Wrestling With Love

by Whitney Shope

  And with that, Trevor hung up, the sounds of Mr. Donahue trying to get Trevor's attention fading away into the receiver.

  “I am so proud of you babe!” Mila said.

  Trevor laughed, “Thanks. So, yeah, work should be interesting tomorrow!”

  ***

  Monday morning came around entirely too quickly. After getting dressed for work, Mila headed downstairs to find Trevor watching TV, Finn and Bayley draped over his lap.

  “Babe, we need to go!”

  “But the kittens need me to stay here.” he objected.

  “Nice try honey, but if I’ve got to go so do you. Besides-”

  She leaned over the back of the couch and kissed his cheek.

  “-you know the rules; all wrestlers report on Monday mornings.”

  “Yeah yeah, as if Scrooge McDuck couldn't come up with another way to make himself hated.”

  “Come on grumpy pants!” Mila laughed and headed out the door, Trevor grabbing the car keys and following behind.

  They had agreed to get a second car, they just couldn't agree on what kind. Mila wasn't ready to give up the look of a sharp little sportscar, while still having a practical child friendly car. Trevor didn't believe you could have both in the same car. Climbing into the driver's seat Trevor said

  “I was thinking we could go get started on some baby shopping after work today.”

  “So was I! There's so much to do! We have to get started on the registry and decide on a color scheme for the nursery, not to mention shopping for the actual nursery stuff itself and -”

  “Whoa, easy there, tiger. You're going to pop a blood vessel!”

  Trevor laughed and Mila rolled her eyes at him, trying to not show her own laughter.

  “Don't poke the Mama Bear!”

  “I'll remember that.” Trevor said as both burst out laughing.

  The second they walked through the huge glass doors to the building, Trevor and Mila both felt tense and uneasy. They walked over to the main desk where Phoebe was sorting through some papers.

  “Morning Pheebs!”

  “Oh! I'm sorry I didn't hear you, morning Mila, morning Trev!”

  “Morning Phoebe, what's with all the paperwork?” asked Trevor.

  “Oh, Mr. Donahue decided I needed to go through and organize all the visitors logs from the past year.”

  Mila and Trevor looked at each other with puzzled expressions on their faces.

  “Why?” Mila asked.

  “Who knows why that man does anything he does! All I know is he seemed REALLY serious about it, so I wasn't going to ask questions!”

  “Of all the people in this office? You!”

  “Trevor!”

  “Mila, I've known Phoebe for 10 years give or take, she knows she has the uncanny ability to find out any and everything in this company, trust me!”

  “He's not lying Mila. I know I'm the office gossip queen and honestly, I'm rather proud of my capabilities! But, on this one, even I can't figure it out.”

  “Well, I need to head into the weight room, get a few reps in. Pheebs you got the sign in sheet in that mountain of paperwork?” Trevor asked.

  “Yeah, I better get to my office too.” Mila said.

  After signing in, Mila and Trevor headed for the elevators, Mila heading to her 3rd floor office, Trevor to the 2nd floor gym. No sooner had they pressed the button for the elevator when they heard a loud, booming, entirely too familiar voice screaming down the hall.

  “Trevor, Mila, my office now!”

  “I have to work out for tonight -”

  “NOW!” Mr. Donahue screamed as he marched around the corner to the private elevators. Trevor kissed Mila's temple.

  “Don't worry I won't let anything happen to you. He's not going to stress you and the baby out!”

  The minute the elevator doors opened to the 5th floor, the corporate floor, all eyes were on Mila and Trevor. Trevor instinctually reached out and took Mila's hand, his fingers running over her engagement ring. She could tell he was more nervous than he was trying to let on.

  As soon as they reached the door to his office Mr. Donahue called out.

  “Don't bother knocking just get in here!”

  They entered the swanky office with its leather chairs, its crystal light fixtures and its black leather couch, suitable for an afternoon nap or banging one's Mistress.

  “I'm only going to ask this once; where did you find out about my... associates?”

  “And I'm only going to answer you once; does it really matter?”

  “Trevor Louis don't you dare test me after that stunt you pulled last night!”

  “It wasn't a stunt; it was nothing but facts. I am not contractually obligated to attend the overseas shows, now if you want to discuss that matter further with my attorney, I'd be happy to get him in touch with you, but in the meantime I don't need you stressing out my fiancé and my daughter, so Mila doesn't need to be here for this.”

  Mila hadn't said a word yet, just looked nervously at her engagement ring.

  “Like hell she doesn't need to be here!” Mr. Donahue snapped “I don't need someone with personal knowledge of my private matters out here thinking she can just walk away as if nothing's changed!”

  “See, I've tried to go into this with a level head but now you're really starting to piss me off!” Trevor shouted.

  Just then, there was a knock before the office door opened to reveal Samantha.

  “I'm here”, she said meekly before making her way over to sit on the couch, Mila staring daggers at her.

  She couldn't help but feel betrayed. How could she be so fake? Knowing she was actively involved in such dangerous situations? For her part, Samantha looked at Mila quickly before looking down. At least she had the decency to look ashamed.

  “Hail! Hail! The gang's all here! Isn't this cozy?” Trevor said, the sarcasm dripping from his words like honey.

  “Trevor please-” Samantha began, before being cut off by a fed-up Mila.

  “No!”

  Everyone's heads turned to Mila, in shock at her outburst.

  “Don't you dare ‘Trevor please’ him. How dare you?! I was trying to get him to open up, to give you a chance, and you smiled in my face acting like you wanted to be family when all along you were involved in THIS?”

  Samantha clambered for answers, her palms clearly sweaty as she picked at the hem of her pencil skirt.

  “Mila, I'm so sorry, I never meant-”

  “You know, this company was my dream. This industry, this business is such a huge part of me. This job was a way out of the hell I was living in. I respected all of you, admired you even. But now. I don't think I could ever get to that point again. And the fact that you don't even trust me to be out there and not tell people these things, are you serious? Like I'm going to be sending out engraved announcements to everyone! I will always be thankful for this job because it brought me to this most amazing man who I can't imagine being without now.”

  She reached over and squeezed Trevor's shoulder as she said this, her eyes still fixed seemingly on the empty space behind Mr. Donahue.

  “And I met some of the greatest friends a girl could ask for. But. . .I don't think I can keep pouring my blood, sweat and tears into this company.”

  “Mila, what are you saying baby?” Trevor asked, looking more than a little shocked.

  “I'm saying... I quit. You'll have my letter of resignation on your desk within the day Mr. Donahue.”

  And with that, Mila walked out of Donahue's office, ignoring repeated calls from Mr. Donahue and Samantha for her to "come talk it out". Trevor, meanwhile, stayed seated.

  “Well, I hope you're both real proud of yourselves there! That girl just gave up her dream because of you. My fiancé, the mother of my child, just had to leave her dreams behind because of something you did!”

  Trevor pointed at his so-called father, all 28 years of emotional turmoil finally bubbling up; and yet, he was oddly calm.

  “Just
when I think you couldn't possibly let me down anymore, this happens. So, you see, you can fire me if you want, it's not like I can't find another promotion that'd be happy to have me. But before you do you might want to check out your merchandise sales, ticket sales, stock rates, TV views, all that good stuff that keeps this company afloat and ask yourself if you can make it without Dane Styles.”

  “Trevor please don't do this!” Samantha pleaded as Trevor just chuckled.

  “Oh, I'm not quitting. Just making a few phone calls. Goodbye Samantha.”

  He looked over at his so-called "father ", every instinct in him vowing right then and there that no matter what his daughter would never feel even one third of what he had felt. Finally, Trevor met his eyes with a wicked stare.

  “Goodbye... Dominic.”

  Chapter Twenty

  “ I’ve got to hand it to you, you have bigger balls than I thought!”

  “You're ridiculous!”

  It was a Sunday afternoon and Mila, and Britani were sitting in Comet's Ice Cream Shop, indulging in a couple of cones. It had been 2 weeks since Mila quit Pro Elite Wrestling. It hadn't been easy. She was now 23 weeks along in her pregnancy and the pressure was on to get things ready. She and Trevor had cleared out the bedroom for the nursery and she and Britani had been shopping all day.

  “I'm serious, I have never seen anyone stand up to Donahue like that! I still can't believe he wanted to censor your writing! People are still talking about it. You're like a real badass now!” Britani said.

  Yep, that was the story they were going with. She quit because Mr. Donahue and Samantha wanted to censor her writing. Look, it's a little hard to explain to everyone "hey I'm quitting because our boss and my future father-in-law is involved with the freaking mafia!"

  “Yep, I'm a real rebel!” Mila said as she rolled her eyes and polished off her Butter Pecan Ice Cream Cone

  “Dude, did you bother chewing? Or did you just skip all that pesky chewing and go right to inhaling?”

  “Shut up! I'm pregnant alright!”

  Mila threw her napkin at Britani, who just swatted it away and laughed.

  “Okay, okay, so have you heard the latest on Violet and Randall's little reconciliation?”

  “I talked to her yesterday and she said things were going great.”

  “Yeah, they're great alright but the problem is Star.”

  “Oh, for the love of God, what is she up to now?” asked Mila.

  “Well, apparently, she's decided she wants Randall back!”

  “They hooked up 3 times, that's hardly a relationship so what exactly is she going to ‘get back’?”

  “Apparently she's decided that they were ‘always meant to be’, despite the fact that they were just fuck buddies for like a week more than a year ago.” Britani said.

  Mila massaged her temples.

  “I swear that girl gives me a migraine just hearing about her!”

  Britani laughed as she finished her own ice cream cone.

  “Well, she's been throwing herself at Randall. Calling their apartment looking for him, waiting by his car in the parking lot after work.”

  “Jesus, she's gone full on bunny boiler on their asses!”

  “Right?! I mean I've always known she was bat crap crazy and sure as hell doesn't discriminate when it comes to who she'll screw. Hell, it's what got her the job and a championship reign at PEW in the first place. But this is nuts even for her!”

  Mila nearly choked on her water. “I'm sorry, back it up, what did you say?”

  “That Star's a skank? That's hardly news Mila!”

  “Did the brain freeze from your ice cream become permanent? I meant about her sleeping her way into the company and a title reign!” Mila said.

  “You didn't know that? Yeah, Star was sleeping with Mr. Donahue for a hot minute. When her Daddy came in to do some construction work on the old PEW building, she tagged along. And, ever the salesman, Lorenzo just happened to mention his daughter's love of wrestling. Next thing you know, she rode her way right to the top!”

  It took Mila a couple minutes to allow herself to process this little nugget of information.

  “Carano, that's Star's real last name right?”

  “Yep, Estrella Carano, why?” Britani asked.

  “So, Lorenzo Carano is her father?”

  “Yeah... why're you asking? Do you know him or something?”

  “Not yet.”

  Mila mumbled that response and then stood up and stretched out her arms and legs.

  “Hey, do you think you could drop me off home? I'm getting pretty tired.” Mila asked, while thinking “Yes, of this constant drama!”

  “Yeah, sure, I need to head to Lucas' place afterwards anyway.”

  “Speaking of, how are you guys doing?” Mila asked.

  “Honestly? We're doing amazing! I honestly never thought I was capable of such a solid, secure relationship.”

  “Yea, neither did the rest of us!”

  Both girls laughed as Britani paid the bill and shooed Mila out to the car

  “Let's get you home to that man of yours, babe!”

  “Yeah”, Mila thought, “because we've got a LOT to talk about!”

  After Britani dropped her off home, Mila had practically run into the house. Well, as fast as she was able to.

  “Seriously baby girl, we have GOT to come to an agreement on this whole can't walk longer than 3 minutes without stopping to rest, peeing all the time thing!” Mila said, cradling her growing belly.

  She finally found Trevor sitting at the kitchen island on his laptop. He looked up at Mila and smiled before both blurted out at the same time:

  “I have news!”

  Mila dropped her purse where she stood, staring at Trevor.

  “Okay, your news first.” she said.

  “Well, I told you I wanted to talk to my lawyer about a few things? Well, my lawyer is my Uncle Sammy.”

  “As in, your Mom's brother in D.C.?”

  “That's the one. I wanted him to look over my contract. To be honest, I was hoping for a way out of it. But as it turns out, I'm a little more than just a wrestler there.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Okay, so I knew I was listed as a shareholder in the company. All it ever meant to me was hey, I own stock I can maybe retire on one day.”

  “Okay?” Mila said.

  “But apparently in yet another calculated move by Dominic Donahue, in his efforts to get me to sign with PEW he signed over a little more stock to me. Enough to make me a majority shareholder who also happens to outrank Samantha.”

  “Whoa!”

  “Oh, it gets better. Apparently when he made that move to try and manipulate me into wrestling for the company, he forgot that in 2015 when he had drawn up his most recent estate papers he had left it that in the event of his death, I am to take over the company. But in order to do that, he had to appoint me to the Board of Directors.”

  “Okay baby, can you just tell me what the hell this all means - in English please?!”

  “It means if I can find cause to believe he has acted inappropriately, recklessly and not in the best interest of the company, I can take it to the other board members and investors to get him thrown out as CEO. . . and take over the company myself!” he said.

  “Oh my God!”

  “Yeah, only problem is how do I prove he's acted recklessly and endangered the company? I can't turn him in for the mafia connection, hell half the investors are mob members!”

  “What if those mafia investors found out he was, in all actuality, doing something to jeopardize the company?”

  “What are you talking about?” Trevor asked.

  “Well, that's sort of my news. I found out today that the only reason Star Carano ever got her job, and championship reign was because she was... sleeping with your father.”

  Trevor spit out the Gatorade he'd been drinking.

  “She what?!”

  “And Star's father is Lorenzo Carano w
ho, though he'd been contracted to do some drywall, somehow wound up as an investor. And we all know the Carano family are neck deep in... less than legal activities?”

  Trevor hopped off the bar stool he was sitting on, grabbed Mila by the shoulders, and planted a kiss on her lips.

  “You're beautiful! I have to make a few more phone calls, I'll be right back!”

  With that, he bounded up the stairs while Mila looked on laughing.

  Later that night after dinner, having already changed into their comfy clothes, Mila and Trevor were cuddled up on the couch with the kittens and a “Law and Order” marathon.

  “Oh my God, the baby's kicking!”

  Trevor excitedly pulled out his phone and started videotaping the movements of their baby girl, who was particularly active that night.

  Mila giggled as Trevor turned into Spike Lee with his camera angles. Suddenly, he stopped.

  “Trevor?” she asked.

  “This is what it's all about, you know? The reason I'm fighting for what's rightfully mine. You 2 are why I have to keep going. To secure our future as a family.”

  Mila rubbed her hand across Trevor's cheek.

  “And you're the reason I've been able to not only survive but to live again.”

  “Alright,” Trevor stood up and stretched out a hand to help Mila up.

  “No matter what happens, it's you me and the jellybean against the world.”

  He wrapped Mila in a warm, tight hug. And just then Trevor's phone starting ringing.

  “I better take this!”

  He disappeared upstairs and Mila tried to fight the feelings of curiosity.

  About 15 minutes later Trevor came jogging down the stairs.

  “Sorry about that baby, that was Aunt Ellen. She's got some paperwork from when Mom was married to Dominic. Get this, even when he married Carolyn, he never changed his personal will, which left everything to Mom in the event of his death. And ... in the event of her death...”

  “Everything is left to you.” Mila finished for him.

  “I know what I have to do, but how do I even start?”

  “Together. We start together.”