CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
MEET AND GREET
On her arrival to the meet and greet Leanne was greeted by screaming fans, yelling her name at the ropes of their lungs. She smiles as she gets out of the car walking into the building.
Inside there were booths for superstars, themes areas, pop up shops and many other stalls.
Being escorted to where she was needed, Leanne held her titles on her shoulder as she waited for her name to be announced.
She stood off stage peaking through the small gap in the curtains. With the room packed with fans she anxiously rubbed her finger in the leather of her title as she watched.
"Alright, we have one more surprise this evening for you guys. Ladies and gentlemen, I want you to put your hands together for one of most decorated female athletes in all of the wrestling industry, the Fox herself, Leanne Fox!"
Leanne climbs up the steps onto the stage in front of a roaring crowd, her music plays as she makes her way to her seat in-between Bianca Belair and Jey.
On the panel, were Bobby Lashley, the Street Profits, Bianca, Leanne, Jey and Cody on the end.
Waving at the audience, Jey pushes out the chair for Leanne as she takes a seat giving him a thankful smile.
A collective 'aw' goes through the crowd as she did.
"Welcome, Leanne welcome." The host tells her.
"Thank you, thanks for having me." Leanne nods with a smile.
"Thanks for coming." The host laughs.
"Now I know everyone here has a lot of questions to ask you but, I wanna know, how you feeling today?" He asks.
"I'm good, I'm good, I've had a great day so far, I wish I could keep it that way." She answers.
"Love to hear it, love to hear it, I don't wanna hold anyone back I could basically see that guy itching to talk to you," he points at reported in the crowd, "let it rip!"
Multiple reporters raise their hands, calling her name to get her attention.
Looking down at them she points at the man who the host was refering to.
"Hi, Leanne, I'm John from Florida Wresting Reports, I wanna ask you, what are your goals with the up coming year with the title?"
"Well to do that I gotta stay champion, which will happen but, I mainly just wanna elevate our division, you know wwe is stacked with talent right now and I wanna be able to put all of us women in a position to shine." She replies.
He nods taking a seat.
"Leanne! Leanne! For the last few weeks we've seen your two bestfriends off of TV, when are they coming back." A female reports then asks.
"Whenever they get out of jail." The champions replies snarkily with some fans laughing.
"Leanne, you said that the women's division is stacked with talent right now, who would you wanna face in one of your title defenses?" Another reporter asks.
"Oo, that's a tricky one. I have my fair share of dream matches but I would have to say, this woman right here." She motions to Bianca.
"Oh me." Bianca grins.
"Maybe I can knock the EST down a notch." Leanne jokes.
"What- what is your response to that Bianca?" The reports asks her.
"Oh Leanne girl, uh- uh." Bianca says into the mic looking at her.
"Oh no, huh," Leanne looks at Bianca, turning back to the crowd she says, "you don't wanna catch that fade, don't worry." Leanne jokes.
"Girl we will see about that." Bianca says.
"Maybe the two of you could be a tag team." The reporter suggests.
"If i wasn't with my girls, hell yeah!" Leanne replies.
"Imagine if Bianca joins PVA though." Angelo speaks up.
"That would be crazy, the star power there would be insane." Leanne replies.
"We would be badass girl." Bianca says.
"Everybody getting whooped." Leanne nods agreeing.
"That's probably why Hunter ain't have yall together, y'all would be four menaces backstage." Jey comments.
The group of superstars laugh as another reporter steps up. "Hi, I'm Kasandra Weller from wrestlingworldcc, Leanne you mentioned the other members of PVA, Jesse and Stacy but recently it seems like your working with Cody and Jey more so Jey, what is it like working with them?"
"Honestly, i did not expect to end up in something like this, you know I've been with my girls for years, basically since the start of my career but you know Jey is.... Jey is cool to work with, you know in the short time of working together to now travelling together he has not managed to piss me off," She laughs, "but you know, he's just a sweetheart, very considerate, he makes sure I'm okay with... like... everything and people outside of wwe wouldn't know this but I am a very reserved person and i feel like he catches on a lot of the time to my cues of when I wanna talk and be interacted with and when I'm not in the mood, some people take that as me being a bitch, but I promise I'm not I'm just not very outgoing as you might think." She explains.
"I don't wanna interrupt anything here but, i love how Jey is just sitting here cheesing the whole time." Cody points out making a roar of laughter go though the room.
"Man I'm just glad she could see my efforts." Jey answers.
"Wanna elaborate Jey?" The reporter asks.
"I'm just saying, you know we work together a lot closer now I don't wanna make her feel uncomfortable with anything." He answers.
Leanne looks at him as she spoke to the reporter with a ghost of a smile on her lips.
"Likewise to my question, Jey what is it like working with Leanne?" The woman asks him.
"At first she was really strict with it, I'm telling you first few interactions felt like I was talking to Stephanie McMahon you feel me." He jokes making the audience laugh.
"But after that you know I learned a lot in the time we've been working together and I feel confident enough to say we became friends, I can sit and joke around with her but at the same time we can just chill, cool." He replies.
"She's a very calm person too so whenever I'm feeling overwhelmed with something all I gotta do is be around her and it get peaceful." He comments.
Leanne looks at him with a subtle surprised look, having no idea that Jey felt that way. He always seemed chill throughout everything, to her it seemed like she got stuck in her head and got overwhelmed more than him.
Jey felt her eyes on him, his heart was beating fast against his rib cage. He knew she'd have a reaction to his confession but he couldn't lie it was the truth.
Jey hasn't mentioned being overwhelmed about anything to her when they spoke because in actuality whenever he felt that way and went by her or even looked at her the feeling would melt away completely. It's why he loved being around her so much, her aura was always one that calmed him.
"Jey." He heard her voice. It was soft and away from the mic.
Looking at her he was filled with anxiety as to what she might think about it.
To his surprise, Leanne took his hand wrapping her fingers around two of his large ones and resting their linked hands on her lap.
Looking forward the woman refocused on the conversation that had now gone over to Cody.
Jey looks down at their hands, on her left thigh which was closer to him. She squeezed it slightly on reflex to something Cody said that made them laugh, he kept his eyes on her mentally assessing what this meant.
It didn't mean anything, but it also meant everything to him.
When she adjusted his hand holding it closer to her, he knew.
There were no words exchanged but a lot was said.
She understood how he felt peace in her. And she didn't mind that he did.
Smiling softly he turns back engaging in the conversation once more.