Amy enjoyed herself on her first date with Shane Helms and therefore, agreed to go out with him again.  A week later, on their second date, they went to dinner at a nice restaurant on a day when they had an afternoon house show.

Amy ate her salad, roast chicken, rice pilaf and vegetables heartily, but as she and Shane continued to talk, she knew she couldn't keep up this facade for much longer.

Just outside the restaurant was a small park with benches.  They sat there for awhile after dinner, as it was still a bit early.

"So, how are you liking working with the WWF?" Amy asked.

"It's very cool," Shane replied.  "It's a bit different from WCW, but it's what ever professional wrestler strives for."

"That is so true."

"Plus, I get to see you all the time, and that's an added bonus."

Amy met his eyes in the darkening night.  He was such a sweet guy.  If only...

Shane leaned closer slowly, tentatively, and placed his lips on the redhead's.  He kissed her tenderly, almost in an affectionate friendship way at first, but then Amy felt his tongue enter her mouth.  Abruptly, she pulled back, one hand gently but firmly pushing at his chest.

Amy gazed into Shane's surprised brown eyes and sighed.  "Shane, I'm sorry...this isn't going to work...You know I love you, but-"

"-But it's only as a friend," Helms finished for her.

She nodded.  "Yes...I'm sorry."

He smiled sadly.  "Yeah, me too...actually, I was afraid of this."

"You were?"

"Yeah...you seemed so distracted - not only tonight, but when we went out last week, too."

Amy's eyes dropped slightly.  "I'm sorry, Shane," she said, again apologizing profusely.

"No, don't be," the young man said.  "I guess this just wasn't meant to be..."  He hooked a thumb under her chin, lifting her head a bit so that their eyes met.  "I'm just happy I'm fortunate enough to have you as a friend, Ames...that means more to me than you'll ever know."

Amy smiled up at him, her eyes welling up.  "Oh, Shane..."  As her tears spilled forth, Helms embraced her, rocking her back and forth, kissing her on the forehead.

*

"Hey," Chris Jericho greeted Adam as he entered the small hotel bar.  The taller man saw his friend and slipped onto the barstool beside him.

"Hey, Chris."

The shorter blond took a sip of the beer he was holding, then said, "What's wrong, man?  Jay ditch you again?"

Adam snickered.  "Well, you know how it is...I may be a natural blond, but there is no way I can compete with Trish in 'other' areas."

"So true," Chris quipped with a smirk.  His facial expression suddenly changed, his crystal blue eyes hardening, narrowing.  "Uh oh..."

"What is it?" Adam questioned, following his friend's line of vision.  And that was when he saw what had made the other man groan.

Torrie Wilson, clad in a skintight pair of blue jeans and a white tank top with obviously no bra underneath, stood just outside the bar, talking with Shane McMahon.  She was flashing the smile and appeared to be flirting with the young man.

"Oh, great," Adam muttered.  After a moment of silence as they both eyed the young woman warily, he said, "You wouldn't believe what that little twit did last week..."

"What?" Chris asked, a look of great interest crossing his features.  He figured this would be interesting.

"I found her practically naked - and drooling - in my hotel bed.  She took the liberty of getting into my room and 'offering' herself to me to 'celebrate' my Intercontinental title victory," Adam said with disgust.

"What'd you do?"

"I threw her out...she's nothing but an annoying tramp."

"Don't I know it," Chris muttered, taking another sip of his beer.

"What, she showed up in your room once, too?" Adam asked.

"No, she never got that far with me," Jericho said.  "But she did come onto me, even though I had a girlfriend at the time - and she knew it.  Junior, I could tell you stories about that whore from back in my WCW days that would make your head spin.  I just hope," he added, gesturing with his beer stein toward the pair outside the bar, "for Shane O'Mac's sake, he sees her for what she really is..."

*

Amy sat alone in her hotel room, rummaging through some photographs of herself and some friends.  She smiled as she examined a picture of Adam and her, taken a couple of months earlier at the San Diego zoo.  They'd been in California for the tour, and had taken full advantage of a day off.  She, Adam, Jay, Trish, Chris, Shane, Nora Greenwald, Jeff, Matt, and Stacy Keibler, whom the elder Hardy had since begun dating, had trekked to the zoo for a day of fun and freedom.

She was experiencing an extreme case of nostalgia.  After her evening with Shane, for which she still felt a bit guilty, her sadness increased.

Shane had been so nice, so sweet and understanding.  Still, it hurt her to have to hurt him, which she knew she must have, although he denied it.  She'd cried for about an hour after he'd brought her back to her hotel room and said goodnight.

At first, when she'd begun to cry with Shane in the park outside the restaurant, it had been more or less from how touched she'd felt at his sweet words about her.  Later on, she'd felt genuinely bad, overcome by sorrow.  And she realized that it didn't stem solely from hurting Shane...

She reached out to gently finger the photo, tracing her forefinger over Adam's image.  In the picture, he was grabbing her playfully, a huge grin on his handsome face as she laughed hysterically in his grasp.

Amy looked up sharply at the sudden knocking on her hotel room door.  Quickly putting the photo back in its album along with the others, she jumped up to answer it, coming to meet the beautiful green eyes of Adam.

"Hi," he said, gazing softly at her.  She looked sad, and he realized that she'd been crying, her eyes slightly red and puffy.  "What's wrong?"  Adam wanted to hold her in his arms and make all her pain go away.

"N-nothing," she lied.  "I'm fine."  She shifted her eyes from his.

Adam noticed how the redhead averted her gaze from him.  Stepping into the room and shutting the door behind him, he said, "No, you're not...I know you, Amy.  What's wrong?"  He stood directly in front of her and reached out to tip her head up, one hand gently under her chin.  It was a gesture identical to what Shane Helms had done not too much earlier.

Amy gazed up into his shining emerald eyes, mesmerized.  She realized their brilliant colors seemed to be ever-shifting, changing.  His face wore an expression of tender concern.

Finally, she spoke.  "Okay...I...I broke it off with Shane," the diva confessed, breaking their eye contact for a second, then gazing back up into the blond man's eyes, "and I feel so rotten about it."

Adam blinked, taken by surprise.  After seeing how happy she'd been about that first date with Helms a week earlier, he'd been certain that the pair would quickly become an item.  He realized that this news, although it seemed to make the redhead upset, made him feel glad, even relieved.

Amy sighed and walked over to one of the beds in the room, sitting down on it.  Raking a hand through her long red hair, she said, "I love Shane...and I told him that...but he is just my friend, and that's all he'll ever be...you know?"

Adam swallowed hard, absorbing her words.  He slid over and sat near her on the same bed.  "Yeah...I know," he said softly.  He briefly looked away as he replayed her words in his mind.  "...he is just my friend, and that's all he'll ever be..."  The realization that the phrase probably applied to all her male friends stung.

He couldn't tell her how he truly felt about her now - not after what she'd just said.  He didn't want to risk it.  Sure, she and Shane would remain friends, but then again, their friendship went back to their teens.  Adam had only been her friend for the last year and a half.  That was nothing compared to the nine years the redhead had invested in the other man.

Adam again swallowed the lump that had suddenly formed in his throat.  He ran a hand through his long blond locks and cleared his throat, determined to lighten the mood for the sake of both of them.

"Hey...how about a movie?  You owe me one from last week, you know..."

"Yeah, that would be great!" Amy said enthusiastically, a genuine smile coming to her previously sad face.  Then, just as quickly, it was replaced by a frown.  "But what about...Torrie?"  She suddenly realized how much she despised that name.

The man's face went blank for a second, then shifted, and Adam looked at her with confusion.  "Torrie?  What about Torrie???"

"Well..."  Amy bit her lip, trying her best not to look or sound angry or jealous.  "...won't she mind?  I mean, you've been spending a lot of time with her lately."

Despite the way he'd been feeling a moment earlier, Adam began to laugh heartily.  He couldn't believe it.  Amy had actually thought...

"I'm not 'spending a lot of time' with Torrie!  As a matter of fact, Ames, I can't stand her."

"Really?" the redhead asked hopefully, surprise registering on her lovely face.

"Really - believe me.  I want no part of Torrie Wilson, and I mean that literally," Adam replied.

Amy felt a vast measure of relief.  It felt as though a great weight had been lifted from her shoulders.  She knew he was being honest, not merely telling her this.

"My God, I feel so stupid!" she cried, breaking into embarrassed laughter.  "And here I thought you liked her!"

"No way," Adam stated, making a face.  "I don't like bimbos.  Never have.  I like a girl with a brain, one I can carry an intelligent conversation with, one who's herself, whom I can be friends with," he added, gazing meaningfully over at her.

Amy bit her lip as she pondered his words.  She felt a chill as goosebumps sprang up on her back.

"So..." she finally said.  "Let's get to that movie."

Little did the redhead know that, just like their very first movie together, they would end up talking all the way through it.  But unlike that first time, they also stayed up all night, blissfully unaware of the time.