Absolute Smokeshow

The Best Planned Lays

"Heading out now! Should get there after the show ends. Love you!"
After hitting "send", you switched over from the texts between you and Rhea to the ones between you and Marisol. The two of you had been messaging almost constantly since the smoke session at your apartment; she had left you with a parting kiss that had been difficult to get off your mind.
"Going to be driving for a while. You can still send messages, I just won't see them for a couple hours."

Rhea's text reached you right after you hit send on Mari's:
"Love you, babe - see you soon"
It ended with her usual black heart, making you bite your lip and smile. You'd been looking forward to tonight all week.
Checking that you had everything you needed one last time, you set your phone inside your bag before looking through your CDs and popping in your favorite.

The first hour of your trek flew by - you hummed and sang along to the music, sipping water when you had the cruise control on. Every now and then, you would remember what awaited you and couldn't help but get excited at the thought.
After your journey reached an hour and a half's time, the water caught up with you and you began looking for a rest stop - casually at first, then more urgently.
"I'llbuysomethinginaminutesorry!" you call across the diner whose lot you parked in, dashing past the tables toward the "customers only" sign above the restroom door.
"You better!" an exhausted voice shouts back from the register as you quickly shuffle into the bathroom.

"So what'll it be?"
The voice startled you as you walked out of the bathroom a few minutes later, almost running into the woman from the register. She looked you over warily, eyes resting on your bag for more than a second.
"Your order," she clarified, widening her stance as if she expected you to run.
"Let me take a look at what you have," you tell her, slowly walking over to the counter as you took out your wallet to show her you did, in fact, intend on paying for something.
This seemed to satisfy her, but did nothing to brighten her mood as she walked behind the counter.

"Hmmm..." you looked through the glass at the ready-made goods, spotting an appetizer you could easily devour before continuing your drive, "Can I get a serving of that?"
"For here or to go?" she asked, unenthusiastically reciting the line as the plate your order sat on was taken from the shelf.
"To go, please."
As nice as the diner seemed - quiet, with only a few other customers - you knew eating in the parking lot would get you back on the road faster. The service wasn't exactly enticing you to eat in either.
"Figures," she mumbled - no doubt going off-script - before boxing your food and putting it into a bag along with plastic silverware and some napkins.
"That's your total," the woman pointed to the numbers on the display that faced you, not making eye contact even when you handed her the payment.
"No refunds," she said, her hand resting where the receipt was printing before tearing it and handing you your copy and the order. Then, flatly, "Have a nice day."
"You too!" you called back as you skipped back out to the parking lot, food in hand. Your cheeriness had as much to do with being closer to your destination as it did with being free from that grueling social interaction.

As soon as you slung your bag back into the car, something fell out. Setting your food down on the seat and picking your phone up off the ground, you notice Marisol had sent you two messages.
"Stay safe, belleza" made you grin, but the text that followed it took a moment to process:
"Want to spend the night at mine next week? All night"
Your face warmed at the pink heart that ended the text and you scrambled, almost dropping your phone again in your hurry to reply:
"You know I do!"
Feeling giddy as you cleared your seat, you sat down and opened your bag of food, leaving the car door open as you began your meal. Changing text conversations, you tap "Mami," type out your message, and look it over before sending it:
"Hey babe, taking a snack break before hitting the road again. Just wanted to let you know that next week I'm going to be staying the night with a woman I met at the bar. See you soon!"

It wasn't long before you finished your hurried meal and continued your drive.
This second stretch seemed longer - your anticipation, the fact that there wasn't a trace of sunlight left, or both were likely to blame. Focusing on the road ahead, illuminated by your headlights, you idly thought about how your night with Rhea and Dom might go. At least, your thoughts were idle when they began - soon you had to think of something else as you began to shift in your seat, your body responding all too readily.
When you finally pull into the parking lot of the venue, you turn into the nearest open spot to take another look at the instructions Rhea sent you - it was difficult to find the doors to the right part of the building without them.

Somehow, you didn't expect to open your phone to so many messages: Marisol and two of your friends, but no reply from your girlfriend to your news.
You looked at the text from Marisol first:
"Can't wait to take my time with you"
A blush warmed your cheeks as you smiled, remembering the charming way she winked when you saw the winking face in the message.
Deciding your friends could wait, you pulled up the instructions to find where you were supposed to pick up Rhea and Dominik.
Meandering around the large parking lot, you finally found it - crowded by fans being kept a few feet away from the exit by two security guards.
Some of the people in the small crowd had signs and all of them seemed to be pointing their phones at the doors in anticipation.
Taking a closer look, you realize most of the signs have the words hastily scrawled onto the poster board.
"Rhea Ripley's future girlfriend" read one.
"This is my bisexuality!" another stated.
You hadn't realized just how many queer fans your girlfriend had.

Parking in a nearby space, you pull out your phone again, messaging Rhea:
"I'm here!"
As you waited for a response, you moved on to your friends' messages:
"Congrats on going public!" the first one said. Even without context, you felt a sudden sinking sensation in the pit of your stomach.
Rather than reply, you checked your other friend's message in the hopes that it might shed some light:
"Have you seen this?" they asked, providing a link after the text.
You followed the link, heart pounding.

"Rhea Ripley Interview" the title read, followed by today's date.
"Cathy Kelley here," the video opened on a smiling brunette holding a microphone, her name appearing at the bottom of the screen, "reporting on tonight's events with the Judgment Day's eradicator, Rhea Ripley."
The camera panned out a bit to reveal your girlfriend standing next to the WWE correspondent, powerful as ever, her name also appearing onscreen.
"It's an honor to be interviewing the most dominant woman in the WWE," Cathy continued as Rhea pulled her phone out of her pocket, glancing at the screen, "Now, how did you feel about the way Jey Uso spoke to you tonight? Implying you're the leader of the Judgment Day? Flirting with you in front of your... Latino heat?"
You watched a complex wave of emotions pass over Rhea's face as she scanned her phone before pushing it back in her pocket, donning a familiar smirk, and pulling the microphone that was pointed at her closer.
"Seeing as Dom and I have an open relationship, the flirting isn't really a problem," she told the camera, "In fact, I have a girlfriend as well."

We never talked about this, you thought, heart racing as you hit pause to glance down at the number of views; already over a thousand, despite being posted only an hour ago. All those people, fans around the world - all of them knew Rhea Ripley had a girlfriend. They would be curious.
The thought of that many people crowding around made you feel sick to your stomach.
The phone buzzed in your hand, a message from Rhea telling you she would be out in a minute.
Looking over at the mass of fans by the doors, you made yourself come to terms with the fact that picking your girlfriend up from work wasn't going to be as easy as you had hoped. You crossed your fingers for a moment as you did your best to keep your breathing steady, gathering the strength to pull up to the curb.