Thorne in the Side

Chapter 8

A short, overweight woman with blonde hair was waiting at the employee's entrance to greet Seth and Lucy. She smiled at them as they approached. "Hey guys, I'm Lindsay. Please come through, we have everything set up for you."

Seth greeted her on behalf of both visitors and followed her into the building, Lucy trailing behind. They were lead into what looked like a staff room. There were a couple of couches that had seen better days, as well as a table and chairs in similar condition. A work surface ran along the back of the room, on top of which sat a coffee machine and a microwave. Thankfully, Seth saw some Starbucks cups arranged near the microwave. As a coffee snob, he couldn't have gone for the cheap stuff the staff were presumably provided with.

"I just had someone run around the corner to grab some coffees and teas," Lindsay said, gesturing to the Starbucks cups. "Help yourselves to whatever you'd like, then I'll take you through to the store."

"Very hospitable," Lucy mumbled to Seth as she selected a cup of tea, adding milk and sugar. "One think I miss about home is Yorkshire Tea."

"Can't say I've ever tried it," Seth said pleasantly, choosing to go with a black coffee with just a touch of sugar.

"We're on tour in England in two weeks," Lucy reminded him. "I'll make sure you get a proper cup of Yorkshire Tea while we're there."

"It's a date," Seth chuckled.

Lucy paused for a brief moment, raising an eyebrow slightly, wondering why he'd said that. Then she realised she was being stupid; he had just been making a joke. Dismissing it, she turned around to the Toys R Us employee, who's name she had already forgotten. "Okay, lead the way. Let's get this thing started."

"Sure thing," Lindsay said happily. She lead them out of the staff room, down a corridor and through a door which required a code to unlock it. Entering the store itself, Lucy saw that even more fans were already waiting inside, making it even less likely that the ridiculously large crowd they had seen outside would all get to make it to the front of the line during the available two hour period. She certainly wasn't going to be hanging around, that was for sure. Toys R Us were paying for two hours, so two hours they would get. Remembering that encounters with sweaty hands were imminent, she put her gloves on, struggling with her cup of tea as she did so. Just in front of her, she saw Seth going through the same process.

It only took seconds for the waiting crowd to see Lucy and Seth walking across the store. A loud cheer erupted. Lucy always found it strange that the fans would cheer her when she was at an event like this, yet she was always booed furiously at the actual shows. It made no real sense, but then as far as she was concerned, the booing made no sense at all anyway.

A small stage had been erected for the purposes of the meet and greet session, comprising a table, two rather uncomfortable looking plastic chairs and a large WWE logo on a background board. Two members of WWE's security staff were waiting on the stage, along with a female WWE employee who was there to make sure the fans came up in an orderly fashion, and to take pictures for them using their cell phones. It was all standard fare that Lucy had seen more times than she could count.

"Okay guys, I'll leave you to it," Lindsay said humbly. "Thanks a lot for coming."

"Thanks for the fifteen grand," Lucy thought, then remembered she was only going to get a quarter of the money thanks to the rule Roman had told her about. That was worth a sigh.

Nodding kindly to Lindsay, Seth walked onto the stage first, giving the fans a wave as they roared their approval. Lucy followed him up the two steps and onto the stage, to be greeted by a wave of boos, albeit more good-natured ones than she had gotten on Raw a couple of nights earlier. She smiled as if amused - not that she was - and gave them a wave anyway. Being booed at a signing was new, and she quickly figured out what the deal was. The latest thing was going to be cheering the three guys in The Shield and booing her. How tiresome that was going to be, she thought with another sigh.