One Fall

CHAPTER 35

  By Tuesday afternoon, it was apparent that Revolution Riot had been a smash. Joey checked a few wrestling web sites from a computer terminal in the business center at his Toronto hotel. He had never seen such a high level of excitement from the fans.

  The opening video package was everyone’s favorite part. A close second was Joey and Goliath’s promo which closed the show. “If you screw up this time I’ll make sure you never wrestle again,” Goliath’s closing line in the segment, was quoted on every web site, and the Internet kids couldn’t help but gush with enthusiasm over the line’s shoot/work entendre.

  Best of all, the overnight ratings numbers were in, and were phenomenal. The show got a 7.2. If that number held when the final ratings were released later in the week, last night’s broadcast of Riot would be highest rated television program in cable TV history.

  Joey closed the web browser and went back to his room. He shaved and took a shower.

  In a startling sign of the seriousness of their short relationship, he and Jade had agreed over the phone that she needed to fly up and stay with him during the week, turning his free time into a short Canadian holiday for them both. She arrived at the hotel via taxi just after five. Joey took her to dinner at Michelle’s, a French restaurant recommended by Max.

  “So, are you nervous?” she said.

  “Not really. I know that Goliath and I can put on a killer match. It felt like that when we wrestled the first time. Even he admitted that the accident was partly his fault.”

  “That still blows my mind. It’s so unlike him.”

  “I know it. Listen, Jade, before I left, we started to have a conversation, and we didn’t finish it. I think I’m ready to finish it now.”

  “Okay,” she said. Her eyes were so welcoming, Joey wondered why there was ever any doubt.

  “Honey, before I left, you wanted to talk about us, and where this was going. I was scared to talk about it, because, well, you know how the last month has been. It’s been horrifying how out of control everything suddenly got around us. And even though you were the only constant thing for me, it was still scary to think about promising you something, only to have the world change all around, in a way I didn’t expect, and all of a sudden I couldn’t keep my promise. Anyway, what I’m trying to say is, I’m not afraid of all that anymore. It’s so amazing to see how things can just turn around in a good way too. Everything that’s happened over the past few days, it’s like everything’s fair, and maybe it was always fair, and I just had to wait to find out. And I don’t mean to say that I could only commit to you if my career was good, I just mean to say...I--”

  “I think I understand, Joey.”

  She smiled at him in a way that made him feel more adored than any mob of screaming fans could.

  “So the thing is, I think last week when we started to talk about us, you wanted to ask me if we could still do this, even if I was traveling and you weren’t. And the answer is yes. I still want to do this, no matter what. I want to do this more than anything else.”

  Jade reached across the table and took Joey’s hand in hers. “Thank you,” she said. “I want to do this too.”