Playing With Fire

Part 5

She spent the rest of her week focused on everything but her issues at home. She was actually surprised at how easy it was to get lost in the day to day life of her career. She had good friends, she got to wrestle, she got to see the world. There was nothing quite like it and the ritual of travel had gotten into her blood. She'd grown accustomed to hotels and gyms and venues. That was her life, and the wrestling and friends made it easy...well okay not easy, but worth it.

With Sasha out she'd spent most of her time with Seth and Finn. Seth was traveling with Dean and Roman, so she didn't see him as much as she had a few months ago, but they still normally went to the gym together. Finn traveled and worked out with Curt now that Luke and Karl were on Smackdown, but she and Finn had been hanging out together a lot at the venue warming up and talking ideas for matches and entrances and moves. She was really enjoying spending so much time with him again. She'd almost forgotten how easy he was to be around.

The first time she'd seen him after her day off she could tell he knew something was wrong, but he'd instinctively known she didn't want to talk about it. He'd offered a hug and silent support, but he hadn't pried. He was a good friend to her, and the hug was very much appreciated, especially considering how little they'd hugged until recently. Finn actually wasn't a very touchy feely kind of guy, and she'd always tried to respect that. There had been a time when he'd been very comfortable with hugs from her and had even been the one to initiate them sometimes, but they'd pulled back from that after he'd gotten hurt. She had no idea how much she'd missed his hugs until he'd started offering them again, and it was funny how easily it came back to them.

...

Once again on Monday they were paired up, only this time she was the one that had a match. Before they went out they had to cut a promo for their match the following night. She'd been feeling particularly appreciative of how great he'd been, and also still really pissed off with her fiance, and even though she wasn't normally the kind of person to do something out of spite, she couldn't help herself from holding onto Finn just a little longer, enjoying how nice he felt, and not caring so much about what it looked like. Finn didn't seem to mind so she decided she wasn't going to worry herself over it.

Finn came out and danced in her entrance with her which was hilarious. She loved that he was so comfortable with himself and that he could goof around and be silly. His reaction when she surprised him with one of his dropkicks was priceless, and when they'd got back to gorilla afterwards he'd been super excited to tell her about an idea he'd had after seeing her do his dropkick. He wanted to try a move where he assisted her in a dropkick into a hurricarana. She'd loved it, and they agreed they'd work on it.

After the show they rode to Portland together, then parted at the hotel. She knew he planned to spend the next day with his best friend just like she was looking forward to a rare day with Carmella, and they made plans to meet up at the venue the next night.
...

When she saw Finn at the venue for Smackdown, he looked to be in good spirits. She knew he'd probably needed that time with Karl and Luke, and as soon as he saw her he pulled her into a hug. She stubbornly ignored how that made her heart skip a beat and tried to focus on what he was saying.

"That jacket looks really nice on you, but I can't help but notice it's not too different from mine," he teased as he reached out and gently ran his fingers over the leather at the cuff, briefly cupping her wrist in his palm before letting go. It was her favorite jacket, a dark gray leather coat, and while it hadn't been purchased specifically because it was like his, she did remember thinking when she slid it on the first time how it reminded her a little of his, and how much she'd enjoyed borrowing his that one time. She could feel her cheeks warm a little at both the teasing and the compliment.