"Morning."

Dolph looked up from his cup of coffee and she could only imagine what she looked like. After speaking with her mother, she'd still had trouble getting to sleep, her mind racing thinking about Dolph and everything that was happening between them. Then her mind wondered about Dolph's past. What kind of things did he harbor like she did, if anything? All of this thinking meant she didn't get to sleep until around 4:30, if not later, and she'd slept fitfully after that.

"Sit down, you hungry?" Her growling stomach answered the question for her, and he chuckled, sliding the menu across the table. "Rough night?"

"You can say that," she said, running a hand through her hair and nearly yelping when she hit a rather large snarl. She'd taken no care to her appearance this morning. She ran a brush a couple times through her hair before throwing on a pair of sweats and a hoodie. She didn't need to impress anyone. Dolph had seen her like this plenty of times before.

That thought lingered for a little bit in her mind. Dolph had seen her at her worst, he'd seen her when she was just out of bed, he'd seen her when she was exhausted from long drives, he'd seen her sweaty and rumpled after matches. He'd seen her in all different kinds of situations, and he never commented on it, never seemed to care, never wanted her to be in full makeup and dressed up at all times. He just accepted her for what she was.

It was getting so much more difficult to convince her heart to close itself off to Dolph. Her rational brain was even starting to be chipped away at, and as the excuses became flimsier and flimsier, she wondered if it wasn't just a matter of time before she completely let her defenses down and invited Dolph into her heart completely.

"Coffee, hun?" AJ looked up at the waitress staring at her, and she nodded distractedly, watching the deep brown liquid being poured into her cup. "Do you know what you want?"

"Um, not yet, thanks," AJ said, and the waitress nodded before walking away. Dolph stared at her for a few long moments, and she tried to avoid his gaze, but she could still feeling his eyes searching her face for something.

"Do you want to talk about it?" he asked suddenly, and she looked up, startled that he'd spoken.

"Talk about what?"

"Whatever is going on in that head of yours?" he asked. "Did you have some kind of encounter with someone last night?"

"No," she shook her head, "it was nothing like that, just couldn't sleep, had a lot on my mind. It's just crazy how different things are now." She lied to him because it was easier to lie to him than to tell him what was really on her mind. Part of it was fear, the other part didn't want him to get his hopes up if he was just waiting for her to change her mind.

"You sure, you can tell me if that was the case," he told her, "I'm not above taking out anyone that hurt you, except Kaitlyn, I probably shouldn't punch her in the face."

AJ let herself giggle a little bit, "No, it was nothing like that, promise. I just couldn't sleep so I called my mom to talk to her for a little bit."

"Your mom, was she even awake, it must have been late in San Juan."

"She's always available."

"You must have had a lot on your mind if it needed your mom."

"Not always," she told him as the waitress came back to take her order. She gave her order for some pancakes then turned back to Dolph. "I was just thinking about relationships, my past relationships with all those men and how wrong I was about every single one of them, but I let myself believe that this was the best that I could do, the best that I could ever do."

"And now?" he leaned forward a little bit like he was especially interested in her answer.

"I know that I was wrong, I know that I can do better, but I don't know, hearts are such complicated things, don't you think?"

"They can be," he conceded, "but they don't always need to be."

"What about you though? I mean, I know we've talked about some of your exes, but any horror stories?"

"Of course, don't we all have them, I can't say that I'm friends with all my exes."

"Now that's a shocker considering you seem to be friends with most of them," she said. "Ever had your heart just completely torn to shreds?"

"Well that's a heavy question," he laughed, leaning back again and she caught a wistful look on his face. "I don't think it was so much getting my heart broken as it was a never was kind of situation. Sometimes you just...sometimes, there are just people you think you'd be good with and it never comes to fruition and it sucks. There was this girl in high school, and I know what you're thinking, come on, it's high school, but those times stick with you. Anyways, I thought we'd be good together, she never gave me the time of day, and sometimes I do think about the might have been, but I'm not upset over it, at the time, it sucked, but whatevs."

"Nothing else?"

"Nothing that comes to mind, does that make me well-adjusted?"

"Too normal for my blood," she laughed, grabbing some sugar and starting to pour it into her coffee. "I guess I've always felt like I've been trying to make up for lost time since I never dated until I was in my 20's."

"So that might have led you down the road of bad decisions."

"Might?" she laughed. "Absolutely did is more like it. I know now that I've made bad decision after bad decision."

"I can't say that I find that all bad though," he told her, his face softening as he regarded her. "Otherwise, how would you have ever ended up being best friends with a guy like me."

She bit her lip at his declaration. She wasn't sure she'd ever heard him say that to her before, and it warmed her all over her. "You consider me your best friend? But you have…"

"You're my best friend," he told her, "I feel like I can talk to you about anything, and that I can count on you for anything, and in my experience, that's the definition of a best friend, so sorry, you're it."

"You're mine too," she said quickly, the words coming out in an embarrassed rush. She could feel her cheeks turning pinker, and she tried to stave off the blush.

"So see, bad decisions aren't all bad, and you've learned from all that, I hope, so you know you won't make the same mistakes next time you decide to fall in love," he explained to her, and when it came from his mouth, it actually made sense. He had that knack though, putting things in perspective for her, which was another reason why this man sitting in front of her was her best friend.

It also compelled her to want to talk about the other night, about their feelings and about what was going on between them. She didn't know why that gave her any type of courage, but she was starting to believe that even if something did happen romantically and fizzled out, it wouldn't let to the disasters that it did with Daniel or Punk, that she and Dolph would survive it intact.

"Dolph, about the other night…"

"Are we back to that?" he shook his head. "Like I said, it was fine, and I think you were right anyways, I think it was just the adrenaline of winning the Rumble that got to me. I mean, seriously, when you're that happy, you just kind of want to share it, you know, so don't even worry about it, I'm not."

"Oh," she said, but realized he was probably deflecting, "but what if I wanted to talk about it?"

"Do you?"

"Yes, I do," she nodded, sighing a little bit. "I just, it's been on my mind since then, and I may as well fess up that it was because of that I called my mom last night."

"I figured, but I didn't want to say anything. I don't want to make you uncomfortable, AJ," he told her, grabbing her hand across the table. It was a nice gesture to project out to the few wrestlers that were eating around them, making them look like an actual couple. For AJ, the gesture was more than that, and she turned her hand over to lace their fingers together.

"I know you don't."

"I don't want you to feel like I'm this guy who's pressuring you or controlling you—"

"You've never done that," she interrupted vehemently, wanting him to know and understand just how different he was from all the others. "When I'm with you, I feel like I'm actually part of something, that I'm not just someone hanging out on the sidelines, someone's pawn. That's what they made me. They used me and made me a part of their own game. You don't do that, when I'm with you, I feel like we're a team, and I'm so scared to lose that, but…then I'm so scared to lose you too."

"I get that, and it's why I know that friends for now is the best idea," he told her, "that way—"

"I'm not sure that's what I want though," she laid it out there for him and then let it sink in with him. "I've been thinking and thinking and thinking, and how could I help but let real feelings in when I've been kissing you and hugging you and being around you all the time?"

"It wasn't one of our smartest ideas, no," he laughed.

"Do you know how you feel about me?"

"I've got a pretty good idea," he told her. "I mean, you can't really know if you aren't exploring it, you know what I mean. But seriously, I'm not here to rush anything, if this is something that we both want to explore, we can take it as slow as you need it to be."

"Yeah?" she asked, like he would suddenly tell her that no, she was his girlfriend and that was the end of it.

"Of course, look, this is really new and weird, and completely unexpected, right?" She nodded that it was. It was never her intention to come into this agreement and fall for him. Dolph had begun as a means to an end, her feelings were locked away tightly when she came to him that night practically begging for his help. Somehow, he'd found her long-buried key and unlocked it. "So we just see what happens without putting pressure on ourselves, sound good?"

"I think so," she told him, "what exactly do you feel for me then?"

"I feel like you're pretty much the only woman I want to spend any of my time with," he smiled at her, his eyes lighting up in that way they did when he was truly happy and content. "And I feel like I want to kiss you all the time and I feel like I would like you right there when I win both titles, and I feel like I want to be there when you win your title, what about you?"

"I feel like I want to be there for all of that too," she bit her lip. "So do we go on a date or something?"

"Dates? I don't think so, we're beyond dates, besides, that's what this is anyways," he looked around. "See, we're already killing it."

"Yeah, I guess we are…so we're really doing this?" she wanted to make sure.

"We're really doing this."