Shelby Nichols Consulting

I admit I’m kind of a geek, but when I got the opportunity to meet Nathan Fillion a.k.a. RICHARD CASTLE I jumped on the chance. I LOVE that show! It was a photo op at FANX and after signing up, I checked the guidelines for how to have a great photo shoot. They suggested making it fun and said that the stars loved to ham it up with their fans! They even had a picture showing Nathan Fillion with a fake sword stabbing a bad guy and catching the princess in his other arm. So I decided to figure out something fun.

Thinking of a tie-in to the show CASTLE, I came up with the idea of getting some handcuffs and handcuffing us together, just like Castle and Beckett in season three. That meant I had to find a pair. Naturally, I turned to my police detective friend, Dimples, and asked if he had a set I could borrow. When I explained what I wanted them for he agreed, and loaned them to me the day before the shoot. That night, I was so nervous I could hardly sleep. But the morning came and I got all dolled up just how I thought Beckett might look… if she had blond hair.

When it finally came my turn to meet him, my heart was all a-flutter, and I have to admit I was a bundle of nerves. But he was so gracious and sweet that it calmed me down. He didn’t even blink too much when I pulled out the handcuffs, although he was thinking I didn’t look too scary…and he had bodyguards, just in case. We got them on and I posed like I had captured him, and he was looking a little worried. It was great fun…until it was time to take them off. I knew I had the key somewhere, but for the life of me, I couldn’t remember where I’d put it. I’d left my purse on a table in the other room and had to drag him around with me to get it. After dumping everything out, and his arm flopping with my every movement, I finally remembered I’d zipped it up in my loose change pocket and dug it out.

We all breathed a sigh of relief when the key fell into my hand, but with my fingers a little shaky, I still couldn’t get the key in the lock. Nathan gently took the key from me, inserted it, and like magic, the cuffs popped off. I think my face must have been bright red, or maybe it was all the apologizing I was doing, but anyway, he had them take another picture of us. This time he put his arm around me and gave me a little squeeze. He was thinking that he was glad it had turned out all right, and now he had a funny story to tell about the ditzy, but beautiful blond, and the handcuffs with the missing key.