The Heart Wants What It Wants (Completed)

Chapter 25

Chapter 24 Recap

"So, are you finishing what you started?"

"Nah, JoJo's interruption kinda killed the mood. What are you up to?" he asked, propping his feet up on the coffee table.

"Nothin', but thinkin' about us. Speaking of us," Val continued, "what happened in the locker room the other night?"

Joe was silent for a few moments, then finally responded.

"I guess it's time I tell you about 'the code.'"

Chapter 25

"There's a code?" Val asked Joe, anxiously awaiting his explanation of it and what happened in the men's locker room after Smackdown last night. She was upset by the fact that she'd been with the company nearly a year and some HR asshole forgot to mention the code to her.

"Yeah," Joe simply answered.

"Well, apparently HR forgot to tell me about it."

Joe laughed and began to explain before Val was angered further by the perceived incompetency of WWE's human resource department.

"Baby, calm down. It's got nothin' to do with HR. It's more like a backstage bro code that was around long before I came around."

"OK. What is it?" she asked, her voice filled with curiosity.

"Simply put, what happens on the road stays on the road."

"So, basically y'all are covering each other's asses if y'all decide to cheat? I don't think I like that code too much, Joe," Val replied.

"Baby, you know how this life is."

"So, why be in a relationship if you're gonna cheat, and if you have a code, then what's the motivation to stay faithful?" Val asked.

"Wait, wait, wait, Doll. I think you might be blowing this thing outta proportion."

Now, it was Val who laughed-sarcastically. The idea that a code existed to hide cheating was just too much for her to digest. For Joe to try to add some kind of validation to it and defend it made her ill to her stomach.

"I swear, men never cease to amaze me," she said, shaking her head, sure that Joe could hear the disbelief in her voice.

"Baby, it's not like that, OK? Just let me explain."

"Tell me what happened, Joe."

***

Last night after SmackDown

Joe and several other Superstars had gathered in the locker room after delivering a show to a full house at the Dunkin' Donuts Center in Providence, Rhode Island. As Joe unraveled the tape from his wrist, he figured that this was as good a time as any to tell his co-workers about his divorce. He knew a few of them were getting suspicious about his relationship with Val over the last few weeks and felt like he needed to clear the air.

"So, Lina and I aren't together anymore. We divorced six weeks ago," he said aloud to no one in particular.

His confession garnered the attention of the entire locker room. When he noticed the chatter level sharply decrease, he looked up from the tape on his wrist to find all eyes on him.

"What happened, man?" Claudio asked through his thick accent.

He didn't want to lay blame solely on Lina and simply replied, "work got in the way."

"Sorry to hear that," Claudio said, patting Joe's shoulder. "How's the little one taking things?"

"Like a trooper. She's doing OK. Val's the one havin' a hard time with it," Joe answered.