Betting on the Zebra Chapter 7

For Disclaimer and other details please see Chapter 1.

CHAPTER 7

A day off! A whole, wonderful, blissful day off to spend doing whatever the hell she wanted to. Lenny rolled over in bed and knew that she was smirking. She had no idea what she was going to do but she just knew that if it involved not having to go into work she was happy. Not that she was usually happy about not being a work. But right about now she knew that it was the last place that she wanted to be. She had a feeling that a certain pair of idiots might just make her life a misery if she turned up tonight. Hell she knew that it should be the other way around but sometimes things just didn’t work out that way. Still she was more than surprised that they had seemed to make sure that they kept out of her way last night. She hadn’t really noticed until she got back to her hotel that both Paul and Kevin had been suspicious by their absence because she had been studiously avoiding them too.

She also knew that by rights she should have reported what happened the other night at the arena but she just ... hadn’t. What the hell was the point? It wouldn’t achieve anything. Paul was the golden boy at the moment and all that she would do if she ran to her boss to tattle about him turning up in the women’s locker room was to have herself tagged as a troublemaker. That was something that she really couldn’t afford to have happen. Yeah, she supposed that strictly what he had done could be construed as sexual harassment. But he hadn’t done anything, hell he hadn’t really said anything that was offensive either. He had merely made the same kind of comment that he made to her all the time. Something light and jokey. She was just incredibly embarrassed that she had lost it the way that she had done. Yeah, it had been justified but still it had totally blown her cool as a cucumber image.

Lifting her hand she shoved her hair out of her face and wondered what she could do today. It felt kind of weird to be in a city a whole day before the rest of the guys and girls. But she knew that there was no point in going home only to spend a couple of hours there before she had to hop into her car and head right here. Besides it wasn’t as if she had anyone to go home to. She could understand some of the others practically breaking their necks to get home. They had wives, husbands ... families to head on home to. It still got to her how hard those people worked to spend as much time with their loved ones as possible. It was like another job in itself. They must really rack up the miles.

The only person that she had at home was her room mate Brian and he wasn’t exactly waiting by the phone. Oh there was no doubt that she absolutely adored the guy and she knew that the feeling was mutual. He was her best friend in the world and, as she often joked, her perfect man. Unfortunately he was also gay so that kind of blew the perfect couple scenario out of the window. But they had made a very dumb pact one drunken night when they had both just broken up with their partners of the moment. She vaguely remembered getting all maudlin and emotional declaring that she was obviously never meant to get married and have children. To this Brian had been his usual comforting self except a whole lot drunker and suggested that if neither of them were married or in a committed relationship by the time they were ... horror of horrors ... thirty five that they would have a baby together.

She still couldn’t believe that she had agreed. She was pretty sure that having children was something that had never even passed through her mind before that night. It had always just been something that if it happened, hey great but if it didn’t then she wasn’t going to kill herself over it. It was strange the things that alcohol could do to a person’s brain and their inhibitions. She had woken up in Brian’s bed the next morning snuggled into him. That in itself wasn’t alarming. They often fell asleep in the other’s bed. If they were recovering from a particularly heavy night or if they had been watching some dumbass movie in bed and eating way too much crappy food.

She sighed as she thought of her mother. It was pretty safe to say that her mother disapproved of the way that she lived both when she was at work and when she was at home. Not that her mom disliked Brian. Nope, Lenny was pretty sure that her mother was as crazy about the guy as she was but she couldn’t seem to understand why they lived together. The woman couldn’t seem to understand why her daughter had moved out of her house just to move in with someone else. No matter how many times she tried to explain that having a roommate meant help paying bills and someone to keep an eye on things while she was on the road her mother just shrugged her off.

Now that she thought about it her mother seemed to spend a lot of her time shrugging her off. She seemed to think that this whole ‘wrestling thing’ as she called it distastefully, was just a phase and that in a couple of months her daughter would be back in her home town looking for a job that would no doubt be more befitting a young lady. Rolling her eyes Lenny thought that her mom might have some kind of selective memory thing going on. She had never in her life been ladylike and she really didn’t see it starting now. She was who she was and although she loved her mother dearly it sometimes saddened her that the woman didn’t seem to see how happy she was with her job and her personal life.

So she didn’t see the house in the suburbs and the wedding ring as the answer to everything. Not that she had a problem with the women that did. Hell they had her utmost respect. In her eyes that was probably the hardest job in the world. Being a wife and mother. It made what she did for a living look piss poor. Deep down she knew that was what her mother wanted for her and she also knew that it was something that was unlikely to happen. What with her schedule she barely had time to turn around let alone meet someone new. Oh well, if it was going to happen it would.

Struggling to shove her lazy ass out of bed she stretched and yawned widely. Strolling across the floor towards the bathroom she began to think about what she could do to pass the time today. Hell she was in LA there had to be something that she could find to do. She grinned. She had never been here before so she would at least have some fun exploring the city.

-o0o-

Leaning back against the row of lockers Kevin sat on the bench and watched his friend pace around the room like a caged animal. “You know that you are so beyond lucky that Lenny didn’t go to someone and report you for doing what you did a few days ago right?” He asked. He knew that was why Paul was on edge. Whenever someone approached him or any time that Vince was in the vicinity he could feel him tense up so much that he was surprised that the guy didn’t just snap in two. He was waiting for the moment when he was hauled into the office and received his punishment

“HELLO!” Paul said in disbelief. “You were there right? You were there when she was screaming at me like a banshee and throwing books at me. What the hell makes you think that she hasn’t reported me by now?” He asked.

Shrugging Kevin couldn’t exactly pinpoint why he was so certain about that. “Lenny just doesn’t strike me as the type who would do something like that.” He said and knew that it sounded both weak and lame. “Look at it this way if she had reported you one of two things would have happened. You would have felt a hand on your shoulder and been taken away for a smack on the wrist and a good talking to. Or Lenny would have been shuffled out the door to keep things quiet.”

“How do we know that hasn’t happened?” Paul asked far too loudly. “She wasn’t here last night! Christ, I can’t believe that I did something so stupid. I honestly wasn’t going in there to be a perve; I really did want to see if she was ok. She’s never usually the last one out of the locker room.”

Smirking Kevin just held up his hands in a pacifying gesture. “Hey, you’re preaching to the converted right here buddy. If you say that you were innocent then I believe you ... millions wouldn’t but I would.” His smirk turned into a full on grin. “And the reason that she wasn’t here last night was because she had the night off. You know that as well as I do. How does that bet look to you now Paul ... I’m pretty sure that it isn’t looking quite so easy now huh?”

“Shut up Kev.” Paul grumbled quietly. “The last thing on my mind is our bet. I’m too busy right about now thinking about the fact that later I will probably be getting my head handed to me on a platter.” He turned abruptly and began to head for the door. Then thinking about something he paused to look back at his friend. “But now that you mention it ... you wouldn’t consider calling it off for...”

Shaking his head Kevin burst into loud raucous laughter. “Don’t even think about it Levesque.” He managed to say through when he had gotten his breath back. “Not a chance. No calling off of any kind.”

“Thanks for nothing asshole.” Paul said in a bad temper as he yanked the door open so hard that it was lucky that it didn’t come off of its hinges then he stalked off into the hallway.

Letting out another burst of laughter Kevin shoved himself off the bench and headed after his friend. He pulled the door open, much more gently than Paul had and followed him. “Aw did I make poor widdle Paulie mad.” He said and tried not to laugh again as Paul ever so delicately gave him the finger.

-o0o-

Walking out of the bathroom Chris just stared at the inside of the now closed locker room door. “Hmm, well that was interesting.” He muttered to himself as he headed over to his locker to drag out his bag. “Informative, in that I didn’t really understand a word of it.” He added then shrugged his shoulders. He wasn’t really that interested anyway. Well that was kind of a flat out lie. How sad must he be if he was lying to himself? That part about Lenny possibly reporting Paul for something could be interesting he supposed but from the way that the two other men had been talking it was unlikely that anyone would ever know what they were going on about. “But the bet ... I wonder what that meant.” He said and began to pull the things that he needed out of his bag.

-o0o-

Stopping abruptly in the middle of the locker room Trish just stood there and stared at Lenny openly. Then she smiled as she approached her. “Why Lenny, is that make up I see you putting on?” She reached out her hand and placed it flat on the other woman’s brow. “Nope, you don’t seem to have a fever. Ok, who are you and what have you done with the real Lenny?” She asked and then laughed.

“Oh you are so funny Trish.” Lenny deadpanned as she rolled her eyes but she couldn’t help but smile back at the petite blonde. It was kind of hard not to. She had that kind of infectious smile. “I was instructed by those that must be obeyed to cover up my bruises.”

Frowning Trish moved a little further around so she could get a better look at her work colleague. Yep, sure enough there were some vivid looking bruises on her cheek and neck. “What the hell happened to you?” She asked with shock written all over her face. “I’m pretty sure that didn’t happen at work.” Even as she said it she was wracking her brain trying to work out if anyone had grabbed Lenny by the neck or face in the ring recently. Nope she was still coming up empty.

“And you would be right.” Lenny snorted out bitterly and met Trish’s eyes in the make up mirror. She pulled a funny face trying to diffuse things. “Some guy tried to grab me yesterday when I was out shopping.” She said in a very matter of fact manner, even throwing in a little shrug. “My first day off in a long time, my first chance to spend some quality time pampering myself and I end up spending most of it hanging out in the police station.

“Someone grabbed you?” Trish asked as her hands fluttered around her neck and the colour drained from her face. Oh she needed to sit down.

Lenny shook her head. “Nope, I said tried to grab me.” Then she stopped to think of the bruises. “Well I suppose that technically yes, he did grab me but he wasn’t able to take me anywhere which I’m sure was his intention.” She added as she continued to cover up the marks as best as she could.

“What did you do?” Trish pushed.

Looking at the other woman out of the corner of her eye Lenny heaved a sigh. She shouldn’t have said anything. She really hadn’t wanted to scare anyone. “Well first of all I let out a huge girly scream, which I’m still not proud of by the way, then I kind of gathered myself ... some weird instinct kicked in.” She grinned widely. “Then I kicked him ... in the nuts … hard.” She felt her eyes narrow as she tried to remember the order that things had happened in. “And then I apparently punched him in the face.” She laughed a little. “By the time that the police got there they tried to arrest me thinking that I was the one doing the assaulting. So you don’t have to worry, I’m fine. This here is the only souvenir I have of it all ... it was the only place that he was able to put his hands on me.”

“I don’t know if I could be that calm in a crisis.” Trish said honestly then hurried to the door realising that she should be down in the gorilla position by now.

Turning her attention back to her reflection in the mirror Lenny continued with what she was doing. “Yep, that’s me ... always calm.” She muttered trying to push the memory of crying hysterically in the bathroom of her hotel room for hours out of her mind.

-o0o-

“How’s your arm?”

Hearing the voice Paul resisted the urge to cringe as he turned around. “Hey Lenny.” He said quietly. “And my arm’s fine. My pride might be on the critical list but physically I’m doing great.”

“Ok.” She said with a resolute nod. “Just wanted to make sure ... and I’m sorry for throwing a book at you.” She added before starting to push out of the chair that she had sat in opposite Paul. The last thing that she had wanted to do was actually go looking for him but she had thought that the quicker that they got all of this in the past the better. Plus she wanted to see if he was going to be an asshole about the whole book thing.

Reaching out quickly he caught her hand in a lose grip. There was no way that he was risking her freaking out on him again. “Hey, I should be the one doing the apologising here.” He pointed out.

“Yeah ... you should.” She said and a smile touched the corner of her mouth. “But you’re a guy, you never know how to do anything right.”

He arched a brow. Oh he was never one to back down from a challenge. “Is that so?” He asked. “I’ll have you know that there are any number of things that I do right ... better than right actually.” He said and then his eyes narrowed. “And what’s that on your face?”

“Make up.” She answered breezily before gently disengaging her hand from his and walking away.