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"Look who finally made it!"
The exclamation came from a pleased-looking Ric Flair, the club's co-owner beaming as he eyed the mostly burly male rock band entering the building.
"stacy... Lovely Stacy," the man said, taking hold of the tall blonde woman's hand and giving it a squeeze and a pat. "So nice to see you again."
Stacy Keibler smiled at Flair's hospitality, the keyboardist's boyfriend, Randy Orton, just behind her.
After a few niceties with the others, Ric finally found himself welcoming the leader and co-founder of Evolution, Dave Batista. Despite what Stephanie had told him a few days earlier, the older man refused to let his true emotions show. As far as Evolution were concerned, nothing was awry.
"Dave, my man..."
Batista gratefully took hold of Ric's outstretched hand and shook it. A small smile crossed the big man's sharp features as he glanced over his shoulder at the young woman behind him, holding onto his left arm.
"This is my girlfriend, Torrie..."
"Well..." Flair spoke, his eyes merry as he fixed them on the tall platinum blonde. "Very nice to meet you, Torrie."
The girl smiled widely, chasing that with a giggle. "Pleased to meet you, Mr. Flair."
"Charmed, I'm sure," he replied, taking her hand and kissing the back of it.
From across the club floor, Lita frowned and shook her head. The redhead was not at all amused. Watching the display, she let out an audible exclamation of disgust before walking away to retreat to the backstage area.
Chris and Stephanie, who'd been sitting with her, watched as their friend departed. The brunette looked worried as she met her boyfriend's eyes, then annoyed as she glanced back over to her business partner. Why did he have to make such a big fuss over the woman who'd come between Lita and her former boyfriend? It downright sickened her, and she decided she had to have words with Flair later on.
Meanwhile, in the little backstage room, Lita froze just as she closed the door. Somehow, she'd thought she would be alone in here, but that was indeed *not* the case.
Edge turned and caught sight of her, his green eyes showing initial surprise - and some other emotion the redhead was unable to read. Then, just as quickly, the tall blond man seemed to ignore her as he continued with his task of replacing the strings on his guitar.
Lita felt her heart sink at the obviousness of the cold shoulder he was giving her. Damn it, it hurt. But yet, she *had* to talk to him.
Doing her best to try and ignore the rotten feeling in the pit of her stomach, Amy turned to the blond man.
"Adam, I'm glad you're here... The truth is, I wanted to talk to you." She inched closer to him and he had no choice but to look up at her since she placed herself directly in front of him.
He allowed his gaze to drink her in longer than he wanted, and he felt a surge of warmth as he took in the expression on her face. She was so beautiful, yet a look of uncertainty and perhaps even fear, seemed to dominate her face. He could only wonder *why*.
He didn't bother giving her that chance.
"Oh, really?" he asked, abandoning his task with the guitar as he stood up before her. "Well, that's too bad, because when you really get down to it, we have nothing to talk about." Then, despite feeling kind of shitty about his attitude toward her, he cooly slipped from the room.
Lita stood there, fists clenched as he left her, the door closing audibly in his wake. She was seething - but damn if she didn't suddenly feel tears burning behind her eyelids.