Reality (Linstead AU)

Chapter 8

A week later, Jay found himself in a hotel gym on Monday morning, along with a fairly large contingent of his fellow WWE employees. It was often the case, as they sought out a convenient place to workout.

Erin had worked a couple of non-televised events, including one the previous night. They had been traveling together, and getting along quite well despite the more than obvious sexual tension between them.

Unused to not controlling the pace of his potential sexual encounters, Jay had backed off somewhat, waiting to see what Erin did next. There had been some fairly blatant flirting, but she had noticeably backed off too, leaving the tension hanging over them like a blanket.

"Do you want me to help you pick your chin up off the floor?"

The question came from Raquel Gonzalez, who had appeared next to Jay. She had caught him standing there staring across the gym at Erin, who was doing squats with her butt facing him, quite possibly on purpose.

"Beautiful, isn't she?" he muttered, figuring there was no point in lying. Raquel had busted him and they both knew it.

"She is. And she's a really nice person too."

Jay looked at Raquel. He was surprised. So far as he knew, none of the wrestlers knew Erin well. That was what she had told him when they had first met.

"Oh?" he said.

"We went out last night," Raquel said, wiping her sweaty face with a towel. She had been putting more effort into her workout than Jay had while distracted by the view. "Z, Erin and I. Went for a meal, then drinks afterwards. You image she's some rich princess who doesn't know what life is like, but she's so down to earth. You'd never know she comes from money. Taught me a lesson about pre-judging people."

Jay forced himself to look away from Erin again, back to Raquel. He pre-judged a lot of people, he was well aware. Raquel was one of them. Yes, she had a pretty face, but for him she was too big for a woman. Six feet tall, maybe more, and she had to be getting towards 200 pounds, without an ounce of fat on her. Sweat gleamed on her muscular arms, and her back looked like nothing he had ever seen on a woman before. He could understand why guys, or actually women in Zelina's case, would find her attractive, but she wasn't his kind of thing at all.

No, slender and shapely, like Erin. With a gorgeous smile and dimples, like Erin. And a sexy voice, like Erin. That was his kind of woman. Erin was his kind of woman. It actually was that simple.

"Don't say much, do you?" Raquel said, mistakenly seeing his lack of reply as ignorance.

"Sorry. Did you guys have a good night?"

"We did. Erin is fun to be around, as I said. The food was nice, and we had plenty of laughs. Anyway, I'm getting back to it," Raquel said, heading off towards a rowing machine.

Jay figured he ought to actually get on with his own workout too. He tore himself away from looking at Erin and went to do some bench presses. While he worked, he couldn't stop thinking about her. He felt annoyed that she had gone out with Raquel and Zelina without inviting him. Being honest with himself, he knew that was only because he wanted to be invited out with her. Maybe he had backed off a bit too much, he thought. With that, he decided to invite her out after one of the week's non-televised shows, which finished earlier than TV nights. Yes, that was the next plan, he thought, looking forward to it already.

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Half an hour later, Jay was done with his workout. On his way out of the gym, he stopped at the water cooler for a refreshing drink. Barely had he started drinking from the complimentary little plastic cup when he heard Erin's voice behind him.