On the day of this telling William, unexpectedly, got off from work early. Thus not having any plans he decided to take a walk and find a quiet place to sit with a cool drink and enjoy the L.A. sun. His work at the software company kept him pretty busy and usually didn't permit taking an afternoon of like that. But an order he was in charge of had been cancelled at the last minute and, since it was friday his boss had informed him that he could call it a day early.
He stopped home to take a quick shower, put on a pair of Khaki-shorts and a T-shirt, and headed out the door. It was unseasonably warm that day even by California standards. The sun shone brightly, heating the pavement, and William resolved himself to find some shade and sit down.
Walking down the street he didn't know exactly where he was headed. He didn't know this part of the city well and decided to just explore a bit. After walking a while he started to feel hungry and decided to get something to eat.
Looking around he spotted a decent looking place. Through the window it looked quiet inside, a lot of tables being unoccupied. He bought a newspaper from a vendor and headed inside. He entered the restaurant and sat down at a table close to the back wall of the room. In this part of the restaurant he was, to his contentment. the only guest. Not much feeling like idly chatting with anyone, he was happy to be left alone to read his newspaper.
The waiter came to take his order and William ordered a light meal. He started reading the newspaper and after a few minutes the waiter came back with the food. Focused on his meal and his paper, and with his back to the entrance of the restaurant, he didn't notice the two women entering the restaurant. One was a short slender woman with long dark hair and the other a slightly taller woman with blonde hair. Both were wearing skimpy summer dresses generously showing off their legs. Approached by a waiter they conversed with him for a moment. The waiter took a look around him, said a few words, and left. The women then entered William's area of the restaurant. They scouted the whole room and, William being the only presence, landed their eyes on him. The blonde woman turned her head and said a few words to the brunette, who nodded approvingly without taking her eyes off of William. Together they approached him.
Focused on his newspaper William barely sensed the women shuffling up to his table. He didn't notice them until the blonde addressed him, "Hi. Are you Mr. Alexander? I'm Jennie Garth and this is Shannen Doherty." "Hi," the brunette said and extended her hand. William was taken aback at the sudden attention toward him and found himself tongue-tied. His bewilderment that he was suddenly being addressed in a familiar way by someone whom he had never before met, was eclipsed only by the excitement in him that he easily recognized the two women as the two famous actresses from the show Beverly Hills 90210. A show he watched with some regularity for the two very reasons now standing in front of him. As taken aback as he was he still managed to keep a straight face while his mind raced to figure out a response to their sudden introduction. Was he "Mr. Alexander"?
Knowing not to deny them their assumption if he were to keep their sudden, but welcome company, he simply extended his hand and hesitantly responded, "Yes, I am. Nice to meet you." He figured the illusion could last seconds at best, but that even the briefest of interaction with his two celebrity infatuations would be well worth any potential humiliation and scorn.
He shook Shannen's hand and then Jennie's. His conscience told him that he should correct their misapprehension about his identity, but his instincts told him just to play the scene out a few more moments to see what might happen. From the information available to him he deduced that they had been told by someone to meet a "Mr. Alexander" here and that they did not know him beforehand, nor had they even seen him before. If it meant getting to spend even just a few moments in their company he was happy to play that role, even if it was less than completely honest. "Won't you sit down?" he offered to keep the momentum going. They took him up on his offer and sat down across from him next to each other.
Not knowing where he would have begun, he was relieved when Jennie took the lead in the conversation. Looking at him hesitantly she offered, "Can we just say that we're both huge fans of your movie. I can't tell you how many times we've both seen it. We're really flattered that you are considering us for your next project. We almost didn't believe our agents when they told us your people had called and asked for us."
The pieces of the puzzle falling into place, William decided to risk it. Staying as calm as he could, he answered, "Thank you. I'm glad you liked my film. As I'm sure you know it's always important to follow the first success up with another one. So it's a really important project I'm working on now." He looked examiningly at the girls trying to gauge their reaction to his words. Their response would determine if the illusion had been broken.
To his relief Shannen nodded eagerly, "Yes, that's so true. In this town all it takes is one failure and you're yesterday's news," she said, wanting to ingratiate herself with him. The way she responded made William realize that the girls were in fact the nervous ones, not him. He was a Hollywood bigshot and they were merely actresses desperately hoping for a part in his next movie.