Page 83 of Wild Side
Okay, now I’m just filling the space with weird jokes again.
Rhys:
No twin brother.
Tabby:
Damn.
Rhys:
Sorry to disappoint.
That last text makes me feel kind of bad. Like I took it one joke too far. So I change the subject to asking him about wrestling, how it all started, when he knew this was what he wanted to do.
He starts from the beginning, recounting his days on the high school wrestling team, then training at a pro wrestling gym and trying his hand at it professionally. He shares more about himself than he ever has before, and I gobble up every crumb like a woman starved.
Rhys:
Then I went and trained in Mexico. Even did some time on a circuit in Japan.
Tabby:
Ugh. Now you’re just making me hungry. I’d kill for a good mole or ramen right about now. Midnight sushi? Yes, please.
Rhys:
Lol. My girl has food on the brain *always*.
My girl. The term shouldn’t make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside, but it’s late, and no one is here to judge me. I don’t think I’ve ever been in a relationship long enough for a man to call me his girl. So I bask in being on the receiving end of that kind of endearment from this man of few words.
Tabby:
Is that where the mask inspiration came from? You really never take it off?
Rhys:
Yeah, wrestling with the luchadores in Mexico was like an alternate universe. Honestly, some of the best wrestlers in the world. They taught me so much. Inspired me hugely. And I never take it off. Not even for in-person events. Now and then, another wrestler will try to unmask me as part of a storyline. But they never succeed. The anticipation is addictive. They try. I kick their ass. The crowd goes wild. I like to maintain my privacy. I like being able to slip on that mask and become someone else.
I like to maintain my privacy. It hits me then that Rhys isn’t in the habit of sharing these things with anyone. He’s built an entire career on keeping a front of complete anonymity. Of becoming another person when that camera turns on.
And yet, here he is blurring all those lines. Withme.
In his own quiet way, it feels like Rhys has given me a gift. Given me a peek behind the mask. Given me histrust.
I spend so long trying to fit the pieces of the Rhys puzzle together—to come up with how best to respond—that I zone out entirely. By the time I pick my phone back up, I figure he’s gone to bed.
Still, I send him one final thought.
Tabby:
I feel very special that I get to know both Rhys *and* Wild Side.
Then I doze off with my phone in my hand.
And when I wake up to drag myself upstairs, I see one final text from Rhys.
Rhys:
