CHAPTER TWO - COFFEE CUP STEALER

( FEBRUARY 4RD, 2020 — SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH )

         THE BACKSTAGE AREA was busier than ever with the end of the show. The doors were now closed, and the rest of the lingering public were being escorted outside of the building. You would of thought that with the public out of the building, it would have been much quieter but your assumtion was wrong. People were cleaning the arena, taking down ladders and they would usually clang together, the noise echoing off the walls.

Rhea packed her belongings into her large suitcase, ditching her tight wrestling clothes in the suitcase as she got more comfortable in a loose fitting muscle shirt, and a black sweater. The cool crisp winter air would be inviting after all these hot arena lights making her skin burning hot.

Rhea sighed out while zipping the case closed, the gold NXT Championship sitting on top of her clothes. "You feeling alright, Ripley?" Charlotte Flair questioned the blonde. She had walked into the room as soon as Rhea let out the sigh, which made Charlotte furrow her brow in question.

Rhea quickly turned her head to spot the woman behind her with a worried expression on her delicate features. "Wha— I'm fine." she told her and straightened her posture but Charlotte could see that something was bothering her. She could see she was not upset about something but her mind was occupied.

Charlotte walked towards her and put a comforting hand on the woman's shoulder. Rhea turned her head to look at her and smiled. "If there's something bugging you, I'm here to listen to anything you want to vent about."

Rhea's smile lingered on her face but she slowly pulled away from Charlotte's touch in the nicest way possible. The short haired woman wasn't sure of how she could even bring up what was occupying her mind. The more she thought about the woman in the crowd with the wide-eyed look in her eyes, the more silly it sounded that she could care about something like that. What were the chances that they would even see each other again, it was so slim.

Swallowing a lump in her throat, Rhea had decided after all to confide in the blonde before her. She spun her head in the woman's direction, who was busy putting away her clothing and a few makeup items into her suitcase. "This might sound so stupid, but I saw someone in the crowd tonight — " Rhea scrunched her face as she tried to find a way to gather her words as Charlotte turned her attention towards her with interest. " —I don't know why, but I was just gravitated towards her. I can't explain it." she emphasized the world 'gravitated', which made Charlotte raise her eyebrow, her arms crossing over her chest as Rhea looked towards her.

"And you didn't recognize her?"

Rhea shrugged her shoulders while shaking her head. "Nope. No Idea who she is."

Charlotte thought about it for a moment before she let out a breath. "Sometimes you just see random people in the crowd who stick out more than others." Which was in fact, true. Charlotte had discussed with her friends a few times about some men in the crowd who were attractive, but in the end it never meant anything. More than likely, she would never see than person ever again.

Rhea nodded but was slightly disappointed in her reaction. She was not sure what she had expected Charlotte to say but it was something other than 'it was just a moment, happens all the time'. It felt different to her, the back of her mind nagging about the image of the woman in the crowd. It was clear to Rhea that this was her first time watching them perform, she could see the excitement in her eyes of the unknown.

"Yeah, you're right." Rhea nodded her head, "With all the intense emotions we feel out there, and feeding off of their energy: it was easily just a spur of the moment."

Charlotte smiled over at her. "I'll see you tomorrow to go over our scripts a little more. I'll text you and let you know, alright?" she informed her while dragging her suitcase towards the door. Charlotte looked back for the last time, shooting her a comforting smile before walking out the door.

Rhea didn't bother to even answer her but Charlotte knew she understood. That's how Rhea was backstage, kind of off in her own world most of the time unless you really knew her. When Charlotte had first met her back in NXT, she was distant and cold along with an arrogance that most newcomers had but with her impressive performance during the Mae Young Classic, Rhea had every right to be over-confident in her ring ability. She really was quite impressive.

With a shake of her head, Rhea had grabbed the rest of her belongings from the locker room and then walked out of the arena. It was time for a good night's sleep, the hotel bed was calling her name at this point.

  ━━━━━ ✮•°♛°•✮ ━━━━━

REGAN HAD ALWAYS BEEN A EARLY BIRD.

  Even when she was younger, the brunette found herself waking up before the sun even rose in the sky. Her parents had thought it was strange for a teenager to wake up at seven in the morning, bright and early with a certain energic sway in their step but for Regan, it was a natural thing. Regan was already out of bed at the early hour of six-o-clock, already dressed in some athletic wear.

It was not unusual for her to be awake at this hour. Her job usually called her to be up and out of bed at the strangest hours, and over time she had just got used to waking up before her alarm even went off. Sweat was dripping down her forehead as she swung the ropes in an up and down motion while she focused on keeping her breathing strong. Even though she was off the clock for performing in front of the camera, her daily routine included training not just for her role but overall to keep a healthy lifestyle.

Regan stopped with her rope movements then took out her phone to look at the time just as another song from her playlist began playing. She had been working out for more than two hours which was not planned at first but as soon as Regan was wrapped up in how hard she was training, she lost track of the time. Regan knew that even eight-thirty-two was way too early of a time to be awake for Eliza, so she had time to kill before she decided to wake her best-friend. Regan knew better than to wake Eliza up at this hour, if she wasn't dying or there wasn't a fire burning her house down, she would be paying for it the entire day.

   Regan walked towards the public locker room to grab her things from the locked locker before walking towards the hotel, which the crisp cool air was a welcoming comfort to her hot skin, and the sweat dripping from her black-colored hair. She pulled her dripping stands away from her face, tying it loosely behind her head into a low-bun as she tugged her black sweater tighter to her hot body.

Deciding that having a hot shower would be a brilliant idea due to the stench coming off of her sweaty body, Regan quickly jumped in. Her mind hadn't wondered to a certain blonde since she awoken but as soon as the steam seeped into her skin, her mind started to wonder where it shouldn't of. She hadn't even thought of the woman since last night and that was only because Eliza could not stop mentioning it the whole night until Regan retired to her own room to finally get some sleep around two in the morning.

Regan thought it was unbelievably silly that she was thinking of this woman, and the fact that butterflies fluttered upwards from the pit of her stomach was enough to have her rolling her eyes.

( All it took was one look from a complete stranger, and you're acting like a love-sick puppy. )

It was pathetic, Regan thought but she couldn't stop thinking about how badass the woman looked. How her eyes shinned under the light. She wished she was close enough that she could have saw the color of them, she wanted to study ever feature her face had to offer up close. She could feel the dominance radiating off of her from her seat, she could not imagine how her aura felt if she was standing in front of her.

Shaking her head at an attempt to rid her mind of these things, Regan finished pulling clothes over her body, pulling her wet hair into a tight ponytail before putting sunglasses over her eyes. She decided that she would surprise Eliza with breakfast and with that decision, she took out her phone to send Jarod a message.

Regan
you awake?

Jarod
barely, I drank too much😭

Regan
oh no. i'm heading out to grab breakfast for e.. want anything?

Jarod
advil? ice coffee?

Regan
you got it. see you soon.💕

Regan shook her head as a smile slipped onto her lips while slipping her phone back into the pocket of her sweater. She fished her keys out of her back pocket and unlocked the door to her rental vehicle before starting the engine and driving to the nearest pharmacy to grab Jarod some advil for his head. She had warned the man that drinking too much at the show would cause him to have a hangover in the morning, because that man could not handle his liquor or maybe it was the fact that Jarod did not know when to stop.

It made for a funny night though when Jarod did decide to get completely wasted. They had pizza and a small party of their own back in Jarod's hotel room, giggling at the night they had all shared together and Jarod didn't stop thanking her for the tickets in the first place. Regan smiled at that, she always liked to see her friends having a good time. Their lifestyle was stressful at times and it was nice to let loose every now and then.

Regan got out of the vehicle, hugging her maroon colored jacket close to her body for warmth under the winter air of Utah. The Coffee Depot was not too crowded at this time of day which was surprising to her, maybe she had got lucky with the timing. There was a few people waiting in line which gave her a few minutes to look at the menu hanging above the cashier.

Once Regan ordered some of the options from the menu, she decided to grab a seat near the front counter since she knew there was going to be a little wait for her food. She took this time to go over emails that she had yet to check this morning, finding a few from her agent but nothing that held too much interest. She was usually busy while filming with not many opportunities coming in since her focus was on filming the show but there was an email on a modeling opportunity back in Vancouver.

Regan decided to keep that one in her files for when she wanted to actually sit down and read it. "Macchiato with vanilla?" the woman behind the counter called as she placed the large cup near the straws which made Regan get up from her spot and walk over to grab the cup from the counter.

"I think you took my drink." A husky voice called from behind her which made Regan turn around with an alarmed expression on her features. Her eyes squinted at the woman before her, she could have sworn that she had seen her before but couldn't recall from where.

It only took a minute before her brain pinpointed where she had seen her which made Regan's mind spin. It's the woman from the wrestling show, her mind screamed at her.

"I'm sorry," she mumbled while looking down at the cup which had the name Rhea written in big bold letters on the side. "I wasn't looking." she told her while putting the cup of coffee back on the counter.

( Great, she should have looked at the name practically staring back at her. She probably thinks she's a coffee cup stealer now. )

Rhea looked straight at her and if it wasn't for the sunglasses covering her eyes, she would have been able to see her true emotion behind the tiny mask she was wearing. Rhea had noticed her instantly as she was coming up to grab her cup of coffee, watching the raven-haired woman take her cup off of the counter without even a look at the name.

"Clearly." Was all that came out of the blonde's mouth as she moved her arm to grab the cup from the counter which made Regan's eyebrow raise just slightly from the annoyance coming from her tone.

( Well, she might have stolen a coffee that she didn't know belonged to someone else but that didn't mean she had the right to be an asshole about it. )

Regan did not bother to answer her back as Rhea turned her back and began walking towards the door. Rhea had to force her two feet to keep moving away, even when she wanted to ask the woman's name but she had decided against it. She had barely slept last night because she was trying to find out who she was, looking to google and putting in stupid words to find the girl's name which came out fruitful.

All Rhea had to do was turn back around and ask for her name but she decided not to. She knew that she would never set eyes on the girl again, and that the funny feeling she had in her stomach, and the pull she felt forwards her would fade in time.

With a last glance behind her shoulder, Rhea's eyes found Regan's frame again but she wasn't sure if she was looking at her too because of those stupid sunglasses hiding her eyes but under those back sunglasses, their eyes connected which was unknown to Rhea and Regan found she couldn't breathe.

The woman was really that more intimidating in person, so much that her own lungs almost stopped working.