Meeting the Shield in a cafe

Chapter 6

The plane ride to New York felt like it would last forever, but they landed in the early afternoon hours.

Seth, Dean, and Roman carpooled to the Skyline hotel. Dean booked a room with a single bed, a deluxe king sized bed and is rather spacious.

"Who is that guy in with his bangs on the side of his face?"

"He's Fandango but if you don't want to call him that, you could call him Curtis I don't think he'll mind, off camera."

"That's not a sentence you hear every day."

"Fandango's not a gimmick you see every day." Seth joked while they walked to their rooms. "We're on the other end of the hall, see you two later."

"By the way, if you think you have a thing for me shirtless I question whether or not I'll have competition during Raw."

"Why?" She sighed wishing he wouldn't tease her.

"There's a lot of shirtless guys, some even better looking than I am. I know that might be hard to believe, but I promise I'm not lying."

"I can and will tune you out,"

"You're bluffing," he wrapped her in a bear hug and buried his head in her neck.

"You think so?"

"Yeah I do."

Ria smiled, took out her iPod, and tuned him out. Dean put Ria over his shoulder, carrying her to the bedroom area. When her earbuds fell out of her ears from being tickled, he took her iPod and put it on the table next to the bed. Dean slid her shirt up to expose her stomach and covered it with kisses.

"That's not fair I'm ticklish!" She tried to push his head away, but he kept tickling her. He played with the waistband of her pants, teasing to take them off, but stopped. He laid next to her and kissed her.

"After Raw," he nearly whispered.

"But that's not until later on tonight!"

"I know, but after Raw I don't have to worry about being anywhere in any amount of time."

"We have about four hours until we have to even consider getting ready for Raw."

"What if I need five?"

Ria just stared unsure how to respond.

"Tonight, after Raw, I promise." He kissed her cheek.

* * *

When they finally arrived at Raw, Ria felt rather lost in the motions of getting ready for matches, promos, and making sure you're not in the camera's view when you're not supposed to be.

"Do you guys have a match tonight?"

"Not officially, but we are booked to cause hell and leave. Before we do that we get to cut a promo as well. Sorry Jon you're going to have to let your girl go for a few minutes."

"Tell me when we're about to shoot, she'll be fine just off screen."

"Even when we pick up and put down the camera?" Roman asked continuing to tease Dean.

"You hug her then tell me you'd want to let go."

"Well I would but currently you're still attached to her."

"Damn right I am. Maybe you could be worked into our storyline..." He thought out loud.

"No, there's no need for that." Ria wanted nothing to do with being on camera.

"Oh don't be so camera shy, have you seen some of the pictures the camera men take during matches? The majority of the time we look ridiculous and the rest of the time are the pictures of the spots during matches."

"Are you sure that's not just you Jon?"

"Shut up Seth."

* * *

The Shield had to prepare for their promo taping for next week's Raw, Ria wandered around the backstage area. She wasn't sure who to talk to and who to avoid, she never thought to ask Dean about it, except the few people she saw and briefly chatted with while at the hotel.

She remembered Fandango from the hotel lobby. They never spoke but she remembered his face. She also remembered Alberto Del Rio and Ricardo Rodriguez from the hotel too, they are on the same floor. While saying hello to Ricardo Dolph Ziggler introduced himself while wearing ridiculous pink trunks. Due to Dolph interrupting her conversation with Ricardo Ria met AJ Lee. She seemed a lot nicer than Dolph and AJ said she likes her hair. He was rather disappointed to find out that Ria wasn't by herself but with Dean Ambrose. She associates with The Shield whom very few people like or even associate with.

After meeting a bunch of superstars she considered heading back to the Shield's locker room, but Dean said he'd text her when she could come back. She wandered around until she ran into a tall man with thin blonde hair and a short fatter man with an interesting mustache and beard. They looked at her as if she didn't belong there. it brought up all her insecurities again.

They know I'm different, I don't even look like any of the diva's here. They're thin and I still have fat on me that I never managed to lose...

I need to find Dean, Seth or Roman... now...

"Are you lost?" The shorter man asked.

"No, I'm just waiting for Dean to tell me he's done filming promos..."

"So you decide to just wander around a place you've never been to?" The tall man asked crossing his arms. She felt like a child and she hated it.

"Well yeah, I'd made some friends earlier so I was with them until they needed to prepare for a match or something. I'll just be going now."

"Tell Dean that Zeb Coulter and Jack Swagger want him to keep a better eye on his guests!" the short man said relieved to see Ria go.