It's Been A Long Time... [Desperate Measures Sequel]

Nineteen.

In the restaurant that we ended up in I allowed AJ to order for me. He told me he was going to surprise me with something new. All I actually cared about was getting some food in me, my stomach growling as I sat next to Luke, opposite AJ. 

"Can we please talk about the fact that at some point you were seeing Dean Ambrose?" Karl asked as he filled up his glass with wine. 

 I laughed as I shook my head. "Lets not, can we please talk about something else?" 

AJ looked at Karl and raised his eyebrows. "Leave the poor girl alone."

"Look the thing is," Karl said as he looked at me. "We now know about you two, there are no secrets, you might as well tell us."

I bit my lip as I smiled. "Okay."

"Okay?" All the boys repeated as their eyes seemed to pop.

Smiling I leaned back in my chair and I shrugged. "You guys want to know don't you?" I smirked as I allowed them to think for a minutes before I spoke again. "It just happened, we just ended up sleeping together."

"But when did it first start?" AJ asked as he looked at me. 

My eyes travelled down looking at my hands as I spoke with a look of uncertainness, "The day after I stepped off the plane." 

"What?" AJ questioned as I looked up at him. "Are you kidding me?"

I rolled my eyes, "Honestly I don't know how. It just happened." I admitted slowly as I smiled. "But it's just sex."

Luke let a chuckle slip, "Just sex? He told you he wanted you."

"Look, he's just not ready for a relationship and I know that I want to settle down. I want more. If he's not ready I respect that, but I do want more from whoever I might be seeing in my life." I explained with a heavy heart. 

Luke put an arm around me "You surprise me, Tasha."

"I surprise myself," I groaned as I sighed. "I have done my sneaking around if he doesn't want a relationship that's fine. I just don't want to be a booty call."

"You sound like a grown-up," AJ rolled his eyes at me. "Where is Tasha and what have you done with her?"

Smiling across the table at AJ I realised that I had matured. I needed more stability in my life, the job had me moving around from place to place, I just wanted my love life to be stable. I would rather be single than just having sex whenever Dean felt like it. 

Being pulled into the office on arrival at the centre was not what I had planned, I certainly did not plan to be in the office standing across from Stephanie. She was wearing casual clothes, I assumed she would not be on the show tonight considering her clothing. 

"We are just waiting for the rest of our guests," she told me as she took her seat behind her desk before she smiled at me. "Take a seat, Tasha. We can chat whilst we wait."

I looked behind me before I sat on the chair that was behind my legs. "Why have you called me here?"

"All will be revealed soon," she told me as she leaned forward placing her elbows on the desk. "How are you feeling about being on the show?"

My mind was racing, I didn't want to tell her that I was nervous, I didn't want the truth to come out. "I am happy," I said with a smile. 

"Look," she spoke freely. "I was almost tempted to not have you on my show, but I can see just how far you have come." She smiled at me, "You look so much more confident in yourself, you look happy."

"Well," I raised my eyebrows. "We can see how I feel after I leave this office."

Just as I finished speaking the office door opened, Hunter ended with Seth, Roman and Dean. Stephanie and I turned and looked at them, Hunter joined his wife behind the desk standing behind her chair, the boys all looked at the chair next to me before Seth shrugged and sat down, both Roman and Dean standing close to his chair. 

"Thank you for joining us," Stephanie said as she leaned back in her chair, removing her elbows from her desk. "I have a little proposition for you all."

My eyes looked for hers to Seth's who was looking at me. I refused to look at Roman and Dean, even though I could definitely feel their gazes on me. Seth looked just as confused as I was. 

"First off," Stephanie slapped her hand on the desk bringing all our attention back to her quickly. "Can we cut this bullshit we have in here? I could cut the tension with a fucking knife." Her language not necessary but used for effect. 

I kept my eyes on her but I could feel the eyes of everyone in the room on me. Did I miss something? Was all this because of me, I mean really?

Turning my head I smiled as I looked at everyone, yet I still didn't meet Dean's eyes with mine. I didn't want to look at him, knowing that the thing we had was no more. I looked back at Stephanie and smiled at her. 

"So," she thrust a few pieces of paper in front of us as she leaned forward pointing to the top line with her pen. I leaned forward trying to read as she spoke. "As you can see this is operation rebuild the shield." She said as she smiled. 

I heard the boys let out a 'yes' and some slaps, I assumed slaps of five highs and back-slapping, congratulating each other. 

"Then why is she here?" Roman asked about me. 

"I'm getting to that," Stephanie said as she dropped her pen down the paper. "The plan is to bring Sanity across from NXT," she pointed to some words on the paper. "Now you need a female in the team. Natasha isn't in any storylines at the moment, I thought it would be best if we start afresh."

"I'm not interested" Dean spoke up as I looked around, finally looking at him. He wasn't looking at me though, his eyes firmly on Stephanie. "I don't want no part of the shield if she's in it."

My eyes rolled at his dramatic words. "I'm grown up enough to work with you all."

Dean shook his head as he finally looked at me. "I don't want nothing to do with you, not at work or outside of it."

Turning to look at Stephanie I smiled at her. She smiled back at me before she looked at her husband. Hunter raised a hand to his chin, stroking it like he was thinking. 

I could hear Roman and Seth trying to barter with Dean, trying to convince him that it was only for work. I didn't want to convince him of something he didn't want, it wasn't my place to do it. 

Hunter cleared his throat, everyone fell silent as we all looked at him. "Well thank you all for coming to see us, we are sorry to have wasted your time." He gathered the papers and placed them into a drawer. 

I stood up and nodded at Stephanie and Hunter before I turned and left the room, I didn't want to hang around and try to convince them to do it without me. I didn't care if they did it without me, I didn't care if they didn't do it at all. Leaving the room I headed along to the changing rooms where I spent a few minutes with my head in my hands. If AJ was here I would have spoken to him and moaned about the whole meeting to him, the truth was here I didn't have anyone I could do that with. 

I really needed to get myself some new friends, or just someone to talk to.