I tried to buy SVU on eBay…sad to say I didn't see it there, and if it were I doubt I'd be able to afford it. So until the day I'm extremely rich/powerful/plot to overthrow Dick Wolf, I don't own SVU. I own the characters you don't recognize and the plot. I also own the socks I'm wearing and the water bottle sitting next to me, two things Dick Wolf doesn't. But if he wanted to make a trade…
Valley Hill Salon
150 Parkton Avenue
Monday March 26
The small bell on the outside of the spa door harmonious pinged by the shove Erin gave to the glass entrance piece. Immediately Olivia and Erin were greeted simultaneously by the scent of a concoction which included a mix of nail polish, fruity lotions, and moose and a short, perky, bleach-blond and tanned lady in a trendy floral-pattern silk top and black, wide-leg trousers.
"Hello, welcome to Valley Hill Salon, can I help you with something?" She said with a cheeky smile and heavy southern accent. She'd obviously had one too many shots of espresso, in Erin's opinion.
"Yes, thanks, we have a reservation for Odessa at ten," Olivia said. She had booked the reservations in their undercover names since it wouldn't be unusual to run into people from the pageant. This was a top-rated salon and from what they both had seen and heard from the past couple of days, these girls went hard-core on the hair and make-up front, and this would be the place to do it judging from all of the seriously looking, determined employees, snipping away to shape perfect-looking bangs, and making it their life's goal to apply flawless liquid eyeliner to hundreds of pageant-queen hopefuls.
"Oh yes of course. You're from the pageant, right? Oh well honey, you are a shoo-in. Your bone structure is absolutely to die for," she swooned, "and your hair, oh that hair is something girls would kill for!" she squealed fluffing Erin's locks. Ironic, Erin thought, seeing as she was dealing with a murder case. "Well anyway, let's get you two situated for y'all's massages, you must be exhausted. I tried modeling for awhile," she clucked her tongue, "and I tell you those long days can really get to yah, yes ma'am they can, but I'm so sure you're going to do just super. But first let's get you relaxed, freshened up and all ready to go," she said winking at the two.
"Sounds great," Olivia's smiled, her eyebrows raised, overwhelmed by the southern belle's intensive energy, "doesn't that sound great?" she nudged Erin.
"Fantastic," Erin joined in.
"Yay! Now I'll go get you your masseuse and when you're all done come to the front desk and you can pay with me. Tootles, ladies, enjoy yourselves," she said, practically skipping out the door, her thick curls bouncing behind her.
"Oh my God, I'm exhausted already," Erin said slumping into the padded chair as a young lady came to fill the pan of water for their feet.
"Oh stop it, she's just excited," Olivia said defending the poor woman, although she secretly agreed.
"And dangerously over the suggestion of height-weight-caffeine ratio," Erin said back.
"Well you got me one that one," Olivia agreed, resting her head on the back of the chair and closing her eyes. Erin sighed and picked up a magazine next to her matching seating device.
A few minutes passed with the two of them just sitting there in relative silence, the only sound coming from the cubed aquarium filled with exotic, various, brightly-colored fish. "This is nice," Olivia sighed.
As if on cue, just to ruin this lovely moment, a tall, sternly heeled figure appeared at the front desk, ringing the service bell furiously, crushing her palm into it so hard and often you were wondering what would break first, her skin or the pathetic-looking silver noise-maker.
"May I help you?" Caffeine-lady asked, just as perky as with Olivia and Erin.
"Well I'm not sure, do you think you are capable?" the lady snapped.
"Um, yes, I work here," the lady said, confused and upset, obviously.
"Don't talk to me that way. I am a customer who is about to become a former customer if you don't get your priorities straight in this place you call a business!" the woman barked, making a scene. Erin was glad there were only a few people in the salon, saving the employee from a crowd of embarrassment. But it was still pretty sad.
"Ma'am, I can assure you I have no idea what in the world you are talking about."
"Well since you are too much of a dullard to remember, I suppose I'm going to have to jog your memory, refresh you on what a terrible job you are doing. I came here expecting an appointment in your gold room because I booked an appointment in, you guessed it, the gold room. However, when I arrived I was told there were no spots available," the lady roared.
"When did you book this appointment?"
"The day before."
"There's your problem. Our policy is that you have to book a place in our gold room a month in advance. Would you like to schedule one now?"
"No, I don't want to schedule one now," the woman mocked, "I wanted one then."
"But that isn't our policy…"
"Does it look like I care about your policy? Do you even know who I am? I'm Iris Jones, for God's sake, I don't need reservations. You know what, forget it, I'll go to a different, better, spa where my needs can be taken care of by someone other that a mindless, uneducated, clueless bimbo like you!" Iris said, screeching her heel in a half-circle and stomping out the door while Erin and Olivia watched in horror.
"Doesn't remind you of someone who just lost her daughter, does it?" Erin said, looking at Olivia.
"No it definitely does not. I think we've got ourselves another suspect. We'll check her out when we get back; maybe try to pump more information out of Delilah. In the meantime, let's try to enjoy the rest of our appointment."
"Sounds good to me," Erin agreed, picking up the Us Weekly she took an interest in earlier.
"Nope, no more reading," Olivia said, reaching over the closing the magazine.
"Why no more reading? I liked the reading. And are you really going to take the educational experience of literature away from me?"
"I hardly call a tabloid an 'educational experience,' and come on, it's girl time. It's talking time. So, what's new?"
"Since we last held a conversation five minutes ago? Um, I wiped a clump of mascara out of the corner of my eye?" Erin said sarcastically.
"No, I mean in life, in the real world."
"As apposed to, what, this alternate reality we're in now? Are we suddenly on Pangaea?"
"You aren't making this easy," Olivia crossed her arms. "You know what I mean. Maybe Chris rings a bell?"
"Wow, let's bring my best friend Chris up again," Erin said, throwing her hands up, flustered.
"Aha, so you admit you're more than friends!" Olivia pointed an accusing finger at Erin.
"I did nothing of the sort!'
"Yes you said you were best friends which puts a label on him thus making him more that your standard friend!"
"You never give up, do you?"
"Nope."
"Fine, you interrogate me all the time, now it's my turn." Erin smirked, crossing her arms.
"You can't just turn the tables like that, it's against the rules. Plus I'm older I deserve respect and the advantage."
"I don't remember getting the official rule book of gossip, and until you provide me with one I'll ask questions too, and you'll be forced to answer them before I give up any more information," Erin smiled smugly.
"Cheater, but fine, what do you want to know?" Olivia asked suspiciously.
"Okay, so that guy that came into our hotel room the other day, Elliot right?" Olivia nodded, "so what's up with you two?"
"What do you mean? We work together, we've been partners for a couple years."
"Partners in love, you mean?" Erin giggled, dragging out the word 'love,' causing Olivia to softly back-hand Erin's arm.
"No," Olivia said back, "why would you say that?" she inquired.
"Oh, nothing," Erin fibbed, picking up the magazine again.
"No, seriously, why would you say that?" Olivia questioned curiously, knocking the magazine down so she could get a straight answer.
"I don't know, you just seemed kind of…sparked around him. Like maybe you were interested or something." This caused both to be silent for a few awkward moments.
"Well there isn't anything there, mind you," Olivia said, not knowing if she was more irritated at herself for seeming to lead Elliot on or that Erin had noticed feelings she had been sure she had been doing a good job keeping a secret. She wasn't even sure herself what she was feeling. Relationships-friend, business, and romantic-all seemed to jumble around Elliot and the ethics line blurred and moved to the point of utter confusion like a piece of modern art. So she did what she always did when something uncomfortable came up: killed the thought, changed the subject, and pushed the feelings down further.
"Oh come on, a handsome man like that and a pretty girl like you and you say there's nothing there?" Erin smirked, using Olivia's words for her and Chris awhile ago.
Olivia didn't let the repeated words go unrecognized and blushed at the way her actions came back to bite her. "He's married. And even if he wasn't, I'm not even sure what I'm feeling, okay?" Olivia seemed to whisper.
"If you say so," Erin said reluctantly, "but I'm still seeing something there, from both sides."
"You know what, maybe your right. I don't-I don't know what to do right now."
"Be happy? Tell him how you feel?" Erin suggested.
"Like I said, I don't know what I feel," Olivia shrugged.
Erin nodded slowly.
"And let's pretend for a minute-and remember this is entirely hypothetical-let's say I did have feelings for him. There are so many other things that factor into it. We have our jobs to consider, heck, we have lives to consider. He has kids. I'm not about to rip a family apart for my own selfish feelings, that's not fair."
Erin thought of her own family then. How her mother had run off with another man, for another life, leaving her whole family, her 'old' life for someone else. "I get it, I really do, but you deserve to be happy too."
"Thank you. And though I appreciate your concern and advice, I'm just not ready to make any decisions right now."
"Okay. But when, or if, you are, you can talk to me."
"Same goes for you."
"Thank you."
"Good. Now we can drop the subject and get back to relaxing," Olivia said, still obviously a little embarrassed from the subject they'd just discussed.
Erin said, picking up the magazine for the third time, wondering if she would actually have the chance to read it on this attempt. She got through a few articles when she started laughing.
"What's so funny?"
"It's just that, I can tell you were uncomfortable, but this was all your fault."
"Care to elaborate?" Olivia asked, intrigued by Erin's reasoning.
"I mean, first of all, think of the chain of events leading here. You made the mistake of wrongly accusing me of a crime, causing me to feel bad which caused me to tell a fib which caused you to drag me here, thus leading us to that painful conversation."
"I'd agree with you, except for the fact you told the fib causing me to get upset."
"Okay, approach number two. You brought up the subject of boyfriends."
"Okay, but Elliot isn't my boyfriend."
"Chris isn't my boyfriend."
"Prove it."
"I'm not the one on trial here. And fine, I will approve it, go on Facebook and look up his relationship status and it will say 'single.'"
"Facebook relationship statuses don't mean a thing."
"Except for the fact that they are one of the single most important things in a teenagers life making it perfectly good grounds for proving a relationship which, by the way, is almost impossible even with a lie detector test. You may be able to reveal certain aspects of a relationship with medical body examinations but even with professional psychiatric therapy and help it would be preposterous to try to analyze a relationship, feelings and all. Even if you were the one inside the relationship, it's difficult to sum all of the experiences and memories into a few words. You actually have to be the person, to feel the feelings."
Olivia was dumbfounded at this speech, shocked that she had all of this as a defense the quickly as a teenager even in a seemingly non-intricate and joking conversation. "You should be a lawyer," is all that came out in reply.
Erin shrugged, "maybe, but a detective sounds kind of fun too. There's this one I know, she's pretty nice. I don't know, maybe being like her wouldn't be so bad," Erin admitted, biting her lip and shyly looking away from Olivia as she finished her explanation.
Touched, Olivia's throat tightened a little at the compliment. Not wanting to embarrass Erin further by showing how much the compliment had affected her by the shaky voice filled with tears giving her away, she simple shrugged her arm around one of Erin's shoulder, pulling her close, hoping Erin got the 'thank you' message. Not just for the kind words, but for everything. For being a friend, a witty, outspoken, teenaged friend. She didn't think being like her would be so bad either.
I was requested for some E/O and since that's how I ship, I decided to give it. It was pretty fun to write. And I couldn't resist some Erin/Olivia bonding, although you kind of get that in every chapter. It's so mushy and happy to write, but tell me if it gets too much/too boring and I'll try and bring it to a minimum. So review and tell me that! Please! Thanks for your reviews thus far, it's crazy awesome how many I'm getting. What can I say, I'm review greedy. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed it! =)
