I Don't Care Anymore!

Chapter 7

There was real excitement in the air when Seth and Bayley arrived at the arena the night after Summerslam. New York's Barclays Center was going to host the debut episode of Women's Evolution.

Lasting an hour, the new show would happen before Raw, which would revert to its old two hour format. The announced changes had been received with overwhelming positivity by the fans. Bayley had seen a lot of people saying that they thought Women's Evolution had a shot at becoming the best of WWE's brands, if it was done well. That was certainly Hunter Helmsley's vision for it.

There were, however, questions still to be answered, and not just for the audience. Bayley and the rest of the roster had been told precious little themselves about the new show as yet. The list of tag teams that Alexa Bliss had somehow found out about hadn't even been formally announced. No one knew who the commentators were going to be. No one knew who the general manager was going to be, assuming there would be one. No one knew who the first Women's Champion was going to be. No one knew who the first Women's Tag Team Champions were going to be.

Expecting to receive answers to at least some of those questions, Bayley headed for the women's locker room after saying goodbye to Seth with a kiss. At least she was going into the new show with some momentum behind her, she thought. At Summerslam the previous night, she had been victorious over Sasha Banks for the second pay-per-view in succession. Presumably, that rivalry was now complete, with the start of Women's Evolution.

Dragging her travel case into the locker room, Bayley saw that she was among the first to arrive, as was most often the case. Sometimes, she was first of all. On this occasion, Sasha Banks was already in the room, along with Bayley's new tag team partner, Alexa Bliss. The two women were standing together, looking at something at Sasha's phone and laughing.

"Hey, guys," Bayley said pleasantly as she approached them. She always used a locker next to Sasha. It was a little surprising to see Sasha getting along so well with Alexa.

"Oh, here she is," Sasha said, laughing again.

"What are you laughing at?" Bayley enquired, feeling on the defensive. Clearly, for whatever reason, she was the subject of the laughter.

"Oh, nothing bad," Alexa clarified quickly, realising how they had come across.

"I was just telling Lexi a bit more about you since you're apparently going to be a team now. We got onto the subject of Bean and Gone, and I randomly decided to look it up and see what your reviews are like."

"And why is that funny?" Bayley demanded, even more defensively. People laughing at the business she had worked hard to build was not something she appreciated in the least.

"You have great scores," Sasha assured her. "We're not laughing at you or the shop. We're laughing at a comment someone left. Look." She held her phone out to Bayley, pointing out the particular comment in question.

Taking the phone, Bayley was happy to see that the reviewer had given Bean and Gone five out of five stars. So what was so funny? Initially puzzled, she read the comment out loud. "We enjoyed our visit to Bean and Gone. Will definitely go back again next time we're in the area. The coffee was some of the best we've ever had, and we both enjoyed a delicious cake to go with it. The best part was the manager who served us. She appears to be a Bond villain who runs a coffee shop in her spare time! You've never heard an accent like it! I asked her if she planned to take over the world, and she said one coffee shop at a time. Hilarious!"

All three women started laughing. Having visited the coffee shop with Seth and Bayley, Sasha was familiar with Elena D'Agostino, the manager Seth had hired to run the place in their absence. Elena was a very good manager, with plenty of experience in the industry, but she spoke English that was awkward at times, and had a very thick Italian accent. Bayley could definitely see the Bond villain comparison. It would be worth remembering for the next time she had a conversation with Elena.