Chapter 8

Ville sat on his bed watching Buffy pace in front of him. They were in Helsinki, Finland for Ruisrock and Buffy still hadn't told Orlando about Angel and she'd been seeing Angel for almost a month. Buffy shook her head. "I just can't bring myself to hurt him." She said. "He's been nothing but wonderful to me." She had just gotten off the phone with Orlando and he had surprised her by saying he was coming to Finland to see her. The problem was, Angel was coming too. He had pulled some strings and managed to get a few days off to come to the festival to be with Buffy.

"Orlando's coming here?" Ville asked calmly.

"Yes. I don't know why..."
"To see you."

"Ok, that whole calm thing you're doing right now? It's annoying. I need you to get pissed. Yell at me. Tell me that if I don't break it off with Orlando then you're going to kick my ass or something."
Ville shrugged. "It's the Finnish blood. I can't help being calm."

"Ha ha, you're a riot."

Ville stood and grabbed Buffy's shoulders, forcing her to stop pacing and look up at him. "You're right, though. You do need to break it off with Orlando. You can't string him along like you've been doing. It's only going to hurt him worse when he finds out." He kissed her forehead and hugged her. Ville had a way of calming her down by doing that. She'd never figured out how that worked, but she wasn't complaining that it did.

"Thank you." She hugged him back tightly. Even though she'd only known Ville for five years, she felt the closest to him out of all of her friends. They had a lot in common and they just seemed to click really well. Maybe in another lifetime, if time hadn't been so cruel to them, they could have been more than friends. They had had a great relationship, but the time and the distance apart was stressful. And they had spent more time away from each other than they had together. Buffy sighed. No time to think about that now. She had other man problems to keep her mind occupied. Not to mention, Bam was getting even more pissed at her for waiting to break things off with Orlando. He was getting testy around her and she sometimes found him glaring at her. No clue why, though. He really wasn't the person to be lecturing her on this subject.

"When is Angel arriving?"
"This afternoon."

"And when is Orlando arriving?"
"Tomorrow morning."

"Hmm..." Ville paused and Buffy waited.

Finally she couldn't take it. "What hmm?"

"I'm trying to figure out how you're going to work this one out."

"You're not the only one." Buffy flopped down onto the edge of the bed and stared at the floor as Ville walked across the room and stared out the window. They stayed like that for a good ten minutes before Buffy sighed. "I wish there was a way I couldn't hurt him."

"There's really no way to ease this kind of blow."

"And I also wish Bam would lay off me." Ville gave her a questioning glance. "Oh, he's just been giving me evil looks and he's kinda... grr around me."

"I've noticed. It's not like Bam."

"You're telling me! Everyone seems to really love Angel except Bam. He's really the one person I want to like Angel. Even Justin loves Angel! And he hasn't even met him yet!"

"Has your mom?"

"She's met him, yeah. She thinks he's wonderful. She's also a little upset that things didn't work out with Orlando. It's not that they didn't work out, it's just not working the way everyone hoped."

"Everyone but you."

Buffy shrugged. "I'd only had two boyfriends before he came along. And honestly, I wasn't looking for a relationship. It started out as fun and then people started expecting things. Things were way beyond what I really felt with Orlando. Eventually, I guess, everyone's expectations got to me and I started to believe I was feelings real feelings for Orlando."
"They're not real feelings?"

"Not the way he deserves. He's a great guy, he's just not the guy for me."

"So, explain it to him that way. Sit him down, talk to him, tell him exactly how you feel."
"I'm just afraid that he feels more than what I feel."

"There's really only one way to find out."

"I know. I think Orlando's going to propose to me." Buffy said, laying her chins in the palms of her hands as her elbows rested on her knees.

"What?"

"He said he has a huge surprise for me and he needed to talk to you about being on stage."

Ville blew out a breath. "Fuck."

"Yeah." Buffy pressed her plams to her face and then pushed them up to brush her hair out of the way. "I guess I'll deal with it all of this sooner rather than later. So, you're playing the second night?"

"Yeah."

"And Bam's coming...?"

"Tomorrow."

"Tomorrow." She nodded. "And he's filming too."

"That's what he told me."
"Great. I just hope he doesn't catch something on film that's not meant for the world to know."

Ville chuckled. "I'm sure he wouldn't be that much of an asshole."

"With the way he's been acting... I don't know."

"Trust me, Buff, he wouldn't do that to you."

Buffy's cell phone chirped and she picked it up. "Hello?"

"Hey." Angel said.

"Hi!"

"Listen, I got an earlier flight, so I'll be there in about twenty or thirty minutes."

"Oh!"

"Is that ok?"

"Uh, sure. I can be there."

"Ok. I'll meet you at baggage claim?"

"Ok."

"See you then."

"Sure." Buffy hung up and looked at Ville. "How fast can we get to the airport?"
Ville looked at her. "Uh..."

Buffy jumped out of the car and ran to baggage claim. They had had to take call Ville's girlfriend Jonna and have her come pick them up since Ville didn't own a car or a driver's license. They were officially twenty minutes late. Ville led her to baggage claim and Buffy looked around for Angel. She didn't see him. "Do you see the flight from New York?"

Ville shook his head. "No." He walked over to one of the security officers and talked to him for a minute in Finnish, then came back over to Buffy. "He said that the plane arrived thirty minutes ago. It was early."
"Shit. So where is he?"

"Looking for me?" Angel asked behind them. Buffy turned so fast she almost knocked Angel over. "Whoa!"

She hugged him tightly. "Hi. I was worried you decided to ditch me."

"No. I wouldn't do that."

"Sorry it took us so long. Ville doesn't have a driver's license, so we had to call his girlfriend and... You know what? I'm just glad to see you."

"I'm glad to see you too." Angel leaned in to give her a kiss, but she ducked out of the way. He looked confused and Buffy felt guilty.

"Sorry. It's just... Never mind, I'll explain later."

"Ok." Angel looked up. "Hey Ville."

"Hey." Ville and Angel shook hands. "Nice to see you again."

"You too." Angel looked at Buffy. "So, where to?"

"Oh, we're going to go rent a car and Ville's going back with Jonna. We're going to meet them later for dinner."

"Nice."

Ville kissed Buffy quickly and squeezed her hand. "I'll see you later, then."

"You know it." Buffy said, squeezing back. She watched him walk to the exit and then turned to Angel. "We have a problem."

"What's that?" Angel asked.

"I'll explain it in the car."

Angel blew out a breath as walked next to Buffy while they strolled through Helsinki. Buffy had just told him what the problem was. She hadn't had the heart to break it off with Orlando and now he was coming to Finland to surprise her with a possible proposal. "This... Isn't good."

"I know." Buffy shook her head. "I'm so stupid. All I had to do was tell him about you and things would be fine."

"You didn't want to hurt him. It's ok. I understand."

"And now I'm going to hurt him worse."

"Everything will be fine." Angel took her hands and held them firmly in his. "I'm here for you, no matter what."

Buffy looked at Angel and watched his eyes for a moment. She could see that he meant everything he said to her and that he would never lead her astray. Without thinking, she leaned into Angel and kissed him gently. He held her tightly to him and deepened the kiss. Her arms slipped up and around his neck and she lost herself for a moment. And in that moment, everything came crashing down with the push of a button. A photographer for an internationally known paper had captured the moment on film and by the next morning, everyone in the world would know of Buffy's new romance.

Buffy woke up to a pounding on her hotel door. It was eight in the morning and she had been sound asleep. She figured it was probably Angel, but something in the back of her sleep-induced, fog-filled mind told her that something bad was about to happen. She tossed off the covers and slipped on one of the hotel's soft bath-robes and padded to the door. Bam burst in carrying a load of papers and shut the door.

"Bam, what..." Buffy started.

"You're in some deep shit." Bam interuppted.

"What? What do you mean?" Bam dropped the paper onto the table and Buffy read the front page. A picture of her kissing Angel had been blown up and over it read What Happened To Orlando? He dropped another one that had the same picture and said Out With The Old, In With The New: Buffy Summers' Hot New Romance. The next paper he dropped had a picture of her and Angel at the restaurant they ate at with Ville and Jonna the night before. He dropped another paper and then another and then another. They all had the same pictures and they all had similar headlines. "Oh shit!"

"I picked all of these up at the airport."

"Oh shit! Oh shit! Bam! Oh shit!" She shook her head violently.

"And it's all over the entertainment news. The E! Channel has been running that news bar thing at the bottom of the screen and it's got this story plastered all over it. Random people on the plane started asking me about you."

"Fuck!" Buffy looked at Bam. "Do you think he knows?"

"Uh, yeah! I caught an earlier flight just to get the fuck over here before him and show you so you didn't get side swiped."

Buffy pushed her messy hair out of her face. "Shit!" She yelled.

"When's he supposed to be here?"

"What time is it?"

"Eightish."
"He'll be here at ten. Oh shit."

"Where's Angel?"

"In the room across the hall." Buffy rushed to her suitcase and started pulling clothes out. Just then, her cell phone rang.

"I got it." Bam picked it up as Buffy ran to the bathroom to get dressed. "She's getting ready. No, she knows. I'll let her call you back when she's finished."

"Who is it?" Buffy called from the bathroom.
"Your manager."

Buffy rushed out of the bathroom in a pair of jeans and her bra. She grabbed the phone away from Bam. "Yeah? No, I didn't know there was a photographer there! Look, it's my personal life, not the world's. I'm dealing with it. I'll call you later. Just tell the press I have no comment right now." Buffy hung up the phone and ran back into the bathroom.

Bam went over to answer the knock on Buffy's door. It was Angel. "Hey, I heard yelling. What's going on?"

"You're busted, that's what's going on." Bam said, pointing to the papers on the table.

Angel walked over and read the headlines. "Oh shit."

"That's what she keeps saying."

"Buffy? Are you ok?" Angel called.
"No, Angel, really not!" Buffy yelled from the bathroom.

Buffy's cell phone rang again and this time, Orlando's name came up. "Uh, B?" Bam said, heading to the bathroom door.

"What?" She asked, walking out fully clothed and brushing her hair.

Bam held up the ringing cell. "It's him."

"Shit. Shit." She shook her head. "Don't answer it."

"You sure?"
"Don't answer it." She said again, tossing her brush back into the bathroom.

"What are you going to do?" Angel asked
"I don't know. Talk to him, I guess." Buffy said.

"Are you picking him up at the airport?" Bam asked.

"No. He was going to come straight to the hotel and meet me here."

Bam looked at Angel. "You might want to make yourself disappear when he gets here."

Angel nodded. "I think that's best."

"I do too." Buffy said. Her cell phone rang again and she instinctively said, "Do NOT pick it up."

Bam held it out to her. "It's Ville."

"Oh." She answered it. "Hey. You're up early."

"Are you ok?" Ville asked. "Jonna just brought a paper here. She told me to turn to a certain page and like a good boyfriend, I did. And there you were."

"Yeah." Buffy sighed and pressed her hand to her forehead. "Um... Bam brought me a whole shit load of papers. So..."

"Bam's there?"
"He caught an earlier flight. He said it's all over the news in the US."
"Has Orlando..."
"He called. I didn't answer."
"Are you sure that was wise?"

"No. But I'm not going to listen to him yell at me over the phone. If we're going to talk, we're going to do it in person."

"Do you want me to come over?"

"Um... Please?"

"All right. Let me get dressed and I'll be over in a little while."

"Ok. Good." Buffy hung up and let out a breath. She wasn't even thinking about what this news could do to her career. All she cared about was making sure her personal life wasn't completely in crisis mode.