Just Like Old Times

Nessa Wall stripped off the sweat-soaked sleeveless IYHWF tee she’d chopped up, using it to mop her face as she crossed the threshold into the ladies locker room. She didn’t really care if anyone saw her - the sports bra she had on underneath covered more than most of the women in professional wrestling did on a daily basis. She expected to be greeted with the white noise of the showers, or the chatter of other women. Instead the silence bordered on ominous. Smirking, she crossed the room towards the locker she’d been using and then froze when she spotted a very large, very out-of-place floral arrangement sitting on the bench. Full of daisies and hydrangeas and those furry purple phallic ones, it was gorgeous. It clearly cost someone a pretty penny. Every single flower she was most allergic to was right there in front of her but she didn’t put the pieces together at first. She also didn’t notice that little florist’s card sticking out of it that had her name written on it.

Her eyes were watering a bit too much for the little details like that, her sinuses prickling as she took a step back, shaking her head.

“Seriously, who leaves a giant basket of flowers in the middle of a gross locker room?” She muttered the words under her breath, not really expecting an answer.

Her expectations were surpassed just moment later when she did get an answer, a voice from around the particular bend of lockers she was standing at. “Clearly someone who’s a big fan of yours.” The masculine voice was a far stretch from the type to normally be heard within the walls of the ladies locker room. Coming around the corner Nessa saw the familiar sight of her ex-boyfriend, Matt Stone, standing fully clothed with a grin on his face, looking over one half of the IYHWF Tag Team Champions.

Her eyes widened in surprise, that normal smirk of hers absent as she took in his appearance before her features settled into a frown. “Clearly.” The word came out frosty, a reminder of their last face-to-face meeting all to clear in her mind. At least this time he hadn’t tried to lobotomize her with lipstick. Yet. “Should I assume this is your doing, or just a happy…” she hesitated, sniffling slightly, “coincidence?”

Matt approached the blonde, glancing down at the lovely floral arrangement for a moment, removing the little card and glancing at it, as if he didn’t already know what it said. “Happy coincidence? Did my ears deceive me or did you just admit that you’re happy to see me? You have no idea how much that warms the cockles of my heart Nessa. As for the flowers, I believe this has the answers you’re looking for.” Extending the card to her, he flashed the cocky smirk that she couldn’t find earlier.

She hesitated just long enough to give him an answer to that question without saying a word before snatching it from his hand. Warily, she opened the little envelope and slipped the pretty pink card from inside. One eyebrow rose as she scanned the words:

Dearest Nessa,
Roses are red, Violets are blue, they're both expensive, so these'll have to do.
Love Matt

“Dearest?” She lifted her head again, staring at him. “I’m pretty sure these things,” she gestured vaguely at the flowers, nose wrinkling, “aren’t even native to this country! And this isn’t much of an answer. Why would you do this?”

Matt paused for a moment, trying to think of the right way to answer her question. “Well, you see Nessa, I’m not exactly thrilled about how our last encounter ended. We both said some things we didn’t mean, me about your attitude and you about my red M&Ms, but I figure the past is the past, and when I thought back to what you talked about when we were together, for some reason these flowers sprung to mind and as a sign of good faith, I pulled some strings to make sure they made it to you as fresh as possible. Don’t you like them?” He questioned, pushing them closer to her on the edge of the bench.

“They’re nice,” she admitted with a tight-lipped smile, trying not to blink so he didn’t notice her eyes were tearing up. “Very nice. Wonderful, even.” Had he actually forgotten how allergic she was? Had he forgotten how these very same evil flowers had caused her to sneeze all over him and his title belt during a live interview? “I…” her voice caught, the beginning of a tickle as she shook her head, “I still don’t understand why you’re here.”

“Well after paying the gym to ensure that no one else could get in for the last hour, it would be a bit of a waste of money had I not come, wouldn’t it?” He asked sarcastically, finding the opportunity to be a smartass irresistible. He probably wanted a more serious answer though, he remembered that about her, at least. Nessa wasn’t a fan of being dicked around, who would have known? “I came to see you, of course.”

“Right, of course you did,” she rolled her eyes, sniffing disdainfully. “Is this about what I said on Twitter? About Vivian being the second best tag partner I ever had? Because screwing with me before a big match… that’s low, even for you, Matthew.”

Matt feigned shock at what she said, shaking his head. “No, of course not. If you want to rank Vivian ahead of that other guy...Steve is it? Then that’s perfectly fine with me, I’m not going to get all reverse feminist and claim the man should be higher ranked. Quite frankly, I think he’s a bit of a loser myself, and that just proved it. I know you’ve been searching for someone like me since we stopped teaming all those months ago, but sadly, there just isn’t anyone like me out there. However, if you play your cards right…” He pauses, looking her over once more. “And continue to dress this provocatively, we could try the whole team thing again one day.”

Teeth gritted, she resisted the urge to sock him right in the middle of that smug smile. “You know damn well his name is…” her nose twitched, another sniffle coming as she took a step back, “Shawn.”

Matt rose an eyebrow, watching her facial reaction, but deciding it’s just Nessa being Nessa. “Well I find it very interesting…” he began, that smug smile on his face growing in size much like the Grinch’s heart in the climax of the beloved children’s cartoon. “That of all I just said, the only thing you felt necessary to correct was the man’s name. A fine name, at that, it’s no Steve, but it’ll do, I suppose. I’ll bet he’d never be thoughtful enough to ensure your privacy and provide you with such a lovely arrangement of exotic flowers.” He punctuated that statement by picking up the flowers and holding them up like a trophy.

“You’re right,” she snapped, “he certainly wouldn’t do anything nearly as borderline stalkerish as clearing out a gym so he could harass someone in a locker room.” She rolled her eyes, glaring at both him and the flowers in turn. “He’d have given me a better present. One that isn’t going to die in a few days - but then, you always were shortsighted like that.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, careful with those accusations, Nessa.” Matt set the flowers back down on the bench, trying to keep a civil tongue with the woman who just insulted him...twice. “This gym happens to be on Matt Street. Sure, it’s still called Main Street now, but it’s just a matter of time until that’s changed and I happened to notice you come in here. I know how much you used to hate people as a whole, so I thought clearing this place out for you would have been welcomed. I’m sorry if I got some of your new friends removed.”

“You know I don’t have friends.” The words came out with a hint of bitterness and that insouciant shrug she was known for. “You’ve gone to so much trouble - by your own admission - so I guess I’m required to ask you why? Why now, Matthew? Why are you here?”

“I don’t know that.” He admitted, referring to her alleged lack of friends. “As for why now, in all seriousness, I wanted to see you. You might not have taken that at face value before, but it’s true. Granted meeting with you in a locker room isn’t ideal, but when you don’t return my calls, you leave me with little recourse.”

“I don’t get your calls,” she countered, “I blocked your number ages ago. Of all the places in the world… you had to come to Australia. Wasn’t that Baltimore cesspool enough to feed your ego, hmm?”

“It was just that.” He said bluntly. “A cesspool. A cesspool of people that cared more about who was in charge than about the talent that was out there. Me, of course, being the most in that category. Plus there’s only so many times you can see people get attacked by a staple gun before you start questioning if you’re making the right decision with your life. This may shock you, but making life decisions hasn’t been my strong point recently.”

“Sounds a little too much like Blazenwing, really.” She made a face, shaking her head, nose wrinkling again although it wasn’t really clear if it was distaste or the beginnings of an allergic reaction. “Funny how that goes, isn’t it? I finally feel like I’ve got my world spinning back on its correct axis and here you are. Mr. Topsy-Turvy.”

“That place was just a shit show, is all that was.” Matt was very vocal then about his disapproval of Nessa’s ventures with that place and his opinion on the matter clearly hadn’t changed. “Now I’m not a certified genius or anything, as I’m sure you remember, but I can’t imagine a world where Mr. Topsy-Turvy is a good thing. I’m not trying to turn your world upside down, being in this hemisphere is doing that enough as it is.” He pauses as if waiting for something. “Really? Nothing for the Geography joke? That’s a shame.”

She gave him a dutiful eye roll before dragging in a deep breath for a sigh, one that almost became a cough. “We’re in the Upside Down now and if I’m being honest? I don’t really care. I don’t miss those people I left behind. Harmony and Brie and all the rest?” She shook her head, letting that double meaning sink in. “Get to the point then. You miss me. You wanted to talk. About what? The last time we spoke… before… well, I think you made it pretty clear where we stood.”

A smile started to spread across Matt’s face when he heard was Nessa was saying, and although she asked him a question, he wanted much more to focus on what she said just before that. “You know…” He started, that smile growing ever so slightly. “People accused me of manipulating you, isolating you, but as it turns out, I was kind of right all along then, wasn’t I? I knew then what you’re coming to realize now. You were always better than those people, they needed you far more than you needed them. You were never happier, at least when I knew you, than when the two of us were alone doing something, not hanging out with those people.”

“I’m not a social person. We both know that.” She turned her back to him, going to her locker and pulling it open to toss that soiled tee inside. “Shawn understands that too. We’re a lot alike that way.” She said the words deliberately to needle him. “The best thing, though? Is how he actually wants me to succeed - not just as some reflection of how great he is, either - he was happy for me when I won that title in Blazenwing. All by myself.”

“I would have been happy if it would have been anywhere else, I just don’t care at all about that place. I’m proud of you though, you’ve come a long way from the girl I knew two years ago that was this close to marrying some douchebag that would rather run with his tail tucked between his legs than fight for the woman that he supposedly loved. Remember that paper I gave you late last year?”

“Paper?” She almost scoffed, rifling through her purse as though she was looking for something, doing anything to make it look like she didn’t care and didn’t want him here. She knew what he was talking about and the fact that he’d brought it up now made her feel far too much anger and sadness in the face of her post-workout exhilaration. “Matthew,” she sighed, “I don’t have time for this cryptic nonsense. If you have something you want to say, just say it and be done with it already.”

“Cryptic?” He questioned, taking a step towards her. “There wasn’t any secret message I was trying to get across Nessa, I was just going to use it as proof that, despite what we’ve been through, I’ve always believed in you. When I first joined that company, I didn’t come to you as a boy with a crush, I came to you as a man with respect for what you were able to accomplish. I know I’m not as mature as some people, but don’t forget that I’ve always cared for you, not just how you made me look.”

Whirling around, she dragged in another deep breath with the effort to rein in her temper, stalking back towards where he stood. “Don’t you dare,” she almost hissed the words, “don’t you even - I’m happy. For the first time, things are good. I’m good. And here you are, trying to get your hooks in and…” she hesitated, for a moment looking like she was struggling for the right words in the face of that anger that had flushed her cheeks and made her blue eyes glow. “And drag me right back down to your…” she faltered again, nose wrinkling almost imperceptibly before-

“ACHOO!”

Matt stood there taking in everything she was saying, already forming the reply to it in his head for when she finished, but her finishing isn’t exactly what happened. With Nessa getting closer to him, and subsequently the arrangement of flowers that had been looming over her since the encounter began, Nessa’s rage, along with her sneeze had little place to go except right in the face of the man who had been causing her irritation.

But of course, he was right in the blast radius and immediately she turned red, eyes going wide. “Goddamnit!” Trying her best to recover that previous rage, she wagged a finger at him, shaking her head but whatever acid she was about to unleash had already vanished. Instead, she felt impossibly tired. “Just go away, Matthew.”

Matt just stood there for a few more moments, wiping his face as he looked deeply into blue eyes, his mind racing with all sorts of things right now. Anger, frustration, annoyance and even nostalgia for this wasn’t the first time this had happened, far from it, in fact. “Just like old times…” He said, his voice sounding surprisingly calm given his past reactions to such thing, though it wasn’t easy. “Alright Nessa, you want to believe that this is the first time you’ve been happy despite both of us knowing that’s not true, fine. I’ll let you live in your fairy tale without storming through breathing fire on your knight in shining armour, but you should really think back and analyze if you’re just fooling yourself because this is easy, or if it’s right.”

A thousand things she should have hurled right back raced through her mind and she actually opened her mouth to start laying into him for having the balls to question the depth of her feeling. That was as far as she got before another sneeze built and this time she had just enough warning to turn away, sneezing into her hands instead. For a few seconds she kept her back turned, trying to think of something to say that would hurt him just as much as his words had cut her. “Listen, Matthew, you think you’re so great but you’re just as-” she turned back, falling silent when she realized she was alone. Of course he’d slipped out, denying her the last word.

She sighed and then stood there, staring down at the flowers, unable to keep the disappointment off her face or the tears from filling her eyes.