The bell above the door tinkled quietly as Shawn Spencer sauntered lazily into the Orange Orange.
"Do you guys have any flavors besides orange, or should I say, Orange Orange orange, since this is the Orange Orange?" he asked, smiling up at the pretty blonde girl behind the counter.
"Well, we do have vanilla, and of course for a mere 25 cents each you can choose from our wide selection of 21 different toppings." Beneath her forced smile, the girl looked bored, as though she had repeated the answer to this question thousands of times before.
"Hmm... I'll have the vanilla with pineapple chunks. Actually, make it pineapple chunks with a little vanilla. Orange you glad I didn't say orange again?" Shawn was determined to get a real smile out of this girl - not just the cheesy how-may-I-help-you-please-shoot-me-now-so-I-can-get-out-of-here smile that the girl - Sarah, according to her nametag - currently had plastered across her face. And as an expert at reading faces, Shawn had no trouble telling the difference.
"Now, Sarah, today may just be your lucky day. You see, I'm a psychic and I'm sensing..." Shawn put his fingers to his temple and struck his classic 'sensing' pose and quickly gave the room, and Sarah, a once-over "...that there is more to you than meets the eye. You're not just the pretty face behind the counter, once you leave this place you're somebody, you're somebody else entirely..." Shawn had a lot of tricks he used when playing psychic, but flattery was one of the oldest tricks in the book.
Except right now, this trick wasn't working. Sarah wasn't smiling, not the fake smile nor a real one. Thoughts raced through her head - who was this man? She didn't believe in psychics, of course - but was this a setup, a trap, a warning? And from whom? She made a mental note to go through the security footage and run a background check on this guy as soon as she was able to get down to Castle. If she was able to get down to Castle.
Shawn could sense that Sarah was unhappy, but of course he had not the slightest idea why, and so, as is his way, he continued to babble on. "...I sense that maybe you don't like who you are outside the Orange Orange. This place makes you feel happy. Safe..." Shawn didn't know where he was going with this - it certainly wasn't going to get him laid, but the feelings he was reading off this girl, the expression in her eyes, the sad fake smile... how could he not tell her what he saw? Shawn's psychic abilities may have been false, but that didn't mean he didn't have a gift. He just wanted to make this girl's day a little brighter, somehow, some way, and he didn't understand why he was failing.
And now for the wrap-up. "Anyways, I'm also sensing..." Shawn paused for dramatic flair. "...dinner. Oh, and a movie. And I'm there, and there's a girl. She's tall. Blonde. Beautiful. Wait, wait, I'm getting a name... Charah, Lara, Mara... Sarah! Oh, of course, silly me. It's you! So, pick you up tonight at 7?"
For the first time, Sarah took in Shawn and wondered whether there was a possibility that he wasn't a threat, but just some goofball trying to pick her up. But those things he'd said, about her being someone else... that was too close to the truth for comfort. Sarah needed to find out the truth, and so she quickly made her decision. She would go on the date, but armed, and with backup.
"Okay. And I assume you'll know where to find me, Mr. Psychic?"
"Indeed I do. See you tonight!"
And with that, Shawn was out the door. Sarah quickly pocketed the credit card receipt and headed down into Castle, where she would spend the next ten minutes running a fruitless background check on one Mr. Burton Guster.