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Dawn Marie burst into tears the moment she reached the gorilla position backstage, unable to hold back after the humiliation she'd just experienced.
She held her arms across her chest protectively, desperate for the concealing robe one of the stagehands suddenly handed her.
She'd really done it, despite her reservations - no, her outright refusals... For the Halloween taping of SmackDown, she'd gone out there for the Trick Or Treat contest against Torrie Wilson. And while Torrie got to keep her entire Playboy bunny constume on, she'd had to strip off the bikini top she'd been wearing - while submerged in a tub full of chocolate syrup, no less!
Damn it... Dawn's tears fell more freely as she desperately tried to stifle the sobs she felt aching to break free. She'd come here to the WWE to wrestle, not be nothing more than cheap eye candy! That was more or less Torrie and Sable's forte - the two trashy blondes had willingly posed nude for Playboy, and they would do anything for the sake of publicity. While Dawn Marie did aspire to one day become an actress, she did not care to resort to such stunts to get there. The way she saw it, what that sleazeball Paul Heyman had made her do was nothing more than softcore porn! If anything, something like that would hurt her chances of being taken seriously - as a wrestler or an actress... Not help her...
"Hey, are you all right?"
The teary brunette whirled her head around to stare over her shoulder at Sean O'Haire. The dark-haired, muscular man was eyeing her with concern. Self-consciously, she pulled her robe more tightly around herself.
After a beat, she realized O'Haire was not trying to sneak a peek, and she turned fully to face him.
"No..." she admitted. "I'm really not." She sniffled miserably, her brown eyes shifting down.
"Can't say I blame you," Sean spoke softly. "That must have been pretty humiliating for you." He noted her tears, and how her black mascara had run an pooled beneath her eyes. The poor girl... And to think, a few months back, the writers had scripted him - in his on-screen devil's advocate role - into talking Dawn Marie into stripping topless in the middle of the ring. In spite of being able to get an eyeful of such a beautiful woman's breasts, the storyline had sickened him somewhat. He knew the brunette - much like himself - was a relative newcomer to the pro-wrestling business - and also like himself, she wished to be taken seriously in the ring. Yet the writers constantly had her in skin contests and strutting around some a cheap, common streetwalker. He found that very sad.
To his surprise, the brunette grew angry.
"Oh, you think? Well, thank you very much for pointing it out to me - gee, I didn't realize I was crying my eyes out because I was humiliated out there!" She tightened her grip on her robe, her crying now ceased. "You men are all alike! I bet you just loved the little show I put on out there, huh?"
Sean blinked as he stared at her, completely taken aback. Dawn Marie had totally misconstrued his intentions in what he'd said. He'd meant to be comforting, not to further contribute to her feeling of humiliation!
"Dawn, no-" He reached out to touch her arm in a soothing manner, but the upset brunette would have none of it.
"Don't touch me!" she cried, jerking away from his would be grasp. Damn, but she nearly slapped at his hand. "I have an idea - why don't you just leave me alone?!" That said, the diva spun on her heel and stormed the remainder of the way down the hallway toward the women's locker room.
Sean O'Haire stood there, shocked. He had to admit, he was also feeling a twinge of hurt. Dawn Marie
had completely misunderstood him - and the last thing he would ever want was for her to hate him -
as it seemed she now did...