Chapter 5

Angel was alone in his office when his cell phone rang. He was happily surprised to see Buffy's name come up. "Hi."

"Hey." Buffy said on the other line. "I didn't expect you to pick up so fast."

"One of my habits. Picking up the phone pretty fast, that is."

"Ah, I see."

"So, what are you up to?"
"Sitting. I have the day off. I think I might spend the day with one of my friends."

"It's eleven thirty here, so it's..."
"Eleven thirty here. I'm in back LA."

"Oh." Angel smiled a little. "Shouldn't you be gone, then?"

"No, he's still sitting downstairs. I thought I'd drop you a call before we left."

"How sweet."

"I like to think so. What are up to?"

"Working."

"Oh, am I interuppting?"

"No. It's a much needed distraction."

"Been busy?"

"A little. Nothing I can't handle, though."

"Are you sure you don't need to go?"

"I'm positive. I need to take a break anyway. It's not good when the words start to blur together."

"One would think no. Blurry words bad."

"Talking to Buffy good."

Buffy laughed. "If you say so."

"I do say so."

"So..."
"Well, I have an idea."

"What's that?"
"If you're not busy tonight, you should come down to Sunnydale. I know this great..."

"I can't."

"Oh."

"I have a dinner date with some friends and..."
"No, I understand."

"I would love to, though. It'd be a lot of fun, I'm sure. I love visiting new places."
"Maybe tomorrow then."
"I'm working."
"Oh."

"This isn't a brush off, really it's not. I'm just..."
"A very busy person. I know. It's ok. I completely understand. Well, whenever you can, just give me a call. I'll see what I can throw together."

"That sounds nice."

"So, if you're in LA, where are you planning on eating?"
"Oh, uh... this place called The Cheescake Bistro. It's got good food and even better cheescake."

"I think I've heard of it. Never ate there, though."
"It's good. They have a nice VIP area that's pretty quiet. Some of my friends are leaving LA soon and this is sort of a see-ya-later party."
"Oh, where are they going?"
"New York. They're mixing their album out there."

"Album?"
"It's a band. H.I.M. to be exact."

"Oh. I never asked... How did you meet the band?"

"I was in England and a friend of mine dragged me to one of their concerts. They were good, I wanted to meet them, and we've been friends ever since."

"That's really cool. I bet Xander would love to meet them. His girlfriend Willow thinks they're pretty awesome and she's really gotten into them. And she's not even a goth-type person."
"Well, maybe when they come back out for the tour, I'll get you guys passes or something."

"That'd be nice. Hey, Xander suggested the funniest thing the other yesterday."

"What's that?"
"He said that maybe you were Buffy Summers."

"The movie star." Buffy said.

Angel thought it was a question. "Yeah. But then he said that it couldn't be true."

"Why not?"
"He said that he'd read that Buffy Summers was a real man eating bitch." Buffy winced, but didn't say anything. "I feel for anybody that comes in contact with her. He also said he'd read that she was a real diva."

"Uh huh." Buffy felt like she'd been slapped in the face for some reason. "Listen, I gotta... I gotta go."
"Are you ok?"
"Um, yeah. My friend's calling me, so I gotta..."

"Oh, sure. Ok. Give me a call later when you get a chance."

"Sure."

"Bye."

"Bye." Buffy hung up quickly and stared up at her ceiling, trying not to cry.

Bam walked into the room with Ville right behind him. They saw the way she was sitting and noticed the single tear that tracked down her cheek. "B, what's wrong?" Bam asked, rushing to her side.

"Hey, what happened?" Ville asked, sitting on her other side.

"Oh... It's nothing." Buffy said, looking down at the floor.
"Doesn't seem like nothing." Bam said.

"I'm just tired. You know how I get."

"I'll go get you something to drink and a tissue." Bam got up and left the room.

Ville moved Buffy's hair away from her face so she couldn't hide behind it. "What happened?"

"I really hate the way the media portrays me." Buffy said quietly, wiping away tears. "He said I couldn't be Buffy Summers because she's... what was it?... 'A man eating bitch' and 'a real diva' and he 'feels sorry for anybody that comes in contact with her.'" She tried her best to hold back the tears that threatened to fall.

Ville wrapped his arms around Buffy and pulled her to him. "He's going to find out who you really are and he's going to feel so idiotic for saying those things."

"That or he'll hate me like he already seems to."

"How could anyone hate you? You're the sweetest person I know. Those tabloids don't know fuck about you. I know you and I say he's going to bash his head in for believing those tabloid vultures." He kissed the top of her head and then rested the side of his face there. "Don't cry. It makes me want to find this fucker and beat the hell out of him for making a beautiful woman cry. It's simply horrendous."

Buffy laughed a little and hugged Ville tighter. Bam walked in and shook his head. "That's not fair."

"Fuck off. We're having a moment."

That made Buffy laugh and she held out her arm to Bam so he could come join the hug. He came over and practically sat on her lap to hug her and Ville. "I don't know why we're hugging, but it's kind of boardering on fun."
"We're cheering her up. Just hug her and shut up."

"Mind if I join too?" A British voice said from the doorway. All three of them looked up to see Orlando standing in the doorway.

"Oh my God!" Buffy hopped up, knocking Bam onto the floor and rushed into Orlando's waiting arms. "What are you doing here? I thought you weren't coming in for another two days."

"Surprise." He hugged her tightly and then started laughing.

"What?"

"Most men who walk in and find their girlfriend in the arms of not one but two other men would be highly upset, but this is common ground for you."

Buffy laughed. "Guess so."

"So what do you need cheering up for? I think I can provide some solice here. After all, I am the boyfriend."

"Oh, it's just I missed you and the tabloids are doing their best to make me look like a man eating diva."

"Which you're not."
"I know."

"It's never upset you before. Why all of a sudden now?"
"I'm just tired, I guess. Pressure, nerves, and all that jazz are starting to weigh in."

"You should take a break."
"I will. Soon."
"You know what? You should go with Ville and the band on tour. You'd have fun, you'd get to listen to your favorite music all the time, you'd never be without friends..."

"That sounds like a good idea to me." Ville said. "I'm sure the guys won't mind having you along too." He paused and then said, "Just as long as you stay away from kitchens."

Buffy threw up her arms. "I burned down my kitchen ONCE and I'm branded for life."

"But you made it worse by calling me WHILE it was going up in flames." Bam said.

"I didn't know what else to do."

"Ok, you were in Tokyo, I was in West Chester. Nothing I could do. And on top of that, you thought you couldn't use the fire extinguisher because it was written in Japanese!"
"Ok, next time you're in that intense of a situation, don't come crying to me when you can't think straight."
"Ok, I won't." Bam smiled at her and she laughed.

"When does Southland Tales start filming?" Orlando asked.

"Not until the end of Novemeber. That's what the meeting is about tomorrow." Buffy said. "But don't worry, Ville, I'm not missing the Tavastia show this year. I haven't missed it the past three years and I don't intend on breaking tradition any time soon."

"I wasn't going to let you, anyway. Bam and I were setting up plans to kidnap you, just in case."

Buffy smiled and looked at Orlando. "We're going out to dinner tonight, you wanna come?"

"Of course. Where are we eating?" Orlando asked.

Angel stared at her phone for a long moment. Two days ago he had talked to Buffy and he had said something to upset her. He didn't really know what he'd said, but he knew it had hurt her feelings. He wanted to call her back, but he was afraid that she didn't want to talk to him. He'd never been afraid to call a woman before, but there was something different about Buffy. He felt slightly intimidated by her, and that was also strange. He wasn't intimidated by anyone and the fact that someone who was only 24, a year younger than his brother, made him feel that way... It was nothing short of crazy.

Angel had gone over the conversation thousand times in his head and he tried to think of something he'd said to upset her. She'd been fine until he started talking about Buffy Summers. Honestly, he didn't know that much about the actress except for what he read on the magazine headlines at the checkout counters of supermarkets and what his little brother told him. He found it a little impossible that his Buffy was THE Buffy Summers. They were two completely different people. His Buffy was sweet and gentle and funny, nothing like the diva Buffy Summers was made out to be. Maybe she was friends with Buffy Summers. That would be weird, but a little more likely. The odds of his Buffy being THE Buffy were slim. But still possible...

Instead of picking up his phone, he logged on to the internet and typed in 'Buffy Summers' in the Yahoo search engine. He came up with over one million entries, but the first three seemed pretty good. The first one was It was an official fan website that had pictures, articles, videos, wallpapers, and pretty much everything else having to do with the superstar. It also gave him a list of her movies and the news surrounding her. Back tracking, he went to the next website. It was Buffy's listing on It listed all of her movies, even the ones that had yet to be filmed. He clicked on the last one that said post production after it, The Return, and waited. A listing came up about what the movie was about, who was in it, etc. On the side bar, they had a list of links he could click on. One said 'filming locations'. He clicked on it and waited. He almost fell out of his chair when the page came up. Austin, Texas. She'd been in Austin. He clicked the back button and scrolled down. A link to the message board about this movie said 'Buffy Dyed Her Hair!'

Shaking his head, Angel clicked on it. With every second that past, he had the deepening feeling that he'd called Buffy a man eating diva bitch without realizing it. He read through the message board posting and felt like he was going to puke. "I just saw Buffy filming this movie in Austin and she looks totally different. I didn't think it was her at first. She's not a blonde right now, but a dark brown with pretty chestnut highlights..."

Angel shook his head and slapped his cheek. "Oh shit! What have I done?"

Xander walked into the office and stopped dead when he saw the glare coming from his older and much bigger than him brother. "What?"

"I can't believe this!"

"What?"
"You... I said... And she... Oh shit."
"What? I don't speak caveman."

"You told me she was a man eating bitch."
"Who?"
"Buffy! You said she was a diva who hated people that she didn't consider her friends."

"That's cause she is."
"No, she's not, Xander."

"You mean...?" Angel nodded. "And you...?" Angel nodded again. "Oh man, you're screwed."

"Because of you!" Angel roared. "You told me all of that crap about her and I believed you."
"Hey, how was I supposed to know the chick you were mackin' on was THE Buffy Summers. You said it yourself that she didn't look like Buffy."

"Because I have a life outside of celebrities, Xander. I work, therefore I don't have time to sit around and watch E! all day long."
"Ouch, that's kind of harsh. You know I don't..."
"Xander, right now, I really don't want to see anybody, let alone you. So, if you'll be so kind, LEAVE!"

Xander looked startled that his older brother was yelling at him like this. It was just a woman that would probably screw him and leave him. He didn't want to press Angel any further because he knew the big guy could really kick his ass. So, he nodded and left quickly. Angel knew he'd been too harsh on Xander, but he was still trying to process the fact that he had called Buffy a bitch because that's the way Xander had portrayed her. Without thinking about it, Angel slammed his head on the desk and growled to himself.