Flames

Breaking the Internet, part 2

If Seth had been wondering how long it would take the news to spread, he needn't have bothered. They had barely arrived at the arena before Big E strode out, puffing out his already huge chest. "Excuse me, young man. What exactly are your intentions towards my future stepdaughter?"

Laughing, Becky ducked around Big E's wide shoulders. "Have fun!" she called out on her way to the women's locker room.

Once Becky was out of earshot, Big E gave him a hug. "Seriously, Rollins, I'm happy for you. You two are, as the kids say, adorkable. And now you two don't have to be all cagey in public anymore, right?"

"Well, there is that." Seth wasn't totally sure being able to kiss in public quite made up for not being constantly scrutinized, but he wasn't mad. Any joint statement they could have made would have sounded forced and phony; Twitter was at least prime Becky behaviour. "I'll miss us being . . . just us," he said, struggling for words, "but it's good to have it out there too." In a weird way, it made it more real. The past few months with Becky had been amazing, but also infuriating. Every time he wanted to post a picture on Instagram or a comment on Twitter, he had to consider whether it referenced her in some way. Now that their relationship was public—or at least open on Twitter; he was sure it would be splashed over the wrestling sites before the end of the night—the barrier between his work life and his personal life wasn't quite as restrictive.

"Bro!" Xavier Woods hurried up, shaking his phone at Seth like a cranky old woman trying to make a return at a store. "BRO! She tagged you, man! She tagged you! And you haven't even replied yet! How can you leave your girl hanging like that? And on GoT night no less!"

Big E puffed up his chest again. "Yeah. I expect you to be an honourable young man and declare your love for my darling future stepdaughter forthwith!"

Xavier turned to Big E with a sharp look. "E, you leave Mama Lynch out of this!"

Seth took advantage of their playful bickering to make a quick escape, grabbing his bag and heading to the locker room. On the way, he fielded a bunch of congratulations; it was obvious who had checked Twitter recently and who hadn't, because some people seemed utterly oblivious to what was going on. Finn was clearly one of the ones who saw, because he stood as soon as he saw Seth enter the locker room and went over to hug him. "I would say Congratulations," he joked, "but I have a sneaking suspicion that Becky sprung that on you."

"A little bit," Seth agreed with a laugh, "but we had been talking about putting it out there, so it wasn't totally out of the blue. I'm not mad. It worked in context and it suits Becky, so. . . ." Then he shrugged. "We probably should have told Hunter first, but. . . ."

Finn just shrugged. "Honestly, he probably expects something like this out of Becky. And it's casual enough that they can brush it off if they want, say it's some Mixed Match Challenge teaser or something." He patted Seth's shoulder before going back to his bag. "Besides," he added, pointing to Seth's phone, "now you can actually look at that picture on your phone without hunching over every time someone walks past!"

Seth glanced down at his phone and smiled. The picture in question was one of the stills from Wrestlemania, when he and Becky had kissed just after his victory over Brock Lesnar. It was a great shot, but since they hadn't been an open couple, Hunter had held it back from any of the official channels. It gave him an idea, and he parked his bag by Finn. "I'll be right back." He dodged more well-wishers on his way to Hunter's office, texting him as he knocked. "Hey, Hunter, quick question for you—" he began.

Hunter raised an eyebrow and his phone at the same time. "I gathered that. Come in. What is it?"

The phone suddenly felt like a brick in his hand. The picture was technically WWE property. Did they really want to hand their relationship over to the whims of the McMahons? Seth took a deep breath and showed Hunter the picture. "You saw what Becky posted on Twitter?"