"Hello." Anya greeted her. "I'm here to have dinner with Rupert Giles, and you're not him. I rang the bell but he is ignoring me, which I find irritating." Anya paused, smiled and nodded.

The woman extended her hand. "You're Anya," she stated.

"Yes. I'm Anya."

"Please come in. I'm Olivia."

Anya entered the front all and glanced quickly around. It was an older flat, but well maintained with a lot of gleaming woodwork and antique furniture.

The two women studied each other for a moment. Finally, Anya realized the woman was familiar. "I've met you before. You were Giles' orgasm friend."

"Pardon me?"

"His friend who came to visit him so he could have sex without Spike. I mean, he sent Spike to my boyfriend's house so we couldn't have sex, but he could. With you." Anya favored her with another bright smile.

"Anya." Giles entered from what Anya assumed was the kitchen. "I see you've met my housemate Olivia. It was very kind of you to test our doorbell. I'm heartened to know it is in fine working condition."

"Giles, you refused to answer the door."

"I can't imagine why." He responded dryly. He motioned to the settee. "Why don't you and Olivia have a seat? You can become better acquainted while I finish getting dinner on the table." He turned to Olivia, "Please yell if you need me for... anything."

"Oh Giles." she stopped him, "Here. I brought you a present. I've learned that it is customary to bring a gift when invited to an engagement as a way of showing appreciation.  Here's yours."

Giles reached over to take the beribboned jar from Anya. "Instant coffee? Well, that's very… thoughtful of you Anya. Thank you."

"It's Taster's Choice."

"I see that."

"I thought you might be out…"

Olivia stepped over to place a light hand on Anya's arm. "Of course Rupert is thrilled with your gift Anya. It was lovely of you to consider him. Why don't we have a seat for a few moments?  We'll be fine, Rupert. Go finish dinner."

Anya found a place on the paisley settee and Olivia sat beside her, "Now why don't you fill me in on why you've come to England."

"I'm sure you heard that I was getting married to Xander. You met him also. His eyes are rather beady, and his hair never lays quite right, but I loved him."

"Yes." Olivia commented. "Rupert mentioned that the wedding didn't go off as planned."

Anya paused and swallowed, then continued. "After Xander left, and all the guests left, my old boss offered to reinstate me as a vengeance demon."

"Excuse me. Did you just say..."

"Vengeance demon, yes. I was a demon for over a thousand years. I punished men. I lost my job after Giles destroyed my pendant."

"Giles...?"

"Oh, not your Giles, the alternate reality Giles. He was very much like your Giles though. Anyway, after the wedding disaster D'Hoffryn offered to make me a demon again. I told him that I needed some time to think it over. I've had several major life disturbances in the last few years, and I felt that I didn't need to rush into anything just yet. Then my friend Halfrek suggested we get away from Sunnydale. She's trying to convince me to join the ranks again."

Olivia looked concerned. "Are you seriously considering this?" Anya just looked lost. "I have to admit that I am rather tempted. You see I am feeling a large degree of emotional distress and would like to revisit some of this pain back on to Xander and his friends. Especially Willow. She has never liked me and she once tried to steal him from his old girlfriend with her lips."

"Do you think that Xander didn't marry you because of feelings for Willow?"

"Oh no! Willow much prefers to kiss women now, but not me. No, she's kept her lips away from my Xander for the last few years. She's a lesbian."

"I got that." Olivia looked amused, then decided to get back on topic. "Tell me more about why you want to hurt Xander."

"Hurt him? I wouldn't want to hurt him... I just want to bring him pain. Like mine."

"Wouldn't that hurt him?"

Anya's smile left her face, her shoulders slumped, and all the energy seemed to drain from her. "I'm so confused. I don't know what I want. I know that I just don't want to feel like this any more, but nothing makes the pain stop. I cry for hours, but it still hurts. Then I try to smile. My smile is still quite lovely, but the pain remains inside me. It doesn't seem fair that I should be hurting like this when it is all Xander's fault. What am I going to do?"

Olivia took Anya's hand in her own and spoke to her from her heart. "The first thing you need to do is talk this out with Xander and find out why he did this and what he is thinking. Next you have to go on and deal with the pain. Nobody lives this life without pain. You have to accept it and learn from it and grow. Vengeance is not growth. It's quite the opposite, in fact."

Anya smiled gratefully at her new friend. "Thank you." she told her "Giles is very fortunate to have someone so loving and understanding. He could learn a lot from you."

Olivia smiled back. "You're welcome. Speaking of Rupert, he has certainly been in the kitchen for an eternity. I think I'll go check on him."

She rose from the small couch and walked to the back of the flat. Anya took the opportunity to look around the room she was in. It was just a small sitting room. There was a small bookshelf against one wall and some lovely wall sconces. Anya recognized some of the figurines that used to decorate the Magic Box. She was gratified to see that Giles was keeping them in top condition. The resale value on them would be excellent. She glanced at the doorway as Olivia entered the room.

"Something's wrong." Olivia looked shaken.

"What is it?"

"It's Giles. He's gone. I've just looked all through the flat. I... I don't know what's happened, but I can't find him."

"I'm going to look around. Do you mind?" Without waiting for an answer she wandered up the stairs. From the upper floor, she could see most of the downstairs, including Olivia, sitting on a couch. The flat was filled with knee-high wainscoting, a dark brown wood. Most of the walls were a very light khaki and sand. Flowers spilled off of tables set in the corners.  The stairs led out onto a passageway that was lined with paintings and sketches, children, parks and seascapes mixed incongruously with ill-formed and malicious creatures from a fever-dream. There was a large bedroom, with plenty of room for two.

The next room was obviously Giles' study. Walls were covered with fading musty books. A few more were topsy-turvy on the small but sturdy desk. A watercolor was framed on the opposite wall, in one of the few clear spots. Anya looked at it closely. It pictured Giles, in his casual best, sitting on a stool in a coffeehouse. Tables filled with rapt listeners filled the foreground. The stage was bare with a rather industrial-looking background.

The passageway ended in Olivia's studio. Here several canvases were attached to easels. One, a work in progress, showed an old-style baby carriage, leather and steel, crumpled and tilted, in a small dark stone building. The artist had imbued the scene with a ruefulness, a mourning, that affected even Anya. A notepad covered with charcoal was flung on a table, along with neatly sorted tubes of acrylics and oils, brushes and palette knives. Olivia's style tended toward chiaroscuro, intricate blendings of light and darkness. But there was no Giles.

She came back to the sitting room. "He's not anywhere obvious, that's for sure. I guess we have to search the dark, dusty corners -- that's what Buffy always does. Do you have any sewers under here?"

"Giles is not in a dark corner! And there's no way he'd be in a sewer, not when we have a, a guest."

The front door opened and in walked Giles. He noticed the two women glowering and asked what was going on.

His lady-friend spoke first, her cheeks burgundy with embarrassment. "We didn't know where you were, and I suppose recent events," she inclined her head slightly towards Anya, "have made me a little jumpy. Um, what happened, dear?"

It was Giles' turn to be embarrassed. "I went out the back door to pick some sage, " he indicated the small spice garden in the back yard, "and, um, well, locked myself out. I had to clamber over the wall to get back to the front door." He dusted the knees of his trousers. "Well, dinner should be ready shortly. Shall we gather in the dining room?"

*****

"That was delicious, Giles."  Anya beamed at him.  "Could we have some more sage, please, tomorrow?"  Anxious to keep Anya from her former cohorts, Giles readily agreed.  "I can be here at 10am!" she promised.

"That's fine, but why don't you come at noon, instead?"  Giles caught the grateful smile from Olivia.