A man walks into the diner and take a seat staring intensely at the beautiful blonde server. She looks gorgeous, then ordinary, sloppy, white server uniform, gorgeous again, dishes stacked in her arms, turning, looking happy and tired. He decided to build up the courage to talk to her "Hey he says voice a tad bit shaky. The place was packed for an early Thursday night. "Hi, can help you?" The man just stares at her not uttering a word. "Want a menu?" Still nothing so she decided to walk away and give him more time. Buffy had been working at this diner since she was 16 years old. So, she was used to getting odd customers, ever since she ran away from home this had been her life. Buffy was now 23, smart and proud to be on her own and supporting herself even if the job was minimal. Buffy walked over to her best friend Faith "Hey we got a weirdo at table 23, Will you please take the table im not in the mood today to deal with that." Falth looked over at table 23 looking at the blonde, blue eyed man "He seems harmless Buff but since I'm nice I'll take over for you girifriend." Faith was a 28-year-old single mom of two kids. Even though she had been knocked around a few times by 3 no good ex-husbands she somehow maintained a good attitude. Buffy viewed Faith as her Idol; for her attitude not her life. Faith walked over to the table and was able to get the mans order without any Issues. She came walking back to Buffy who was already heading to another table Hey B, table 23 must be scared of you of something because he gave me no Issues at all." Buffy looked over to table 23 and bit her bottom lip she couldn't understand why the man had acted so weird with her but totally normal with faith.

2 weeks later

It was lunch hour, and the two waitresses were in a flurry of movement setting up for the lunch hour rush. Buffy was talking to faith about something she had been in deep thought about for the last year." I'm thing about if I could go back to school." Faith looked puzzled "for What?….thought you hated-" Before Faith could finish buffy said "Psychology, I don't know. I know It's not good to say so, but I would like to contribute something to society, even..." At that point Faith had heard enough "We contribute. We give em food, energy, so they can go out and save western civilization. * Before faith could say more the bell to the diner rung and a customer walked in and sat down. Giles the owner of the diner comes out from the back with his arms crossed seeing the two women talking and not taking care of the paying customer "Ladies, please. Am I paying you?" He points towards the man and walks away. Faith looks at Buffy and whispers "Not that we have noticed." And buffy çan't help but giggle, Looking up at the clock Buffy sees that it reads 11:15 am and realizes they are still pretty behind on work. Buffy and Faith converge carrying dirty dishes piling them up for the bus boy Jonthan. They hadn't stopped moving in two hours, but now they can take a breath and survey the diner around them.Buffy looks over at faith who has a wet spot underneath her arm pit. "Have you ever tried the rock?" Faith scrunches up her face "Excuse me?" Buffy gives Faith the look as if she should know exactly what she's talking about. "The deodorant thing. Its salt or something It comes in like 2... it looks like some kind of hippie crystal." Faith scoffs You're saying I sweat!" Buffy smirks "Perspire, Faith, you lightly perspire" Buffy could not stop giggling Faith lightly shoved Buffy "I will remember that." As Faith and Buffy continue their joking they hear the tiny diner bell ring Faith looks at Buffy wickedly. Your turn I'm sweating too much." Buffy gives her a look, grabs a menu, goes over to where the new customer, When she reaches his booth she notices he's the same guy from 2 weeks ago and automatically knows that Faith will not come to her rescue. In his hands were a book and a long stimmed rose she handed him his menu. "Waiting for someone?" He shakes his head, Buffy cannot help but notice that he is extremely handsome. "Something to drink?" He smiles and says "water is fine, thank you" It would have been nice for Faith to let her know. It only was this man attractive but he had an English accent making him even more attractive. "Well I'll give you a minute to look over the menu-" but before she could walk away he answered "that's okay I was in here two weeks ago..." as he's reading her name tag. "Buffy" She nods her head starting to feel slightly uncomfortable and he hands her the menu. "What's your real name?" Buffy felt her temper rising she's felt with this type before and today she was not in the mood to deal. "No." She said flatly "Your name is no? Or no you are not going to tell me?" I don't give out my real name." She said he slightly nods his head "I'll have the Turkey burger and a coke. I would also like you to know I wrote books." He said with a cocky smile. Buffy wasn't sure what to say so she just said "oh" The blonde gave a hopeful smile "so you read?" Buffy looks at him and gives him a half shrug half nod. He sees that she's being drawn in so he ask "what are you reading now?" She bites her lip and says the first thing that comes to her mind "Finneaan's Wake by James Joyce. A friend told me it's the hardest book in the English Language. Not the hardest hardest, just the hardest one it's actually possible to read, and I figure if I can get through that one, I can do the others." She gave him a shy smile. And he gives her another cocky smile "and how long have you been reading it?" She looks him in his eyes and says "6 years. I'll be back with your turkey burger." She leaves, goes back puts the order in, and muttter to Faith "asshole" Faith seeing the two talking couldn't imagine what he could have said to make her friend so upset "What'd he say?"Buffy rolled here eyes "Wanted to find out how smart I was-so I told him I was reading the hardest book in the English language." Faith had known Buffy for such a long time and in that time she had never known Buffy to date or even talk to men. She knew of Buffys rough patch that lead her to run away but still wish her friend would put herself out there. "He likes you" Buffy rolled her eyes "I think he's just a dick." Faith was not going to let this go "Buffy...he was in yesterday Buffys eyes grew a little bigger "And he's back today with a rose,he pulls you into conversation. Honey, if you can't tell he likes you, you need to study psychology." Buffy was seeing her friends point "okay so he likes me what the hell do I do about that?" Faith gave her friend a devilish grin "Make.Your.move."

Faith grins. Buffy writes up a check for a CUSTOMER at the counter. When she finishes, the turkey burger is up. She carries it to the table "TB, coleslaw, and so forth. You don't really write books, do you?" He smile in away that says you got me. "Nope." Buffy gave a little shy smile "I don't read Finnecan's Wake either." "I'm goin' into law. Enforcemen" She nods. This is more like what she expected. "Who's the rose for?"He shrugs. She's busy, so she starts to go she doesn't have time for little mind games. "Enjoy your grub, huh?" She's seven feet away when she hears "hey...You" and he points the rose towards her. She smiles back at him as their eyes meet and it feels like the entire world has stopped an almost magical feeling.

The man in the booth behind the man with the rose turns around and looks at Buffy. And then gets up from his seat and looks down at the blonde haired man. "How much did you settle on?" "Excuse me?" Buffy starts to frown and steps closer to both men. "You and your friend. Yesterday. Was it 200 or 500 or - ?" Buffy looks the dark hair man in the face "what are you..?" "He bet his friend he could get in your pants in less than twelve hours, starting noon today." That's when the man with the rose spoke up. " Is this your business? What are you, the morals police? The dark haired man Grabs him by the collar. Lifts him. A frozen moment, more violence just a breath away, and a sense of things about to spin out of control... The blondes are popping he tries to hide his fear. "Take it easy, M...man. She and I were just having some fun -" Buffy speaks up "Was it two hundred or five? I want to know what I'm worth..."the blonde does his best to recollect his dignity. Looks at buffy Drops a ten on the table and smirks. "The bet was two, but now that I know you? Way too high". A pained look flashes across Buffys face. As the blonde headed towards the door the dark haired man grabbed him by the shoulder "my names Angelus and I better never ever catch you in her again." The blonde man could tell he was not to be messed with so he shook his head and went on his way. Buffy had unshed tears in her eyes. "Umm thabk you so much for saying saying something " he gave her a half cocked smile "it's no problem if I hadn't said anything I would have felt guilty for it for eternity." She gave him another shy smile and he put money on the table and started to leave. And before Buffy could stop herself she she blurted out "My shift ends in 30 mins if you have time maybe you could walk me home." The dark haired man smiled and sat back down waiting for the blondes shift to be over