Physical Therapy

The sound of the el train going to the loop usually was soft enough that I could sleep through it, but today it felt like it was driving through my brain itself. I kept my eyes closed and tried to will myself back to sleep but the pain had become too much to try to sleep through.

Maybe it’s just a hangover and last night was just a bad dream.

I squinted my eyes, allowing for time to allow for the light change and hoping it would ease the searing pain throughout my skull. But nope, I could see the cast on my nose. Not a dream. I took a deep breath and felt something roll slightly on my hip. I glanced down to see Jon’s giant hand draped over my hip, hanging slack in front of it. I poked it a bit to see if he was awake, but it didn’t move.

I looked behind me, moving gently not to wake him, and saw him, mouth gaping, slightly snoring, and completely asleep. I gently picked up his hand and slipped out from underneath it, tip toeing into the hall and closing the door behind me, at least if I couldn’t sleep the least I owed him was letting him sleep since he was up so late with me and I knew that he need sleep before whatever time his flight was today.

I flipped on the light and shrieked a little when I saw my face. I had two black eyes, and swelling around my nose. I felt disfigured. I touched my nose slightly and grimaced in pain.

“Of course it hurts, you idiot.” I debated waking Jon up when I couldn’t find the pain pills in the kitchen or bathroom but seeing that it was only 8am, I decided to let him sleep, and I sat on the couch, trying to focus all my energy on the episode of Property Brothers instead of focusing on my pain.

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I found her asleep on the couch, sitting straight up in the corner, her head completely tilted back and her mouth wide open. I didn’t feel her get out of bed, but I imagine she was in too much pain to stay asleep in there, I couldn’t blame her, I have been there before.

“Maeve?” I called lightly from her kitchen; I got her a glass of water and grabbed the pills from the place I left them.

Shit. She probably came looking for them and couldn’t find where I had put them above the sink, it was well over her arm reach but easily within mine.

“urrrrrg.”

“Does that mean you’re alive?” I ask teasingly.

“Need. Pills. Nowwwww.” She groaned again.

“Yes, master.” I walked with an exaggerated limp and mimicked the voice of Igor from Dr. Frankenstein.

Handing her the pills and giving her the classic, creepy Igor glare.

“Thank you, Igor, you are dismissed.” She gave me a smile as she popped her pills and drank water, “No, really though, thank you Jon. I really appreciate it.”

I wanted to tell her that I would walk to the end of the earth for her, that I would literally do anything for her and me spending the night next to her in her bed was actually a favor to me, but I thought that was a tad over the top.

“You’re welcome, how are you feeling?” The bruising was a bit worse than I anticipated, but I thought she still looked beautiful.

“Fantastic.” She rolled her eyes, “Like a mac truck running my face over, fantastic.”

I laughed and she laughed, it felt so natural. Until a gurgle rose up.

“Was that your stomach or did you just fart in front of me, Jon?” She laughed again, harder this time and enough to make her wince in pain.

“Take it easy, princess. And that was my stomach, I’m starving.” She bit her lip nervously.

“Well…I have no food.” She shrugged her shoulders.

“How do you not have food? You live here?” I walked to the fridge and swung it open, sure enough, just condiments, and some sliced almonds, what the fuck?

“I really haven’t been eating much lately.” She tried to say it softly, she knew I hated it when she didn’t eat and I was thisclose to lecturing her when I knew it was the wrong move, it wasn’t my spot to tell her how bad it was for her to not eat, she knew it. “I just haven’t been hungry.”

Which was really code for: you cheated on me, told my secret, broke my heart, and I am depressed so I haven’t been eating. Way to fucking go, Good.

“Well this is just unacceptable, I am going to Whole Foods to get you some groceries, any special requests?” I grabbed her recyclable bags from under the sink and peaked under the pass through to catch her shaking her head no.

“Okay, I will be back in like an hour or so, let me know if you need anything.” She nodded her head up and down in acknowledgement, “you going to be okay?”

“Yep.” Finally, words.

“Okay, text me if you need anything.”

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He hadn’t been gone but 10 minutes when the building’s buzzer alert came over my TV, I half expected to see him but I realized he had my keys, and Phil had his own set. The thought of someone randomly coming over made my pulse rise, I hesitantly switched over to the CCTV channel to see Colt waving like a dumbass at the security camera. Of course.

“Holy shit you looked fucked up.” Were the first words out of his mouth.

“Thank you for your kind words, Colt. Can I help you? Why are you still wearing your suit?” It was wrinkled as shit, but it was the suit from last night.

“I banged one of AJ’s friends, she was soooooo pumped to be fucking a pro wrestler. It was fucking fantastic.” Ha, he had bagged Karen. I tried not to laugh but I couldn’t help giggling a bit.

“What? Whaaaaat?” He always whined like a little girl.

“Was her name, Karen? By any chance?” I smiled a knowing smile when I saw his face drop.

“Because that was the same girl who told me in detail how bad she wanted to fuck Dean Ambrose at AJ’s bachelorette party and when I told her I had, she was so jealous that I fucked a pro wrestler. But look!” I said, holding my hands palms up at him, “She got you!” And I smiled. Colt, whose real name isn’t Colt but has always gone by Colt, was a pro-wrestler but now ran a weekly podcast. Which I always listened to, but never failed to give him shit about.

“Shut up.” He pushed my hands down and looked around my condo.

“Where did Jon go?”

“To go get me groceries before he goes to the airport I guess?”

“Airport? His flight was at 7am.” Colt raised an eyebrow at me, like I had just asked him if the sky was blue or some other stupid obvious question.

“He missed his flight for me?” I asked, incredulously.

“Don’t act all surprised, he missed his appointment with his realtor too. And he would probably miss RAW for you if you asked, the RAW which will probably be the biggest of his career, where he gets pushed as a main event solo wrestler.” He tilted my head as thought he was silently taunting me.

“That’s a tad extreme.” I knew he was right.

“Look babe, Jon is extreme, you and I both know that. Don’t break my dudes heart, I like you, but he’s my brother. Got it?” He placed a hand on each shoulder and stared me down with a smirk on his face.

“Are you threatening me, Colt?” I asked jokingly, because I didn’t think he was but he was honestly the weirdest guy I knew, so who knows.

“No, I am just letting you know, it’s fine if you let him go, I know what he did in general terms,” My eyes went wide at this, “but NO details, I just know about the blowjob and him betraying your trust more so on top of that, and it’s shitty. He knows as much and everyone has told him that, but don’t lead him on. Okay?”

I nodded my head yes, he was right.

“Look, I told Phil I will watch the kitties while you take care of your…face?” He smiled his goofy smile, “Here is your bag you left there, and tell Jon I said…hey.” He said hey in an all-deep voice, “Just like that okay?”

He gave me a quick hug and was out, just like that.

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Jon got back about 45 minutes after Colt had left, and in that time I sat on my couch just analyzing what he had said. Jon had hurt me, there was no arguing, nobody defending what he did or how he did it. He fucked up, that was the general agreed upon opinion. But that didn’t mean I had to hurt him back.

He carried the groceries into the kitchen silently, clearly waiting for my lead.

“You missed your flight?” I called into the kitchen, he peeked through the pass through and raised both eyebrows.

“How did you know?” I nodded to my bag in the corner.

“Colt stopped by to drop off my bag on his way home from his hook-up last night. He told me that your flight was this morning, and that you missed it.”

“Colt has a big mouth, I didn’t miss my flight. I cancelled it last night when I was in the ER.”

I looked at him in disbelief, why would he do that?

“I wanted to make sure you were taken care of, when you would tell me to leave…well then I would leave.”

“Where would you go?”

“If you kicked me out right now? Before I could even eat? Chipotle. And then probably to Vegas, but if it’s tomorrow, I would go to Cleveland a little early.”

“Why were you meeting with a realtor in Vegas?” I could hear him chuckle to himself.

“Fucking Colt.” He took a deep breath and kept putting groceries away in my fridge, “I am selling my condo, I just don’t know if I want to live there anymore.”

“Oh, why not?”

“Because I don’t.” He was getting irritated, and he didn’t owe me an explanation really, so I dropped it.

“So when are you leaving?”

“When do you want me to leave?” I couldn’t see him in the kitchen but could hear him rummaging around.

Never.

The thought ran through my mind quickly, it was selfish and stupid, but right then I wanted him to just be there, take my shitty attitude and take care of me forever.

“Maybe you can take a flight on Monday?” I would leave it up to him, “You know, with enough time to make it to RAW?”

“I don’t have to go to RAW.” He grumbled from the kitchen, clearly upset that I wanted him gone within 48 hours.

“You do have to go, and I will be fine, your career is about to take off!” I can’t hide my excitement at that, and it doesn’t slide by him.

“How do you know?” He asked jokingly.

“I read wrestling reddit, duh.”

“Oh do you now? What’s wrestling reddit say today?”

“Well let’s see.” I tease him back, pulling up my iPad and pulling up the squaredcircle page on reddit that I frequent.

“They say today that you are going over, they can’t wait to see what you do individually, you’re the best member of The Shield, you’re crazy, unstable, best mic performer in the locker room, you are going bald, you are jacked, you know how to sell a shoulder injury, and you took Renee Young to the hospital last night?” I crack up at the last line. I knew that Jon and Renee had hooked up a few times in the fall, but that was long over before we got together.

Unless it wasn’t anymore. I felt a pit in my stomach begin to grow.

“Renee? What the fuck?”

“Someone posted a picture of us, it’s just my back, I am short, petite, and blonde so they probably think I was her.”

“People on the internet are fucked.” He says matter of factly.

I wait a minute before asking this question, a question that I have no right to ask, or any more right to get an answer about.

“Why would they think I am Renee? Are you fucking her again?” I try my hardest but the tinge of jealousy and anger can easily be heard in my voice.

“WHAT?” He raises his voice in disbeliefs and walks out of the kitchen staring straight at me; I look away and look at the silenced episode of Property Brothers on the TV. “Look at me.” He walks directly in front of me and stares at me, until mine meet his.

“I have never lied to you, and I am not starting now. You know the history that was there with Renee, and that’s what it is. I have not slept with anyone since the Smackdown after the Rumble, you came into my life that following RAW and since that night it has only been you. Yes, London happened. London was a fucking mistake and a disaster and the worst night of my life so far, but that was the only time it hasn’t been you.” He takes a breath and looks back at me, “Do you believe me?” He said it with such sincerity, such innocence, like if I didn’t believe him, it would destroy him.

“Yes.” I believed him.