Part 35
Friday Afternoon
5 pm
Buffy sighed as she pulled up in her driveway. It was her
birthday, and true to tradition, everything that could go wrong
had gone wrong today. When she woke up, it was raining. The
thunderstorms had knocked out her electricit, so she'd overslept
since her alarm clock hadn't awakened her. That meant, of
course, that she was late for work. And that was bad because
everyone at the gallery was trying to prepare for a major art
show on Sunday night. So on her rush to get to work, she had of
course forgotten an umbrella. She hadn't thought she'd needed
it, as the rain had stopped while she'd dressed. But of course
it had started up again when she'd pulled into the parking lot
at the art gallery.
And then, in keeping with the 'everything that could go wrong'
tradition, the artist, Jenny, whose work they were going to show
suffered a case of what Joyce had called 'show fright'. Jenny
did NOT want to show her work and for some reason Buffy was
nominated to try to keep her from skipping town before the show.
Buffy somehow managed to talk Jenny out of her panic, for today
anyway.
So by the end of the day, Buffy was exhausted, not to mention
that she had a headache. Willow, Xander and Giles expected her
at Giles' apartment at seven so she'd begged her boss to let her
leave at six. Then she got caught in the continual rainstorm as
she ran out to her car again. When she finally arrived at her
house, she was in no mood for a party. She sighed as she scowled
up at the storm clouds. "Well, I guess there's no chance of
getting wetter," she decided as she ran for the door.
There was a note taped to it. Buffy frowned and pulled it off
the door as she walked inside. It read:
'Happy Birthday, Beautiful,
I know, I told you I'd see you at Giles' apartment. I lied.
Xander used the spare key to let me in; I hope you don't mind. I
figured you'd be home just before seven, since you thought the
plan was to meet us all then at Giles'. Change of plans. I'm in
the kitchen making dinner. Take your time, go to your room,
change your clothes, do whatever you need to do to unwind. I'll
wait.
Love,
Angel
PS: Jack's in your room. He and I sort of made our peace but I
didn't want to risk the possibility of him changing his mind.'
Buffy laughed at the postscript. Who would've figured Angel, the
former Scourge of Europe, to be afraid of her dog? She smiled
and shook her head as she peeled off her jacket and hung it on
the coat rack.
She smelled the dinner cooking... chicken? And other wonderful
smells. Her stomach growled. *Oh yeah. Lunch would've been a
good idea, I guess? Oops.* She looked at her reflection in the
mirror and made a face. She was definitely showering and
changing before she saw Angel. She did not feel all that
'beautiful' at the moment and besides, Angel had seen her sport
the 'caught in the rain' look before.
She hurried upstairs to her room.
***********
Angel heard the door open and footsteps going upstairs, at
six-thirty. *Well, she didn't come in here and kick me out for
daring to invade her home, so that's a good thing.* He hoped she
would hurry back downstairs. The past week had been torture,
unable to see her or touch her. He'd spoken with her every night
though, and he really felt that they were making progress. It
was a novel concept, trying to be friends in addition to lovers.
Getting to know each other on every level would only strengthen
their relationship.
He ventured out into the dining room, but it was empty. Buffy
was still upstairs, he heard the shower running. He set the
table and sat down on the couch to wait for the chicken to
finish cooking.
Buffy showered in fifteen minutes and then dressed again. She
could smell the food and realized she truly was starving. she
walked downstairs and smiled when she saw that Angel had set the
table in the dining room. She walked into the living room and
found him sitting on the couch. He turned to face her and his
jaw dropped. Buffy grinned, rather thrilled that she could still
get that reaction from him.
"Oh wow," Angel managed to form at least those two words. Buffy
had showered and curled her hair, leaving it down on her
shoulders. She'd changed into a short, white cotton skirt and a
low-cut, light-blue long-sleeved blouse. The color of the shirt
brought out the blue in her hazel eyes perfectly.
Buffy moved to sit next to Angel and said, "You look nice too."
Angel was wearing khaki pants and a green button-down shirt. She
reminded herself she still needed to congratulate Cordelia on
breaking Angel of the dark colors habit.
Angel smiled and ran a hand through her blond locks. "Is it
pathetic to say I really missed you this week?"
Buffy laughed. "Maybe, but then I'm pathetic too," she replied.
"Oh, that's all right then," Angel smiled as he leaned in to
kiss her. The kiss was innocent and over too quickly, as far as
Buffy was concerned. But she knew Angel was trying to keep from
pressuring her and she did appreciate it.
Her headache reminded her of its existence and she winced,
rubbing the back of her neck.
"Headache?" Angel asked.
"Yeah," Buffy nodded. "I need to get something for it."
"I bet I can make it go away without drugs," Angel offered.
Buffy shrugged. "Go for it."
"Okay," Angel moved to sit against the arm of the couch and
pulled her back between his legs. "Just close your eyes, lean
back, relax," he said as he reached up to massage her temples.
After five minutes, Buffy's headache wasn't as intense as it had
been. "You're good at this," she said.
"Better?" Angel replied.
"Getting there," she said. "So what's for dinner?" she asked.
"Nothing special, just chicken."
"I'm pretty impressed to know you can cook," Buffy replied.
"It's a good thing, too, because cooking and Buffy don't mix.
Riley did all the cooking..." *Oops.* Buffy stopped short,
knowing the last thing Angel wanted to hear about was Riley.
"So, I thought we were all meeting at Giles' place?" she added.
"Buffy, you don't have to avoid mentioning Riley around me. He
was a big part of your life, for a long time. I left you, so I
can't very well be upset that you moved on like I told you to."
"Angel, I know you can't LIKE being reminded of him," Buffy
replied.
"Don't get me wrong, I was and still am a little jealous of him.
But I can get past a little jealousy because I want to be in
your life. I want you to know you can talk to me about
anything."
Buffy smiled. "Angel, thank you for being so sweet and
understanding," she said, reaching behind her to stroke his
cheek. "And thanks for sending my headache away."
"It's gone?" Angel asked, removing his hands from her temples.
"Completely," Buffy nodded.
"Good," he said, wrapping his arms around her waist. "And you
don't have to thank me, I'm glad I could help make your birthday
a little better."
"You did, just by being here," Buffy replied. "And by the way,
what about the others?"
"Oh, I talked them into letting me spend a couple hours alone
with you. We'll meet them at Giles' place after dinner, if
that's okay with you," Angel said.
"That sounds fine," Buffy said.
Angel took her hands in his and realized for the first time that
her wedding ring was missing. He wondered how he hadn't noticed
it was gone earlier that evening. He'd been painfully aware of
it, ever since she'd let him back in her life. Every time he
looked at it, he was reminded of how he'd failed her, by leaving
her. But now she'd taken it off? *Why?*
Angel entwined his fingers with hers and Buffy knew he had to
have noticed, finally, that she'd taken off her wedding ring. It
hadn't been an easy decision for her to make. She had gone out a
few days ago and buried the ring with Riley. She knew it was the
right thing to do, if she was truly letting him go.
She realized Angel had gone very still, and she knew he wanted
to ask her something. "Just ask me," she said.
"It's that obvious, is it?" he asked. "Okay, well...I guess you
know I noticed your wedding ring was off. And I was just
wondering, why now?" He added, "If you want to tell me, that is.
If you don't want to--"
"It's okay, Angel. It's a fair question," Buffy replied. "I lost
Riley over a year ago," she said. "But I let him go eventually,
and I moved on, before you came back. It was hard, but I did it.
I had to. But I realized a few days ago that I'm not being fair,
by continuing to wear the ring. The ring was a symbol that I
belonged to him. But if I'm giving you - us - another chance,
well, wearing it isn't fair to Riley or you, and I'm not being
honest with myself, either. So I took the ring off."
"I hope you didn't feel any pressure about us," Angel said. "I
really am willing to take this as slow as you need to. I just
consider myself incredibly lucky you've agreed to give me a
second chance."
"Angel, I promise, I've never felt like you were pressuring me
about us," Buffy said, turning to look at him. "As for my giving
you another chance, how could I not?" she asked. "I love you,
Angel, and I can't stop."
"Like I said, I'm a very lucky man," Angel said, kissing her on
the cheek. "And I think dinner's ready," he added. "Shall we?"
He stood and held out his hand. She took it and followed him
into the dining room. He pulled out a chair for her and she sat
down and waited for him to bring out the food.
He brought out the dishes. Baked chicken, mashed potatoes and
green beans. Buffy was sufficiently impressed after tasting the
food, too. "Angel, this is wonderful," she said with a smile.
"Glad you like it," he replied with a smile of his own.
"You know what? I just realized that you said, in the note, Xand
loaned you the spare key for the house. He handed it over, just
like that?" she questioned.
"He tried to argue, got a few insults in," Angel admitted. "but
Willow smacked him upside the head and he grumblingly gave me
the key," he added, chuckling at the memory.
"Xander wouldn't be Xander if he didn't try to antagonize you,"
Buffy replied with a grin.
"He's a good friend to you, Buffy," Angel said.
"He's overprotective," Buffy replied. "And he used to be very
jealous of you, too. Even though he's with Will, now, I guess
old habits die hard."
"I have a confession," Angel said, slowly. "I... used to be
jealous of *him*."
"Why on earth would you be jealous of Xand?" Buffy asked,
confused.
"I suppose I was worried," Angel shrugged. "He was human, I
wasn't. Because he was human he was the one able to bring you
back when the Master killed you. He got to spend time with you
in the sunlight, I only could see you after dark. I was afraid
that you might see all the benefits of a living, breathing human
for a boyfriend."
Buffy smiled and reached across the table to take his hand. "You
never had anything to worry about, where Xander was concerned,
Angel. He might have had a crush on me, but I think his heart
always belonged to Willow. And back then, my heart belonged to
you, even though I tried not to let it happen."
Jack barked from his place of imprisonment upstairs and Buffy
laughed. "Wow, even my dog likes to spoil moments for me," she
said as she stood.
"Why don't you free him," Angel suggested. "I'll clean up here,
if you're done."
"I'm done," she said. "And really, it was wonderful. Thank you."
Angel began to clear off the table while Buffy went to see to
Jack.
****************
Friday Afternoon
5 pm
Buffy sighed as she pulled up in her driveway. It was her
birthday, and true to tradition, everything that could go wrong
had gone wrong today. When she woke up, it was raining. The
thunderstorms had knocked out her electricit, so she'd overslept
since her alarm clock hadn't awakened her. That meant, of
course, that she was late for work. And that was bad because
everyone at the gallery was trying to prepare for a major art
show on Sunday night. So on her rush to get to work, she had of
course forgotten an umbrella. She hadn't thought she'd needed
it, as the rain had stopped while she'd dressed. But of course
it had started up again when she'd pulled into the parking lot
at the art gallery.
And then, in keeping with the 'everything that could go wrong'
tradition, the artist, Jenny, whose work they were going to show
suffered a case of what Joyce had called 'show fright'. Jenny
did NOT want to show her work and for some reason Buffy was
nominated to try to keep her from skipping town before the show.
Buffy somehow managed to talk Jenny out of her panic, for today
anyway.
So by the end of the day, Buffy was exhausted, not to mention
that she had a headache. Willow, Xander and Giles expected her
at Giles' apartment at seven so she'd begged her boss to let her
leave at six. Then she got caught in the continual rainstorm as
she ran out to her car again. When she finally arrived at her
house, she was in no mood for a party. She sighed as she scowled
up at the storm clouds. "Well, I guess there's no chance of
getting wetter," she decided as she ran for the door.
There was a note taped to it. Buffy frowned and pulled it off
the door as she walked inside. It read:
'Happy Birthday, Beautiful,
I know, I told you I'd see you at Giles' apartment. I lied.
Xander used the spare key to let me in; I hope you don't mind. I
figured you'd be home just before seven, since you thought the
plan was to meet us all then at Giles'. Change of plans. I'm in
the kitchen making dinner. Take your time, go to your room,
change your clothes, do whatever you need to do to unwind. I'll
wait.
Love,
Angel
PS: Jack's in your room. He and I sort of made our peace but I
didn't want to risk the possibility of him changing his mind.'
Buffy laughed at the postscript. Who would've figured Angel, the
former Scourge of Europe, to be afraid of her dog? She smiled
and shook her head as she peeled off her jacket and hung it on
the coat rack.
She smelled the dinner cooking... chicken? And other wonderful
smells. Her stomach growled. *Oh yeah. Lunch would've been a
good idea, I guess? Oops.* She looked at her reflection in the
mirror and made a face. She was definitely showering and
changing before she saw Angel. She did not feel all that
'beautiful' at the moment and besides, Angel had seen her sport
the 'caught in the rain' look before.
She hurried upstairs to her room.
***********
Angel heard the door open and footsteps going upstairs, at
six-thirty. *Well, she didn't come in here and kick me out for
daring to invade her home, so that's a good thing.* He hoped she
would hurry back downstairs. The past week had been torture,
unable to see her or touch her. He'd spoken with her every night
though, and he really felt that they were making progress. It
was a novel concept, trying to be friends in addition to lovers.
Getting to know each other on every level would only strengthen
their relationship.
He ventured out into the dining room, but it was empty. Buffy
was still upstairs, he heard the shower running. He set the
table and sat down on the couch to wait for the chicken to
finish cooking.
Buffy showered in fifteen minutes and then dressed again. She
could smell the food and realized she truly was starving. she
walked downstairs and smiled when she saw that Angel had set the
table in the dining room. She walked into the living room and
found him sitting on the couch. He turned to face her and his
jaw dropped. Buffy grinned, rather thrilled that she could still
get that reaction from him.
"Oh wow," Angel managed to form at least those two words. Buffy
had showered and curled her hair, leaving it down on her
shoulders. She'd changed into a short, white cotton skirt and a
low-cut, light-blue long-sleeved blouse. The color of the shirt
brought out the blue in her hazel eyes perfectly.
Buffy moved to sit next to Angel and said, "You look nice too."
Angel was wearing khaki pants and a green button-down shirt. She
reminded herself she still needed to congratulate Cordelia on
breaking Angel of the dark colors habit.
Angel smiled and ran a hand through her blond locks. "Is it
pathetic to say I really missed you this week?"
Buffy laughed. "Maybe, but then I'm pathetic too," she replied.
"Oh, that's all right then," Angel smiled as he leaned in to
kiss her. The kiss was innocent and over too quickly, as far as
Buffy was concerned. But she knew Angel was trying to keep from
pressuring her and she did appreciate it.
Her headache reminded her of its existence and she winced,
rubbing the back of her neck.
"Headache?" Angel asked.
"Yeah," Buffy nodded. "I need to get something for it."
"I bet I can make it go away without drugs," Angel offered.
Buffy shrugged. "Go for it."
"Okay," Angel moved to sit against the arm of the couch and
pulled her back between his legs. "Just close your eyes, lean
back, relax," he said as he reached up to massage her temples.
After five minutes, Buffy's headache wasn't as intense as it had
been. "You're good at this," she said.
"Better?" Angel replied.
"Getting there," she said. "So what's for dinner?" she asked.
"Nothing special, just chicken."
"I'm pretty impressed to know you can cook," Buffy replied.
"It's a good thing, too, because cooking and Buffy don't mix.
Riley did all the cooking..." *Oops.* Buffy stopped short,
knowing the last thing Angel wanted to hear about was Riley.
"So, I thought we were all meeting at Giles' place?" she added.
"Buffy, you don't have to avoid mentioning Riley around me. He
was a big part of your life, for a long time. I left you, so I
can't very well be upset that you moved on like I told you to."
"Angel, I know you can't LIKE being reminded of him," Buffy
replied.
"Don't get me wrong, I was and still am a little jealous of him.
But I can get past a little jealousy because I want to be in
your life. I want you to know you can talk to me about
anything."
Buffy smiled. "Angel, thank you for being so sweet and
understanding," she said, reaching behind her to stroke his
cheek. "And thanks for sending my headache away."
"It's gone?" Angel asked, removing his hands from her temples.
"Completely," Buffy nodded.
"Good," he said, wrapping his arms around her waist. "And you
don't have to thank me, I'm glad I could help make your birthday
a little better."
"You did, just by being here," Buffy replied. "And by the way,
what about the others?"
"Oh, I talked them into letting me spend a couple hours alone
with you. We'll meet them at Giles' place after dinner, if
that's okay with you," Angel said.
"That sounds fine," Buffy said.
Angel took her hands in his and realized for the first time that
her wedding ring was missing. He wondered how he hadn't noticed
it was gone earlier that evening. He'd been painfully aware of
it, ever since she'd let him back in her life. Every time he
looked at it, he was reminded of how he'd failed her, by leaving
her. But now she'd taken it off? *Why?*
Angel entwined his fingers with hers and Buffy knew he had to
have noticed, finally, that she'd taken off her wedding ring. It
hadn't been an easy decision for her to make. She had gone out a
few days ago and buried the ring with Riley. She knew it was the
right thing to do, if she was truly letting him go.
She realized Angel had gone very still, and she knew he wanted
to ask her something. "Just ask me," she said.
"It's that obvious, is it?" he asked. "Okay, well...I guess you
know I noticed your wedding ring was off. And I was just
wondering, why now?" He added, "If you want to tell me, that is.
If you don't want to--"
"It's okay, Angel. It's a fair question," Buffy replied. "I lost
Riley over a year ago," she said. "But I let him go eventually,
and I moved on, before you came back. It was hard, but I did it.
I had to. But I realized a few days ago that I'm not being fair,
by continuing to wear the ring. The ring was a symbol that I
belonged to him. But if I'm giving you - us - another chance,
well, wearing it isn't fair to Riley or you, and I'm not being
honest with myself, either. So I took the ring off."
"I hope you didn't feel any pressure about us," Angel said. "I
really am willing to take this as slow as you need to. I just
consider myself incredibly lucky you've agreed to give me a
second chance."
"Angel, I promise, I've never felt like you were pressuring me
about us," Buffy said, turning to look at him. "As for my giving
you another chance, how could I not?" she asked. "I love you,
Angel, and I can't stop."
"Like I said, I'm a very lucky man," Angel said, kissing her on
the cheek. "And I think dinner's ready," he added. "Shall we?"
He stood and held out his hand. She took it and followed him
into the dining room. He pulled out a chair for her and she sat
down and waited for him to bring out the food.
He brought out the dishes. Baked chicken, mashed potatoes and
green beans. Buffy was sufficiently impressed after tasting the
food, too. "Angel, this is wonderful," she said with a smile.
"Glad you like it," he replied with a smile of his own.
"You know what? I just realized that you said, in the note, Xand
loaned you the spare key for the house. He handed it over, just
like that?" she questioned.
"He tried to argue, got a few insults in," Angel admitted. "but
Willow smacked him upside the head and he grumblingly gave me
the key," he added, chuckling at the memory.
"Xander wouldn't be Xander if he didn't try to antagonize you,"
Buffy replied with a grin.
"He's a good friend to you, Buffy," Angel said.
"He's overprotective," Buffy replied. "And he used to be very
jealous of you, too. Even though he's with Will, now, I guess
old habits die hard."
"I have a confession," Angel said, slowly. "I... used to be
jealous of *him*."
"Why on earth would you be jealous of Xand?" Buffy asked,
confused.
"I suppose I was worried," Angel shrugged. "He was human, I
wasn't. Because he was human he was the one able to bring you
back when the Master killed you. He got to spend time with you
in the sunlight, I only could see you after dark. I was afraid
that you might see all the benefits of a living, breathing human
for a boyfriend."
Buffy smiled and reached across the table to take his hand. "You
never had anything to worry about, where Xander was concerned,
Angel. He might have had a crush on me, but I think his heart
always belonged to Willow. And back then, my heart belonged to
you, even though I tried not to let it happen."
Jack barked from his place of imprisonment upstairs and Buffy
laughed. "Wow, even my dog likes to spoil moments for me," she
said as she stood.
"Why don't you free him," Angel suggested. "I'll clean up here,
if you're done."
"I'm done," she said. "And really, it was wonderful. Thank you."
Angel began to clear off the table while Buffy went to see to
Jack.
****************