Rainy Day | Rhea Ripley

Chapter 13

You always had a way of creeping in my life

You're always so inclined to tear apart my mind

- The Fastest Way To A Girl's Heart Is Through Her Ribcage by Ice Nine Kills

I had expected the next morning to be awkward but it was surprisingly normal. 

I woke up to an empty bed and found Demi in the kitchen, making breakfast in the company of her dogs. We joked around a little bit and ate, making light conversation. It was almost as if yesterday had never happened until she suddenly got a serious look on her face and I knew the peace was over.

"Listen, Alex, I know you don't want to but we need to talk. Seriously. Like adults" I avoided looking her in the face. I knew she was right but I would've been perfectly content avoiding the topic forever.

"Just get it over with" I choked out.

"What do you mean?" She seemed genuinely confused.

"I know you want me gone after what I did. I can't even blame you" Her expression softened.

"I don't want you gone, Marlowe. But things can't go on like this and you know that. There need to be some ground rules, or this is going to crash and burn faster than we can count to three"

I hated that she was right.

"What do you mean by ground rules? Am I in your care now, like a child?" I scoffed.

"Of course not. But we both need to deal with things differently. And that starts with you coming onto me whenever you are in an uncomfortable position" She raised both of her eyebrows, clearly referring to what I had done yesterday.

"It's not that I don't find you attractive, not even that I don't want to explore it but that kind of play, actually anything sexual does not belong in a situation with real negative emotions and real problems. I would be taking advantage of you and you would be taking advantage of both me and yourself. I will also never even start to engage in anything like that with you again before we have carefully negotiated everything about any potential dynamic that we could have. 

Lastly, and most importantly: be honest with me. I promise to be honest with you too but you can't go dealing with everything on your own while I have to sit back and watch you throw your life away and get yourself in danger. I want to be here for you but I will not force you to open up to me, you're not a child. At the same time, I will also not be in the constant position of having to worry about what you might not have told me. Does that sound like a sensible agreement to you?"

I felt sick to my stomach. Not for a second had I even considered how inappropriate my act last night had been.

It wasn't only about me, Demi didn't deserve anything but complete honesty and respect and I had given her neither.

Swallowing hard, I nodded and looked up to meet her eyes.

There was no contempt in them, just sympathy and understanding.

"Yes Demi, of course. I apologize for how I have acted, I promise I won't lash out like that again"

She smiled at my response and wrapped her arms around me, hugging me tight.

"Good. Let's have a break today then. I think we could both use some fun and Dom is actually here to visit. I was thinking about going to a trampoline warehouse?" 

I grinned at her suggestion.

"That sounds absolutely perfect!"I would also have to use today to film what we were doing and edit all of the raw footage I still had.

Demis' manager had been asking about it and I could only come up with so many sensible excuses for why I wasn't doing my job properly.

We met Dom in front of the warehouse, he seemed a little off at first but then Demi challenged him to a race for the entrance and everything was normal again. Inside, I did my best to stay alive and not break any bones while Demi and Dom seemed to be in a battle of proving they could do more outrageous stunts than the other.

Unfortunately for Dom, Demi had a huge advantage when it came to flexibility and swiftness, and most of the time he had no chance against her. I was glad I had taken my camera because I was sure she would appreciate watching all of this back.

After a while they started to playfully spar on one of the cushioned areas, really exaggerating and acting up each other's hits which was very entertaining.

I sat on the side and pretended to be a ref, except I had no idea about any of the rules so I just made up my own.

"STOP, Dom you can't twist Rheas' arm like that!" I had just shouted, breaking up a move that looked like it would've been hard for Demi to get out of.

"What?" he stared at me, confused, "why?"

"Because I really like the tattoos on that one, if you must do that at least take the other arm" I grinned. 

My distraction had worked long enough for Demi to easily gain the upper hand. She performed something I could only describe as the family-friendly version of a riptide on him and I did the fastest count in the history of wrestling, declaring her the winner.

Dominik was pretending to be pissed about this and came over to me, looking as if he was about to fight me, but instead, he just grabbed the water bottle next to me and laughed.

"You two really are a menace together" he started gulping down water, screwed the bottle shut, and set it back down. 

I turned around to Demi who was saying something I hadn't quite understood when I heard him gasp next to me.

"So I wasn't wrong. It is you" he exclaimed in a very strange tone I couldn't quite place.

"What do you mean Dom?" Demi had appeared next to him. 

"I knew from the beginning that I had seen her before, I just couldn't place where and when. Dems, did you know that you are living with a con artist?"

A/N:I've had someone ask me for a playlist with the songs in this story so I made one, you can find it here:https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0mAQWjuy3NtCkB4bspzaDw?si=f3132a66286041b3