I Loved Her First

Chapter Eight

"Well...that was awkward." Jay coughs when Adam is out the door.

"What are you on about now?" Sam turns around with a hand on her hip, coffee in the other. "What's wrong with Adam trying to book us for more work?" She raises a brow at Jay.

"That's not even close to what I meant, love." Jay snorts and walks over to her. "Adam's a smart guy, he knows what's going on here." He clarifies.

"And what is that, exactly?" Sam sips her coffee with skepticism.

"That you've fallen madly in love with me in under a month." Jay laughs with a grin.

"Oh get over yourself." Sam rolls her eyes. "I'm gonna finish this coffee and do some laundry before work." She turns away from Jay.

"But what about me?" Jay whines. "We were doing something important before Cole interrupted." He pokes at the back of Sam's shoulder.

"I think that you'll be okay," Sam replies. "Why don't you make yourself useful and make breakfast or something?" She suggests as she walks off.

"Alright." Jay nods and walks in the other direction.

When Sam is out of sight he grabs his phone and checks his messages. Nothing important for the moment. But Jay loves to stir the pot. So he sends a quick message to Tony Khan newly imputed into his contacts.

Adam on the other hand heads back to his apartment with a twinge of hurt in his chest. His worst fear is being realized right before his eyes.

He gets home in silence and books the Dark match like he promised Sam.

"I'm such an idiot," Adam whines to himself. "Bringing Jay to AEW? What in the hell was I thinking?" He tosses his hands in the air.

'I wasn't thinking. That's what.' Adam sits down and thinks to himself. 'I was trying too hard to make her happy and now I'm paying for it.' He puts his head in his hands.

Dark isn't taping until later in the day so Adam has an afternoon to wallow in his thoughts. He can't let Sam go. Not without a fight. He can't. Not after he's been pining after the woman for years now. No. It can't end like this. And Adam won't let it.

"Yeah, I can do this," Adam mumbles to himself later in the day while he's packing his gym bag. "I'll convince her that Jay isn't right for her. I loved her first. Me. Not Jay." He convinces himself with determination.

A plan boils in Adam's mind as he prepares to meet Sam at the arena for Dark.

Later in the afternoon Sam heads down to the arena and meets Adam in the locker room. Adam is already settled in and looking through his gym bag when she arrived.

"Hey, Adam." She greets him with a friendly smile.

"Sam, hey." Adam nods to her. "You ready for tonight? This isn't too short notice, is it?" He asks her.

"Not at all." Sam shakes her head and sets her bag down. "You know me, Adam. I love to work." She beams.

"Great." Adam nods. "I got us booked against Lee Johnson and Sky Blue." He informs her.

"Oh?" Sam quips back. "I love Sky! She's such a natural talent. We train together every once in a while."

"Nice." Adam nods.

The pair hang out and get changed into their rings gear so they don't have to do it later. Sam sits and texts with Jay for a little bit until it dawns on her that she should talk to Adam about earlier in the day.

"Adam, about earlier today." Sam gets Cole's attention.

"Yeah? What's up?" Adam sets down his phone.

"It's just after you left Jay said something really stupid. And I just want to make sure that it was true, you know?" She explains.

"Okay." Adam nods.

"Jay and I kind of have this thing going on. It's not really that serious, mind you." Sam picks at her nails. "But I just wanted to make sure that things don't get awkward between us. You and Jay are both my friends."

"Why would things get awkward?" Adam replies. "If you and Jay wanna fool around that's no business of mine." He shrugs. "As long as you're happy Sam. You know I love you."

"Really? Awe, I love you too, Adam." Sam's worry fades off and she walks over to Adam for a hug.

Adam hugs Sam back tightly and pats her back. His plan is getting set into motion now. He's going to make Sam realize that she should be with him. Not Jay.

However, unbeknownst to Adam. Jay has other plans. At the same time, Adam and Sam are working on Dark, Jay is meeting up with Tony Khan about getting him booked on AEW more. Specifically with Sam. And Tony isn't at all opposed to the idea.

Sam already works so well with Adam, so why not add Jay into the mix? They're all friends, right? At least that's Khan's thinking anyway.

Later the same night Sam gets back to her apartment and finds Jay doing something on his laptop. A pizza box sitting next to him.

"Oh please tell me that you saved me some." Sam makes a B-line for the box.

"Of course." Jay nods. "And hey, I've got news." He adds.

"Yeah? What's up?" Sam takes a slice of pizza and sits next to Jay?

"I talked to Tony Khan and he wants to add me to your team with Adam," Jay explains. "You know, so you've got two tag partners to pick from instead of one." He adds.

"Really? Dude, that's great!" Sam beams. "Wow, nice going Jay. I can't wait to tell Adam." She happily goes back to her pizza.

"Yeah, me either." Jay chuckles.