Betting on the Zebra Chapter 8

For Disclaimer and other details please see Chapter 1.

CHAPTER 8

Strolling along the hallway with his usual lazy long legged stride Kevin smiled when he saw the person that he was looking for just sitting on an equipment box. Whatever she was reading it must be engrossing because he was able to walk right up to her without her even noticing him. He leaned against the wall casually and had to resist the urge to have a quick glance to see what did have so much of her attention. “If I dare to speak to you are you going to bite my head off?” He asked and almost laughed out loud when she jumped about a foot up in the air.

“No, I won’t bite your head off for that but I might have to kill you for sneaking up on me.” Lenny said in what she hoped passed for a normal sounding voice. Damn, what was wrong with her tonight? She just kept floating off. That was so unlike her. And after what had happened earlier she would have thought that she might have learned her lesson and started to pay attention to what was going on around her. “But that seems to be the theme of the day.” She muttered as she folded the sheets of paper that she had lying over her crossed legs.

He frowned. That didn’t make much sense. “What seems to be the theme of the day?” He asked and tilted his head to the side curiously.

“People sneaking up on me.” She said shortly and then turned to face him slightly. “And what can I do for you Mr Nash.” She asked. She had already looked at the matches tonight and once again they had her working Paul and Kevin’s match. When she had read it earlier she had almost lost it on the spot. The two people that she really didn’t want to be around didn’t even want to see in fact and it had to be their match that she was working tonight. If only she was in a position to throw a hissy fit and demand to be able to work another match. But she wasn’t that dumb and knew her place on the totem pole. In fact now that she thought about it she realised that her place wasn’t actually on the totem pole. It was more likely underneath it ... pretending to hold it steady.

But at least she had managed to hunt down Paul and apologise. Not that she really thought that it had been her place to do any of that apologising stuff but at least she knew that she would be able to go down to the ring tonight without that weighing on her mind. Which was cool. She needed to keep her mind clear from now on. If she didn’t then someone could get hurt.

But Kevin just shrugged. “Do I have to have a reason to come and talk to one of my favourite people?” He asked and shot her a winning smile. Well he had always thought that it was winning. It was one of his weapons. One of the things that he hauled out that usually had the women falling over themselves to get anywhere near him. Now that he thought about it he might be a little rusty when it came to the whole charm offensive thing.

“And now he’s trying to butter me up.” She said with a little wry smile of her own starting to curve her lips. God, she had only just realised how attractive this guy really was. Yeah, so any number of people could stand up and call her blind but it was just something that she had never really noticed before ... or never let herself notice. It was just one of the things that came with the job. She was a woman who was surrounded by an inordinate number of attractive semi clad men on a regular basis. She refused to let herself get all knotted up by things like physical attraction. It would only end up getting messy.

Besides she knew that the majority of the guys were married. Not that it ever really stopped some of them. She would see them disappearing off to some hotel room or other when the show was over. And she didn’t have a problem with that either. She wasn’t going to go getting all moralistic and start judging how other people chose to live their lives. Hell she had enough trouble just getting through her own at times. “Just get to the point Nash.” She said shortly as she realised that she was just sitting her staring at him and he seemed to like it a little too much. “Say what you have to say.”

Arching a brow he let his gaze drop to the folded paper in her lap. From the way that it looked to be handwritten he would guess that it was a letter. “Fan mail?” He asked with a slightly sarcastic smile.

“Hardly.” She said with a snort of laughter. At first when he had said that to her she didn’t have a clue what he was talking about and at the same time she was wondering why his eyes had been drawn below her waist. Then it had hit her that he was talking about the letter in her lap. Looking back up at his face she knew that he was waiting for her to elaborate but he would have one hell of a long wait. This was personal stuff and not work related at all. “So ... you wanted to say something ... ask me something?”

“Well, way to make a guy feel welcome Lenny.” Kevin said with a laugh. Whatever she was reading she obviously wanted to get back to it with him not there to bug her. “I just wondered what you were doing later.”

She shrugged and let her back lean against the wall. She found herself letting out a breath that she hadn’t even been aware she had been holding in till that moment. For one dreaded minute she thought that he had been about to say something about what had happened the other day. The whole locker room thing. “Well I’ll be working your match.” She said honestly. “I thought that you would know that by now.”

Smiling widely he lifted his hand and rapped on her forehead as if he was rapping on a door. “Hello! Anyone in there!” He said too loudly and probably with too much humour injected into it. “Well d’uh Lenny. I know that, I do pay a little attention when checking things that are to do with my match.”

“No need to be a jackass Nash.” She muttered but managed to do so in an angry way as she jerked away from his hand. “You asked me a question and I was just answering it.”

He looked at her with a strange expression on his face and nodded. “Yeah I did ... and you seemed to answer a totally different question.” He said and then smiled once more. This time perhaps he should be using his entire charm offensive. What the hell did it take to penetrate the walls that this chick had thrown up around herself? “But that wasn’t what I meant. When I said later I meant ... later.” He finished lamely and knew just from the look on her face that she probably thought that he was the crazy one now. “And that just made the kind of sense that didn’t.” He muttered and then felt like kicking his own ass. When the hell did he ever get tongue tied over this kind of thing? “When I said later I meant after the show.” He clarified and let out a heavy breath.

“After the show?” She muttered and continued to just stare at him as if he were a crazy person. “You want to know what I’m doing after the show?” She repeated and still it didn’t hit her what he was really asking her. “Well I guess that I’ll be doing what I usually do after every show. I’ll be going back to my hotel to collapse into bed.”

He nodded again. “Sounds like a plan.” Then he turned towards her slightly so only his side was leaning against the wall. “Or you could come out with me and get something to eat.” He pointed out.

“What?” She almost yelled out loud then realised what she was doing and hurriedly lowered her voice. “You’re asking me to go get something to eat with you. Why would I want to do that?”

He blinked a couple of times and then placed a hand over his heart as if mortally wounded. “Ouch! You really know how to hurt a guy don’t you Lenny ... and you’re completely unarmed too.” He said and laughed at the confusion that was showing on her face. She really didn’t have a clue did she? “How about the fact that you have to eat anyway ... you might have some fun ... and you’ll be giving me some much needed company.”

“If there’s one thing that I know about you Mr Nash it’s that you’re never short of company.” She answered him with a smile. Thank god he hadn’t taken complete offence at what she had just said. It had only just hit her how truly awful it had sounded. Then she rolled her eyes at his blatant smug look at her words. “What I meant is that you usually have that other monkey boy Levesque somewhere around. Let me guess ... he’s hiding in your pocket.”

Reaching into his pocket Kevin pulled it inside out. “Nope, wherever Levesque is it’s not in my pocket.” He said and then waited for a moment. “Are you ever going to give me an answer to my question?”

“I don’t think it’s a good idea.” Lenny said but made sure to smile when she did so. “I’m sure that you can find some other woman who’ll think that she’s the luckiest person in the world if you ask her the same question that you just asked me.” Then she made to jump down off the top of the equipment box.

Reacting quickly he caught her arm in his hand before she could bolt completely. When he felt the way that he tensed immediately he let her go. That was weird. She knew him. What the hell did she think he was going to do? Throw her down on the floor and then dive on top of her? As soon as he had that thought he had to fight to keep the smile off of his face. That little idea did have some merit and it was setting of some amazing visuals in his head. He looked around at some of the people that were passing through the hallway. He wondered how she felt about having an audience for that kind of thing. Then he realised how ridiculous his thoughts were and tried to shake them out of his head. Perhaps he would hang onto the visuals though ... they might be fun. “But I didn’t ask anyone else. I asked you.” He pointed out. “Do you want to come and grab something to eat with me after the show? It’s not exactly a question on brain surgery.” He added.

“And you obviously didn’t hear me old man.” She said and felt her face twist slightly with the effort of keeping her wide smile off her face. He hadn’t liked it when she called him that. “I don’t think that it’s a good idea.” Then seeing that he didn’t seem inclined to accept that answer she thought quickly. Time to change tact. She stood there in front of him and propped her hands on her hips. “I’m not going to sleep with you Nash.” She told him in a strong and matter of face manner.

As soon as he heard that he tried to look as shocked as possible. Well it wasn’t that difficult. Lenny just had a knack of saying exactly what she thought and that had a tendency to shock the hell out of most people ... including him. “What?” He asked and knew that his eyes had to be fairly wide right about now. “You think that going out for a bite to eat entitles you to get some of this.” He patted his chest. “I mean seriously Lenny ... I’m not that kind of guy. Plus it takes more than one meal to get you some of Nash.” He tried to add with a straight face. (We might make it to two meals before you’re experiencing that kind of pleasure Lenny) He added silently. “You are one strange chick.” He said softly as he reached out and pushed some hair away from her face. “I am not making some half assed clumsy attempt to jump your bones.” He said and when he did he felt the very distinct pang of something ... it could have been guilt ... zip across his chest. Why did he hate lying to her so much? Lying to women was something that he had never had a problem with before. “I just thought that you might be hungry after we were done here. I know I usually am.” He pointed out to her. “Where is the problem with two pals just going to get something to eat and hanging out?”

“Well there isn’t one.” Lenny answered him easily. “But we aren’t really pals are we Nash.” She said with a smile. Then she felt bad. Maybe she was a little too stringent with her own rules. It might be fun to just hang out for while. She missed her friends from home. She should probably make some more friends here. Yeah she hung out with the other women on the roster pretty regularly but that was about it. Most of the guys usually had other things to do. “Sorry, I didn’t mean that.”

“Yeah ... you did.” Kevin said quietly and he realised that she was right. They *weren’t* pals. In fact if it weren’t for Paul and his half assed bet he probably wouldn’t have spent half of the time with her that he had done recently. “Maybe it’s time for us to remedy that.” He added with a little shrug. “And what better way than to grab something to eat and talk.”

She narrowed her eyes. Oh great, now if she still said no she would look like the biggest cow in the universe. “Ok. We can go and grab something to eat.” She said. “But that’s all you’ll be grabbing.” She threw over her shoulder as she turned and walked away from him.

“And that goes for you too Lenny.” He laughed and then thought of something. “Hey, since we’re pals now ... tell me what Lenny is short for.”

She laughed and shook her head. “Not a chance Nash.” She told him. “I’ll see you in the ring.”

“Count on it ma’am.” He muttered to himself then he noticed something lying on the floor and he smiled widely. Bending he picked it up. “Very interesting.” He said as he looked at the photograph and felt his eyes widen slightly. “And hello to the competition.” He smirked as he eyed the guy who was wrapped around Lenny in the photograph.