Golden Hug (Bayley x Male OC) (DS2)

Chapter 2

-Malachi's POV-

I had my white Italian Mafia suit on and was driving back to Caleb's house, but my mind wasn't on the wedding. No, my interaction with Bayley kept bouncing around up there. She'd gotten seriously beautiful since the last time I'd seen her, which had to have been the party we threw when she got signed by the WWE (well, got to NXT).

Maybe I'd go talk to her after things settled down, because this was a subject that I just couldn't ignore.

...

"-you may kiss the bride!"

The after party was pretty spectacular. We all drank a little... okay, I had sparkling apple juice along with the kids while the other adults drank champagne. Through all this, though, I couldn't find Bayley. Even when I did, it was only for a second and then I lost her again.

Finally, Caleb noticed me and came over to see what was up. He'd had a drink or two already, but he wasn't drunk yet.

"So who ya looking for?" He asked, examining the crowd. I didn't want to truthfully let him know that I'd just developed an insta-crush on Bayley, but I guess he was my best friend.

"Bayley," I replied, grabbing something random from the newly renovated snack table. Caleb took what I'd grabbed out of my hand before I could take a bite of it.

"You're allergic to blueberries, remember?" He put the slice of blueberry pie back on the table and directed me away. That was probably for the better. Had to keep my intakes low for the big debut.

"So what's this about our good friend Bayley?"

"Well, I met her at the hotel and I just wanted to talk to her."

Caleb eyeballed me and the broke out into a hearty laugh, not buying it in the slightest. While this was all true, I guess he figured I wanted a little more than to just talk.

"You're gonna ask Bayley out," Caleb stated absentmindedly, as if he didn't register the words he was saying. I don't know how it happened, but we ended up sitting on the steps of his porch watching the party unfold about a hundred feet away from us.

"You know, all this fancy shit was Lexi's idea," he sighed, dropping his beer bottle and watching it roll through the glass. Usually I didn't like when people swore, being Christian and all, but it was his wedding. Besides, I fought people while dressed like some gladiator king for a living.

"Don't pretend like you don't like it," I replied, taking in the view. To our far right was a small beach on Eagle Lake, which looked really pretty at dusk. If the weather was alright the next day, maybe I'd swing by and take a dip.

"It's not that I don't, but I would have settled for less. Before I got signed by the WWE, my dream wedding was somewhere in the woods with about twenty people there. This is fine too, though."

I couldn't blame him. He came from almost nothing, and was practically raised by our church. My dad was the head pastor, so I was also around quite a bit. We did everything together, whether that was going to church camp or spending a few hours trying to shoot a video for an event at the church. That's why it hurt so much when he left.

We were at an event over in Toronto when he and my dad got into an pretty heated argument about something that had happened at a party (his friend, Evan Fong, had invited him to a party his friend was hosting). Caleb had accidentally drank and ate some things that he wasn't supposed to, and my dad went off on him.

What ended up happening is that Caleb, having driven himself to the event, packed up and left. We didn't ever see him at church again, and I didn't actually hear from him until a few years later. We'd both ended up in the same wrestling company, and we made up fairly quickly.

"Something on your mind, bud?" he asked, snapping me back from my little daydream(?). Suddenly, I saw a couple of girls walking towards us: Bayley and Alexa.

"Well, you wanted to talk to her, now's your chance. I have to go attend to the wifey."

The newlyweds walked away, and Bayley just took Caleb's spot next to me. It's not like we wanted to be away from the party, it's just that we'd both ended up there and appeared to be too lazy to move.

"You drunk?" I asked, starting the conversation off on a high note. She shook her head, holding up the bottle of water in her hand. I wasn't trying to be mean, but I had no respect for the drinking of alcohol and didn't want to waste my time on drunk people.

"Great party, huh?" she sighed, looking onto the festivities with a dreamy look in her eyes. Bayley had always been one for romantics, so this all was right up her alley. Caleb and Alexa had even asked for her advice on some of the decorations.

"Say, do you want to go hang out on the beach?" I got up and held out my hand, which she took with a giggle. We skirted around the edge of the party and ducked under a bottle that Evan had thrown at us on the way there. Finally, we were truly alone, and we pulled out his beach chairs and sat, listening to the faint sound of music.

"The sky looks gorgeous tonight," she muttered, gazing up at the stars. We took turns finding different constellations and other patterns before finally looking into each other's eyes. She looked so freaking beautiful, it was unbelievable.

I couldn't take it any longer. Smiling, I asked, "Wanna dance?"

Bayley and I both got up and started slow dancing to a song I played on my phone. Everything about the moment was perfect, from the way she clung to me to the sound of the waves hitting some rocks that were on the far edge of the beach.

Of course, no perfect moment can last forever. Just when it seemed like we might kiss, Caleb cleared his throat behind us. With a loud groan, I broke away from Bayley to see what he wanted.

"Sorry to ruin the moment... but Lex wants to talk to Bayley again. No way I was telling her no."

"It's fine, Caleb."

Despite the sadness I felt when they walked off, I was still optimistic. Something had happened that night between me and Bayley.