"You read it didn't you?" Faith questioned as Buffy followed her out of the building so Faith could smoke a cigarette on their break.
"Yeah." She admitted quietly.
"So? Dish. Was it as pathetic as you said it was going to be?"
"No."
"Well then what did it say?"
"A lot."
"Do I have to pull teeth here or what? Come on what's the scoop?"
"Can we talk about this later? I just..."
"Mind if I join you?" The voice of a third person interrupted from behind them. Buffy didn't have to turn around to see who was there.
"No, not at all." Faith replied turning and grinning at the bleached blond behind them who was lighting a cigarette.
Spike noticed the grin on the brunettes face and knew that was meant to imply something, he just wasn't sure what. "You don't mind do you, Buffy?" He asked the other woman hoping that she wouldn't object.
"It's a free country." Buffy said indifferently. She didn't want to let on that she had read his letter and that she was feeling like mush. She leaned against the wall outside and slid down to the ground bringing her knees up to her chest and wrapping her arms around them, followed by Faith. Spike paused in front of them before sitting where he was so he could face the two women. Buffy felt butterflies in the pit of her stomach. "How's your stomach?" She asked quietly trying to sound as though she didn't care, but not achieving the effect.
"It's good. Thanks." Spike answered surprised that she had even bothered to ask. There was something going on, he just couldn't put his finger on what it was. "So, what's next on the agenda? Faith and I are pretty much finished with the car that we were working on."
"We have like five minutes of work left on that one. What about you B.?"
"You really don't want to know. If Angel realizes how little I have gotten done so far he is going to kill me." Buffy commented resting her head against the wall and closing her eyes.
"Well, why don't you take Spike and work on what you have together?" Faith suggested.
Buffy lifted her head up straight and turned to glare at her friend, hating her for mentioning the idea, but training Spike was unavoidable. "Might as well. The sooner he learns the sooner he can work on his own." Buffy said, her words coming out a little harsher then she had meant them to. She wasn't the type of person that liked to train others. If there was work that needed to be done she would rather just do it and get it finished without having to worry about whether the person next to her was doing things right or not. On top of all that she was going to be training Spike. This morning she hated him and was looking forward to him leaving at the end of the week, but now, things were different.
"You know Buffy," Spike replied getting up from where he was sitting on the ground. He threw his cigarette butt on the asphalt parking lot and ground it out with his boot. "If it's going to be so difficult for you to tell me what to do then maybe you need to talk to Angel and get things switched. I'm sure he would do it for you. The two of you seem closer then you say you are and on top of all that you both share the same dislike for me."
"Wait, Spike" Buffy called after him as he turned to go back into the building. He pretended he hadn't heard her and kept walking. Buffy turned to Faith who was looking at her strangely. "What? I didn't mean it like that. It's just that you know how I hate to train people and after the letter, well, can we say extremely uncomfortable situation?"
Faith stood up from where she was sitting and held a hand out to Buffy to help her up. "You are so going to have to let me read that letter. If it has you acting all cat got your tongue, then it has to be good."
Buffy rolled her eyes in response as she followed Faith back to work.
"Buffy." Angel's voice echoed throught the open room as she walked in. " Can I see you for a minute?"
'Great' Buffy thought to herself 'Here comes some stupid speech. I wonder what I did wrong this time.' "Yes, Angel" Buffy said sweetly with a smile as she came face to face with her boss.
"I've changed the plans for the rest of the day. Fred is going to train Spike on interior detail. I'd rather have you do it, but, I heard that you haven't gotten much done yet this morning. So I figured it would be best if you could work without any further distractions."
"Who said I didn't get anything done?" Buffy asked already knowing who had snitched on her. She could see the tatle tale acroos the shop, his back to her as he listened to Fred's instructions.
"It appears that you already know the answer to that." Angel responded noticing the glare she was giving Spike. "Look, Buffy, don't worry about him. We only have to deal with him for the week then he will be gone and things will be back to normal."
"I know." Buffy told him quietly her voice giving off a hint of sorrow.
When the time came for lunch Buffy refused to stop working. She told Faith and Angel that she wanted to get herself caught up from her slow poking that morning. Actually, she didn't want to miss out on lunch, but she didn't want to deal with Spike on her break, she would take care of that after work. She used the same excuse again when it was time for the last break of the day. Buffy watched as Faith and Spike walked out of the building to smoke while everyone else mingled around the shop to talk.
"Hey Buffy." Cordelia greeted her as she sat down in the car that Buffy was cleaning. "You've been all work and no play girl today. What's up?"
"Nothing Cordy. I just have a lot of work to do and I spent too much time goofing off this morning."
"You sure that's all it is? This wouldn't have anything to do with Angel's cousin would it?"
"Why would you think that it would?"
"Well, it's just that, from behind my desk over there I can see everything. I couldn't help but notice the way the two of you kept watching each other, trying to make it not so obvious, only not doing the best job of it. I mean I can understand the interest you have in him. After all what girl wouldn't be. If I didn't have this thing with Angel I would be all over him."
"Cordelia!" Buffy exclaimed.
"Only speaking the truth here honey. A bit of advice, if you're interested, go for it. I know Angel says his cousin is no good and all that garbage, but don't listen to him, he blows things way out of proportion. It's typical Angel style, show no emotion, but when things happen he doesn't like he gets all dramatic and makes it seem so much worse. So don't worry about any of the nonsense that comes out of Angel's mouth."
"Thanks so much Cordelia." Buffy replied, sarcastically, only Cordelia didn't catch it.
"If you need any help, just let me know." Cordy said getting out of the car. "I better get back over to the front desk some of the customers should be here soon to pick up their cars."
"Thank God," Buffy complained to herself as she watched her walk away. "Just what I need today, advice from Miss Cordelia Chase."
"And what kind of advice could Cordy actually be giving you?" Faith's voice came from beside her. Buffy hadn't even realized that her friend had come back in the building.
"Oh, don't ask. It's too terrifying to even repeat."
"She noticed didn't she?"
"Oh, yeah."
"Dr. Chase, here to tell you everything you need to know about everything." Faith joked trying to get a smile from Buffy. It worked, but only for a breif moment.
"So, how was your smoke break?" Buffy couldn't keep herself from asking. "Have any interesting conversations?"
"Actually, no. Our smoke break was just that, us smoking. He seemed like he wanted to say something, but he didn't and I didn't pry. Why? Were you hoping he was going to say something juicy?"
"No." Buffy covered "I just thought that the two of you were talking about me again." Buffy paused to look around the shop and noticed Spike was watching the two of them talking. "He's probably still mad at me for what I said this morning."
"I said something to him at lunch about that, but he didn't say anything. Maybe he would take it better if you explained it yourself." Faith looked up over the car and noticed that Angel was walking towards them. "I guess I better get back to work, big brother is watching."
Buffy turned to see Angel making his way across the shop. She looked back to where Faith had been standing to say something, but she was already gone. "Great" Buffy mumbled to herself. "I wonder what else I did wrong today."
"Hey, Buffy." Angel greeted her as he sat down in the car beside her.
"Hey." Buffy returned as she wiped at something in the console of the car she was working on.
"You know you didn't have to work through your breaks today. Yeah, so you got off to a slow start this morning, you still deserve to take a break."
"I know, but I wanted to make sure that I got my work done for the day." She lied, not wanting Angel to know the truth about why she really didn't take her breaks. "It's not fair that I spent half of my morning slacking off while everyone else was busy busting their butts."
"We all have those days once in a while. Don't worry about it. I'm sure you will be back to normal tomorrow."
"Yeah, I guess." Buffy said getting out of the car to get the steam cleaner so she could clean the carpets in the car. When she returned, Angel was gone.
At the end of the work day, after the shop had been cleaned up, the group piled back in the van and headed for home. "Hey B," Faith said "We were talking at lunch today about going out for dinner, you wanna join us?"
Buffy shrugged her shoulders. She didn't feel up to hanging with the gang tonight. There were more important things that she had to take care of. "I don't know Faith, I'm not really feeling all that well today."
"Oh, come on. You need to come out and have some fun after all that work today." Faith said turning in her seat to face Spike and Gunn in the back. "What about you Spike? Have you made up your mind yet?"
"Actually, I think I am going to stay in tonight. I have to start deciding on what I want to do after I leave at the end of the week."
A twinge of pain and guilt coursed through Buffy's heart, but she kept her emotions in check so no one would notice. It was because of her that Spike had decided to leave as soon as he was. If she hadn't been such a bitch to him then he might have decided to stay a little longer. This problem was going to have to be resolved as soon as possible.
"Well Angel, it looks like our dinner will be minus two guests." Faith announced before the group started to discuss where they were going to go for dinner.