The weather had settled warm and just a little humid over Seattle as the first week of on-set prep for Fifty Shades....had gone by. Studio time loomed, the director's choice to get the risqu" scenes out of the way as fast as possible generally agreed to be the best thing in the long run. However, this meant that over the course of the week, certain members of the cast - Aimee, in particular - had been growing more and more awkward. In an effort to counter-act this awkwardness with his co-star and her fianc", Jon and Vicki had invited the young couple out to dinner with them, in the hope that perhaps knowing them both a little better outside the constraints of the studio would help cement a more relaxed approach to the scenes that were looming in the next week or so.

To everyone's relief, it seemed to have worked. After a shaky start to conversation over the menus, the older couple had found the right level to approach the infinitely more awkward pair sat across from them, and with a little encouragement, the talk had begun to flow. The film itself had not yet been mentioned, but slowly, as the meal progressed, the laughter came more easily, until finally all four were relaxed in each others' company.

Randy was set at ease by this time, and his sense of humor was ready to make itself known. He'd been tight lipped about just about everything, his background especially. It was supposed to be a fun night; no need to drag the party down with stories of life on the mean streets of Rhy'Din. Instead, he kept some part of his body touching Aimee's, for his reassurance or hers, it was hard to tell. If he weren't eating, he was touching her arm or hand. If his hands were occupied with knife and fork, his knee or foot rested next to his fianc"e's. And so it went, until dessert was gone and coffee took its place on the table.

Between Vicki's ribald sense of humor and Jon's tender affections to the red head by his side, Randy was feeling much more comfortable. After taking a sip of coffee, he sat his mug down and gauged the comfort level of the two across from him before he spoke. "So it's true then, Earth Girls are Easy' Or was that just the name of a movie?" He smiled at his own joke and gently squeezed Aimee's hand.

Jon had settled into the easy companionship quicker than expected, due in good part to the redhead by his side. He would never have agreed to this on his own, but Vicki's easy-going personality and ribald sense of humor put him at his ease. The fact was that he was an entirely different person than the one who had returned to Rhy'Din nearly two years ago, and it was mostly because of her. Or so he thought.

As for themselves, it was rumored that Jon and Vicki could hardly keep their hands off each other for long, and that seemed to be proven tonight. There were plenty of knowing glances between the pair, and half the time, Jon's hand was settled on Vicki's thigh or vice versa out of sight under the table. He was, by all appearances, happy. Happier than he'd been in a long time.

Jon chuckled at Randy's comment, knowing the only one at the table who was a native of Earth was his Victoria. "I can only speak from experience, but she wasn't that easy."

"Oh, I was," Vicki argued with a loud cackle of a laugh that drew curious glances from the tables all around them. "You were the one who had to be seduced, as I recall." Sparklingly laughing blue eyes nodded a cheeky side glance to Randy and Aimee as she added in a lower tone, "I even had to undress myself." Her hand rose to pat Jon's cheek teasingly as she leaned close to her fianc", enjoying the freedom to tease him in company without worrying about embarrassing their companions. Randy and Aimee had already proven that they were very hard to embarrass.

Aimee choked slightly on her coffee as she sipped at the wrong moment, relieved to find herself in the company of people who were completely at home with the shared approach to life she and Randy displayed. Everything was there to be laughed at, after all. "I'm sorry' The Jon Granger that Mataya De Luca says will drop his trousers at a glance from his fianc"e wasn't the one who did the seducing?" She snickered softly, lowering her hand to twine her fingers between Randy's where it lay on the table. "Why doesn't this sort of thing get published" You'd make a mint on gossip!"

"I can't be knowing this," Randy chuckled with a shake of his head. "I mean, I'm all about sharing and all but there is a meaning to 'too much information' and it has your picture under it in the thesaurus." He gestured towards Vicki; pointing would be rude. Not really caring that they might be laughing a bit too loud, Randy sat back with a satisfied grin upon his face.

Jon chuckled, both at Vicki's admission and at Aimee's reply. "Because people don't want to read the truth, Aimee. The truth is boring. What they want to read is about how horrible our lives are, so that they can feel better about their own." He took a sip of his fancy gourmet coffee before setting the cup down on the table. "Take my advice....Don't take the gossip columns too seriously. What you read there is mostly all crap." He fiddled with his cup before gesturing toward her with a hand. "My guess is they'll have us in bed together before the month is out, but we know the truth, and that's all that matters." The voice of wisdom at the ripe old age of twenty-six.

"Hey, my picture in the dictionary is under the word 'irresistible'," Vicki countered Randy's laughing comment, wiggling her index finger in his general direction. "And yours, I'm guessing, is under 'whipped'." She glanced toward Aimee with cheeky suggestion, keeping the lighter side of the conversation upbeat as Jon handed out his good advice.

Aimee's green eyes met Jon's blue as he turned serious, still enough in awe of the veteran actor to hang on his every word where it pertained to the business she wanted to be a part of. "I know they'll make things up," she said quietly, her fingers squeezing Randy's firmly, hoping he knew she wasn't going to be in anyone's bed but his. "The Rhy'Din gossip is so mild, though ....are they really worse over here?"

Randy was with Vicki in that he wanted to keep the conversation light hearted. He knew how mean people could be and Jon's words did not go unheeded. When Aimee sounded a bit nervous and unsure with her question, he gave her hand a gentle squeeze. "Hey, in less than a month's time, you two will be in bed with each other. So it's not much of a stretch, right?" He smiled and implored the older couple with his eyes not to lay too much on Aimee's shoulders all at once.

Jon smirked at Vicki's comment, reaching to give her knee a squeeze beneath the table, his eyes looking from Aimee to Randy and back, a small thoughtful frown on his lips. He knew the paparazzi on Earth could be brutal, if they decided being brutal sold magazines. He recognized the unspoken plea on Randy's face, though he thought it was better for Aimee to hear these things from him than to learn them on her own. Still, he let it go for now. "Don't worry," he reassured her with a warm smile. "It'll be fine." So long as Randy didn't believe everything he read, things should be fine.

For herself, Aimee was just as quiet as Jon. Randy was the more confident, outspoken one of their partnership, and she was always more comfortable to let him do the talking. There would be time to get to know Jon on set - this evening, to her, was mostly about Randy getting to know Vicki a little better so that he didn't feel entirely isolated while she was working. Her head came to rest on his shoulder as she listened with a small grin, the tiredness of a long day beginning to catch up with her.

"You're not far off." Randy chuckled and raised his mug of coffee to silently toast Vicki and her excellent response. "It will be humbling, but I think we'll get through it." He laughed again and noticed that the bill was quickly stolen away. It didn't matter to him, not really. He tried to keep from looking at Jon, though. There was an air of electricity between the men, under their smiles. Randy was a good judge of character, considering what he used to do and he knew a fake smile when he saw it. Leaning his cheek against the top of Aimee's head, he turned and gently placed a kiss there. "Tired, babe?"

Jon leaned his head toward Vicki's and plucked the bill from her hand. "I'll get it," he told her quietly, glancing at the bill with a completely neutral expression on his face, no matter how high or low the bill was. He had it covered; it was the least he could do. He pulled his wallet from his jacket and extracted one of several credit cards and signaled for the waiter to come collect the bill, along with payment. Once that was finished, he turned back to the younger couple across from them with a friendly smile. "It's been a long day."

"Complimentary mint, anyone?" It was a little random, perhaps, but Vicki was running out of conversational gambits for the four of them to enjoy. But then, they had been talking almost non-stop for almost four hours, which by anyone's standards was a good dinner. As the waiter took the bill and card away to complete the transaction, Vicki's smile softened on Aimee and Randy. "Do you two have a long way to go to get back to your apartment?"

Randy's quiet question to Aimee was answered with a slow nod and a smile. "A little bit," she admitted to her own weariness, her smile grateful when Jon validated her mild exhaustion by acknowledging the long day itself. She hadn't quite got her head around the street map yet, however, looking to Randy to answer Vicki's question.

"It's not too far," Randy smiled, still looking into Aimee's eyes. "I think we can catch a taxi, shouldn't be too much." He turned his gaze upon Jon and Vicki then. "Thank you for dinner. I really enjoyed myself tonight."

"We can give you a ride, if you like," Jon volunteered. The studio had rented a car for them; it was in his contract. It wasn't his beloved Bentley, but he was far from home, and the BMW would just have to do for now. He could have had a limo, but he preferred to be on his own.

"Oh, that would be nice of you," Aimee heard herself say gratefully. Until the first of her fee was deposited in her bank account, they were living off the salary from Phantom, and that wasn't likely to go far here on Earth. She looked up at Randy hopefully. "That's okay, isn't it?"

The waiter brought the credit card back, discreetly handing the slip to Jon for him to sign as Vicki smiled at the sweet little interaction between the younger couple. "It's the least we can do. You've been lovely company tonight."

Jon turned serious once again, trying to get amiable - friendly and helpful. "If there's anything you need, just let us know." And he meant that sincerely. Momentarily distracted by the waiter, Jon quieted again and turned his attention to scrawling his signature against the slip of paper before handing it back to the waiter.

"Of course it's fine, I think it's a great idea." Randy gave Aimee's shoulders a gentle squeeze, then turned his attention back to Jon and Vicki. "Maybe we can play some Parcheesi; I found a board in the closet." He was offering a sincere invitation to their temporary home. "I appreciate that, Jon." And he truly did.

The card was handed back to Jon, and as the waiter moved away, Vicki rose out of her seat, stretching a little. One hand smoothed down over the front of her dress in an unconsciously protective motion before dropping to hang at her side comfortably. "Well, come on, then," she chuckled to the young couple. "I need to get out of these shoes and curl up with something hot and hunky."

Aimee giggled at the announcement from the redhead, pleased that Randy and Jon had eased past what might have been a bad blip in their acquaintance, and nudged at her fianc" to urge him out of the way. "I know exactly what you mean, Vicki."

Jon arched a brow at Randy, uncertain if he was being serious or joking again. "Not Strip Parcheesi, is it?" His smirk conveying that, yes, he did possess a sense of humor beneath all the seriousness and was just teasing. He followed Vicki's lead in moving to his feet, stowing his credit card and wallet safely back in his jacket, one hand moving to the small of her back.

Randy was nudged and he placed another kiss to the top of Aimee's head before getting up and offering her a hand, rolling his eyes at the thought that he might be hunky. He surely didn't think he was. To Jon's question, there was a surprised look in Randy's eyes that slipped back into the sense of humor that had been on display earlier. "Well, it could be, but I don't think I can afford your full frontal fees, Jon." He snickered a laugh and followed after Jon and Vicki, hand in hand with Aimee.

Randy's remark finally got a laugh from Jon. It had been a long night and could have gone badly, but overall, he thought things had gone pretty well. "Touch"," he told the younger man, offering an arm to Vicki and glancing her way, with an almost protective look on his face. "Everything okay?" he asked, catching her smoothing that hand over the front of her dress.

"Everything's fine," the redhead promised, hugging to Jon's arm tenderly as they led the way from the restaurant to the car.

The next day, the pictures snapped by the waiting paparazzi would show a smiling Jonathan Granger and his fianc"e sharing a companionable meal with new-kid-on-the-block Aimee Malone and her fianc", putting paid to any rumors of friction on set before they could begin. Between a friendship newly kindled and this master stroke of subtle P.R., it could be said that this dinner had been a complete success.

~ ~ ~

(Muchas gracias to the players of Vicki, Aimee, and Randy for the above scene.)