It was more than two months later, in early November, when Jay got news that it was time for his storyline with Erin Voight to proceed. The news came in the form of a text message from Hank Voight. All it said was that he was needed in Las Vegas and that some travel info would be coming to him from the office. Jay was more than used to messages like that from the boss, so he took it in his stride and waited for the email from WWE HQ.
Three days later, Jay was in a hotel room in Vegas. He was dressed in one of his official WWE merchandise t-shirts, with a leather jacket over it, and a pair of blue jeans. It made sense to dress that way, as someone who was essentially abducting and marrying his boss's daughter and his rival's fiancée because it would ruin all three of their lives would hardly bother dressing up for the occasion.
Of course, in time Erin was going to turn on Hank and Adam to side with Jay, but the audience wouldn't know that until it happened. Jay didn't know how that was going to happen as yet himself, if there even was a plan for it yet. He wasn't sure if Erin had what it took to play a heel character, either. That was his biggest concern about the whole thing, because if the storyline flopped due to her, it would hurt him by association. He told himself that was a bridge to cross if they came to it. For now he had to assume that she was competent and knew what she was doing.
It was time to get down to the lobby. He expected he would be meeting Erin there, along with one of WWE's producers and an extra who had been hired to play the part of the wedding official at the drive-thru place. Jay guessed it was called a wedding official, but he didn't actually know.
Pushing the irrelevant thought out of his mind, he left his room and took an elevator down to the lobby. As soon as he stepped out of the elevator, he saw a producer by the name of Dean Archer standing and waiting. There was no one else with him.
Jay made his way over there. "Dean. Figured you'd get this one."
"Hi, Jay. Good to see you. Yes, Hank tries to put me on everything with Erin. Everything's set up over at the drive-thru wedding place. They've brought in an extra to officiate the wedding. She's over there now, as is a cameraman."
"I figured," Jay said. He tended not to chat much with the crew. "So, what's Erin like? She any good? Doesn't seem to be too bad from what I've seen of her stuff with Ruze."
"Yeah, she's good. Watch your back. Here she comes."
Jay turned around, grateful for the warning. What he saw made him freeze for a moment. Contrary to the way he was dressed, Erin had on an expensive sleeveless black dress that showed plenty of leg and some cleavage. Her figure was amazing, and unlike when she was usually on WWE TV in her grandma outfits, she had makeup that made her look hot. Very hot. It was like looking at a different person altogether, and Jay very much liked what he saw. He made sure not to show it though. Gawping at her would hardly be a good way to start their working relationship.
"Hi, Jay," Erin said as she approached. Her appearance was different, but her shy demeanour was not.
"Hey, Erin. You look great today," Jay said. He just couldn't help himself.
"Thank you. This was the dress I wore when we filmed the bachelorette scenes last week, so I had to wear it for this of course. Continuity."
Most scenes that took place away from the live arena audience in WWE were pre-taped, such as today's example. It wouldn't air until Adam and Erin's wedding night, which was two weeks away. The ceremony was going to happen live on Monday Night Raw, and Jay already knew he was going to interrupt it to announce that he had married Erin.
"We've got a Cadillac convertible outside," Dean said. "Erin, you might be a bit cold. Do you want to borrow my jacket?" He had a black fleece jacket on.
"No, thank you. I'll be fine," Erin insisted. "Shall we get this show on the road?"
"Ready when you are," Dean said. "Follow me to the car. Did they send you a script, Jay?"
"No. But I bumped into Dick the other day and we went over it. I know what I need to say."
"And I don't need to say anything," Erin said with a little laugh.
Jay smiled. "No, you just need to look unconscious."
The car was parked near to the hotel's entrance. Dean gave Jay the keys, then got into the back seat. He would use his camera to film from there. Jay got behind the wheel, and Erin took the front passenger seat.
"Dean, you'd better direct me," Jay said as he fired up the engine.
"Sure. It's only a few minutes away."
Jay followed Dean's directions to the drive-thru wedding venue, which was temporarily closed for WWE to use it. He was introduced to the actress who was going to officiate the service, a young woman with long curly hair by the name of Sarah Reese. There was also a cameraman there to film the events from outside the car. Dean ran through what they needed to film with everyone, and got confirmation that everyone knew what they needed to do. To Jay, it seemed pretty straightforward.
"Right, let's get it done," he said, taking charge of the situation. He waited for Dean to get in the back of the convertible, then got behind the wheel again. By then, Erin was already back in the passenger seat. She hadn't said much while the discussion had been going on. He supposed she didn't have much to add since she had no lines to deliver.
"Drive down the block, turn around and come back," Dean said from the back. "Alan will film us pulling in, and I'll be filming from back here. Hopefully we can get this in one take."
"I can get it in one take," Jay assured him as he pulled out onto the road. "So long As Sarah doesn't screw up, we'll be good."
The engine roared as he stepped on the gas. Halfway down the block there was a gas station. He used it to turn around so that he could head back to the wedding place. While they were gone, Sarah would have gone into the booth, looking like she was working a shift like any other.
"Okay, Erin, can you get into position, please?" Dean asked before Jay pulled out of the gas station.
"Sure," Erin said. Remembering how they had laid out the scene in the creative meeting a couple of months earlier, she moved over and lay against Jay, nestling her head against his shoulder as if she was cuddling up to a lover. But she knew to lie perfectly still because she was meant to be drugged and unconscious.
That's good," Jay said, shifting a bit to make it more comfortable for both of them. He got a whiff of that amazing perfume again. He could remember it well from the creative meeting, and she was wearing the same one tonight.
With everything ready, Jay pulled out of the gas station and cruised fairly slowly back towards the drive-thru wedding place. The place was very well lit, which was good since they were filming in the evening, after dark. He knew that he and Erin were now being filmed, so he put himself in-character.
"Good evening, sir, ma'am!" Sarah said cheerfully on behalf of the wedding venue when Jay parked up next to her window, which was open. "Hey, you're Jay Halstead!"
"That's right, I am," Jay said smugly. "And this is the beautiful Erin Voight."
"Are you guys here to get married?" Sarah asked excitedly.
"I figure we're at the wrong place if we want to order KFC," Jay quipped. That line had come from Hank. Some nice product placement for one of WWE's current sponsors.
"Okay, well what kind of service would you like?"
"Whatever's the quickest way to get this done and get out of here," Jay said with the arrogance that was his character's main trait.
"That's fine," Sarah said, taking his odd attitude to marriage in her stride. "We cater for everything here, so as per your wishes I can marry you with the simplest vows."
"That sounds perfect. Let's do it."
"Alright, we'll start with you. Do you, Jay, take Erin to be your wife? Do you vow to honour her and treasure her as long as you both shall live?"
"Yeah, I guess. I mean, I do," Jay said smugly.
"Now you, Erin. Do you, Erin, take Jay to be your husband? Do you vow to honour him and treasure him as long as you both shall live?"
Jay looked in Erin's direction and put on his awful attempt at a female voice. "I do. I vow to treasure him, obey him, and do exactly as he tells me for the rest of my life."
Again, Sarah took the bizarre behaviour in her stride. Thankfully everyone had managed to avoid laughing. "Then it is my honour to pronounce you husband and wife. I hope you have a wonderful life together."
"Thanks, sweetheart. I'm sure we will," Jay said. With that, he stepped on the gas and the car roared away from the window. He got onto the road and motored away up the block, aware that he was still being filmed from back at the wedding place. Only after he went through the first intersection did he pull over.
"Okay, good. I'm happy with that," Dean said from the back seat at Erin set up and tried to fix her hair. "Let's go back and made sure everything filmed okay there. If it did, I think we're done."
When Jay drove them back to the wedding venue, they got out and had a quick chat with the cameraman, who confirmed that everything was okay on his end.
"Then we're done. On one take," Dean said.
"My stuff rarely takes more than one," Jay said. He noticed Erin looking at him.
Dean addressed Jay and Erin. "You guys can take the car back to the hotel if you like. I'll wrap everything up here, and we'll head back in the van with the equipment. It's parked around the corner."
"Sounds good. Catch you later," Jay said, heading back over to the car straight away.
"Thank you, everyone. Good work," Erin said politely before following him. She got into the passenger seat, and Jay drove off.
"You sure you're not cold?" he asked when they were back on the road. "It's not exactly warm tonight."
"I'm freezing," Erin admitted. "Can't wait to get back to the hotel."
Jay shrugged his way out of his leather jacket, using his legs to keep the car steering straight for a moment. "Here. Put this on."
"Oh, thank you," Erin said. She gratefully took the jacket and put it on. Naturally it was too big for her, but that didn't matter.
Jay remembered that she had rejected Dean's offer of his jacket, so he considered himself have gotten one over on the producer. It made him smile.
They drove for a minute in silence, until Erin decided to speak her mind. "My first impression is that you're a strange guy, Jay."
"Okay," he said with a laugh. "Strange how?"
"Speaking frankly? Sometimes you seem like you're an arrogant ass. But other times you seem nice and polite."
"It's my character who's the arrogant ass," he explained, surprised that she needed to be told that.
"I don't mean your character, I mean you. You were arrogant when you were talking to Dean just now."
"Oh. I didn't realise. Didn't meant to be." He actually felt like he had been put in his place, which was unusual for him. It pretty much killed the conversation for their short drive back to the hotel.
Jay parked in the lot, assuming WWE would be arranging for the hire car to be collected. Dean hadn't said, so Jay would have to check with him in the morning. For now, his priority was to have something to eat and a drink or two, either in the hotel's restaurant or via room service. Although her comment about her first impression of him might have put a lot of people off, Jay wasn't dissuaded from asking Erin to join him. Why wouldn't he want to have a dinner with a beautiful woman?
"I don't know about you, but I'm hungry. Going to see what they offer in the restaurant. Care to join me?" he suggested as they walked towards the hotel's entrance.
"Thank you, but no. I'm going to get something on room service."
"No problem. I'll walk you back to your room then," he said, making sure he didn't react to what we probably the smoothest rejection he had ever gotten. She hadn't even though about accepting. It bruised his ego for sure.
"That's kind of you," she said.
They entered the hotel and walked across the lobby to the elevators. Unusually, he didn't know what to say to make conversation. What did he have to talk about with a rich girl who he hardly knew anything about? They were unlikely to have much, if anything, in common.
"Cat got your tongue?" Erin asked coyly.
Wow, she's actually teasing me, Jay thought. He liked that. A woman with character was a lot more attractive than an empty vessel. "Not at all," he fired back confidently as they stepped into an elevator. There had been one already on the lobby level when he had pushed the call button.
"Oh, good. Because I thought I might have offended you." She pressed the button for the top floor. Hank had put his daughter in one of the expensive suites, Jay realised. Of course he had.
"You did offend me, when you said no to joining me for dinner."
Erin giggled. "Nice try. But I'm still not having dinner with you."
"Can't fault a guy for trying."
"No, I guess not," she said as the elevator reached the top floor. They stepped out, and were almost immediately at the door of her suite, which was the closest one to the elevators. "Well, this is me. Thanks for the lend of your jacket," she said, taking it off and handing it back to him.
"You're welcome. See you Monday, I guess. Have a good night."
"You too," Erin said, giving him adorable little smile, showing those dimples. With that, she went into her suite and closed the door.
Jay stood there for a moment before putting his jacket on. It smelled of Erin's perfume now, he noticed, to his pleasure. The encounter had been an odd one, but there was no doubt about the fact that it had left him looking forward to the next one. With their on-screen storyline now becoming imminent, he wouldn't have long to wait.
A/N: Things didn't go Jay's way with Erin, but they are soon to be married on-screen. How will things develop once they have to work more closely with each other?