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Lita sat on the edge of the low stage at In the Raw, deeply lost in thought.
It was the day after she'd seen Sean here, and her mind was whirling into overtime. What was she going to do? Her old band was coming to town... Like it or not, Evolution was going to be a regular fixture here - and back in her life again. That knowledge hit her like a freight train.
Of course, it wasn't Sean, Randy, Stacy or even the new guitar player who'd replaced her she worried about. But damn it, she was going to have to deal with seeing Dave again on a regular basis. Not to mention his bleached blonde whore...
She was still brooding when she felt someone come up to sit beside her.
"You okay?"
Without turning around, she shook her head.
"I don't know, Chris... I really don't know."
The blond man raised a hand to run it through his long hair and sighed. This was exactly the kind of reaction he'd been afraid the redhead would have from the moment he'd heard the news from Stephanie. Lita just seemed so lost, so dejected... uncertain. He just hoped she wouldn't do anything rash.
"Hey, don't worry..." he said with a chuckle as he suddenly brightened. He gave her a playful nudge on the shoulder. "We'll kick their ass onstage - we'll show *Evolution*-" He made a face as he mockingly emphasized the other band's name. "-who rules this place and town!"
Lita gave him a small smile, grateful for his friendship and camaraderie. She only wished she could get more of that from Edge, but the tall man had sort of distanced himself the last couple of days. She wondered what was up.
"Yeah..." She glanced around the club, taking note of everyone who was there. "Hey, have you seen Edge?"
"Not in the last few minutes, but he might be downstairs... Either that or he stepped out." Chris quirked his brows upward, amused by the way the redhead was scanning their surroundings for the other blond man. He didn't understand how they could be so obviously into each other and deny it - or at least Edge had... He knew as well that the blond guitarist had been avoiding Amy over the last couple of days out of resentment, and probably a feeling of rejection.
Yup, Edge was definitely in denial - or else completely oblivious. Hey, maybe he was a combination of both. It wouldn't surprise Chris if the latter applied to his friend.
Then, as though on cue, Edge suddenly appeared through the entrance of the club and exchanged words with Albert. So, he had stepped out.
"Look..." Jericho said to Lita, the young woman following his line of vision. "There he is..."
The redhead's lips parted slightly as she gazed across the club at the tall Canadian. She wanted so badly to just march up to him and ask what was up, why he'd been acting so funny lately... But if she did that, chances were he'd laugh at her or ask what the hell she was talking about. Guys usually had snappy, off-the-cuff remarks like that about such questions. That was especially the case when you thought there was something wrong and they didn't.
"Why don't you go talk to him?" Chris was suggesting, the blond man nudging her again. "You know you want to..."
Lita felt her cheeks burning bright red, for some reason, and she refused to look at Jericho because of it. Instead, she kept her head turned away from him as she nodded. His suggestion wasn't a bad one.
"I guess I will..." With that, the guitar player rose and made a beeline for Edge, where he was now standing near the bar. The blond man's back was toward her and she stepped up closer to him. She bit her lip nervously, then bit the bullet.
"Hey..." she said, reaching out to touch his arm.
He turned and gazed down at her, and the redhead instantly recognized the effect he was having on her.
"Hey, Li..." Edge replied, his green eyes shifting away from her - almost as though, to the young woman that he really didn't want to talk to her. She wondered why in the world that would be the case. "Look..." he continued. "I promised Rob and Booker I'd help them out with something." Then, before Lita could protest, the tall blond man strode off, his long legs moving fast.
Amy stood there feeling hurt and left wondering what she'd done to deserve such a cold shoulder...