CHAPTER THIRTEEN
OVERTHINK
Onscreen:
The crowd cheers seeing Jey onscreen, walking down the hallway dressed in all black.
"Yo Jey." The man hears, looking to the side Cody walks up to him.
"What's up man." The Uso daps up the 'American Nightmare'.
"I wanna talk to you about last week." Cody starts.
"Talk to me." Jey replies.
"Are you sure about this whole Leanne thing?" Cody asks.
"What chu mean?" Jey replies questioning.
"You know how she rolls man, it's her and her girls, I know they're in jail but can we trust her? Do you trust her?" Cody replies asking.
"I'm gonna be honest Uce, I don't know, we talk sometimes but I can't tell you if she's with us." Jey answers shaking his head.
"Well do you trust her?" Cody asks.
Jey was hesitant with his answer, not knowing if he should or not. This pause causes a stir from the crowd, shaking his head he answers, "I do."
The answer makes the crowd cheers and Cody nods his head at his friend. "I trust you, ok and I just hope you're right about her."
With that Cody walks away leaving Jey in silence.
"Me too." The Samoan utters.
Offscreen:
"Good work guys." Jey nods at the producers walking away from the set.
Walking with Cody down the hall to catering, Jey had been thinking about Leanne all night.
He hadn't seen her at all and since pictures from last night was posted to Twitter he hadn't heard from her either.
The last time they texted she once again reminded him off work which made him paranoid now because of said pictures.
In all honestly he didn't even know how to feel about the pictures either, last night it felt like they were in their own little world. There wasn't any back and forth, no co-worker relationship or the guys reminding him of the bet every five minutes.
It was him and Leanne.
Jey couldn't help but smile at that thought, last night he actually got to see the side of Leanne that Stacy and Jesse saw, the goofy, laughing, joyous side. He liked that she felt comfortable with him in those moments and now because of the pictures he was scared she'd revert back to how she was when they started off the storyline. Professional onscreen, avoidant off screen.
"You're so quiet man, what's on your mind." Cody asks breaking the silence.
"Nothing just work stuff I guess." Jey replies briefly.
"And by work stuff you mean Leanne." Cody raises an eyebrow at him.
Jey's silence was all the second generation superstar needed to know the answer.
"Man, I don't know what to do, we haven't spoken since this morning and now with these pictures I don't know she'll be cool or awkward about it. I mean it did look like we were damn near ready to get it in, in the damn restaurant." Jey stresses to his friend.
"Well, go talk to her about it. Pondering and overthinking isn't gonna help by the looks of it tonight she's been cool. Maybe you're stressing for nothing." Cody shrugs.
"Maybe I am, but maybe I'm not." Jey replies.
"Well, go ask her, she's right there."
Leanne let out a light grunt as she warmed up. In a few minutes she'd have a match against Liv Morgan, which would be one of her first title defenses since Liv won the opportunity last week in a Battle Royale.
She had on noise canceling headphones to stop her from being distracted by any noise or people, she wanted her mind to be tapped in and lazer focused on her work.
Dropping down, she did ten reps of push ups activating her arm muscles for the strenuous work she'd be putting in tonight with Liv.
As she got up however she felt eyes on her. Turning around she hid the small smile that wanted to creep its way onto her lips as she tilted her head at Jey who stood not far leaning on some crates looking at her with a small grin.
Taking off her headphones she looks at him, "what?"
Playing it cool Jey shrugs, "nothing, just admiring the view."
Leanne rolls her eyes but smiles at the man, "you're such a flirt Jey." Shaking her head she picks up the tape starting to wrap her hands in them.
"Only for you, ma." Jey retorts.
"But hey, I wanted to talk to you about something." He steps closer to her, propping herself onto the crate she sat Indian style looking back at him expectantly.
With her warm brown eyes staring back into his, Jey had to look away taking a deep breathe to stop the urges his mind was pushing him to do.
"About the whole picture thing that got out from last night." He starts, he saw as her body stiffened slightly but in the same breath relaxed, the action confused him and had his mind racing but he covered it as though he didn't notice.
"I wanted to come to you, see if you were good, I know how you are with the whole professional thing." Jey continues.
Leanne nodding along as he spoke, "I'm good, Hunter told me what we're gonna do to go off of it since we're already in storyline."
"He did?" Jey echos confused.
"He didn't tell you?" Leanne who now was also confused asks.
"Nah, what's up?"
"We're gonna have to now basically do everything together. Travel, press, matches, house shows, anything that makes us look close." She shortened Hunter's explanation of it to him.
"That way, people don't speculate we're an actual couple and it fits into the storyline we got going on, which by the way, you hesitant on trusting me now?" She raises an eyebrow changing the subject, she didn't want to think or talk about the actual couple part because she already knew how she felt and didn't wanna have to dwell on the thought any longer.
Jey smiles at her showcasing his grills unintentionally, "you know I gotta let the people speculate."
"Mhm," she rolls her eyes.
"Come on mama, you know I trust you," he nudges her shoulder lightly this allowing him to move closer to her closing the distance between them completely.
Noticing the movement but ignoring it Leanne snorts, "besides the real question is if you trust me, I know you'd be pissed if I use the opportunity to come out tonight with you for your title match." He continues.
Leanne's next words however genuinely shocked him, "and what if I wanted you out there with me tonight."
She licked her lips, eye curly lashing fluttering when she blinked, the closeness of the two made their faces, much like last night be inches away from eachother.
Gasping on his words Jey breathed out, "well...I'd be out there in a heartbeat."
Let glossy lip curving into a smirk she scoots off the crate picking up her titles, "Well come on them."
Thinking she was joking he waves her off with a laugh.
"What are you standing there for boy move." She motion for them to go.
"Oh wait you're serious?" He furrows his eyebrows, his expression in a confused and shock look.
"Yeah, boy let's go." She smacks his arm.
"Ok, damn don't gotta rush me." He mutters leaning off the crate rubbing his arm.