No More Farewells - Chapter 5

After enjoying the previous day of lectures and workshops, Giles found himself running late having overslept by an hour, exhaustion having finally caught up with him. He walked briskly into the École du Louvre, navigating the hallways and flashing his credentials as he made his way towards the Rohan Amphitheatre, grabbing a bottle of water and a pastry from the hospitality table before entering the room. Doctor Singh's lecture on the latest in manuscript preservation techniques was about to start and he needed to find his seat. It was a special interest of his considering his own collection of priceless manuscripts. Silencing his phone, he found his seat, and pulled his notebook and pen from his satchel.

Admittedly, he was distracted. His mind wandered to a certain short, blonde Vampire Slayer cum CEO. She had left him a message earlier that morning while he was in the shower stating that she was finalizing the deal with the French government, that she would be free early in the afternoon, and how she was looking forward to his lecture in the evening.

Giles might've just played the recording back more than a few times, analyzing her words and the tone of her voice before coming to the almost incredible conclusion that she was happy to be joining him. He'd returned her call, but it had rung through to her answerphone and he'd left a message congratulating her on the deal, how pleased he was for her, and that he would meet her at their appointed time and place.

Because her voice had uplifted him, he had taken his time putting himself together that morning, styling his hair and shaving as closely as possible without taking a layer or two of skin off with it. He'd paused a moment or two to inspect his handiwork after placing his new pair of frameless rectangular glasses on his face. He'd chosen them after the young female optician had fawned over him as he tried them on. Her approval had been genuine as the first three pairs he'd picked out, she'd dismissed outright.

But it had been his suit that Giles had taken the longest time to fuss with, having visited his tailor Monday afternoon in quest of the right look. Buffy had teased him about her new dress for the occasion when he'd invited her to accompany him, and he wanted to look worthy of having her on his arm, finally deciding on the dark blue windowpane suit with the five button waistcoat. He'd complemented it with a white collared shirt with narrow blue and white stripes and a black and white checked tie. And in preparation, he'd made sure to polish his silver fob watch, press his white pocket square, and had even taken time to shine his black Broxton shoes.

After having checked himself in the mirror, his confidence had soared and he'd felt as though he'd done a fairly credible job at making himself presentable enough to accompany Buffy. But, as the day wore on, the nerves had slowly eaten away at his self assurance, and now he felt rather unsettled as he sat through another talk.

—

Buffy internally cursed bureaucrats, especially French ones. She understood their concerns at having an outside organization run a quasi militaristic operation on their soil, but she'd absolutely refused to allow them unconditional authority over her people, and after she had stormed out of the meeting room the previous day, her counterparts had been rattled enough to agree to her terms as long as there was a neutral liaison between the parties involved. Appreciating the addition of having a neutral party overseeing matters, she'd immediately acceded, ready to sign on the dotted line. However, they'd wanted to negotiate who the liaison would be prior to finalizing the deal.

Looking at her watch, Buffy bit back her impatience. Another fifteen minutes and she would officially be running late to meet Giles and she still needed to stop by the hotel to freshen up and change. Unfortunately, she couldn't force the issue so close to the finish line, so instead, she sat back in her chair and reviewed the list of candidates.

Forty minutes later, all parties happily signed the agreement, and within moments of shaking hands with her new partners, Buffy was out the door and in the chauffeured car heading back to her hotel. Thankfully traffic wasn't too heavy and her hotel wasn't too far away, but she was in panic mode, knowing she was not going to make her appointed meeting time with Giles.

Pulling out her phone, she quickly dialed his mobile. She let out a distressed whimper as her call went straight through to voicemail. "Giles, I am so, so sorry. The deal is finally done, but I got held up and it took longer than expected. I'm heading back to the hotel now to make myself presentable and I will be there as soon as I can. Don't wait for me. I have the invitation. I promise I will be there before you go-"

The beep signaling the end of her time interrupted her message and she hung up in disgust, tossing her phone back into her purse just as the car pulled up to the hotel. Not waiting for the driver to get out and open the door, Buffy quickly let herself out and raced through the automatic doors toward the elevators.

—

Giles' nerves hadn't gotten any better. He was supposed to meet Buffy at the entrance to the École du Louvre in a few minutes and he stopped by the men's room and checked his hair and tie in the mirror. Both were in need of a bit of a tidy and he spruced himself up, trying to ignore the uncomfortable flutter in his gut. Making his way back out into the hallway he nervously ran into Doctor Singh, who had presented earlier in the morning.

Not wanting to be rude, Giles took a moment to shake hands and thank him for his lecture on new and innovative ways to store and preserve ancient texts. They exchanged business cards, Giles saying he would definitely be in touch since some of his manuscripts were rather delicate. While he didn't go into detail, some texts created by nonhumans did not necessarily display the same sort of affinity for leather, vellum, or parchment or various known adhesives used in this dimension, he felt that given Doctor Singh's experiences with uncommon materials, he might have some insight into how to keep them in top condition.

After the two men had parted, Giles decided to quickly check his phone and found that Buffy had left him a voice message saying she was running late. He tried to suppress his disappointment. She would be there, he told himself as he walked back to the amphitheatre for next lecture on his agenda. He just needed to be patient.

—

Buffy arrived at the École du Louvre with ten minutes to spare, which was good because she really had no idea where she was going. She rushed through the doors, stopping to speak with a museum employee who greeted her and said that she had been expecting her. The woman had been waiting for her at Giles' request and led her to the Rohan Amphitheatre by way of the coat check. Considering the Louvre was one of the largest museums in the world, Buffy was grateful for her guide. Once they arrived at their destination, Buffy thanked her for her help and brushed unobtrusively through the auditorium doors.

The hall was dimly lit and there was a lady at the podium giving her lecture. Looking over the sea of heads, she spotted Giles and made her way over to the other side of the auditorium. Unfortunately, the path to the seat beside him was blocked by two portly men, so she slid into the row behind him as stealthily as possible and sat down.

Whatever the speaker was presenting was fascinating for him, because Giles never once shifted his focus from the stage. It amused her how focused he could get, like when he researched some demon cult or something for her - always for her - losing all sense of time until he either found the solution or he was just too exhausted and his neck too stiff to go on. It was one of his endearing qualities, if a bit detrimental to his wellbeing.

From where she sat, Buffy could smell his cologne and she closed her eyes, allowing it to envelop her senses. How she missed the scent of him! And she felt that familiar warm and fuzzy feeling spread through her as she thought of Giles and how he put his whole being into keeping her as safe as possible. When she opened her eyes, he had relaxed back into his seat and she noticed the little curl of hair under his ear - another very endearing and Gilesean thing she loved about him.

And then she quickly berated herself. She hadn't come to fawn over him. Well, not in that way, anyway, and she repeated her mantra that she was there to support her friend, not compromise her resolve and lose her head and heart over him again.

As the speaker started to wrap up her lecture, Giles straightened his shoulders and tilted his head to the right and left, stretching the muscles in his back and neck and popping the stiff cartilage. Buffy knew he was mentally preparing himself to go on next. It was one of the techniques he used to prepare himself for training with her.

Wanting to let him know she made it, she placed his hand on his shoulder and he startled at the touch before turning his head to see who was looking for his attention. The movement caused her lips to graze his ear as she leaned forward and breathed, "Sorry for being late, but I'm here."

Giles shivered at the unintentional caress and closed his eyes, placing his hand over hers, suddenly feeling more at ease than he had in months. He gave her hand a light squeeze in acknowledgement before responding just as quietly, "Thank you."

He didn't particularly care for the spotlight and it had been years since he had presented a paper at a gathering of minds such as these. In fact, there were people here that he'd never expected to rub shoulders with and he fervently wished that his colleague Allison hadn't fallen ill earlier in the week, but with Buffy's presence he felt a shift for the positive in their relationship and it bolstered his overall confidence.

Though she was a bit embarrassed at having accidentally touched his ear with her lips, Buffy played it cool. She winked at him and whispered, "Go get 'em, Tiger, knock 'em dead!"

Releasing her hand to politely clap at the end of the talk, Giles gathered his notes and stood up, ready to take his place beside the stage and wait for his introduction. He smiled at her and, with a nod, walked down to the stage.