_______________________________________________________
Lita continued to gape at Edge with shock, her mouth still open. She felt as though she were in the Twilight Zone, or that she'd imagined what the blond man had just asked her - but she knew it hadn't been her imagination. She'd heard him loud and clear, and correctly. He was serious - he actually wanted them to be *together*.
The tall Canadian sighed after a moment, then looked away with disappointment. "Okay, I get it. Your silence answered my question." He raked a hand through his long blond hair and stood up from the bed.
The redhead continued to press the blanket up against her bosom, and, raising her eyes to his form, she finally spoke.
"Edge, wait..."
He turned back to face her with anticipation.
"I...you're really serious about this..."
"Well...yeah," Edge said as he sat back down on the side of the bed opposite her.
"But how could we *do* that?" Lita asked. "I mean...we're supposed to be *enemies*. You and the Hardys - my best friends - hate each other. You guys are fighting all the time, and..." The redhead swallowed hard with the memory of something the Canadian had revealed to her the night before. "...you and Christian are the Conquistadors! How can I-"
"How'd you know *that*?" Edge asked, his emerald eyes widened in concerned surprise.
"You *told* me!"
"I did?" The blond man scratched at his goatee as it suddenly all returned to him. "Oh, yeah...I *did*."
"Right," Lita said as her eyes met his. "And in *that* sense as well as what I said before, how can you expect it to work?" She reached over across the bed with one hand while the other still held the covers securely against her. Grasping his hand, she said seriously, and as gently as she could manage, "I don't think it would be a good idea, Edge...I'm..." She couldn't believe what she was about to say. "...*sorry*."
The blond man blinked, acutely aware of the diva's much smaller hand in his, and he glanced down at their clasped hands. After a beat, he raised his gaze to Lita's, and he forced a smile.
"Okay," he finally said. "It...It was just a crazy idea anyway. If that's what you really think, then...it's cool." He pulled his hand out of hers and stood up. "I should be going. Bye, Lita."
"Goodbye, Edge."
As the redhead watched, the tall blond man quickly slipped over to the door and left.
She couldn't help feeling regret run through her - but she wondered *why* in hell she would feel that.
*
Edge made his way back to his own hotel room, wondering why a feeling of dejection had gripped him. Big deal... Okay, so he had enjoyed himself with Lita last night. So, she had shot down his idea of them together in flames... But why should that bother him so much? Obviously, she didn't like him one iota, and she didn't care about what had happened between them. So, why should he? He decided it just wasn't meant to be - no biggie there. After all, there were so many more fish in the sea, right?
Now at his door, he swiped his keycard and shoved his way into the room, his eyes sweeping over his unused bed and then shifting to Christian's.
'Oh, great...' he thought with annoyance. Stephanie McMahon was still there, and she and Christian were huddled in one another's embrace underneath the blanket. Edge rolled his eyes at the fact that they were both still asleep. And he would have bet his bottom dollar they were both naked as well. It sucked when they did this to him - they used the room all night, sometimes for days at a time, leaving him to scramble to find a place to crash. And Christian *still* made him pay for half the room!
Edge frowned as he thought about all of this. He decided he and his best friend would have to discuss the matter of him being treated like a second-class citizen in his own hotel room very soon. The little princess, not *him*, should be the one shelling out the bucks for half the room - since *she* was in it a hell of a lot more than he was.
The tall blond ran a hand through his hair as he continued to stare at the sleeping couple. Aggravation took over as he wondered why he'd even bothered to return here. He should have just gone down to breakfast until he was absolutely certain Stephanie would have already left. He spun on his heel and walked back over to the door.
As he stepped out into the hall, Edge turned his head to glance in the direction of Lita's room regretfully. 'Oh well...Life goes on,' he thought.
*
*Later that night, SmackDown taping, October 17, 2000*
Lita held her head, her fingertips gently rubbing her temples as she still felt the effects of her margarita binge from the night before. She'd taken a couple of aspirin that morning after Edge had left, but they hadn't lasted very long.
"Hey, girl," a voice called to her as another diva stepped into the room. She felt a gentle nudge on the shoulder and looked up into Chyna's smiling face.
"Hi..." the redhead said as she squinted and winced.
"What's wrong?"
"Damn headache...I drank way too much last night."
"You only had two margaritas," the Ninth Wonder of the World said. "Unless you got carried away after Eddy and I left you last night."
The Women's champion felt her heart pounding in triple-time upon her friend's last sentence. 'Oh, I got carried away, all right!' she thought. Aloud, she said, "Yeah - unfortunately, I did...I had five drinks total."
"Ouch," Chyna said with a wince of her own. "I have some Tylenol in my purse..." She crossed over to her locker and retrieved her bag, rummaged through it and came up with a little bottle. A moment later, she handed Lita the two small pills.
"Thanks," the redhead said gratefully. She hoped they would do the trick. She had a title defense match against Trish Stratus later that night. And although the little blonde could never hurt her or even give her half a fight, she didn't want to suffer the agony of this pounding headache during it.