Angel stepped out of the shower and wrapped a towel around his waist. He looked in the mirror and poured some gel into his hands. He rubbed them together and ran them through his hair, spiking it. Once he was satisfied, he opened the bathroom door and entered his bedroom in search of clothes. He didn't notice the woman sitting in a chair by the door.

"Hello Angel," she said seductively.

He jumped at the voice, but didn't turn around to face her. He already knew who it was. "Darla, what are you doing here?"

"Can't a girl pay an old friend a visit?"

"We were never friends."

She smiled. "That's right, we were lovers."

He turned around to face her. "How'd you get in here?"

"You never did remember to lock the back door."

"What do you want?"

"That was rude," she said, fingering with a button on her shirt.

"Since when do you care about manners?"

"You could at least pretend to be happy to see me, Angel. I miss you." She stood and walked over to him.

"If I'm remembering correctly, you were the one who cheated on me," he said, giving her an annoyed look.

"You know, I figured you of all people would believe in giving second chances."

"Only to people who deserve them."

"Like who? Your precious Barbie doll?"

His fists clenched. "Leave her out of this," he replied sternly.

"Speaking of the brat, where is she? I thought you two were attached at the hip."

"Her name's Buffy and she's visiting some friends in L.A. Why do you care?"

Darla placed her hands on the top of his towel, which was resting below his hips, exposing his pelvic bones.

"So, we're alone then?"

He didn't respond. His mind was is complete turmoil. He loved Buffy, but a part of his anatomy was screaming for Darla. How could he not want her? She was hot, willing and he knew what she was capable of.

Darla was well aware of his arousal and she used it to her advantage when she slid her hand underneath the towel. She used her other hand to pull his head down to hers. She placed her lips on his, but was hesitant at first, not sure what his next move would be.

Angel knew what he was doing was wrong, but he didn't pull away. He never kissed her back, but let her ravish his mouth. If she would pull her hand away from his erection and stop teasing him, he would have the will to stop her, but she continued to tease and he let her.

She pulled away when she needed air. "Can your blonde bimbo make you feel this good?" she breathed.

Angel was brought back to his senses when she mentioned Buffy. "Stay away from her."

"Won't she be pleased to hear about this encounter of ours?"

"I said, stay away from her." His anger was building up fast along with his guilt.

"I can't wait to see her face when she finds out who you chose in the end."

He smacked her across the face before he had time to register what he was doing.

"You motherfucker!" She screamed and charged at him, throwing wild punches. "Nobody hits me!"

He grabbed her wrists, knowing that she would hurt herself if he didn't stop her. "Calm down."

"Let go of me!" She tried to jerk away from him, but his grip was too strong.

"Calm down first."

She stopped fighting him. Her breathing was still irregular and her chest was heaving, but she was relaxing. "I'm calm, now let go."

He loosened his grip, but didn't completely let go. "You're going to leave and you're going to stay away from both Buffy and me. You'll stop e- mailing, calling, and threatening my girlfriend. Stay away from my friends and don't ever let me see you again. Got it?" She was shaking and tears were streaming down her face, but he refused to be sympathetic. She'd fucked up his life too much for him to feel anything but hatered towards her. He let go of her wrists. "Leave."

She backed away, picked up her purse and walked out, leaving him standing alone in the room, wearing only a towel, staring after her.

"Coming," Xander called after the doorbell rang for the third time. He opened the door while juggling Tiffany on his hip.

Angel was surprised to see Xander holding his daughter and if this had been under different circumstances, he would've been laughing his ass off at the sight.

"Hey, man. How's it going?" Xander moved out of the doorway and let him in.

"I need your advice," Angel stated flatly.

"Sure, with what?"

"Buffy."

Xander held up his free hand in mock defeat. "I don't think I'm the greatest person to be helping you out with this. Do you remember the last serious girlfriend I had?"

Angel tried to remember Xander being with one girl for a long period of time. "No."

"Exactly, 'cause there's never been one."

"I don't know who else to ask."

"Okay, let me put Tiff down then I'll try to help you. You want a beer or something?"

"Yeah. Whatever you have is fine."

Xander came back a few minutes later with two beer bottles in his hand.

"Is Cordy okay with that?"

"With what?"

"You drinking when you're watching Tiffany."

"What she doesn't know can't hurt her. So, what's going on with you and your girl?"

"You kissed Darla?" Xander asked in shock after Angel had finished explaining what had happened. He left out what Darla was doing while they kissed.

"Sort of. She kissed me."

"To Buffy, it's not going to make a difference."

"I know. Should I tell her?" Angel knew what the answer was going to be, but he was dreading to hear it.

"I think so. If she forgives you, then maybe she's the one. If she doesn't, then there'll be another girl someday."

Angel's cell phone rang and he flipped it open. "Yeah?"

"You really need to work on your phone manners," said a cheerful voice.

"It's her," Angel mouthed to Xander. "Hey. How's L.A.?"

"It was alright. I just got home."

"Already? I though you were staying there for a few more days." He tried not to sound disappointed. He'd planned on a few more days to think about what he'd say to her.

"No, my dad has to go to Minneapolis in a few days so we came home early to give him some time to rest. Are you guys going to be at The Bronze tonight?"

"Yeah, I think so."

"Great. I'll see you tonight then?"

"Actually, it's your first night back, so why don't we go somewhere by ourselves?" Angel tried to sound as casual as possible.

"Sure, where?"

"Maybe to dinner or something. I'll pick you up at seven."

"Okay, I'll see you then. I love you."

"Yeah, I, uh, love you too." He hung up the phone and looked at Xander. "I have to go figure out how I'm going to tell her. I'll see you later."

"Good luck."

"Thanks," he said and helped himself out.

Angel's black jeep pulled up to Buffy's driveway at exactly seven. He'd already screwed up and he didn't want to make it worse, even though he doubted she would be mad if he wasn't on time. When he got to her house, she was waiting outside. He got out of the car and made his way over to her.

"Hey." He wrapped his long arms all the way around her. He was nervous she would notice something if he kissed her.

"Hi. I missed you."

"I missed you too. Are you ready to go?" He opened the passenger door for her.

The drive to the restaurant was uncomfortably quiet. Buffy had sensed Angel's edginess, but figured he was just having a bad day or something. "Are you okay?" she asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he said a little too quickly.

"Your hands..."

Angel looked at his hands. He was gripping the steering wheel so hard that his knuckles were white and when he loosened his grip, his fingers ached. "It's nothing."

Buffy turned on the radio to loosen him up, but it didn't work. She flipped through the stations.

"Just pick something," Angel snapped after she had gone through all the stations at least three times. He didn't care what she picked as long as it was something constant.

"Fine." She settled on Celion Dion. "Someone's got issues," she mumbled to herself.

He reached for her hand. "Sorry for snapping. I've been really stressed out." He caressed the back of her hand with his thumb.

"Do you want to talk about it?" she asked, hoping he'd open up to her.

"I'll tell you later. Let's just enjoy our dinner." He forced a smile. "What did you do in L.A.?"

"I hung out with my friend Meredith most of the time. She went to Hemrey with me. We did lots of shopping. The Sunnydale Mall is nothing compared to the ones they have in L.A. My dad dragged me to one of his business parties which wasn't so much fun, but otherwise he let me go off by myself while he worked. Anything new in Sunnydale?"

"Um, just the usual," he lied. "Tell me more about L.A." He wanted their conversation to stay far away from talking about what he did when she was gone.

"There's not that much to say."

"Okay, tell me more about the malls." He was becoming desperate to keep her talking. He knew that if he started saying too much, he would stutter or say something stupid and she would know something wasn't right. He knew this could his last date with her and he wanted to make it last as long as possible.

"They're big with lots of stores and lots of people. Why would you care about a mall?"

"I, uh, need to buy some shirts." He knew she would never believe him, but it was the only thing he could think of.

"Uh huh?"

Angel pulled the car into a parking spot in front of Yano's
Pizza.

Dinner was mostly the same as the car ride except Angel gave up on not talking and he told about everything that happened before Darla's visit. Half the time Buffy was talking to him, he wasn't listening. Not because she was boring, but because he was still trying to decide how and when he was going to tell her about kissing Darla. She asked him if everything was okay at least three times. By the time they finished their pizza, he still hadn't told her.

"I don't want to go home yet," he said as they walked out to his car.

"You want to go park at Lover's Point?" She asked with a seductive grin.

"No, let's take a walk."

"I'd rather park somewhere."

"So would I, but we need to talk," he took her hand and they walked down the sidewalk.

They walked about a block without saying anything. "Wow, this is a lot of talking," she said sarcastically.

"Let's sit down," he said and walked over to a bench. She sat down next to him. "I didn't tell you everything that happened while you were gone," he started. "Darla came to my apartment yesterday and I- she kissed me." There. He'd finally said it.

Buffy just looked at him, biting her lip. This wasn't happening. Angel would never go back to his ex. At least that's what he'd always told her. "No." She shook her head slightly. "You're lying." Her eyes filled up with tears and she tried to stop them from falling.

"I wish I was, believe me, I wish I was. It was a one time thing that meant nothing."

"That doesn't mean it didn't happen. All this time you said that you didn't care about her anymore, you lied to me."

"Buffy, I don't care about her. I told her to get lost. We'll never see her again."

"Then why'd you kiss her?"

He didn't know what to say. Everything he could think of would only hurt her more.

"That's what I thought. You could have told her to get lost a long time ago. You just needed one final fuck didn't you?" she shot angrily. All she could think about was how much she hated him. She wanted to make him as miserable as he had made her.

"It was nothing like that. I stopped her from going any further."

"Oh, okay. Well, everything's all right now. You only kissed her. That doesn't count as cheating on me," she said sarcastically. The tears were now streaming down her face. "You know Angel, you're just as bad as her. She cheated on you and now you've cheated on me. I should've listened to what everybody said about you." She got up to leave.

He grabbed her arm. "Buffy, I love you."

"Go to hell."

Her words hit him like a thousand knives and he let her go, knowing that she could possibly be walking out of his life forever.