Chapter 6
A few weeks later, when Shaun had taken the girls to Chuck E Cheese and Montana had been working, Paul had gone to lunch with another longtime friend, Mariah Alan. She had been one of very few women on the ring crew, being as strong as the men and unaffected by the crude behavior of both them and the wrestlers.
She and Paul also shared a mutual close friend in Shaun, the film producer/screenwriter that was working on a film documentary about Paul.
She had met Paul back shortly before his debut and they had become friends almost immediately. Mariah liked his sweet, shy demeanor and that he seemed to have better manners than most of the guys.
What had really endeared Mariah was that even for a ring crew girl, he’d treated her like a lady and affectionately dubbing her “Mimi“.
She had met Reggie a couple of times and found her to be a good mother to Mackenzie, who had been a toddler then, and baby Kira.
Mariah had been shocked at Reggie’s sudden death; both she and Shaun made a point of attending Reggie’s memorial service and offering comfort to the widower and the two tiny girls.
Then there had been the fallout with his close friend Anna, who had been considerably older than Paul, who still refused to speak to him. Mariah had no idea what had happened between the two, but with the usually patient and tolerant Anna suddenly cutting him out of her life, Mariah wondered what could have been so bad.
But now taking into consideration that Mac and Kira were growing up and the prospect of Anna being a surrogate mom to them now thrown out the window, both Mariah and Shaun made no bones about the girls needing a mother figure at every opportunity, though Mariah was a bit more aggressive and vocal about it.
Today was no exception.
“So what’s this about you being chummy with Montana Hayes?” she asked casually.
Paul choked a little on his coffee. “Where did you hear this?”
“Honey, did you forget I’m on the ring crew? I hear it all from the boys, and unless you’ve lived in a cave the last several weeks, Donny was kind of sweet on Montana for awhile. Problem is, she doesn’t date people she works with. And Spanky kind of filled us in too when they had that supershow last week.”
“I should have known fucking Brian was in on this. Look, Mimi, Montana and I have gotten to be good friends, and she’s been staying with Mac and Kira when I have matches. That’s it. And for some reason, the girls are nuts about her.”
“That’s certainly unusual. Outside of me and Shaun, they all but practically chase women away from you.”
“Yeah, imagine that. Thing is, they seem to be getting attached to Montana more than they’d done with you and Shaun. Mac was a bit disappointed that Montana wasn’t taking them out this afternoon, though she didn’t say it out loud. But she and Kira seemed all right when I told them Montana had to work and was coming to sit with them tonight when we have the show.”
“If they’re getting attached, it’s a good sign. Maybe Daddy should get to know her better too, perhaps without the girls.”
“Mimi,” Paul warned, “don’t start again.”
“Why not? You know I’m not letting up on your behind until you get a nice girl to be a mother to those sweet babies.”
“You think I haven’t tried? Just about all the chicks I’ve been around either want to get laid, use me as a springboard for their own careers, or for bragging rights that they dated or screwed me. Not exactly the material I had in mind for my daughters, thanks very much.”
“Perhaps you need to look elsewhere besides divas and young girls,” Mariah suggested. “One Ms. Hayes might be a good place to begin.”
“You already said she doesn’t date guys she works with, Mimi. If she won’t even go out with some decent guy from the ring crew, what in the hell makes you think she’ll bother with me?”
“There’s part of your problem. You underestimate yourself, sunshine. Look, a blind man can see you’re fond of Montana. What do you have to lose by asking her out to coffee? It’s not like Shaun or I can’t look after the girls while you take her out. Come on, you’re talking to a person that baby-sat Spanky’s cat for a week and lived to tell about it, not to mention stayed with those kids before. Honestly, will you die from asking her out? I’m not suggesting you propose to her, for Pete’s sake!”
“Well, I have making an ass of myself and being a total dick down to a science,” Paul joked.
“Knock it off; that isn’t even funny,” Mariah scolded. “You need a good woman in your life that loves those girls as much as you do. They need a mom figure, especially Kira. She never even knew Reggie. At least with some woman in their lives, they’ll have a bit more stability. And no offense, but you aren‘t getting any younger either.”
“Jesus, you sound like my mami now,” Paul sighed.
“And your mami has some good sense. Honestly, if Spanky or even some of these big ugly dudes around here can find women, there’s no reason why you can’t.”
“I can name two. Mackenzie and Kira. Not only do they hate everyone I’ve been out with, I haven’t met a chick yet that even expressed a tiny bit of interest in helping me raise them.”
“If you don’t ask Montana out, you may miss an opportunity. The girls like her; you said so yourself.”
He sighed. “All right, I’ll ask her out for coffee. Happy now?”
“Thrilled,” Mariah grinned. “And I have a feeling you won’t regret it.”
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