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Adam looked up at the sound of a knock on his locker room door. He suspected it was most likely Vickie Guerrero, his onscreen love interest, but got a surprise when he opened the door.
"Amy..."
"Hey, Adam." The redhead smiled and tried her best not to appear nervous. She could do this... She had worked with him plenty of times, so this time wouldn't be any different. But it would be... After all, the last time they'd worked together, they had still been a couple.
It would probably start out a bit awkwardly - for both of them, in spite of everything. And as far as she was concerned, awkwardness was the last thing they should be feeling together.
"So," she continued, "I take it by the look on your face that you've heard the news?"
"Yeah," the blond man said lamely. For some reason, he found himself unable to tear his gaze away from her. "I have."
"Well, Stephanie called and invited me to this big meeting with her in Stamford," Amy went on. She knew she was babbling by now. "And she had this huge idea for me to be a part of a major storyline, and... well, I couldn't say no."
"Oh. Well, that's good," Adam replied, a tiny smile playing at his lips. In his mind, he was replaying dozens upon dozens of times they'd had together in a working capacity during her last year and a half with the WWE before she'd left. The one and only sour spot was when the fans had verbally assaulted her for the way she'd gone about conducting her personal life... Well, that and what the Creative team had scripted for after her final match at Survivor Series that last year. To this day, the memory of how she'd had to go both saddened and sickened him to no end.
"Yeah," the redhead said with a small smile, bringing the Canadian out of his reverie, "so, we get to work together again." She bowed her head for a beat, then raised it again, her hazel eyes meeting his steady gaze.
"That's great," he said.
He was staring so intently at her that he didn't even react to the soft knock at the door a moment later.
"Adam?" she asked. "Are you going to answer that?" The woman hooked a thumb toward the door.
"Huh? Oh... yeah," he said as he snapped out of it. He stepped over to the door and opened it to reveal another woman.
Vickie started to issue a greeting to Adam but stopped as she saw Amy.
"Hello!" she said genially, offering the diva a smile and a hug. The redhead had been a friend to her late husband Eddy and had come over for dinner on more than a few occasions - mostly with her former boyfriend.
When the women broke apart, the brunette glanced at each of them in turn. A definite expression of uncertainty marred her features.
"If I'm interrupting something, I can come back."
"No, you're not interrupting anything, Vickie," Amy answered quickly. She cast the tall blond a look and smiled. "I was just saying hello... and we were just talking about the storyline plans, how I'll be included and all that."
"Oh, it should be fun! Stephanie said something about you coming into the picture sometime next month."
The redhead nodded.
"By the way, word is you and your boyfriend split up... I'm so sorry to hear that, Amy," Vickie said with sympathy.
At that, Adam's head shot up, and he stared at the redhead. Was that the truth? If so, why hadn't she told him?
Amy lowered her eyes, but she'd noticed the reaction on the blond man's face. She felt her cheeks flushing a bit and swallowed, nodding. Then, facing Vickie again, she spoke.
"Thanks." She shrugged. "It just wasn't working out."
Adam eyed her with intensity at that explanation. It struck him as odd that she would use the exact same choice
of words he had after he'd broken up with his girlfriend. He couldn't help but wonder about it. Was there some
sort of significance to the explanation? He wondered if he should broach the subject with her the next time they
were alone. He suspected Amy might get offended and claim it wasn't any of his business... But one thing Adam knew
with one-hundred percent certainty was that it was, and he suspected she felt the same way deep down.