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Chapter Five: New Jobs All Around

Buffy sat in bed the next morning thinking silently. She recalled the events that had happened last night. The girls had met a very blunt and bubbly Anya Jenkins, and her boyfriend, Devon MacLeish. A little after they had shown up, Owen Thurman, who all three girls thought was a total hottie, and his really ditzy but extremely fun, long-time girlfriend, Harmony Kendall, [A/N: I'm going to use Harmony's good qualities in this].

Apparently Oz, Spike, Devon and Owen were all in a band together called Dingoes Ate My Baby. Oz played lead guitar, Spike was lead vocals, and Devon played the bass guitar and sang back-up vocals (and whenever they needed it, he played the piano as well), and Owen was the drummer. They'd been playing for a couple of years, starting as a cover band. Their popularity grew, and people started asking for original songs. So Spike started writing lyrics for the band while Oz, Devon, and Owen each worked on writing the music.

Buffy learned that Anya was a fashion designer for her women's apparel line Emmanuella. It was a fun early twenties aged fashion line that was dedicated to keeping things level. She wouldn't hire any models who didn't have either a GED or a high school diploma and was currently attending college. Apparently, Emmanuella had a great reputation as well. By the end of the night, Anya had hired Cordelia after she had explained that one of her models was pregnant and had just started to show, so she needed someone to fill in for advertisements.

She explained to Cordy that she would be considered to be a permanent model if she agreed to finish high school with Anya's personal friend, Winifred (or just "Fred") Burkle, a professional tutor. Fred was the fiancee of Wesley Wyndam-Price, who just happened to be the band's manager. Cordy had agreed happily.

Buffy stared at the ceiling and smiled, remembering that Cordy wasn't the only one who was offered a job. That night, Fred and Wesley had come over as well when Anya had called to tell them that even though the band had planned to practice that night, they'd all gotten sidetracked with the boys' new house-mates, and it had turned into a sort of party. The couple had shown up minutes later.

They had all been sitting around talking when the conversation turned to how Buffy was good with numbers and organization. It was obvious that Xander was hinting towards Wes giving her a job, which slightly embarrassed Buffy. But Wes excitedly exclaimed, "Oh is she now? Because I still haven't found anyone for my secretary's position." And the rest was history.

Buffy turned when she heard the alarm clock sound. Willow groggily pulled back her covers. She was meeting Jenny today. Cordy joined suit, and stood up to run to the shower first. Willow, too tired to argue, let Cordy take hers first. Cordy was going in for her first day at her new modeling job. Then, after that, she and Fred were going to go over what she needed to finish to graduate high school.

Buffy got up and trudged into the kitchen. She pulled out a plastic bowl from the cabinets and a box of cereal, and poured the cereal in the bowl followed with milk. She was reaching for a spoon out of the utensil drawer when she heard Spike walking down the stairs.

"Good mornin', luv."

She spun around to find Spike, clad in only his boxers, looking sexier than ever. She was so surprised from seeing him like that that she dropped her plastic bowl of Cheerios on the kitchen floor. Immediately blushing and rushing over to the counter to grab the paper towels, Buffy stuttered out, "Oh, I'm s-so sorry. Y-you s-scared me."

Spike chuckled, stooping down to the floor to help her clean up the mess. "Are you sure it wasn't the sight of my impeccable abdomen and sexy morning hair?"

Buffy paused, looking up at him like a deer in headlights. Seeing her embarrassment, Spike quickly added, "I was only joking, pet."

Buffy nodded weakly.

After the mess was cleaned up, she quickly scurried back to her room, not even bothering to get something else to eat for breakfast. She could hear Spike sigh quietly behind her as she left.



"OK, Buffy, so do you understand everything that I just told you?" Wesley asked as he finished explaining about what she would need to do as his secretary.

Buffy nodded gingerly. She was ready to get started. She quickly picked up the scribbled papers that Wesley had given her and started typing them up. After working for a few hours, Wes knocked lightly on her new office door. Buffy looked up at him and smiled.

"Hey, Buffy. It's about time for lunch break. I'm meeting Fred and Spike at Zeke's Smokehouse, if you'd like to join us? We'd all love to have you." Buffy agreed, grabbing her coat.



Spike and Fred were waiting for Buffy and Wes to arrive at Zeke's, making light conversation. He looked at the door when he heard her laugh at something Wes had said as she walked inside. He was struck by how beautiful she looked. Having wanted to look nice for her first day on the job, Buffy borrowed one of Cordy's BCBG outfits. It was a black flowy-ish skirt with cute blue and white flower design on the front-left side of the skirt. She wore a white V-necked tank top, and a light-weight, white button jacket with a flower pinned to it. She was taller than usual in her classy, black high-heeled sandals.

He felt his heart skip a beat, and his breath retreated.

Fred, seeing the two walk in, stood up, kissing her fiancee on the cheek and hugging Buffy like an old friend. "Hey Buffy! I'm so glad that you came with." Buffy smiled back at the beautiful woman.

"I'm glad that I was invited. I honestly had no idea what I was going to do for lunch. I don't know any of the hot spots here in LA." Buffy took a seat inbetween Spike and Fred. She looked over the menu and realized that she should only be paying for a drink, it was so expensive, but she didn't want to look bad, so she decided she'd splurge for a garden salad and apologize to the girls later.

After they'd ordered, they began light conversation about how Buffy liked working at Wes' place, and how she liked LA so far.

"So, Buffy, I don't understand why you left Sunnydale in the middle of the school year? You didn't get kicked out or anything, did you?" Fred asked, jokingly.

Buffy laughed. "No, I'm just your regular high school drop out, I guess. Home life wasn't too grand, so one night Cordy, Willow, and I decided to skip town and start all over."

Spike looked over at Buffy, knowing that she was hiding something, but also realizing that she didn't want to talk about it.

After everyone had finished eating, Buffy excused herself to the ladies room. When she returned, they were waiting for her at the table. She looked around for her check, but didn't see it.

"Oh, I picked up your bill," Spike explained as Fred and Wes walked away.

Buffy looked over at him, "I'll pay you back."

He shook his head. "No, you won't."

"I don't need charity, Spike. I can pay for my own lunch," she gritted out defensively.

Spike took her hand and softly replied, "I didn't pay for it because I thought you couldn't, I did it because it's not everyday that I have the chance to pay for a ravishing young woman's lunch." He paused as he watched her face convert from pissed off to touched. "Besides, I felt bad for making you skip breakfast because of my dashing good-looks." He winked at her.

Buffy blushed profusely, but let him guide her outside, still holding her hand.

When they reached where their cars were parked, Wes spoke up, "Um, Buffy, I forgot the Fred and I had a wedding appointment, so I was wondering if you wouldn't mind getting a ride with Spike back to the office?"

Buffy looked at Spike to make sure it was ok with him, and nodded at Wesley.

When Spike and Buffy were both in his DeSoto, Spike turned to her and whispered, "Buffy, you look radiant today."

Buffy blushed slightly before mousing out a weak "Thank you, Spike."

They rode the rest of the way back in silence. When Spike had pulled up to the Wes' office's parking lot, he turned again to Buffy. "Buffy, I was wondering if you might want to check out our band tonight. We're playing at Backstage Cafe, and I'd really enjoy it if you came to hear us. It's a really big gig."

Buffy smiled at Spike and said, "I'd love to."