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Trish's face reflected plenty of indignation and anticipation as she played the tape. Her brown eyes stayed locked on his blue as the voices spoke over the small tape recorder, not once wavering as she gauged his reaction.
"Wow," Chris said. He seemed momentarily speechless as he listened to his friend's voice as he talked to the woman. "That's unbelievable... If I hadn't heard that with my own two ears, I probably would never have believed it."
"And that's exactly why Amy needs to hear this," the little blonde said. "She probably would react the same way. But what a pathetic bastard!" Abruptly, Trish snapped the tape off with a flick of her thumb. It sickened her to listen to it at all. She couldn't believe this was the man her friend had fallen so hard for - the man she had once considered a close and dear friend of her own. Although she'd changed her opinion of him awhile before, she felt as though *she* had been betrayed... betrayed because she thought she'd known Adam Copeland - yet, apparently, she didn't. What she heard in his voice on the tape Dawn Marie had given her was a vile, despicable man who had no compunctions about crushing another person's soul and heart. It was horrible.
Jericho arched an eyebrow, though not in surprise. He knew his girlfriend so well. She would play this tape for Amy, all right. Trish valued her friendships and felt that friends needed to know the truth, regardless of how it might hurt. As far as she was concerned, knowing the truth was far better than being shielded from it. And she felt that way even about truths that hurt. In the long run, it was for the best.
"Are you sure that's the best way to go about this?"
Trish stared at Chris. For a moment, she seemed on the verge of being speechless, but then she spoke.
"How can you even *think* to ask me that?"
Jericho shrugged, regretting what he'd said. He knew it was no use in trying to get his girlfriend to allow Amy to find out about this from the direct source.
"Nevermind. Yeah, she probably wouldn't believe it unless she heard that tape, anyway." He swallowed, looking away for a second as an uncomfortable feeling came over him. This was not going to be pretty when Trish approached Amy. "So, when are you going to do it? When are you going to go see her?" he asked.
"As soon as possible," the little blonde replied, the small tape recorder still clutched in her hand. "I just hope she's not with *him* when I do."
Jericho nodded. That would no doubt be the worst case scenario. He sure as hell didn't want Trish to play that tape in front of Adam. Given his unpredictability as of late, who knew what he would do if that happened? He definitely didn't want to find out.
*
Amy and Adam both looked up simultaneously at the knock on their hotel room door. Not mistakably was the sound again, and the tall blond man groaned.
They were in the middle of something. Things had been getting quite heated and would have gotten even hotter still had whomever was outside the door not interrupted.
Adam exchanged glances with the redhead, annoyed. He desperately hoped he was reading her mind correctly, but then, when she called to the visitor, he realized he was not.
"Who is it?"
"It's Trish!" the feminine voice called. "I need to speak to you!"
The couple exchanged glances again, and this time Amy looked annoyed. She shook her head and muttered unintelligibly under her breath. Then, "Just a minute!"
The Canadian man eyed her incredulously.
"You're actually going to see her? *Now*?" He gestured to himself, bare-chested, in only his boxers, his erection nearly poking out. She herself was clad only in her bra and panties, one of the hooks in the back of the former undergarment undone thanks to him.
Amy slipped her shirt back over her head and eyed him seriously.
"She's probably here to apologize, Adam... I knew she'd come to her senses." A hard smile touched the redhead's lips. "And I wouldn't miss this for the world." She started pulling her jeans back on while her boyfriend simply stared at her.
"And what about me?" he finally asked.
"Go wait for me in the bathroom." She suddenly grinned as an idea came. "Start up the shower and I'll make up for not letting you take one with me that time."
The blond man's handsome face lit up like that of a kid at Christmas. Without another word, he bolted up from the bed and raced for the bathroom.
Once the door was closed, Amy's smiled quickly vanished as she turned back to see the still closed hotel room door. Sighing, although with a feeling of triumph returning to her, she unlocked and opened it to Trish.
"Well, hello... What took you so long?"