"Why are you calling the house phone?"
"Because I know you don't screen the calls."
"I have to finish packing."
"Baby, please."
"What do you want, Joe?" I asked.
"Le."
"What?"
"Le, that's what you call me, lalelei."
"Le . . . that's the man I married, but I haven't seen him in months."
"Baby, how can I apologize if you won't talk to me?" he asked.
"Joseph . . ."
"Leati."
"Whatever. I don't want your half-assed apology. The only reason you want to apologize is that you got busted! Had I not come home when I did . . ."
"Arianna, I did not sleep with her. I would never do that to you."
"I know you wouldn't, but I don't trust that she wouldn't."
"Baby, please, I want to talk to you and clear all of this up before this weekend." he said and I felt the hurt again.
"Of course." I scoffed.
"Aria?"
"Wrestlemania weekend! God forgive I mess up Roman Reigns' Wrestlemania weekend!" I cried, wiping the traitorous tears away.
"Wait . . . no . . . Aria, baby, that's not what I meant."
"Just stop, you want to talk to someone? Go call Galina, you obviously have lots to talk about." I said before hanging up.
Sitting down on my side of the bed, I let the tears fall while I ignored the phone. I miss my husband, the man who loves his family more than his job. Ever since this feud with Lesnar started last year, that man slowly disappeared. This week hasn't even started and I'm already dreading it. This was supposed to be fun.
Not to bother anyone, I ubered to the airport and by 9:30 pm I was in New Orleans. There were lots of fans at the airport and it actually fixed my mood a lot. In the hotel lobby, the same thing happened, so I took selfies and signed autographs for 20 minutes before the front desk manager came out to escort me to my room. Since I'll be here for so long, I unpacked my suitcase and put all of my clothes away. I considered going back down for food since room service is closed but decided against it.
When my hotel phone started ringing I knew it was one of four people: Trinity, Renee, Brie, or my husband. The first three I had spoken to about meeting up once I got here. I decided to answer despite the risks.
"Hello?"
"Aria, please don't hang up." My husband begged.
"What?"
"Where are you? What's your room number? Baby, we need to talk, I need to see you."
"Joseph . . ."
"No! That's not what you call me. Please Arianna, I need to see you . . . to apologize."
"I'm in 508." I sighed.
"I'll be there in five minutes."
I can hear the relief in his voice and I hope that this is the right choice, not just that I want to see my husband. It didn't even take him five minutes, maybe three to get to my room. When I opened the door, he didn't try to kiss me and I appreciated that. He did, however, drop to his knees and kiss my belly. Ever since I found out I was preggers he does this, I think it's cute.
"I . . . I don't want to argue, so say your piece and we can get this over with." I told him as I walked away.
"Arianna, I need you to know that I didn't cheat on you. The thought never even crossed my mind. Baby, I love you." he said, dropping a bag on the table and cupping my face in his hands.
"You have a funny way of showing it." I said, stepping away from him and placing my hand on my belly.
"I never should have taken my frustration out on you. I don't even know how to begin to apologize because I know how badly I screwed up. That hurt look on your face will never leave me, baby I am so sorry that I hurt you." he sighed.
"You did hurt me, Le. Work was more important than us and then the Galina thing and . . ."
"I can explain."
"Explain what? How easy it was for you to walk away from us? I was there, I saw it. No, you're gonna explain how easy it was for you to run to your ex! Someone I wasn't even aware you were in contact with, to begin with. I know that we're married, the big ring on my finger makes that very obvious, and I don't want you to tell me everyone you talk to but it would have been nice to know that you were talking to your ex again. Especially since the last time, we spoke about her you told me you hadn't heard from her in months." I argued, trying not to cry.
"Baby . . ." he said as he reached out.
"Don't." I said as I held both hands up.
"Arianna, please sit down. Baby, this stress isn't good for you."
"Don't tell me what's good for me or not. I doubt you'd know." I argued but sat down as he suggested.
"I've been in contact with G for 2 ½ months now." he said, shocking me.
"2 ½ . . ."
"She messaged me a while back and said that she wanted to see Jojo again, she wanted to be in her life again." he said.
"Okay, what's wrong with that?" I asked, trying to listen and understand where he's coming from.
"I wanted to make sure that she wasn't playing with Jojo again. I needed her to realize that when she signed away her rights so that you could adopt Jojo, she signed away any obligations I had to share my daughter with her."
"Okay, I get that." I replied, slowly seeing what he was trying to do.
"Was it a mistake not to tell you? Absolutely, I didn't want to even mention it until I was sure that it was going to happen. I should've told you, I know that. She's our daughter but I didn't want you to have to deal with it. She called me when I got to Orlando and asked to see Jojo. I was only going to let that happen when I could be there, I won't let her disappoint our daughter again." he sighed, dragging a chair over so that he could sit in front of me.
He tried to hold my hands but I moved back, placing my hands on my small belly. My husband sighed but didn't insist.
"Why?"
"Baby, I just told . . ."
"No, why now? Why the sudden interest in being Jojo's mom again?" I asked.
"She's pregnant and I think she's jealous of your relationship with Jojo. Galina wants Joelle to be a part of her pregnancy the same way that she is with yours. Half of the time that she was with G, all she did was talk about you and bean. As much as that bothered Galina, she knows that it's her own fault."
"The sleepover?"
"I hadn't really noticed just how much Jojo missed Galina because she has you, and my sister and your sisters, but she was so happy. She started to fall asleep and G was going to leave but Jojo wouldn't let go, she asked me if G could spend the night and I said yes. She slept with Joelle, I swear . . . you don't believe me."
"I do."
"Arianna, I swear that nothing happened between us. We took Jojo to school in the morning, had a meeting with her teacher, and worked out. That's it."
"Just like old times?" I asked, feeling hurt and masking it with pettiness.
"No, not like old times. This was a successful attempt at co-parenting. I mistreated you in such a bad way and I'll never forgive myself for it. I'll work every day for the rest of our lives to earn your forgiveness. It was never you, I love you, and I will always want to be by your side." he tried to grab my hands and I let him this time. "I didn't want to take my frustrations out on you so I did what I could to keep busy, instead of spending that time with you. Baby, I'm so sorry that I made you feel like I didn't want to be with you. That is so far from the truth, I let Wrestlemania cloud my mind and that was a mistake. Such a huge mistake, the first that caused all of the rest. Baby, please forgive me for all of this." he pleaded, kissing my hands.
"I wish it was that easy." I sighed, pulling my hands from his.
"That's understandable."
"Where are you sleeping tonight? This week?" I asked.
"Aria . . ."
"You're not staying here."
"There are two beds, baby, I don't want to be away from you."
"No."
"I'm staying with Jon. Aria, baby, I'm so sorry."
"I don't . . ."
"I know, you don't believe me."
"It's not that, it was so easy for you to walk away from me. I told you to leave, yes, but you didn't even try to stay, and that hurt more than anything. To me, and I don't care how irrational it is, it felt like you were walking away from us. You weren't fighting for us, you didn't want to fight for us." I muttered, wiping the tears away.
"Lalelei, I will always fight for you, for our family. I don't know how I'm going to do it but I will make sure you believe that again." he said with tears in his eyes.
He stood and walked over to me, cupping my face in his hands, and kissing my forehead before kissing my belly, then he walked out. I sat on my bed and cried, I hate how emotional I get over everything now. This is nowhere near what I wanted to happen during my pregnancy but nothing goes according to plan, doesn't it?