"Yeah?  And what would that be?" he asked.  He didn't mind one bit that the diva was completely obstructing his view of the TV.  There was nothing on, and besides, he would much rather look at her.

"Well...I've been thinking about this all day, while you were at your appearance," Amy said, a soft smile playing at her lips.  "What if I move on over to SmackDown?"

Adam blinked, taken aback.  His eyes still locked on hers, he said, "What?"

The redhead nodded, her smile broadening into a lovely, full-fledged grin.  "Yeah...what if we're on the same show?"

"But...why would you want to be on SmackDown?"

The redhead winced, and the Canadian was instantly sorry he'd said that.  As she suddenly ducked her head and looked away from his face, he reached out and grasped one of her hands.

"Amy, I didn't mean it that way," he explained.  He totally meant that - he would love to have her on the same show with him, because then he would get to see her all the time.  Frankly, he'd thought the brand extension idea sucked from day one.  He remembered that night of March 25th on RAW - when Vince McMahon and Ric Flair had chosen their ten draft picks for each respective show...

Adam felt nervous as he sat with the rest of the roster in a room backstage, where all the wrestlers awaited to hear about their fate.  Rob Van Dam sat at his right, Trish Stratus at his left.

He was painfully aware of the fact that Amy was sitting directly behind him, her boyfriend Matt on one side of her while his brother Jeff was on her other side.

He held his breath as Vince made the first draft pick - The Rock.  Not that Adam thought he would be first to be picked by either of the two co-owners of the WWF, but he bought into the addage that it was better to get something bothersome over with sooner rather than later.

He had hoped beyond hope that, whichever show he ended up on, he would be with his closest friends - Jay, the Hardys, Andrew Martin, Chris Jericho - if he ended up losing the Undisputed championship later that night in the main event triple threat match for the title against Triple H, and, of all people, Stephanie McMahon - and especially Amy.  As long as they were all together, everything would be cool.

He'd had to leave the room in which the WWF superstars were congregated for awhile for his match, but immediately after, he returned.  As he'd entered the room and made his way back to his seat, he'd flinched slightly upon the realization that Amy and Matt were being very friendly - a little touchy-feely.  He'd tried not to stare at them, swallowing hard as he sat down.  To take his mind off the couple behind him, he made light conversation with RVD...Anything to take his mind off the fact that the woman with whom he'd been so deeply, so desperately in love for so long was being lovey-dovey with her boyfriend.

Before long, he had to leave again, as he'd had to attack Kurt Angle during the Olympian's match - he and Kurt had been feuding for awhile, and he had to pay the man back for jumping him earlier during his match teaming up with Diamond Dallas Page against Christian and Booker T.  And after the match, he had discovered he had been chosen as a draft pick while he'd been away.  Vince McMahon had chosen him to be exclusively on SmackDown.  He'd been a bit disappointed because he'd really wanted to be on RAW.

Adam's heart had pounded in anticipation of the remainder of the draft picks.  As to be expected, McMahon and Flair had bickered back and forth - the end result had been the Dudley Boyz being split up and Ric getting Brock Lesnar for RAW.  But the Nature Boy's announcement of his tenth and final draft pick had hit him like a ton of bricks.

The tall Canadian man's mouth had run dry, and his heart had leapt into his throat upon Flair's words:  "I pick Lita..."  Those three words resounded in his head many times long after the man had spoken them.

"I pick Lita..."

Damn it... He had wanted to be on RAW - although he had assumed all mid-card status wrestlers like himself and his friends would end up on SmackDown, the "lesser" show.

Word was that the brand extensions were not going to be a permanent thing - but who knew how long it would go on?  If even Vince McMahon had no answer for that, who did?

"I pick Lita..."

Adam had felt horrible.  Until the brand extensions ended, whenever that might be, he would only be able to see Amy at the pay-per-views.

"I only meant that if you move to SmackDown, you'll be on the same show as Matt," Adam concluded, his eyes still locked on Amy's.

The redhead glanced down at their hands.  She had clasped the blond's when he had grabbed hers.  She couldn't help but like the feeling.  As she shifted her eyes back to meet his, a pleasant chill shuddered its way through her.  His emerald depths were so intense as they drank in the sight of her face.  She couldn't believe the way her body was responding to this man - and to the mere sensation of his hand in hers and his intense gaze fixed on her eyes.  She could only imagine how she would respond if they were ever to have sex.

Whoa! she chastised herself.  It was amazing - as she had reminded herself that morning, only last night, she had broken up with Matt.  And now, not only was she thinking she had feelings for Adam - her friend - she was even thinking of what sex with him would be like.  She had to get hold of herself.

Amy gently pulled her hand out of his and glanced away for a moment.  Then, meeting his eyes once more, she said, "I really want this...I know I haven't thought about it long - only today - but I really want this, Adam..."

The Canadian nodded.  "All right...we'll go speak to Stephanie later on and see if she can arrange everything."

Inside, his mind was screaming with joy, his heart doing pleasant flip-flops inside his chest.

*

Dawn Marie looked up at the sound of sudden knocking on her hotel room door.  She instantly went to answer it and gave a happy, surprised smile as she saw who was at the door.

"Amy!  When you never came back to my room, I thought you'd left last night...what a pleasant surprise!"  She grabbed the redhead by the arm and practically dragged her inside the room.

Dawn sat down on the edge of her hotel bed, daintily tucking one leg beneath her.  "So, what happened last night?  Before you left me, you went to talk to Adam...so, what happened?  I guess you ended up getting your own private room since you didn't stay with me..."

Amy smiled with amusement as she absorbed every bit of her friend's girlish banter.  The brunette had always been quite the chatterbox.  She'd missed Dawn Marie.  They hadn't gotten many chances to see each other after Amy had left ECW, and because Dawn had joined the WWE after the brand extensions, she hadn't seen her much at all.

"Actually," the redhead admitted, "I didn't get my own room..."

"No?  Then where did you-"  The brunette's eyes widened, her jaw dropping.  "Amy, you didn't..."

"No!  Of course not," the other woman replied.  "I fell asleep on Adam's bed after we talked...we talked for hours.  And then I woke up this morning to find him sleeping on the floor."

"That's sweet," Dawn said with a small smile.  "You know, I don't know him too well, but Adam seems like a real gentleman..."  She made an unpleasant face.  "...which is more than I could say about some men around here."

Amy looked down at her hands in her lap for a moment, deep in thought.  "Dawn Marie...oh, God...I really need to talk to you about something."

The brunette smiled, reaching a hand out to touch her friend on the arm.  "I knew you did..."  When the redhead met her brown eyes, she continued, "...I always could tell when you had something really pressing on your mind...hey, it's just about dinnertime - why don't we order in some room service food and have ourselves a good, old-fashioned girl talk?"