Dreaming Of You

Chapter 35

"Wait... You mean to tell me that you didn't come after me because you thought that you weren't good enough?" I asked once he finished telling me everything.

"Yeah. In my eyes you deserve the best. Why settle for someone pretending to be superman when you deserve the real deal?" Joe shrugged.

"Are you crazy? I don't need some superhero nor do I want a perfect fairytale prince. Anything I want is someone I can turn to. Someone who loves me for myself. You would have been more than good enough. If anything, I figured that I didn't deserve you." I told him. "I mean I felt like I wouldn't even be able to compete with your female coworkers anyway."

"Why would you have needed to compete with them?" Joe asked me.

"Really? You don't get that? The women you work with are all either super beautiful, super talented or even both. I felt like I wasn't so I was jealous of them."

"Which is why you always said you hated wrestling." Joe guessed as he finally seemed to get it.

"Yeah." I admitted. "When I woke up and heard about you and Rebecca that feeling of not being good enough only got worse. But that's really no excuse for just leaving like that. I'm really sorry Joe, I was a terrible friend."

"Stop." Joe shook his head. "You were never a terrible friend. You left because you thought that Becks was making me happy. You protected both your own heart while also thinking about both Rebecca and me. You wanted us to be happy, just couldn't bear to watch it. I get it. "Once I read the letter, I realized that you weren't just sad about my brothers passing. You were hurt because you had to watch me and Becks together."

"Yeah, I can't say that it was nice." I sighed.

"What matters to me is that you're back now. I really did miss you a lot."

"I missed you too cheekbone." I smiled slightly before checking in. "Is it still okay for me to call you that?"

"You're always allowed to call me that." Joe assured me. "What about you? Should I call you Marvel now or is little one still good enough?"

"Still good." I started to chuckle. "I never really minded that you called me that."

"Well then, little one, tell me about the wrestling." Joe chuckled as well.

"Matt and Jeff taught me the basics after my recovery. Matt coached and Jeff was my training partner. I stayed with Matt and Reby during that time. After three months of training, they encouraged me to go out and travel for a while. Get my experience on the indie scene. At first booking matches was hard but once I got some matches in, I quickly got a lot more bookings in Europe. I picked up a few languages like German, Dutch and French. I'm not super good but I know sentences like 'I'll be there in ten minutes' and 'which way do I need to go for catering?' so I manage whenever someone doesn't speak English. I now have a little fanbase in Europe and they were ecstatic to see me wrestle on AEW." I told Joe all about it.

"How did you end up there anyway? Did Matt get you there?"

"Actually, Chris came with the idea." I clarified. "Matt was video calling me and he walked by. Matt called him over and Chris asked how I was doing. I told him about just having come back from a match and we got to talk about my still relatively short career. He invited me to come down to Jacksonville and so I ended up being the last-minute replacement as Britt's opponent."

"Might be short but you were amazing. Britt is quite a big name on their roster."

"Yeah, she is great, was a pleasure to work with as well." I agreed.

"So, would you want to go there permanently? To AEW I mean." Joe asked me.

"I'm not sure yet, currently I'm just waiting to see what the future brings." I told him honestly. "Speaking of future. I actually was already planning on visiting you."

"You weren't going to skip me on your friend visits?" Joe asked.

"Course not, I was going to come visit you on your birthday tomorrow."

"You're always welcome to come. My mom and dad would love to see you again."

I smiled at that. "Well in that case I simply have to come."

Joe got up, seeing as we had sat down while he was telling his story and held out his hand to me. "Well come on then. Might as well get back to Pensacola together."

I smiled and took his hand so that he could pull me up.

We walked over to Colby and Rebecca, now knowing that they were together I felt a lot better about talking to Rebecca. "It was good to see you both again."

"I hope you both managed to talk things out lass. Sorry about that slap but someone had to slap the sense back into you." Rebecca smiled at me.

"Don't worry about it. I both deserved and needed it." I smiled back at her.

"So, you're heading out?" Colby asked us.

"Yeah, she was planning to visit for my birthday anyways so might as well travel there together." Joe explained.

"Alright." Colby chuckled. "Safe travels and Raych, please don't disappear on us again."

-

The flight to Pensacola was a peaceful one. Joe and I talked about whatever little thing we could think of, just like we used to do before everything. I was glad to have my friend back.

There was more to it now though. Now knowing that we both used to hide our feelings for each other made our connection feel less stressful.

Even as a teen there had been some stress due to not wanting him to find out about my feelings. That stress was completely gone now.

Joe had taken me back to his house. I protested at first but he had simply stated that I was always welcome there.

Right now, we were just sitting on his couch and talking. I had opted the idea to just stay up and talk till midnight came, which would signify the start of his birthday.

"Did you make any wishes for your birthday yet?" I asked him.

"Only one. I'll let you know whether or not it came through at midnight."

"Which is only two more minutes away." I pointed out.

"Hey, I kind of forgot to ask you something." Joe suddenly said after a moment of silence.

"What is it?" I questioned. "Id be happy to answer any question you still have."

"Did it work? Taking time to get over me?"

I hadn't expected that question but it did make me smile. Instead of answering him though I did him one better.

I connected my lips with his, the same moment the clock struck midnight. The kiss was gentle and filled with love. It felt like the calm after a storm and in my mind, I knew just how accurate that metaphor was for this moment.

With a smile we broke apart and Joe looked me in the eyes "Seems like I just got my birthday wish."