The Lady of Darkness

Lunch with Friends

Two days later Steph was going to lunch with her friends, Nicole Bass, Ryan Shamrock and Anna Hollenbeck had decided to treat her to lunch and introduce her to Ryan's new friend.

"Mark? I'm leaving now, love you!" Steph called into the kitchen.

Mark appeared and gave Steph a kiss and then said: "See you later. Love you too."

"Bye." Steph answered, smiling.

She got into her car and drove to the place where she was to meet the girls-Lady's Cafe.

The owner was a sweet woman named Lady Hutcherson and had always welcomed Stephanie in her friends in. Steph chuckled to herself when she remembered the first time the girls had taken her out to lunch there, Nicole spilled her drink on the floor and Ryan tripped a waiter trying to help her clean it up. Lady had come out and helped clean up and Steph apologized profusely and paid for the lost meal and dishes. Lady had been more upset about the elongated wait for the customer and didn't mind as much as the four would have thought.

It was a surprise when they entered the Cafe the second time and Lady personally welcome them and called them her "entertainment friends".

Steph met Anna in the parking lot and Anna explained the others were inside.

"Nicole says you probably know Ryan's friend, but heck, she needs a break from all that constant writing." Anna explained.

"Constant writing? She's a writer?" Steph asked.

Anna paused to think for a moment.

"Well, yes and no, she's a part-time visual artist for a tattoo place here in town and she also does another job we're not aware of. That job pays well, though." Anna answered. "It's paying her rent, that's for sure."

Steph just ceased to continue talking and she walked in with Anna. She looked up to see Nicole, Ryan and Selena?

"Hey, Steph!" Ryan smiled. "I have someone to introduce you to!"

"Selena, you didn't tell me you knew Ryan, Anna and Nicole!" Steph smiled.

"That kinda happened last week, Ryan has been filling me in on things since then. Like the plans for the wedding, what you all did to prevent Mr. McMahon's script from going through...You know." Selena said, she was clearly uncomfortable.

"Relax, I'm not as bad as I normally am." Steph told her.

"She's a horrible boss?" Anna asked teasingly.

Selena didn't reply until they sat down at their table. "She isn't a horrible boss, she's just stressed most of the time. Who can blame her?"

Ryan and Nicole exchanged a private word and laughed.

"What is it?" Steph asked.

"It's just you, we haven't seen you since the morning of your wedding and we find out Selena's other job. And then we find out your so stressed. Even now you're not really thinking about lunch, you're thinking about your company!" Anna exclaimed.

Steph gave a slight blush. "Well, that's not the only thing I have on my mind..."

"Ooou!" Anna gasped. "Thinking about Mark?"

Ryan chuckled and Nicole smirked.

"No...Just still stressed..." Steph said.

"Uh-huh." Anna smiled.

Steph noticed Selena face palmed and was rubbing her nose. "I came here for lunch, not to throw up and put another incident on your tabs."

Anna laughed and Selena couldn't help but to laugh herself.

"I got some drafts from my Dad on Thanksgiving, about the wedding and the week after. Did any of you happen to write them? Dad said he didn't know who wrote them, just send them in and then disbanded from the project." Steph said.

Ryan smiled and Selena smirked.

"What am I missing?" Steph asked.

"Well, we all wrote it. Well, we pitched ideas. Selena did the heavy work." Nicole replied.

"You all have credit, without that I probably wouldn't have even touched the wedding idea, but Ryan asked me if I had any ideas for a black wedding between the Undertaker and Stephanie McMahon characters and well, it kind of exploded from there." Selena answered.

"How did you know what Paul would say?" Steph asked.

"I send in those drafts about half a month before the wedding happened, heh, I guess Vince just added dialogue from our rough draft. Ryan and Nicole never let me in on the secret until a couple of weeks ago." Selena replied.

"Finally! I'm starving!" Anna said gleefully.

Lady came out with their food and set each plate down. And Steph went deep in thought about the drafts and their new found owners. Why didn't they tell her? For a surprise? And why hadn't Selena mentioned being a writer before?

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Anna belongs to @Debwood-1999 she is in the original story. I read some of the original to get a feel for Anna's character and laughed so hard I couldn't write for a moment. Also, if Debwood disapproves of my using Anna I'll delete this chapter and rewrite it.

Enjoy the back-to-back chapters!