw that.

We were now in a comfortable silence before she spoke up, "I really missed you, Joe."

Took the words right out of my mouth. I smiled softly, feeling the exact same way. Damn, I couldn't even explain how warm that made my heart feel. It was, fuck. I don't know.

"Is it weird to say that I missed you too?" I say back, with nerves slightly flowing through my blood.

"How would that be weird?" She chuckled, taking a hold of my hand that I didn't even realize happened to still be in her lap.

Just be real with her, Joe. I sighed, and briefly looked down at my lap before looking at the road again.

"I don't know, I guess I just don't want to make you feel weird or uncomfortable." I started off, and I felt her stare on me, waiting for me to keep going, "I'm happy to have your company, don't get me wrong, it's just after so long of not seeing or talking to each other, I was kind of nervous. Which probably explains how much of a idiot I was acting a few minutes ago."

Mercedes chuckled, "I just really wanted to start over with you and make this better, because I did miss you back, a lot actually. You're my best friend, Mercedes. I'd never to anything to intentionally hurt you. If I did anything in the past that caused us to go out of contact the way we did, I apologize. I want to make it up to you."

Before I knew it, we finally arrived to our destination. When I pulled up to a parking spot, and took the key out of the ignition, she gave my hand a slight squeeze and sighed.

"It's not your fault, Joe." Mercedes reveals. It wasn't? all this time I thought it was something I did. It had to be, if not why did she cut me off like that? It didn't make any sense. I furrowed my eyebrows a little and looked at her, "What do you mean?" I ask.

She gently let go of my hand, leaning against the seat and letting her hand slide down her face in a stressful manner, "It's a long story."

I took one last look at her before I alternated my attention towards Cold Stone and the small lake area that was next to it, with a long side walk circling around it. I shrugged, "We got time."

We both made eye contact at the same exact time, and she gave me a closed-mouth smile, however still looked hesitant to say what she had to say.

➰

"Hey look over there," Mercedes pointed out as we were walking around the lake with bowls of ice cream in our hands. I raise my eyebrow and look to where she was pointing, not knowing that she had taken the opportunity to put whip cream on my cheek.

I jumped a little from reaction to how cold it was, and I gave her a death glare. She laughed so hard that tears began to well in her eyes, and tried running away as fast as she could but didn't get far as I wrapped my right arm around her tightly, catching her. She continued to laugh, which made me smile, and I spun her around a bit before I set her down.

"I got you next time, don't worry." I challenge her; She got a napkin out of her pocket and wiped my cheek off with it.

"Aw, is someone's feelings hurt?" She challenged back, with a playful pout on her face. I smirked, finding her pout insanely adorable.

"What's that look for?" She questioned, with her eyebrow raised while still wiping my cheek off. I shrugged, walking away from her as she threw the napkin in a nearby trash can, "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Yes you do, wait." She giggled, trying to catch up to me and she grabbed my arm, making me turn around to face her.

The moon was out, and even though it wasn't a full moon, it was bright enough that I could see the reflection in her beautiful brown eyes. It made her skin glow; The wind was lightly making it's way through her ocean-like blue hair, and she looked at me with admiration. Before I could open my mouth to speak, she broke eye contact with me and beat me to it.

"Listen, Joe.." Mercedes says, sitting down at the bench that was right next to us and setting her ice cream down.

"I feel so guilty how things ended between us." She admitted, not being able to look at me, "None of it had nothing to do with you."

"Then what was the reason?" I ask politely, not feeling the need to get in my personal feelings about it. I felt like being calm was better than getting upset over something I couldn't control, or she couldn't control.

I sat down next to her and tossed my ice cream bowl in the trash, waiting for her to speak. She sighed and continued talking, "Please don't tell anyone this. I haven't even told Pamela what I'm going to tell you."

Damn, what was she about to say? The fact that she didn't even tell Bayley yet said a lot because I knew those two were very close. It made me a little hesitant to even know in the first place, "You have my word." I say truthfully.

"Me and my husband have been going through some issues for a couple of years now. I love him, but he's just not the man I fell in love with. He's changed a lot and it's affected me, my mental health, confidence, my relationships with other people, and that's where you come in. Ever since our tag team match, he was always possessive over me when it came to you. He didn't know that you and I were friends, and maybe it was my fault that I kept it a secret from him but I was just scared he'd freak out. Later on, he ended up finding out and he got upset, and threatened to divorce me if I didn't cut off ties with you. I didn't want to do that, Joe. I swear, but I couldn't risk him leaving me. I didn't have a choice." She says with a shaky tone, fiddling with her fingers, refusing to look at me.

I was speechless. The amount of control and manipulation that this man had over her was disgusting, and it pissed me off actually. Also, the puzzle pieces had started coming together and it was all making sense. No wonder she kept making fun of her weight all these years, and seemed a little bit different ever since I came back. It wasn't something I did, this was all his doing. All because, he was jealous of me? He was willing to put her in a position where she couldn't be herself, break her relationships with her friends or even her own blood? When at the end of the day, I know she was nothing but the best wife to him. We never did anything at all, and she was always respectful to the fact that she was married, so was I when Galina was around.

I heard stories like this happen all the time, and it never ended pretty. If I said I wasn't worried, I'd be lying. That was no way to treat a beautiful woman.

"Do I need to talk to him?" I question, trying to keep my patience but I was still extremely pissed off. She shook her head as she looked down at her lap.

"Don't even worry about it, it doesn't matter now. I don't care about that, but I do care about this. Hey, look at me." I say in a gentle tone, resting my hand on her knee but still letting her know that I was serious. She slowly looked up at me, meeting my eyes.

"Regardless if you and I were friends or not, there's no reason why he should have that type of control over you. Everyone gets jealous, but not to the point to where he's isolating you from everyone you care about, even your family? Mercedes, that's not right. The way he's been treating you is not right. It's unacceptable and extremely disrespectful. You deserve bigger and better than that. I don't even think he realizes how lucky he is to have a woman like you."

Mercedes cracked a shy smile and briefly looked away before looking at me, "Stop it, Joe.."

"I'm serious," I state. I brush a piece of hair out of her face, honestly contemplating on whether or not I should even take her home. None of this sat right with me, knowing that she had been dealing with this for years. All of this could build up until something goes wrong, and it will, it always does. I didn't feel comfortable knowing that she would be alone with him after this, I didn't want her to get hurt even more.

However, I didn't want to come across as me being too protective. I mean, she still didn't know that my wife had passed away. I don't want her to think I'd put her in an uncomfortable situation, but I was worried.

"Are you sure you're gonna be okay when I drop you off tonight?" I say. "I mean, you're always welcome to stay at my place."

Mercedes chucked, "I'll be alright, Joe. I promise. Besides, he'll be even more suspicious if I just show up the next morning without coming home tonight."

Even though, if he was treating her right, that would've made perfect sense. I didn't care though since that wasn't the case. I sighed, nodding in defeat.

"I appreciate you caring, though. It means a lot to me, especially since I haven't told anyone. You're the first person I opened up to." She smiled, putting her hand on my shoulder, "But you promise this just stays between us?"

"What, you wanna' pinky square and make it solid?" I tease her, making it obvious that I wouldn't tell anyone. At the same time, it didn't mean that I wouldn't keep a close eye on what's going on. She laughed, playfully rolling her eyes and stood up, throwing away her ice cream bowl.

"Whatever, I have to get home. It's late anyway," She reminded me. I got up, and pulled out my phone and it read, '10:30'. Fuck, and I still had to pick up the kids afterwards. I really should've kept track of the time.

"You're right.." I trailed off, alternating looks between her and the car that was ahead of us. I smirked, and gave her a challenging look.

"Beat you to the car?" I challenged. She smirked back at me, and we dashed off to the car at the exact same time.

➰

SEPTEMBER 4TH, 2020
ORLANDO, FLORIDA
AMWAY CENTER
SMACKDOWN
5:22 PM

SASHA

I gripped the edge of the sink, looking down for a minute before I looked back at my reflection in the mirror. The black-ish, blue-ish bruise covered my eye like a glove and the hole in my heart grew wider. I was such an idiot, if only I hadn't made that stupid mistake I wouldn't of been in the amount of pain I was experiencing at the moment.

Since I had gotten home later than I expected last night, Sarath was furious. He kept making assumptions, why were you out so late? Are you cheating on me? Before I left with Joe, I had told him I was going to hang out with Pamela, even though I was with him. I know I probably shouldn't of lied, but we didn't do anything anyway. It was just on friendly terms, and the main reason I didn't want to tell him is because he would freak out if he knew I hung out with him.

However, even though he never knew what really happened, he freaked out anyway. I received a harsh blow to the eye, and it's been swelling ever since. A part of me was use to it, but another part of me was just dying for help. I knew I couldn't do this anymore, deep down. A divorce, was just all I needed to get out of this nightmare. If I tried though, he'd kill me. He'd threatened my lively hood, everything. Early in our marriage, before he was abusive, he had recorded a sex tape of us without me knowing. Years later, when I mentioned a divorce once, he surprised me with that and always used it against me.

He threatened to leak it anonymously if I ever tried to break up with him. Not because it would really affect him, but he knew it would affect me. In general, it always affects the woman more than it does the man. I would definitely lose my job, and everything I worked for. I just couldn't let it happen, it was blackmailing at it's finest.

Like I said before, I couldn't tell a soul what I was going through. Then again, even though I didn't go into detail with Joe last night, it felt so good just to share it. I knew I could trust him; He's such a good listener, and I could tell he got a little protective over me which I thought was cute, but it made me feel so safe. That's the safest I've ever felt with a man. I still felt so guilty for cutting of someone that cared so much about me the way he did. I was lucky, no doubt about it.

It was almost closed to showtime, since I couldn't risk anyone seeing my eye, I just hurried up and did my makeup, covering the bruise before I left the bathroom. As I walked down the hallway, my phone buzzed. I pulled it out of my pocket, and read the text message.

Joe 🦋
Where you at, little blue?

I bit my lip and rolled my eyes playfully at the goofy nickname. I replied.

Me
Why? You stalker. 💀

Joe 🦋
🤣 I meann if I could I would. But Vince called me to his office, he wanted me to tell you to get your ass down here too.

Me
Are we in trouble?

Joe🦋
We WILL be if you don't hurry up. lmao

I chuckled to myself, putting my phone in my pocket and jogged over to Vince's office. I knocked on it twice before letting myself in, and saw Vince sitting across his desk from Joe, having a short conversation with him. When I closed the door, their heads both turned to me.

"You're not in trouble," Vince says with a light chuckle before gesturing me to sit down. "Please, have a seat."

I had no idea what I was walking into at the moment. I smiled nervously before I walked further into the room and sat next to Joe. Me and him exchanged concerning looks before Vince spoke.

"I don't want to keep you both here all day since the show is going to start any minute now, so I'll just get straight to the point. You two are my biggest stars in Smackdown right now, if not, in all of WWE. Fox has been communicating with us how they wanted you two to be the faces of this show for quite sometime. Since they air our show, and also because I agree, I want to make that happen. Joe, you're the champion right now. Mercedes, you will be champion soon-"

"I will?" I accidentally blurted out, with a huge smile on my face. I couldn't believe the news I was hearing, after all this time I thought that they were going to have a change of plans. I was going to be SmackDown Women's Champion? Words couldn't describe how excited I was. I've been wanting this for so long.

"Yes," Vince nodded. I glanced at Joe, and he winked at me with a smirk, which gave me butterflies in my stomach.

"With that being said, you both will be champions at the same time. Which means, this is the perfect time to engage in another romantic storyline."

Then, my smile dropped. A romantic storyline?There was no way I could do this, especially with Joe. This would really make Sarath angry. I could risk him getting more upset with me than he already was. Besides, this company was never successful with storylines like that. Each one was a hot mess. That could really make the both of us fall off and I wouldn't that that. It was just a bad idea all around, but whatever Vince says, it goes. I couldn't just drop out of it.

"A romantic storyline?" Joe repeated, sounding speechless himself. I couldn't really read his expression, I couldn't tell if he was happy, confused, or upset as well. It was just kind of blank.

"With all due respect, Vince." I started out, "Would this even make sense to the fans, or be a good idea?"

"Of course it would," He explains. "You and Joe have interacted multiple times on TV in the past. You both had a tag team match a couple years ago, coincidentally being champions at the same time with you being Raw Women's Champion and Joe being United States Champion. The chemistry you guys had was great, and that's just what I need right now. Besides, that's not the only time you've worked together. You've done the Pizza Hut commerical together, you've went to children's hospitals for the company often at the same time, you two even stand next to each other whenever the company pays respects or has a town hall meeting for TV. You two do get along, right?"

How did he even remember all of this stuff? I mean, of course I remember our tag match, but some of the other points he mentioned, I forgot we even did. I guess it made his reasoning even more valid. Also, he honestly sounds just like the fans that use to ship us. It just seemed so much more than a storyline, I swear, it's like the universe was trying to pull me away from Sarath as much as they could and match me with Joe. Before he had gone crazy, I really did love him, but like I said before, I didn't love him anymore. Now with Joe being around, I couldn't lie to myself and say that I wasn't catching feelings, cause I was.

He's literally perfect. Joe is caring, sweet, puts everyone he loves before himself, and his heart is made of gold. To top it all of, he's incredibly handsome. He just makes me feel like I can be myself, which is something that I haven't felt in a long time. If I wasn't in the situation I was in right now, I would've been all for this storyline probably, but I couldn't be happy about it. Besides, who knows how he felt about it. I mean, his wife passed away. He most likely didn't want to do the storyline either, even though he still didn't know that I knew. It would just hurt the both of us.

"Yeah, but-" Me and Joe both say at the same time but we get interuppted.

"Now I understand if you guys don't feel comfortable with it. I know you both have have spouses of your own, if you need to talk about with them first then I will give you some time. However, I want you to think about it. This could bring higher ratings to SmackDown, and you guys could be even bigger than the Edge and Lita storyline. Maybe even bigger than the storyline my daughter had with Paul, but it's all up to you."

I nodded silently, briefly looking at my lap and my eyes slightly drifted onto Joe who was in deep though. He licked his lips and then made eye contact with me, with the same facial expression that I did. How were we going to pull this off?

➰

ROMAN

∆FLASHBACK∆
JANUARY 10TH, 2020
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA
FOX SPORTS SUPER BOWL LIVE PRE-GAME SHOW

"Does my makeup look bad?" Sasha asks me while we stood on set, waiting for the directors to get the commercial started. I turned my head away from the chaos that was happening in front of us and looked down at her. I furrowed my eyebrows and shook my head.

"No," I smiled gently. "You look great."

"Okay." She took a deep breath, rubbing the side of her arm nervously. I chuckled, "Are you alright?"

"No, I feel so awkward shooting commercials." She giggled, looking up at me, "What if I forget my line?"

"Sash, you're saying you could memorize a whole packet of lines for wrestling but you can't even remember one line for a commercial?" I raised my eyebrow, teasing her.

"That's different." She waved me off.

"Hey," I nudged her shoulder. "Guess what."

"Hm?" She mumbled, listening to me while she looked ahead at the set. I bit my lip in excitement, not being able to hide the good news I had anymore. I leaned down, whispering in her ear so it was just between us.

"Galina finally had the twins last week,"  I said with a huge smile on my face. Her eyes widened and she snapped her head at me, then out of nowhere she hit my arm.

"Shut up!" She slightly shouted in shock. I looked around, hoping no one was staring and quickly hushed her while rubbing my arm in pain, "Shh. Damn girl, you didn't have to hit me."

Her facial expression of shock slowly turned into a happy one, and she couldn't help but tackle me with a hug. Her arms were tightly wrapped around my neck, and I laughed due to being caught off guard, but I wrapped my arms around her waist, hugging her back.

"I'm so happy for you!" She squealed into my neck. She hugged me so tight that I could barely breathe. I rubbed her back and lightly tapped it, hoping it would give her the hint to loosen up. Sasha thankfully let go of me, letting me breath, meanwhile a smile was still spread across her face.

"What's the gender? Are they identical? Fraternal?" She asks, "Come on, you have to tell me."

Her reaction was just so adorable, I loved every second of it. She was the first person I told outside of my family about  the twins being born after Galina's delivery. I definitely could see her being a mom as well one day, everytime I talked about my kids, her eyes lit up everytime.

"They're twin boys. We named them Jordan and Glynn, I thought it had a nice ring to it. Besides we wanted them to have the same first letter of our first names like we did with our other three." I explained, and ended with a bashful shrug along with a small smile.

"That's so cute," She melted. "I love the names, that's perfect for them. Damn, Joe. I can't believe you have five kids."

"We might have more."

"You what?" She widened her eyes and I instantly laughed. I quickly shook my head, five was definitely enough.

"I'm just kidding, these two are the last ones." I say truthfully. She held her heart, looking like she was going to have a heart attack if we did decide to have more.

"I was gonna say," She sighs in relief. "But if you did though, I wouldn't be worried. You're a really good dad. You and Galina would raise them kids like it's nothing."

I grinned at her compliment, "Thanks. It actually sounds like you want some of you're own as well."

"No.." She trailed off, telling a terrible lie. I crossed my arms, and stared at her blankly, not believing her at all. Sasha sighed, finally telling the truth, "Okay, yes I do. But just not right now."

"You'd be a great mom." I say to her truthfully. She shyly smiled and rolled her eyes playfully, "Whatever you say, Roman."

I chuckled at her and we both looked ahead of us, still waiting. I turned my head to her again, hoping to make another conversation, but as soon as I did that, her lips immediately met mine. It was a super quick peck, my eyes widened and so did her's as she fastly pulled away in shock.

Then a short laugh escaped due to how caught off guard she was. She put her hands up in defense, "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to do that." Sasha explains, "I was aiming for your cheek."

I rubbed the back of my neck embarrassingly, and slightly blushed, "You're good. I probably shouldn't of moved my head."

We both laugh out of nervousness at the same time before the director called our names, "Roman! Sasha!'

We both looked in the same direction and saw him waving us over. I took a deep breath, slowly wiping off her lipstick off of my lips with my thumb before she whispered to me, "This stays between us, right?"

I nodded quickly, not hesitating to second guess her question. "Right."

➰

∆PRESENT DAY∆
SEPTEMBER 5TH, 2020

TAMPA, FLORIDA
3:13 PM

"Dad? Dad!" A voice interuppted my thoughts. I blinked my eyes for a second before putting my attention back on my daughter that was in front of me.

"You know better than to be screaming in my face, lil' girl." I stress, putting my face in my hands while I sit in my office. JoJo sighs, "I called you twice but you weren't listening."

"What do you need?" I ask her.

"Can you please tell the boys to stop coming into my room? I can't have a moment alone without them bothering me."

"Maybe they just want to hang out with their big sister?" I suggested, shrugging my shoulders. "I use to do that all the same with your aunts when we were kids."

"Come on, dad." She whines, "Please?"

We both stare at each other in silence before I roll my eyes, leaning back in my chair. I nodded, letting her know that I'd handle it.

"Thank you." She said dramatically, then walked out of the room on her phone. Jesus, who knew that my oldest would be more of a handful than the four toddlers I had already. This single parent thing was not easy, and still had a lot of adjusting to do. Times like this, just made me miss Galina. Hell, I missed her all the time.

Loosing the mother of your kids, let alone your spouse is just the hardest thing ever. It's a type of pain that could take years of healing. Not seeing the face I fell in love with everyday, having contact with her skin, hearing her voice, and everything else about her was tough. The bed was so cold without her, having all of that space now was just so surreal. I often times just slept on the couch purposely because of that reason, it didn't feel the same.

I sighed, getting up from my chair and made my way upstairs to my room to grab my phone before I went to check on the boys. I walk into my room, picking it up from off of the bed after I sat down to talk to Mercedes for a bit this morning. Believe it or not, I wasn't too against the idea of doing a romantic storyline with her. I actually agreed with Vince, this could be a chance for SmackDown to get ridiculous ratings and for us to be at the top of our game at the moment, it was the perfect time. However, it's unfortunate because no one knows except for my family about Galina.

Not even Mercedes, I know I would have to speak up about it so it wouldn't spark up cheating rumors if this storyline were to happen but I just wasn't comfortable. Even if I didn't say anything, it really shouldn't start rumors. I mean, it's just for TV. It wouldn't be real. I just hope it wouldn't ruin things with her and her husband, even though I strongly disliked him anyway after I found out what he's been putting her through as of late.

Once I slid my phone in my pocket, my eyes fell to the closet. I spotted something white laying on the ground, and I furrowed my eyebrows because I didn't remember seeing that the last time I was in there. I walked into the closet, stepping close to the white object that was laying on the floor. It was the book that had me and Galina's wedding day photos in it. I cracked a small-yet closed smile. I hadn't seen those photos in such a long time.

I picked up the book, holding it firmly in my hands before I started flipping through the pages. I felt like I was having an out of body experience as I looked at them; I stared at each one, feeling like it was just yesterday when this happened. By the end of the book, tears were rolling down my face and my eyes were tightly shut, trying my best not to cry.

All of a sudden, I felt two cold arms hug me from behind and lay their head on my back. I alternated the book to my left hand, using the right to rest my hand on the arm that was wrapped around me, knowing who it was.

"I know you have feelings for her, Joe.." Galina saw right through me instantly. It was something she was always good at, even when she was hear. I shook my head, feeling guilty to admit it but I knew deep down she was telling the truth.

"I can't have feelings for her.." I say with guilt. I turn around, facing her heavenly body with tear stained cheeks. "I don't want you to feel like I'm replacing you. I love you, I just want you back."

Galina gave me a sad smile before gently touching the side of my face. I didn't hesitate to put my hand on top of her's, just to feel her skin even though it was freezing cold.

"You're not replacing me, Joe. I love you more, and you'll always be apart of me. But I'm gone, baby. You have to let me go, I want you to give yourself a second chance at love. I want you to be happy."

I bit my lip, holding back my sobs as I held the both of her stone cold hands. My voice was shaky as I replied, "I can't do this, Galina. I can't do any of this without you. Live in this big house, raising these kids on my own. It's tough, it's just not the same. They miss you, I miss you. I'm just afraid that I'll disappoint them as they get older, and I feel like I already have with JoJo."

"That's because she's a daddy's girl, Joe." Galina reminds me, "She's not happy unless your happy. It's been like that since day one. I know it's been hard on the kids, especially her, but if you don't get better soon, how do you expect them to do the same? You're their purpose just as much as they are yours."

I stared at her with admiration, taking in everything she said and gave it some thought. She wiped some of my tears away, and said softly, "I can never officially lay to rest knowing that you're not okay. Please, just do this for me."

I leaned forward, moving closer to her and rested my forehead on her's. We stayed there, lingering in each other's presence before I decided to finally let her go, no matter how painful it was going to be. I kissed her forehead  tenderly before I whispered to her, "Go to sleep, I love you.."

She eye lids slowly opened up, revealing her brown eyes. Galina smiled softly, and replied, giving me a proud look, "I love you too.."

Then, her heavenly presence faded away, and I gripped her hand until I could no longer feel it anymore. I sighed heavily, not even paying any attention to how crazy what just happened was. I might of imagined the whole thing despite it being so real, but I didn't care. I felt like I had finally gotten the closure that I needed, and my heart was slowly but surely willing to love again.

***