"Business" Dinner

There were things about her job that Mercedes P. Wrenn absolutely loved. The hours weren't bad, her office was posh, her boss was great. The only thing she really didn't care for about it was that she was involved in wrestling. The employees of the company mostly consisted of roided out barbarians, egoistic supermodels, brutish thugs looking to hurt people or some combination of that. Either way, the vast majority of the people she had to deal with in a professional capacity were certainly unbalanced at the very least. However, it was all worth it for the little things and one of those little things was getting to eat dinner at Japan's fanciest restaurants on the company dime.

Mercy sat in a very cushy booth in the back of a high profile fish and sushi restaurant thumbing through a tablet that illuminated the screen while she sipped at rather fruity big girl drink. Unfortunately, the one stipulation for this business expense was that she actually had to do some business. That required having to interact with at least one of AFW's wrestling employees. She was supposed to have a sit down with the top girls of the company and discuss their careers.

She had browsed through the roster, trying to find someone she could stand to have dinner with. Taylor would work, but they could hang out any time. Kelly was certainly someone she didn't want to spend anytime with. Hell no to Brittany. She didn't think she could stomach watching Akashi devour half the restaurant either. There were only a few other names and finally she settled on one.

Angel.

She didn't know much about the Latina other than she was as spicy as a jalapeno. The two had only had a few, very brief interactions and most of them were from a distance. Those interactions had also been quite some time ago. Maybe now was a good chance to build a better professional relationship. Business wise, she certainly made the best candidate as well. After losing the title, she'd gone off the gri and now that she was back, it was definitely time to get her back on track!

Mercy took a sip from her drink and smiled. It tasted good! Now she just had to sit back and relax and wait for Angel to show.

Angel stepped into the fancy restaurant, looking around the place almost nervously. She wasn't used to being in places that were this high profile. She didn't like it. It wasn't her kind of place, and  she hoped that whatever business Mercy had with her would be over quick.

She didn't understand why Mercy had wanted to meet her here. She understood why she wanted to have meeting (it was her job, after all), but she couldn't figure out why it had to be in such a fancy, classy place.

Luckily for Angel, she was able to find Mercy quickly. Her bright pink hair was noticeable from a mile away! The moment she laid eyes on the easily spotted hairdo, she made a beeline straight for the paralegal, slipping into the seat in the booth opposite from Mercy. She cleared her throat loudly to get the woman's attention, the Latina flashing her usual big, cocky smile at her at the same time.

"Afternoon, chica. You wanted to see me?"

Mercy raised an eyebrow as she heard a sudden throat clearing noise. When she turned and saw Angel, she immediately smiled. "Hello! Please, have a seat!" Mercy chirped. She motioned for Angel to sit across from her. "I didn't know what you wanted to drink, so i just got you some water. I... ordered something for myself, though, I hope you don't mind!" She said as though everything were perfectly normal and this was an every day occurrence.

"Yes, yes, I hope it's not a big deal that we're having a meeting here? I can't imagine why you would." She said, waving her hand in front of her. "But, don't be shy about ordering, this one's on me!" She beamed. "AFW is covering it as a business expense, so I'll be happy to stuff myself on their dime!" She said with a grin. "But, please! Sit! Sit! We have a lot to talk about and I'm pretty hungry!"

"Water's fine," Angel answered, sliding into her seat across from Mercy. "It's what I usually drink anyway." She watched the paralegal closely, listening to her ramble, waiting for her moment to reply. She lifted the menu as she listened, dropping her gaze to it, her eyes trailing over the food that was listed. It seemed beyond her. Everything looked expensive and she didn't even know what half the things on the menu were supposed to be!

"It's not really a big deal," she answered back with a shrug, setting the menu back down and looking back up at Mercy. "Just kind of weird, you know? What's so important that we have to talk about that we couldn't discuss back at the office?" She reached for her glass of water and lifted it to her lips, taking a brief drink before setting it back down, leaning back into her seat.

"I'm listening, chica. Let's talk."

"Nonono!" Mercy said shaking her head as Angel decided she only needed water. "You can't just have water!" She said, shaking her head. "listen, I'm going to order a big cocktail with two straws, ok? And if you don't want to drink from it, then that's fine, I'm not going to pressure you, BUT!" She raised her finger. "If you are just going to drink water, at least drink expensive water!"

Mercy sighed. Who was this girl? She was the CHAMP! Splurging should be NOTHING to her! She settled down and shrugged at Angel's question. "Important? Well, it does involve your future with the company, but I wouldn't say it's important, like it's not an emergency. If it was, we'd be talking down at the office. No, we're here because it's just business." She said.

She took a sip from her drink and wriggled in her seat. "Mmmm..." She grinned, She then looked down at her tablet. "So, let's talk about what you've done since Summer Splash, ok?" She said and frowned. "It hasn't been much. You know you're still a big draw, right? We need you on products. We need you out in the public eye, you know? So, what plans do you actually have moving forward?" She asked sincerely.

Angel's smile dropped off of her face, her lips turning downwards into a frown of her own. "Did you not see Summer Splash?" She asked, honestly wondering if Mercy even watched the AFW's product. "I got the shit beaten out of me, chica!" She lifted her arms, folding them over her chest, and grunted. "My body still hurts from that match. I haven't done much because, you know...I'm still recovering."

She offered Mercy another shrug, then reached for her water, taking another drink from it before she continued. "Anyway. My plans are the same as they've always been. I'm going to keep kicking the shit out of people until the mess surrounding my title is cleared up. Once the dust is settled from that, I'm going to kick the shit out of whoever has it and bring it back home where it belongs." She started to smile again, looking towards Mercy as she started to feel slightly more relaxed.

"That's the only plan I've got, chica, and as far as as I can see, it's the only one I need."

Mercy wrinkled her nose at Angel's words. She turned her head. "Barely..." She muttered. She didn't care to watch much wrestling if she didn't have to. Unfortunately, she kind of had to watch Summer Splash.

"No, that's not really a good plan at all." Mercy said, shaking her head. "I mean, I guess for you it is, but it's not much. It's all well and good that that's what you want, but I can't say when that is getting sorted out and in the mean time you'll have to find something to do." She paused. "Either way, what you're doing in the ring isn't entirely what this meeting is about, but, what if you get beat up again and what if you take a long time to recover again? What if you decided to go home again? If you really want to be brought back into the title things, these are all things we need to consider you know. Your face needs to be out there and just showing up for Summer Splash isn't going to cut it. You need something to help create some publicity for you."

Mercy paused. "How well do you keep track of social media?"

It was Angel's turn to wrinkle her own nose back at Mercy, when the paralegal mention social media. She shook her head and glanced back down at the menu again, purposely looking away from Mercy.

"I don't keep track of social media," she answered bluntly. "I mean, I have a Facebook, but I never really use it. I made it a few years ago but I've never really had a reason to actually use it, you know?" She glanced back up at Mercy, a thoughtful expression on her face, then spoke back up again, her voice quiet. "I think I see what you mean, though. Publicity, yeah? I can do publicity. That doesn't sound too bad."

She looked back down at the menu, and with something of a frustrated sigh, she slid it across the table to Mercy. "I don't know what to get. I'm not even sure what half of this stuff is, chica! Here, you order something for me. Surprise me, alright?"

"You should." Mercy said. "Some of the things you tweet are pretty interesting." Mercy laughed, a wily grin spreading across her lips. "I bet you didn't even know that you had a twitter account, though I bet you received an email and packet about it. We do send those out. In today's day and age, the fans can practically reach out and touch their fans and, well, whatever you might think, the word isn't all that great about you out in the big, scary internet."

The server soon arrived and Mercy took care of the ordering, getting another big, two person drink, some fancy water and nice plates of octopus for both of them. Angel would probably be pretty surprised!

Once she ordered, she got right back into it. "Aside from getting the Luddites into this century," Mercy leaned in, "Don't feel bad, it's most of the wrestlers, it's still imperative to do the usual stuff. Autograph signings, fan days, television, merchandising. None of that was happening with you while you were..." Mercy paused.

"Well, what HAVE you been doing?" She asked. "You ran off, then came back and had one match. This is the kind of stuff we need to know about, you know?"

"I knew about it," Angel was quick to reply in regards to the Twitter account, though she looked at Mercy with narrowed eyes. "What do you mean, some of the things I tweet are interesting? I don't use the thing." She stared at Mercy for a moment, then let it go, waving a hand at her. "Screw what the internet thinks. If you actually watched the show you work on, chica, you would have heard how insane the audience went when I showed back up before Summer Splash. "

She went quiet as the waiter arrived, letting Mercy give their order, then leaned back again, listening to the paralegal as she continued.

"I was enjoying my well-deserved vacation," she answered to Mercy's last question, reaching for her water again. "I haven't took a vacation since the first Avalanche. I needed some time off to go visit the family, so I took it." She made a point to not mention the real purpose of her trip home, to try and clear her head and get her emotions sorted out after her loss to Taylor.

"I didn't 'run off', I took some quality R&R time," she continued, lifting her glass, draining the rest of her water. "Don't act so worried about it. It's not like I was getting in trouble or anything while I was gone. I made sure to stay on my best behavior." She grinned, and set her glass back down, folding her arms patiently behind her head as she waited for their food. "I know not to make myself look bad in public. I'm a good girl, you know?"