Chapter 28
After I had gotten out of my binding ring attire and into my comfortable jeans, hooded sweatshirt and baseball cap. Matt and I took off for a nice drive in the countryside of North Carolina.
"So, where are you whisking me away to?" I asked, dramatically throwing my head back in the car where the open window breeze cooled my flushed face.
"Away into the sunset!" Matt laughed from the driver's seat.
"Oh it feels soo good to get away from there, too much tension stirring, people's personality flaws flaring, I couldn't take it anymore. Thank you for taking me away." I turned and smiled at him.
"Anytime." He replied with a dimple showing grin.
We sat in silence for a while, just looking out our respective windows, keeping to ourselves. The only thing that could be heard was the radio as it softly played the lyrics to "True Colors" by Cyndi Lauper. (..."But I see your true colors shining through. I see your true colors and that's why I love you, so don't be afraid to let them show...") I was content in being quiet, it gave me time to clear my mind and function again. I was running things over in my mind, the past several days had been a blur, feelings and emotions, reactions...
We had been driving for sometime and I had been wrapped up in my thoughts that I hadn't even realized that Matt had stopped the car in front of a beautiful lake. It just sort of appeared out of nowhere. Matt had turned off the car, but I hadn't realized.
"Maria?" He asked quietly.
I jumped at the sound of his voice. "What?"
"Do you want to get out stretch a little?" He asked, suddenly becoming timid.
"Yeah." I replied.
We both hopped out of the car and breathed in the fresh country air. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, and letting it out slowly.
"Wow, this place is beautiful." I breathed.
"Isn't it?" He asked, agreeing with me.
"Come here, let's sit. I need to talk with you about some things." Matt said slowly, showing me where to sit under a large willow tree.
"Okay." I replied taking a seat and crossing my legs.
"So, what do you want to talk about?" I asked.
"Us." He stated.
"I knew you were going to say that. What do you want to know?"
"I donlt understand us, I mean we meet each other, for days we canlt stand each other, then last night we share this long passionate kiss, does that make sense to you?" He asked.
"Nope, and its never going to, thatls the way love is. Its never going to make sense to anyone. Its just something that happens. No one can explain it." I replied.
"Maria, why did you pick me?" He asked hesitantly.
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"I mean why do you like me so much, I'm nothing special." He replied.
"Yes you are, Matthew," I used his full name, "don't ever say that., you are special to me. Why, I don't know what it is... something unexplainable. I've been in love with you since the day I saw you walk down the ramp on an edition of Monday Night RAW. I was sixteen years old, but I knew then that one day I would meet you. I never dreamed it would come to this though. When I first saw you, you were dark and mysterious hiding behind your black hair. But for some reason I knew that behind your hair there was a beautiful person inside and out, that I grew to love just by watching your actions three time a week on TV. You didn't put on a persona, you came out as yourself and I really admired that. Then when I met you, everything turned upside down! We didn't like each other. The sarcasm, the nit-picky side remarks, just little stuff. The reason I did that was because I was afraid to get too close to you for fear of getting hurt. But I couldn't hold myself back forever and that night that we danced I couldn't help saying to myself that I was loosing myself in you." I said, pouring out all my feelings that had been hidden for sometime.
"How can you see all of that in me, I just don't understand..." He looked at me with soft eyes and let his voice tail off as he took a long look out over the lake.
"Why do you like me?" I asked, after arguing with myself whether or not to ask the question.
He turned suddenly, coming out of his trance, his eyes wide at the fact that I had asked that question. "
"I knew you were going to ask that." A slow smile spread across his face.
He took a deep breath and played with a few pieces of grass that he had subconsciously pulled out of the ground.
"There is just something about you. From the moment I saw you, I knew there was some kind of connection between us. The first time I had seen you was when Jeff and I caught you staring at us. Jeff had forgotten his room key and you had been standing in front of your own hotel door. I didn't realize anyone was watching until I got this funny feeling that someone had been staring at me. But the vibe was strange, not just happening to look up at us, but the fact that the person was looking at me with loving eyes. And that person was you. Then later on that same day, we met again in the arena. Our eyes met a few times and when they did, I felt like you could see everything that was going through my mind and it made me feel uncomfortable. But at the same time, I felt as if I had to get to know you, I had to find out what you were all about and I couldn't let you go with you knowing that I was in love with you. That's why I came rushing over to your motel room last night, I couldn't let it go unsettled, there was too much too loose." He said, not looking at me but still playing with the blades of grass.
My mind was in a happy daze. I sat there watching his beautiful brown eyes peering down at the green grass of the summer. My eyes were brimming with tears. I tried so hard to keep them back, but they spilled over onto my cheeks. I blinked, looking at him through blurry eyes. He still hadn't looked up at me, and did not even realize that I was crying silent tears of happiness. Matt stopped talking and looked back out to the lake. It was getting late, the sun had set and a few paths of shimmering orange light glided across the glass like lake. In the distance a bird cried out, looking for its dinner. The evening's coolness was setting in and gave me a slight chill. In the silence the crickets started their symphony, playing just for us. Matt turned back to me and noticed my eyes were wet. Without words he slid over and wrapped his massive arms around me. He held me and brushed away my tears with his thumbs. He knew I wasn't sad, but happy as we had finally discussed our feelings for each other.
Chapter 29
Chapter 27