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Matt Hardy looked down at the sleeping form beside him. Ashley was half under the blankets, on her side and facing away from him. He leaned over a bit, craning his neck to get a better look - she appeared to be sound asleep...
... Good. Moving carefully so as to not waken her, the dark-haired man reached for his cell phone on the nightstand and gingerly got out of bed. Looking back over his shoulder, he stepped toward the doorway of the bedroom. She hadn't shifted or anything.
Matt left the room and strode down the hallway, flipping his phone open as he did so. Lucas suddenly came out of nowhere and made a little yelping sound as he followed at his heels.
"Shh!" His heart was thumping so loudly. That damned dog! What if he woke up Ashley? He shook his head as he glanced down, seeing that Lucas was trailing after him. He rolled his eyes in aggravation. He knew he should have given the annoying little mutt back to Amy after the breakup.
Luckily, it seemed that the dog hadn't awoken Ashley, as Matt got no indication of such as he stepped outside of the house. He stood barefoot in the cool night, his eyes trained on his cell phone as he dialed her number.
She finally answered on the fourth ring.
"Hello?"
"Amy - hi," he said, forcing himself to sound cheerful. Although she sounded groggy, he would have bet that in reality, she had been fucking Copeland. He got a brief flash of memory of their live sex on RAW little more than a month earlier and scowled at the sickening image.
"Matt?" she asked, and he could practically hear her stretching. Maybe he'd woken her up after all. "It's three in the morning," she complained. "What do you want?"
Rage suddenly filled Hardy at his ex-girlfriend's words. How dare she act that way toward him! He'd never known her to be rude, though.
"I was thinking about you," he said. His free hand was already clenched into a fist. "Worried about you, actually. A certain piece of feces ex-friend of mine better be treating you right."
On the other end, Amy audibly sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose with the thumb and forefinger of her left hand. Why did she have to deal with such nonsense when she wanted to sleep?
"He's not feces, and he *always* treats me right, Matt. Look, I have to go."
"He's there with you, isn't he?"
The redhead sighed again, wearily.
"No, he's not," she said. "He's home in Toronto and I'm home in Atlanta for the next two days." Inwardly, she asked herself, 'Does it matter?'
Matt was suspicious, but he didn't dare to question her further.
"Oh," he said. "Okay, I'll let you go, but I just wanted to ask if I could visit you sometime this week?"
"Why don't you call me back at a reasonable hour and we'll discuss that *then*. Time for me to get back to lala land." With that, she hung up.
The dark-haired man was fuming... He removed his cell phone from his ear, grumbling at the dial tone he'd just heard and stared at the display. He couldn't believe that bitch had actually hung up on him. And he would have bet she had lied after all - Copeland probably *was* in bed beside her. Why else would she have been so short with him?
"Hey..."
Matt was startled by the voice as Ashley suddenly appeared behind him. She touched him on the shoulder. "What are you doing out here?"
"Nothing," he mumbled. He tried to hide the cell phone in his hand, but he was certain the blonde had seen it. Her sleepy blue eyes looked questioning.
"Really?"
"Yes," he snapped. He took in the sight of her in her short, skimpy nightie and took hold of one of her bare arms in an attempt to direct her back toward the house.
"Look at you, you must be freezing. Get on back inside."
"I'm okay," Ashley protested. She stiffened at the strange gleam in her boyfriend's eyes. "Really." She glanced down again, desperately wondering who he'd just called - or *tried* to - on his cell phone. "Who were you calling at this hour?"
"No one!" Matt shouted, his features hardening with intense anger the likes of which the blonde had never experienced from him. "Instead of being so damn nosy and suspicious, why don't you get back in the house?"
Ashley flinched, her stomach bottoming out on her at his harshness. His tone was so abusive, and that was so unexpected. It stung her something awful, and she didn't quite know what to even say. She merely stared at him in shock, crestfallen.
"Go on," he ordered. "I'd like to stay out for a few more minutes - *alone*."
She winced again and took a deep breath as she finally moved, her steps quick as she bounded back up and into the house. Lucas followed her, and she let the dog scurry in after her before she closed the door.
Ashley couldn't stop the tears. The moment she'd turned away from Matt, she'd felt them, felt the horrible constriction of her throat. She let out a sob as she reached the bedroom, her hands coming up to her face. She cried softly for a full minute or more before an impulse hit her.
She grabbed her cell phone off the nightstand and flipped it open. She needed to talk to someone, and she knew exactly who to call to vent to about what had just happened. Nevermind the fact that it was after three AM - he'd told her she could call "anytime."
"Hello?"
His voice sounded sleepy, as though she'd just woken him up, which, at this hour, she obviously *had*.
"Hi," she said, her voice breaking. "I'm sorry to call so late, but I needed to talk..."