Chapter Text
"You, Jamie, Harley, Willow, and Mina," she eas saying, looking up to an invisible spotlight and flaring her hands wide, mani glittering, "girls' night. Maybe even more girls. Invite Penelope and Megan!"
Marina Shafir did not do girls' nights.
She did big bitch nights.
For some fucking reason, AEW didn't run many regional shows in New York (admittedly, commiserating with Danny over the lack of Buffalo and Albany shows had become something of a guilty pleasure for Marina). In the downtime between Northeast bookings, her and Nyla's schedules synced up occasionally; hell, even when they didn't, Roderick and the Shafir family had strict orders to let Nyla in if she knocked and, should that ever be defied, well, Marina would defend her if she broke in anyway. A few months ago, tri-state local and fellow big bitch Megan Bayne had started crashing at the Strong-Shafir household every so often, Penelope in tow once or twice. Roddy couldn't pretend he didn't love it. Neither could Marina, even when they ganged up on her.
"Which one of you" she spat, yanking Megan's head away from her throat by the hair, "is the rock and the hard place?"
Nyla laughed her ear off, hauling her back, dropping her on the mat and mounting her, ass pinning Marina's thighs down. "I got a better one: I'm the unmovable object, Bayne's the unstoppable force."
This seemed to appease everyone, especially Marina, who was swiftly distracted.
To her point: She didn't do girls' nights.
"I'm not coming. I'm not inviting anyone, either, and I am not-" Marina bat Mina's hands away from her waist with little success, rolling her eyes when Mina stuck out her tits just so. "Dealing with your crazy fucking wife."
"Toniiii," Mina rolled onto the balls of her feet, planted a glossy kiss on Marina's cheek, "won't be there. She has to train," she insisted, enunciating the word as if it was code for something raunchy, scandalous.
"I'm not coming."
ꃬ
"I'm not going." Penelope was pinning the phone between her jaw and shoulder. She tsked. "Relax your hand, baby."
Ah. Probably painting Kip's nails or something; Marina thought she heard a file scraping when Penelope first picked up.
"Not if Harley's there."
"Why not?" Marina huffed, dialed up the incline on the treadmill. "Her guard will be down. Mina's a sick fuck, she'd get on your side. Soften her up."
"Ooh," she cooed, the audio quality dropping as she switched to speaker phone. There was a muffled pomf when her device hit the bed. "You think Willow likes to watch?"
Marina opened her mouth, but the question wasn't directed at her; Kip snort-laughed, the sound piped right into her ears through her ear buds. It was cute. Roddy was getting pretty moody without Kyle and Cole around, maybe Kip would make for a fun side project for him. If they didn't bitch each other to death first.
"Okay, I guess," Penelope laughed. "But you know you can't invite Megan, right?"
"Yeah," Marina affirmed, rolling her shoulder subconsciously. Megabitch did something to it last week with her foot, rotator cuff kept pulling. A nice reminder, when it didn't piss her off. "She's too possessive."
ꃬ
"Heel, doggy!" An wrapped around her waist from behind, the opposite hand already poised to catch her elbow. Spikes and studs dug into her back and hip, Thekla's jewellery sparkling in the centre of her smirk. "I heard you were putting something together for the ladies. Without me!"
"I'm not." Marina hip checked her, kept walking. Thekla clung on, heavy boots thudding against the rubberised flooring with every lackadaisy, broad step she took. She caught her just outside of the makeup department and, yeah, alright, good play. No fucking way was the Death Rider walking in there wearing Thekla as a side piece. She paused, turned into her, glared down at her. Up close, she smelled good. Clark's cologne clung to her hair and she was wearing one of those sporty girly deodorants Marina wouldn't admit drove her crazy. "Mina is. Go harass her."
"Ohh-hoh," Thekla laughed, leaned back, rubberbanded back into her with enough momentum to make her take a step. "Let's go for a walk, doggy. I wanna hear all about it."
ꃬ
Marina Shafir was having a miserable time at girls' night.
Contrary to Mina's belief, Toni hadn't cleared out until all the RSVPing women arrived at the bougie ass hotel suite, which took approximately an hour, and her and Thekla ended up taking it outside before Toni could finish lacing her New Balances. Penelope hadn't ended up coming after all, and Harley and Willow showed up together. Marina was late, sporting a kitten-sized bruise on her calf, a revenge plot, and a bad fucking attitude. It took Mina half an hour to get it through her thick, pink hair dye addled skull that no, Marina did not want to talk about it, and no, she would not conspire to jump Pac with her because she was the reason he got the drop on her in the first place. Hayter came last and, much to Mina's delight, brought Windsor as a plus one.
Initially, it pissed Marina off, but she and Windsor wound up taking a reprieve on the balcony together. Harley brought a fucking Switch and a copy of Just Dance and, predictably, Marina and Alex were not nearly as interested in competing with the Babes of Wrath and Mina Shirakawa in a rhythm game. Jamie, juice box of wine in one hand and joycon in the other, seemed to be holding her own against them just fine.
"I have to ask," Windsor started, halfheartedly playing with a hackey sac Harley handed her and promptly forgot about it. Marina bit the inside of her cheek to keep from saying no, you don't. "Why are you here?"
Picking dirt out from under her nails, Marina shrugged, looked down at the busy street. They were out west, the air dry and cold, snappy. Good night for a run. "Mina's fucking annoying."
"Stubborn, undeniably, but so are you. Looks to me," Jamie whoop'd, nearly drowning out Willow's devastation, "you want Mina."
"Wow. You should be a fucking detective," Marina waved her off, snatched the other woman's drink, sniffed it suspiciously. She'd been dry since Mox went to rehab. "I don't want Mina. I want to piss Tony off."
"Homewrecker."
"I like being a problem. I don't know if you noticed."
Alex grinned, her whole face scrunching up. Cute. She had pretty eyes and a nasty- well, everything, really. She was a technical monster. Putting Alex's drink back down, Marina put her hands up. Alex shot the hacky sack at her like a tiny basketball and Marina caught it, squeezed it, tossed it between her hands like dough. She wondered if Alex could understand wanting to be solved.
"Wanna find the gym?"
"Oh my god, you never stop, do you?" She laughed, stood, held her elbow out for Marina. "Place like this, you know it's stacked."
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"Sounds like you had fun." Roderick was braiding her hair while she brushed her teeth. He smelled like fresh focaccia - they both did. Marina's mother had enlisted them to make a few slabs, enticing them with fresh cut rosemary and sundried tomatoes and pine needles stuffed in the samovar. "You should do it again."