Chapter 6

Buffy was in New York with the band. It was decided that she needed a break and so she had dropped out of her role in Southland Tales and announced that she was taking a few months off. Her manager wasn't too thrilled about it, but Buffy did need a break. She hadn't had a lot of time to really be herself since she was always being someone else. Now, she was going to travel first the US and then Europe and Australia with H.I.M. on their world tour. Right now she was sitting in her penthouse apartment in New York staring out at the beatiful skyline. Ville and the band were finishing up their album and putting it all together and later, she would join Bam in Times Square to help him announce the Viva La Bands tour at a signing for his CD, Viva La Bands, full of his favorite bands. It had originally been a mix CD for Buffy to enjoy while she travelled, but eventually it turned into an actual CD and spawned a tour that Bam wanted to make bigger than Ozzfest.

She hadn't talked to Orlando in a week. He was in the Caribbean filming the next two Pirates of the Caribbean movies. They left messages on each other's phones, but they didn't get to talk to each other. The time difference was hell. But not talking to him in that long was weird. Like they were silently growing apart. That's probably why Buffy felt so free. But, after this vacation was over, she was going to go back to work. She was excited to actually have a break and travel and not worry about work, though. She was still lined up for three other movies that didn't start filming until next year, so she knew this break wouldn't hurt her career. Buffy's mother was just as excited as Buffy was over this vacation. She had always thought her daughter worked too hard and didn't spend enough time for herself. Joyce had promptly called Lynn to tell her the good news and then Lynn had called first Justin to tell him, and then Buffy to gush about how Buffy had to come visit her so Buffy could have a real meal. Then Justin had called her and said that it was about time. They had laughed and talked for over an hour.

As far as Angel went, she really wanted to call him, but it had been two weeks since she'd last talked to him. Not to mention, he had called her a man-eating diva bitch the last time they had spoken. "Fuck it." Buffy jumped up and grabbed her Blackberry. She found Angel's office number in her address book and hit send. The phone rang and rang and then a female voice she didn't recognize answered.

"Angel O'Donnell's office, this is Cordelia."

"Uh, hi. Is Angel there?" Buffy asked.

"No he's not. Wanna leave a message?"

"Do you know where he's at?"

"Um, who is this?"
"This is Buffy. Who is this?"
"I'm Cordelia, his secretery. Buffy... The name doesn't ring a bell."
Buffy could tell the woman was lying. "Do you know where he's at or not?"

"Wow, rude much?" Cordelia sighed dramatically. "He's in New York visiting a client. I'm sure if you just leave your name and number he'll call you back when he gets back to Sunnydale."
"No need." Buffy hung up the phone. There was something about that Cordelia that she didn't like. Putting the woman aside, Buffy looked up Angel's cell phone and dialed it. He answered on the fourth ring.

"Angel speaking."

"Hey."

"Oh, hi!" Angel said brightly.

"How are you?"
"I'm ok. How are you?"

"Pretty good."

"How's your job? I know you're busy and all..."
"Not busy. At least not for a few months."

"What?"

"I'm taking some time off. I'm going to travel a little... Ok, a lot."

"That's great. With your friends?"

"Um, yeah." Buffy was a little wary of the bright attitude that he was using. "Are you sure you're ok?"

"Yeah, why?"

"You're... I don't know. You sound off."
"Oh, I'm in New York and..."

"I know. Your secretery told me."

"You called the office?"
"Yeah. That was the first place I called."

"Sorry about Cordelia. She's a little brash and hard to swallow at first, but she can be pretty decent once you get to know her."

"Yeah, well... Listen, I have a thing I have to go to later on, but I wanted to know if you wanted to go out tonight."

"I'm in New York."

"I know. So am I. I'm here with my friends. We're going out to eat tonight and I thought I'd invite you too."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Is that ok?"

"Uh, sure. I'd like that."

Buffy gave him her address and told him to be here by six. "I can send a car for you..."
"That's ok. I've got my own car. It's a rental. I hate taxies."

"Ok, then I'll see you at six."

Buffy hung up the phone just as Bam walked into the apartment. "Gotta love that view. Come on, let's go onto the patio." Her scooped her up onto his shoulder and hauled her onto the patio.

"Bam! Put me down."
He set her down and they walked over to the edge of the patio. They were sixteen stories up and looking out over Manhatten. She loved it here. It's where she grew up. The penthouse was a sixteenth birthday present to her from Brad Pitt, hence the sixteenth story of the building. It was a beautiful place decorated like the inside of a gothic mansion. She loved the way Bam had Castle Bam done and she had redone the place to look a little like that. Only her colors were black and hot pink. Bam had called in the same people who had done his house to do her apartment. Her loft bedroom was pretty cool too. It was done in all different shades of purple that mixed well together. She had a four-post king size bed with sheer black chiffon curtains that surrounded it and made her feel like a princess. Bam had had a large heartagram made for one of the walls in her room and entire thing held picture frames to make it look like a collage. In the middle frame was a picture of her, Ville, and Bam about a year ago in West Chester. It was her favorite picture of the three of them. The others were various pictures of her with her friends and family. She especially loved the picture just below the middle one. It was her and Bam when they had first met. She was in costume for Interview and he was in his typical skater-wear. They looked hilariously out of place next to each other, but they were having fun and that made their goofy faces look even funnier.

"So, we're adding another person to the list tonight?" Bam asked.

"What?"
"I heard you talking to someone on the phone."

"Oh. Yeah, I invited Angel."

"He in town?"

"Yeah."

"He's gonna know who you are. I mean, you're back to blonde... Sort of." Bam eyed her hair and smiled. She had dyed the top of it a light blonde and the underneath she had left a dark brown. It looked really cool on her.
"And my celebrity friends will be there. I know. I want him to know. I can't hide it forever. My face is pretty much everywhere."
"I'm still trying to figure out why you're planning on sneaking this guy around behind Orlando's back."

"Don't lecture me, Bam. And I'm not sneaking. I just want to get to know this guy. I like Orlando, but I don't know if he's The One. And I'll never know if there's someone else out there for me if I don't at least give them a try."

Bam took her hand and held it to his chest. "You know, I can always be the one. If you get desperate..."

She laughed. "Oh of course! But remember, we're already married." He stared at her funny. "You, me, Ville, and Novac all got married on Radio Bam in May."

He laughed. "Oh yeah! Man, we were anniahlated that night!"
"You guys were! I didn't have that much to drink."

"You had enough to agree to marry us."

"I'd marry all of you if I could, you know that."

Bam touched his heart and pretended to cry. "I love you too!" He cried drmamtically.

Buffy laughed and hugged Bam. "Let's go, shit-head."
"You know, I think I'm a bad influence on you."
"My mom's been saying that for years. Does it look like I'm complaining?"

"Hell no! I'm proud of my creation."

"Your creation?"

"Yes, for the past twelve years I have been molding you into the perfect woman. You cuss, you drink, you love H.I.M., you can rock out with the best of us, and I'm pretty sure you could kick most of my crew's asses."

"Especially Novac."

"He doesn't stand a chance against my creation."

"Good to know. Will there be food at this signing?" Bam laughed and shut the door behind them.

Angel knocked on Buffy's door and waited. The guy at the desk had rung up to Buffy's penthouse and told her Angel was there. She had the guy open the elevator and send him up. The door swung open and instead of Buffy standing there, it was a guy with shaggy dark brown hair, a goatee, and baggy clothes. "Hey, you must be Angel." The guy said, holding out his hand.

"Yeah." Angel said.
"I'm Bam."
"Bam... Ok. Is Buffy..."
"She's still getting ready." Bam moved away to let Angel in. "B! Hurry the fuck up!"

"Shut up!" Buffy yelled from somewhere in the HUGE apartment.

Angel noticed five guys sitting around a spacious and gothic-looking living room. He knew Ville Valo immedietly. The other guys were the rest of the band. Bam led him over to the living room and introduced him. Ville shook his hand. "I've heard a lot about you."

"Really?" Angel asked.

"Of course. Buffy talks about you a lot."
"She talks about a lot period." Bam said.

"That's the truth." Mige said.
"I'll be right back." Bam said. He headed over to a flight of carpeted steps in a small hallway and jogged up out of sight saying, "B, come on."

Angel looked up and saw shadows moving behind French doors with sheer black curtains. It must be Buffy's bedroom. "It's Buff's bedroom up there." Ville said, as if he read Angel's thoughts.

"Oh." Is all Angel could muster. He had had no clue that Buffy's 'friends' would be the entire band of H.I.M. and Bam Margera.

Bam came back down and said, "She's ready, but she's on the phone with her mom. She's trying her best to get off, but her mom can talk forever if you give her the chance."

"Ok."

"You can sit down." Bam said, motioning towards an empty seat.

"Sure."

"We don't bite... Hard." Ville said with a smirk. "We just look scary."

Angel had to admit they were a little weird. Ville had on eye liner and in Angel's world, men wearing eye liner were not normal. "No." He lied. "I'm just a little..."
"It's ok." Bam said. "We're all friends here. Don't feel weird. If anything, we should be weirded out by you. You're the lawyer."
"YOU should be weirded out by him." Buffy said, coming down the steps. "After all, you've got more lawyers issuing supouenas to you than Bill Clinton has cigar friends."

"True."

Buffy looked at Angel. He suddenly felt over dressed in his black pants and button up shirt. Buffy had on jeans with tall boots, a black fishnet shirt that connected to her thumbs underneath a pink baby-doll tee that said 'I just remembered, I don't care', and lots of bracelets and leather cuffs on her wrists. Her hair was curled and flowed out from underneath a black newsboy hat. It was blonde on top and dark brown underneath. She had on eyeliner too and she seemed to really fit in with the band and Bam. She had also added the same blazer she'd worn on their picnic in Austin. "Earth to Angel." She said.

"What?" He asked.
"Where'd you go?"

"No where."

"You ok?"
"Uh, yeah. You look..."
"Different. Yeah, this is the stuff I feel most comfotable in. Besides, hanging with these guys, this look tends to rub off on you."
"I'm hungry! Let's move." Bam said.

Buffy rolled her eyes playfully at him. "All right, let's go."

Buffy was worried that Angel was getting too intimidated by her friends and her lifestyle. They were sitting in the VIP area of a swanky restaurant and laughing it up. He seemed a little guarded and was doing his best to keep up with their crazy tales. Bam's friends Dico and Novac had joined them at the resturant and Buffy had invited her friend Ewan McGregor. The two of them had become really good friends while rehearsing and filming Moulin Rouge. He was in New York and Buffy wanted to see him, so she had invited him. It was definitely an interesting and famous-face filled table.

While everyone was laughing and talking, Buffy leaned over to Angel and asked, "How you doin'?"
"I'm..." He looked at her and couldn't lie. "It's a little overwhelming."

"Sorry. I just wanted you to meet my friends and see that I'm not the man-eating diva bitch the media sometimes makes me out to be."

"You're definitely not that, it's just... Celebrities are everywhere." He pointed at a table across the room. "I mean, that's Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Mcguire over there with their friends."

Buffy waved at Leo. "Hey Leo!"

He smiled, realizing who she was. "Buffy! How are you?"

"I'm great."

"You guys having fun over there?"

"Always!" She waved again and looked back at Angel. "We met a while ago at some awards ceremony. Can't remember which one now. Do you want to meet him?"
"No, that's fine. I'm ok." Angel said.

"Bobbie De Niro introduced us."
"Bobbie... Robert De Niro?"

"Yeah. George Clooney introduced us."

"George..."

"I met him at the premiere of Ocean's Eleven. Brad invited me to come out and visit him while he was shooting Ocean's Twelve and we were all at George's Italian villa. George introduced me and Bobbie at a benefit a year ago."

Angel shook his head. "This is crazy. Do you have any normal friends?" Buffy looked hurt by that comment and he instantly regretted it. "I'm sorry, it's just..."

Buffy held up her hand to silence him and looked at the table. "I'll be right back guys." They all nodded at her and went back to the stories. Buffy grabbed Angel's wrist and led him towards an empty private dining room with a view of the city. She walked over to the floor to ceiling windows and looked out over New York

Angel followed her over and stood next to her. "I'm sorry, I didn't..."

"It's all I've grown up with." Buffy said. "Famous people and people in the entertainment industry, I mean. For the first thirteen years of my life, I did nothing but devote everything to ice skating. I wanted to be Dorthy Hamill so bad. At school, I didn't really fit in because I didn't have time to go play with the other kids. I've always been this outsider. When I broke my knee and ruined that career, I only had acting to lean on. And Brad Pitt was my mentor, I guess you could say. When I was fourteen or fifteen, my acting career really took off and the only people I met were other actors." She snorted. "Bam and Justing were the only 'normal' friends I had. And they're famous now too." Angel waited for her to go on. "It's not as bad as you think it is. Famous people are still people. I'm still the Buffy you knew in the park, only now you know that I just happen to act and I'm good at it."

Angel took her hand and brushed her hair out of her eyes. "I don't care about any of that. I'm sorry about my comment earlier. I didn't mean anything by it." She smiled up at him and took his free hand with hers. "I like you Buffy. I like you like I've never liked anyone before you."

"I like you too."

"Would you be willing to give us... you and me... a shot?"

Buffy looked away for a moment, only briefly thinking about Orlando. After a minute, she said, "Yes. I'd really, really like that."

"Me too." Angel pulled on her hands and brought her closer to him. She wrapped her arms around him and he leaned down. Their lips met and Buffy's world suddenly lit up. Being in Angel's arms, holding him, kissing him... It was like nothing she'd ever felt before. She felt truly alive for the first time in her life. It was better than ice skating, it was better than acting, it was better than winning any award or medal... She was falling in love for the first time.