The Mysterious Stranger (Erik)

[Bailey May Williams]

DATE Monday, March 19
TIME Noon
WEATHER Warm and sunny with a breeze

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“But Beameeeeer!” Chuckling, Bailey gently pushed the arms of a protesting Lin off her shoulders so she could change out of her uniform. The Asian girl had been enthusiastically trying to convince her to go out to lunch with her all day, and though she usually would have agreed by now, Bailey already had plans and had had to decline. Lin had not taken it well. “Why won't you tell me?” Bailey smiled wryly at her whining friend, before she pulled on her own shirt over her blue tank top, an over-sized white t-shirt with the words: Follow the beat, printed in bold, multi-colored letters on the front. “Because,” the brunette reasoned calmly. “You'll see soon anyway. Nothing happens here without you knowing about it, so just relax.” She padded her friend's head comfortingly, grabbed her jacket and threw her bag over her shoulder, before she went back out into the store. Lin followed her, pouting and with her arms crossed over her chest.

The indignation on the Asian's face disappeared momentarily when they walked past the counter. “Will!” she called at the dark haired delivery guy, who had just gotten the signature he needed to prove that he had done his job. He looked up from his clip-board and smiled at the two girls. “Hey you two,” he greeted them with a dimpled smile. Bailey smiled back, blushing faintly as Lin grabbed her arm and dragged her over to the awaiting Will. “Beamer is being picked up by a mysterious stranger she met on Wednesday,” Lin informed Will, who only rose a questioning eyebrow at Bailey. Bailey just rolled her eyes and tried to pry her arm out of her friend's grip, but the shorter girl wouldn't budge. “She won't tell me anything about him, just that she can't go with me because she's going with him. Make her tell me!” Will chuckled at the frustrated Asian. “Don't you think you're taking it a bit too much to heart, Lin?” he asked, a good-natured smile softening the words. Lin huffed and crossed her arms over her chest again, and then Will looked at Bailey. “Though it does sound suspiciously like a hot date?” He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively, which in turn made Bailey's face heat up. “It's not a date,” she mumbled, biting her lower lip nervously.

Her sudden change of mood did not go unnoticed by Lin. “Oh my God! You're going on a date!” the Asian girl squealed excitedly. Bailey adopted an agitated expression and tried in vain to calm her friend. “Lin,” she started insistently. “Listen carefully, I am not going on a date. You hear me?” The Asian girl just gave her a knowing look before she bolted out of her grip, headed straight for the counter. “Adam!” she called at their colleague at the till. “Beamer has a date with a mysterious stranger!” Bailey groaned and shot a displeased look in Will's direction. “Now see what you did,” she told him in an accusing tone. The delivery guy simply shrugged and offered her another dimpled smile before he left. Bailey didn't even have the time to sigh in frustration before Lin was back, this time with an excited Adam by her side. “I have been waiting for this in, like, forever!” the blond man squealed eagerly, grasping her hand with an urgent look in his eyes. “Tell me everything!”

This had been exactly why Bailey had been so secretive about her plans for today. As much as she loved her coworkers, they were horribly interested in her love life, even more so than her mother. She secretly feared the day those three would decide that they could spy on her a lot easier if they worked together. Shuddering at that thought, Bailey slowly began to back towards the door. “Look guys,” she said holding up a hand as a sort of distraction. A bad one. “I really need to get going.” She had barely made it five steps towards the door before Lin and Adam grabbed hold of one of her hands each and pulled her back to them. “Oh no, no, no Bee,” Lin sang with a mischievous twinkle in her eyes. “You are not leaving until we now all your dirty little secrets,” Adam continued, smiling that sinister smile that always made a shiver go down her spine. Biting her lower lip nervously, Bailey threw a desperate glance around the store, hoping beyond reason that somebody would save her from her two friends.

[Erik Jones]

The engines of the car roared as Erik started it up on the parking space of the studio. He had just started his break and was now going to pick up the girl, Bailey, that he had meet last Wednesday. After he had left her that day, he had called her and made all the arrangements. He had gotten the address of her work and they had agreed that he would text her when he was on his way. Before he started to drive he sent a text saying “Hey Bailey I am on my way now, see you in a bit” Then he drove the car out of the gate of the studio and onto the road. It had been a good day so far, there hadn’t been any problems with the scenes they had been filming. When he had left as soon as they got their break there had been some lifted eyebrows, since he usually ate his lunch at the studio. But he had just told them that he was going to get a guest. That had gotten people’s attention and they had started to ask questions about who it was and so on. But he had just laughed and said that they would have to wait and see.

As he drove he rolled down the windows of the car to let in wind in to his face. It always made him feel fresh and free to be driving his car, especially on a nice day like this. If he wasn’t going to pick someone up he would most likely have driven to the beach or something like that. But he was going to pick someone up, and he had looked forward to seeing Bailey again. She had been so sweet and funny the last time he had seen her. And he looked forward to introducing her to Gary Whitmore, the guy who made the music for the show he was in.

He neared the area he knew the bookstore she had told him she worked at was. He had to drive around a bit to find it as he didn’t like using a gps. But he soon found the place. It was a fairly large bookstore at least from the outside. He got out of the car and quickly looked himself over before he walked in. He had changed from the costume he had been wearing for the scenes today and was now wearing his normal clothes consisting of a tight white t-shirt and a pair of grey jeans. He took of the sunglasses he had been wearing while he drove in the bright sunlight and placed them in his pocket. He took a breath and walked through the door.

A doorbell rang as he entered the store. At first he couldn’t really see much because of the bright sunlight outside. But as soon as he could he started to scan the room for Bailey. She was most likely waiting for him, or she was still working and hadn’t gotten of yet. He didn’t have to look long though, she was standing not long from the doo r with two people, it was a guy and an Asian girl, they looked to be deep in conversation about something, he wondered for a moment what it could be, but he figured there was more than a slight chance it was about him and the trip he was taking Bailey on, he wondered how much she had told them. By the uniforms he guessed they were her colleagues. He smiled and started walk towards her “excuse me, do you mind if I borrow Bailey for a while?”

[Bailey May Williams]

As she spotted Erik in the door, a relief and dread rushed through her in a big mess of emotions. Relief because he had actually showed up and not just considered it a joke. Dread because she realized that there was no way that Lin and Adam were going to let them get out of the shop calmly. Biting her lower lip, the brunette tried to figure out a way to get away from her friends and out of the store with Erik without Lin and Adam catching them, but she didn't get a lot of time to ponder her possibilities.

At the sound of Erik's voice, two pairs of curious eyes snapped in his direction. Both pairs of eyes widened, though Bailey could read different reasons behind the widening in her colleagues' faces. Lin snapped out of her surprise first, morphing her wide-eyed stare into a bright smile and discretely punching Adam behind Bailey's back to get him to do the same. "We'll just be a sec," she informed the actor, before she dragged Bailey and Adam a bit further away. As soon as the Asian deemed that they were close enough away, she turned to Bailey with excitement written all over her face.

"Where on earth did you find that hottie and why didn't you bring me?" Lin demanded in a hushed voice, her back to Erik. Adam gasped before Bailey had a chance to answer. "You don't know who he is?" he asked, giving Lin a somewhat disappointed look, but looking smug all the same. "That's Erik Jones, the main actor from that Viking Saga show." Lin and Bailey gave him similar disbelieving looks. "You actually watch that?" Bailey inquired curiously. Adam huffed. "Big, manly men with bodies that are to die for who fight with swords? Of course I watch it." Adam sneaked a peak at Erik over his shoulder and sighed dreamily. "he looks good in regular clothes as well." Lin shook her head and grabbed Adams shoulder to get his attention. "Back to the matter at hand, do we trust him to take Beamer out and not have his way with her?" Bailey groaned and swatted at the hand Lin had placed on her arm. "Guys! Seriously?" They both just gave her broad grins. "No worries Bee. Just kidding," Adam assured her.

Bailey was pulled back in front of Erik, though her colleagues made sure to stand in front and on either side of her. The sight of them standing as if they were protecting her was quite funny, seeing as Lin was a couple of inches shorter than her and not the least bit threatening in any way, and Adam just ran a hand through his semi-long blond hair to make sure it was perfect as always. "Well, Mr. Movie Star," Lin began slowly, looking Erik up and down in what was supposed to be a threatening manner. "What are your intentions with our Beamer?" Bailey groaned and felt heat rising in her cheeks. It was just her luck that her friends decided to play parents on the only guy who had ever picked her up from work. Just great.

[Erik Jones]

Erik thought he saw a moment of confusion on Bailey’s face when he entered. He wondered what it could be. But while he was thinking about it, the other two people in the room looked at him. Their eyes widened and smiled, it was a funny reaction, besides they looked a little funny. The girl was the first to react, she smiled at him before she dragged Bailey off with her and the guy with the long hair. They dragged Bailey off to what they must have assumed was beyond his hearing. He wondered for a moment if he should be listening, but he was a bit curious so he listened carefully.

The first to speak was the Asian girl, something about where she had found him. He wondered if she would have found him hot if she had meet him the same way that Bailey did, after all, he had been wearing a t-shirt with a big soda stain on it. Then there were the long haired guy who apparently recognized him from tv. Erik saw the guy looking over his shoulder at him. He tuned to look at some of the books on the shelves beside him, which led to him not hearing the last thing they said. Erik wasn’t really a big reader, he typically lost interest after a while. But there seemed to be some good books in the store, perhaps he would come back and buy one or two later.

Then the two returned with Bailey between them. Actually they were standing a bit in front of her as well as being on either side. This made them look like a wired mix between bodyguards and parents. A broad smile spared on his face at the sight. He suddenly got a strange feeling of being back in high school coming to pick up a date from her parents. The girl started to talk, he believed that she was probably trying to be intimidating, but in reality it looked more than a bit comical, seeing as she was not very tall or looked in any way threatening. The guy didn’t look very intimidating either running his hand through his hair like that. When the girl was done talking and had asked him what his intentions were with Bailey he got an even broader smile, it suited the feeling that he had just had of coming to pick up a date. “I promise you I have no ill intention with her and I will have her back before ten.” He winked at the girl trying to look threatening. It was all he could do not to bust out laughing, but when he looked at Bailey and saw how her cheeks were getting color he thought that perhaps she didn’t find it as funny as he did. “We can just go whenever you’re ready Bailey my car is just outside” It was sure some interesting co-workers Bailey had here. Perhaps working at a bookstore wasn’t as dull as he had first thought

[Bailey May Williams]

There was a flash of humor in Lin's eyes at Erik's answer, before her expression morphed into an unimpressed one, that glint of humor still present. The Asian girl proceeded to fold her arms over her chest, which still didn't give anything to the impression of menacing that she was going for. "Trying to be funny I see," she said, a smirk forming on he face. She nodded her head towards Bailey behind her. "Well, Mr. Movie Star, her curfew just got bumped up to five o'clock this afternoon." The Asian tilted her head and smiled sweetly at the actor. "Still think it's funny?"

Meanwhile, Adam was turning his flirting mode on full force. The guy was smiling widely and batting his eyelashes as if there was no tomorrow. Bailey had a sneaking suspicion that if Adam had been a girl he would have been pulling down his shirt to show off some more cleavage as well. Completely ignoring Lin's attempts at intimidation, Adam proceeded to wink at Erik. "Or you could just switch Bee for me and have all the ill intentions you want," he offered suggestively, wiggling his eyebrows for extra effect.

With another groan, Bailey swatted an arm of each of her friends. "You two are unbelievable," she commented grumpily as she squeezed out between them. To be honest, she had been afraid that they would be a lot worse, but there was no reason in letting them know that. The brunette was already blushing fairly bright, so when she got past her friends she simply grabbed hold of Erik and pulled him along. "Let's go," she said quickly, maneuvering around the few customers who were present at the shop. "But Beamer! I didn't get to tell him what happens if you're not back before curfew!" Lin whined, following them towards the door. "And I didn't get his number!" Adam added, following closely behind Lin.

[Erik Jones]

It was clear that the girl thought he was funny. Even though she tried to hide it with an unimpressed look. That or she thought that she herself was funny and that he wasn’t, but the glint of humor left even despite of the unimpressed said that she thought he was funny. As he was thinking this, she was still trying to build up a menacing appearance, this time by crossing her arms in front of her chest. It did not work however as she was still about as intimidating looking as a child. “Well I must say you run a tight ship around here* he made his face looked embraced that he had made a joke about it, but it still shun through that he found it funny. “I am sorry, it won’t happen again” It was clear in his voice that he wasn’t really sorry and that he actually found the little parent quite entertaining.

When he looked to the guy, it was such a contrast that it also almost made him laugh. Where the girl was seemingly trying really hard to appear intimidating, the guy was acting like one of the teenage fans that Erik was sometimes introduced to. He seemed to be doing everything he could to try and flirt with Erik. Unfortunately for the guy, thought he was charmed by the attention Erik was not into men. “Sorry but I already made plans” he said smilingly to the guy.

It seemed that Bailey had finally had enough of her friends. She looked a bit grumpy as she made her way passed her friends. Erik thought it was sweet that her friends cared for her that way, but then again, it wasn’t his friends. She was really blushing now, Erik suddenly thought that she looked quite cute when she was blushing like that. She grabbed a hold of him and started to drag him towards the door. He followed her with a smile and without resisting. The friends were following behind them and Erik tuned his head towards them and smiled “don’t worry I will take good care of her” then he opened the door and went outside with Bailey.

When they had made it outside and the door had closed behind them, Erik tuned to Bailey with a huge smile on his face “those are some interesting friends you have there” it was clear in his voice that he had found the whole incident rather amusing. He then walked the few meters to his car, unlocked it and opened the passenger door for her and gestured for her to get in “Here you go, let’s get a move on before they decide thy don’t want to let go and follow us out here” he grinned as he said it and held the door for her.

[Bailey May Williams]

Following the retreating couple through the store, Lina and Adam stopped at the door. "You better have her back by five!" Lin called after them, waving a 'threatening' fist in Erik's general direction, but smiling all the same. Adam stood behind the Asian girl in the door, waving enthusiastically at his friend and her date. "Have fun, little ones! And Beamer, don't do anything I wouldn't do." He added a wink with that, before he proceeded to drag a protesting Lin back inside the bookstore to do their jobs.

By now, Bailey was positively mortified. In an attempt to cool her burning cheeks, she dragged her hands over her face. Either it didn't help at all, or her colleagues' final comments just undid the good her hands had been doing. Either way, she remained red faced as she nodded in agreement to Erik's assumption of her two friends. "Yeah... Sorry about them, they get a bit carried away," she said with one last glare back in the direction of the store. Shaking her head, she quickly followed Erik as he went over to a car that she assumed was his. It was a nice car, one that Austin would more than likely have fawned over, and that Bailey could appreciate for being shiny and silver.

She was about to giggle at Erik's gentlemanly way of holding the door for her when he made his comment on Lin and Adam. The comment made Bailey pale slightly as she realized that a scenario like that wouldn't be too far fetched. Lin wouldn't be too shy to run after the car all the way across the country if she decided that she wanted to. Bailey shivered involuntarily at the thought, jumped into the passenger seat and gave Erik an urgent look. "What are you waiting for?" she asked. "Don't give them time to agree that they should be following us."

[Erik Jones]

Erik caught the final comments from Bailey’s friends. They seemed like really fun people and he couldn’t help but to smile back at them as they went back inside the store. He turned his attention back to Bailey as she was looking at his car. He really liked the car, he had like Aston martin cars ever since he was a boy and saw his first James bond movie. “Don’t worry about it, I actually found them quite fun, it seems you were right about the funny and interesting people spreading last time.” He smiled remembering their conversation from last time.

Suddenly she went pale. He had meant it as a joke, but apparently she thought her that her friends might actually come out and follow them. And she didn’t look like she would appreciate the company. Now that he thought about it, perhaps the joke would become old rather fast. He saw her jump into the passenger seat and asked him to hurry. He smiled at her and closed the door then hurried to the other side of the car and entered it. “Well then lets hurry.” He started up the car and with a roar of the engine he drove away and headed towards the studio. It wouldn’t be a long drive, but he thought that perhaps it would give her a chance to calm down a little, and get rid of some of the color in her face. Even though he still thought it made her look cute, she might feel uncomfortable in the studio if she was that red.

“So those friends of yours, they’re really something aren’t they?. Is it like that every time you introduce them to someone?” He smiled but didn’t look away. He was concentrating on driving. “If you want to you can turn on the radio, I don’t know if there is something good on, but you can always try.”

[Bailey May Williams]

Giving a soft laugh as Erik mentioned their conversation from McDonald's, Bailey shook her head slowly. "I'm afraid to admit that they were like that when I met them," she informed him, a warm smile taking over her face at the memory. On Bailey's first day of working at the bookstore, Lin had demanded that she bring her boyfriend in for inspection. Bailey had explained that she didn't have a boyfriend, and Lin and Adam had exchanged horrified looks and immediately begun to think up the perfect strategy to get Bailey a boyfriend. Their reasoning had been that: A girl with a body like that, and eyes that they would kill for, simply couldn't be single. "I can take no credit for anything about them." Her expression turned thoughtful, and the brunette tilted her head to the side, resting a finger against her cheek. "Now that I think about it, they might have rubbed off on me though." And she had no regrets if they had.

She wasn't entirely sure if he was taking the threat of Lin and Adam chasing after them seriously, or if he was treating it as a bit of a joke. Either way, Bailey was glad that Erik hurried to get the car started and out of the parking lot. She sighed with relief after making sure that there was no Asian girl following the car, as well as no black and blue car on their trail. Adams car in the rear-view mirror would have been just as unsettling as Lin running after them. Now, she could focus on calming herself down hopefully cooling her cheeks.

Leaning back in her seat, Bailey glanced over at Erik while he talked. She giggled softly at his questions about her friends. "Oh, they're something alright," she said merrily, smiling warmly. His smile was contagious, and it set off a fluttering like feeling in her stomach, which she wasn't entirely sure if she liked. "They're like that all the time, not just when I introduce them to someone," she admitted, giggling softly. "They mean well." Her smile only brightened when he offered to let her turn on the radio. Eagerly she leaned forward and started pushing buttons until she found a station that was playing music. Turning the volume down, so that they could still talk, she leaned back again, attempting to study him without him noticing. Lin and Adam's comments on Erik's good looks were churning around in her head. Bailey only blushed faintly, as she admitted to herself how much they were right.

[Erik Jones]

Erik smiled at her reply, “Well if they have rubbed off on you, then it seems your theory about spreading of the fun and interesting people are correct.” Erik could feel that Bailey still seemed nervous as he drove away from the bookstore. It was as if she actually thought that they would follow them. “Would they actually follow us? I mean wouldn’t that be a bit, you know extreme” He had a hard time actually believing that they would follow, but Bailey looked so much like she believed it, that he almost believed it himself and he took a look in the mirrors to see if there were anyone following them. Erik took a way that was a bit longer then he had to, both to give Bailey a chance to cool down, and because he liked driving.

As he listened to her talk about her friends he smiled, it sounded like she had a ton of fun with those two. And besides the fact that she seemed like she was complaining it was clear that she liked them. “I am sure they mean well, and I can’t imagine that it can be boring when they are around” He imagined for a moment the thought of going to work every day with the two people he had just meet in the store, and boring was one word he did not think could describe the outcome. “But perhaps they come on a bit too strong, they just might scare people away” Not him of course, but many people might get intimidated when faced with a couple of friends like that.

Quickly after he had told her that she could turn on the radio, he could the music streaming from it. It was one of those dance songs that he could never remember the names of, in fact they all sounded very much the same to him. But it was a good song and it had a nice beat that put a smile on his face. As he was driving and there were a moment of silence he thought he felt like there were someone watching him. That of course wasn’t strange, but the lack of conversation bothered him a bit. He was glad that she had kept the music at a volume where they could still talk with each other. “So how is it to work at that bookstore? Do you have more coworkers like those two?” As soon as he had said it, he almost gave himself a mental slap. Was that really the most interesting question he could think of? Then it was really going downhill. He stopped the car as there was a red light in front of them and tuned his head to look at her and give her a smile. While he tried to work out a better question then ‘so what’s your work like?’ he thought that she looked very cute and he thought about the assumption that her coworkers had come up with when he was there to pick her up, it wasn’t really all that farfetched. Just when he was about to say something he noticed the light had cone green and he drove onwards.

Not long after they reached the entrance to the studio. At the gate was a boom blocking the entrance and beside it was a small gatehouse. In it sat a man in a guard. Erik drove up next to the gatehouse and the guard looked at him before saying “Ar it’s you mr Jones, back from lunch, let me open the gate for you” he pressed a button and the boom went up letting the car drive through “thanks Joe, have a nice day” Erik said as he drove through the gate. He parked the car at his marked spot and tuned to look at Bailey “Now here we are, do you want me to give you a tour before we go see Gary or should we go straight to him?” outside the car were the studio. From the car a few large warehouse like structures could be seen all with numbers on them, and outside them were a busy crowd of people going to and from all the different buildings. Some of them had a lot of different costumes on, or were carrying strange objects like for instance a guy who was carrying what looked like a giant rock, at least much too large for him to lift. There were also a number of more regular looking buildings were Erik knew there were offices and the mess hall, besides the larger dressing rooms and the like.

[Bailey May Williams]

Relaxing back against the car seat, Bailey gave a soft chuckle as Erik questioned her coworkers' will to follow them. "Oh, they most certainly would," She said, glancing in the rear view mirror again, still without seeing any of her two friends following them. "And they are extreme, and they do have a tendency of scaring people away." The young woman's face softened as she smiled warmly, her eyes fixed on the windshield, but not looking outside, as she remembered how she had once tried to avoid the pair of whom she was speaking. "They just don't let people they like get away, no matter how scared they are."

Raising an eyebrow as Erik asked about her work and other coworkers, Bailey turned her head to give the actor an amused look. The look on his face gave away the fact that he had in fact not wanted to ask that, and Bailey held back a giggle when he turned to smile at her, while they were stopped at a red light. That broad, genuine smile that was so much better than the creepy one he had used at McDonald's. Her heart performed what felt like a tiny somersault, and the brunette had to look away to cover the faint blush that rose to her cheek. "Uh..." She said, clearing her throat and picking her brain for something to say. She settled for answering his question as he started driving again. "Well, Lin and Adam are in a league of their own. The rest of us are really calm and down to earth in comparison."

Excitement slowly crept into her system as they neared the studio. Even though she was born and raised in L.A. and even fairly close to Hollywood and the movie studios, Bailey had never actually been inside a studio. She was so focused on looking at her surroundings that it took her a while to realize that Erik had stopped the car and was talking to her. Once she realized this, she gave a start and whirled to look at him. "Huh?" She said, before his question registered in her brain. "Oh, uhm..." She looked around quickly, then looked back at him, giving a hesitant smile. "I think I would like a tour very much. Only if you're not late or something. I wouldn't want to be the reason why somebody are waiting for you," she rambled quickly.