Chapter 2

A/N: Elizabeth's old friends called her Jezie for reasons later revealed. -C

They'd finished work about an hour and a half after Mark's call and she'd gone straight home to bed after that so that she'd be able to get here on time this morning. Sure she'd been tired and had a lot to think about, wondering if Peter would be better and about the interviews. But that didn't explain things. Not nearly. She hadn't been able to go to sleep last night, as tired as she was, and then this morning she'd felt sort of out of it. And it was because she'd been trying to figure out a reason to be mad at William or more likely why she wasn't mad at him. He'd been perfectly nice to her the whole night, well nice compared to normally. She just wanted to know what he was up to. She knew that the only reason their conversation this morning, when she'd called to make sure he was on time, was awkward was that she was trying to figure out what he wanted. She'd just have to find out later, for now, though, she wasn't going to let it bother her.

Oz and William had both gotten there on time, after her wake up call, of course, but on time none the less, and were about to start the interviews.

"Oz, you know you're gonna tell me about your date when you get a break, whenever that is." She said smiling.

"Dang, Jez. Could you be any nosier?" Oz replied sarcastically. "And if I don't get a break it's your fault." He grumbled.

"I'm sure I could be nosier, want me to try. I could always ask you-"

"That's just fine. Now which interview do I have first, because if William has a better one than me, I'm gonna steal it from him."

"That wouldn't be nice. But you've got People and he's got Us. So I wouldn't necessarily say his is better, yours'll probably be longer anyways. And you can't steal his."

"Why not?" he questioned in a whiny tone.

"Because I said so." She affirmatively stated before turning to see if William had come back into the room yet. "Where'd William go? He said he was going to get something out of his car like 10 minutes ago and they're going to call any-" with that the phone began to ring. "Go find him." She urgently ordered. "Elizabeth Warren. Hello.... Oh yes, hello Mr. Jacobson, William is really looking forward to doing this interview...Of course, we'll get this started as soon as possible, but first I was wondering if you had any questions for me, you know, any of that "official" stuff." She nervously looked at the door, hoping to see both men walk in any minute. "Yes, I'm sure, so let me just get William and you can get started." Where in the hell is he? She angrily questioned while walking towards the office door. At the exact moment that she reached the open door, William walked through it, narrowly missing running into her. After sending him a look that let him know two more seconds and he would have been dead, she led him over to the table and handed him the phone, whispering "Mr. Mike Jacobson with Us. Don't get in trouble." She certainly hoped he didn't say anything he wasn't supposed to. William was notorious for saying ill contemplated comments in interviews. Hopefully, her sitting across the table the entire time would be enough of a reminder.

William knew that he shouldn't have stayed out at his car so long, especially since he didn't need anything from it. He'd lied about that. But he'd been too nice last night. He couldn't hate her and then act like that. Of course he didn't hate her, but she hated him and he was not going to let her know that it was one sided. So, sure, almost being late for his interview would have been a bad thing for him, but it wasn't him being nice to her. And he needed to not be nice to her. No matter how much he wanted to.

And now she was sitting there. Across the table from him. Just staring at him. It was so that he wouldn't say anything stupid, he knew that. She was certainly justified in thinking that he'd say something stupid, he definitely did do that. Rather frequently actually. But she was still sitting there staring at him, and he was finding it hard to concentrate. Wouldn't Jez think it was funny if she found out her plan to stop him from saying something stupid was actually going to make him say something stupid? Yeah, she probably wouldn't, but he found it pretty damn funny. Except for the fact that he didn't want her to have that much of an effect on him. Didn't want her to have any effect on him. But she did.

Why, again, had she thought it would be a good plan to sit and watch William for such a sustained period of time, ever since Oz's interview had started about two minutes after William'. All the reasons were currently escaping her head, along with any other thought that she found to be at all logical. All that was left was her head telling her that she wasn't mad at him about anything last night, had no reason to be. Or was that her heart? Yep, definitely her heart. Her head was reminding her that she did have a reason to be mad at him now; he'd almost been late for the interview and made her sound like a complete idiot stalling with Jacobson. The guy already didn't think she could do her job, wouldn't take her seriously, ask her for any comments, instead asking one of the guys or their manager, and now what would he think. She didn't need to give him any backup. And now that she thought about it, William hadn't actually gotten anything out of his car. So why had he gone out there? Hey, she was thinking again, and for the most part they were logical ones. Good she thought William has no effect on my thoughts. Just like I thought. Just like I wanted. Just the way it should be. No, just the way it is.

Elizabeth turned upon hearing Oz hang up his phone. Good a distraction she thought before she could stop it. Ignoring the thought she asked Oz, "Now, you' gonna tell me about your date? Of courts you are." She answered for him, "You've got ten minutes until your next interview, so spill."

"What do you want to know?" he asked accusingly, "We went to 14 Below to see Ghost of the Robot, then we got some ice cream, ate it outside, and I took her home, end of story. Or end of date, same deal. And now I'm rambling."

"And because you're rambling, I can tell there's a lot more to it than you're letting on. And since we've got less than ten minutes I'm gonna let you off the hook." Elizabeth responded, "For now. But we are going to talk about this later, because there is so obviously a whole lot more there. Okay?"

"Yeah sure Elizabeth, whatever you say." He answered smartly, before continuing more softly, "I'll tell you later, maybe once we're done with all these interviews."

She smiled before turning her attention back to William who was presently hanging up the phone, a look of disgust on his face. "I really hate that guy." He spat out. Continuing silently 'Possibly even more than I hate Mark.' And he tried, failingly to convince himself that a large part of that hatred, of Mr. Jacobson, wasn't because of his chauvinistic attitude toward Elizabeth. Damn, he really needed to get that girl out of his head. Just then the phone that he had very recently hung up rang once again.

Elizabeth rushed across the room to pick up the phone, doing the precursory conversation with the Music Connection reporter before handing the phone to William noting to him that it was Ms. Maxwell and who she was with. She made sure to always tell them who it was they were talking to. Nearly every time, the interviewer would introduce themselves, yet she found it beneficial if they knew who it was from the jump off.

The rest of the day was pretty much uneventful. The three successfully finished the twenty six interviews scheduled for the day by seven o'clock that night, the later interviews with outlets from the west coast. They were all getting ready to leave when Oz turned to her, "Why don't we go get some coffee or ice cream or something. I'll tell you about my date." He said trying to sound nonchalant, but she could tell he really wanted to tell her about it.

"Yeah sure, but since it's kind of late, late for caffeine anyway, why don't we go get some ice cream. Two nights in a row won't be too much for ya?"

"Nah, it'll be fine. Do you wanna go somewhere and get it or can we just go to my place?"

"Your place'll be fine." She said before coyly adding, "I trust you."

"Yeah, sure ya do." He laughed.

William attempted to hide his distaste for Elizabeth going to Oz's apartment. He knew she'd gone there before and nothing had happened. He didn't care then, so why did he care now? He decided he'd have to go talk to Oz in the morning; surely he'd give him a logical reason for all these crazy thoughts he'd been having. Deciding he should leave before either one noticed his discomfort; he said brief goodbyes to both of them before quickly exiting the office and making his way to his car. His car that was something he could think about. He'd finally gotten the car he'd wanted since he was sixteen. His 1967 black Desoto. It was all his. He'd gotten it a little over a month ago, but he was still unbelievably giddy about it. He didn't think he'd ever truly been 'giddy" before. When he'd told Xander about that, Xander had told him, "Well then, apparently, you've never been in love." William had argued that with him for a good twenty minutes before finally conceding. William knew he'd been in love before. Melissa. He'd really and truly loved her, but she'd broken his heart. Told him he wasn't successful enough and went off with some guy who'd been in some campy movie. Just because he was the lead. William might have had four top selling CDs, but he'd never been in a movie, so she'd broken up with him. He had really loved her, not anymore, but he had. He'd never felt giddy with her, though. But, hey he had his car. His gid (that wasn't a word, but so what) inducing car. He'd gone out with several girls in that month, half expecting them to find the car nearly as cool as he did, but none of them did. Girls just didn't get cars, but his girl would get cars. Yep, she'd like his car almost if not as much as he did. That would be his girl. That among many other things. He knew just what she'd be like. It would all be perfect. She'd be perfect. Now he just needed to meet her.