Chapter 39
“More juice William, Buffy?”
“No thanks Joyce”
Buffy shook her head as she was chewing.
“So, Buffy tells me you have a project involving the milk company”
“Maybe, it’s early days yet, I’ll have to see”
The phone rang, and Buffy jumped up to answer it
“Yes, speaking………yes I did, hi!………………when – oh no, not Friday, sorry, nor Monday, I’ve got to se my literary agent…okay then, Wednesday it is great………uh huh………okay thanks, bye!”
“You’ll never guess! That was the TV station – they want me there on Wednesday!” William smiled at her excitement and they finished their lunch.
***************************
“This is Chris Donaldson, he’s our marketing chief”
William shook his hand and sat down
“Right we understand that you’re keen to endorse our new products………”
William spent nearly two hours going over what the milk board was doing, what they hope for and what they expected from him and for what money.
Buffy spent two hours happily walking around the shopping malls; she’d treated herself to some boots, and some toiletries.
She was just thinking about going for coffee, when her mobile rang.
“Hi sweetie, I’m all finished – where are you?”
“Me – I’m in the Palm Mall Food Court…least I am…now!”
“Good, stay put, I’ll be ten minutes!”
“Okay!”
***************
Coming to about a mile from the turn-off, William said,
“Where do you want to go pet, home or are you coming back to mine?”
“Can I come back with you?”
William smiled and said,
“Sure – I’m glad you said that!” He indicated and pulled into the offside lane ready to turn for home.
**************
“Did you want to go out for dinner, I know I promised” William asked
“Actually, I’m a little tired, could we just order in?”
“I’d prefer that myself, I’m tired too. What would you like – totally your choice”
After a quick shower, Buffy came into the lounge and ordered them Chinese while William went and had his shower.
She got them trays, plates and cutlery ready, and opened a bottle of wine from out of the fridge.
William’s timing was perfect and he walked into the lounge just as Buffy closed the front door
“Great timing! – Ooh, smell that Kung Po chicken…”
After they’d finished Buffy said,
“So – are you going to take the milk board up on their offer?”
William stretched, and lay back
“Truth…I don’t know…this thing, this dream I’ve got – I don’t know whether to shelve it for a few years – you see I want it to be Dr William Carling’s clinic, not the milk board, or Zimmerman’s beds – and this is what
it will be if I go ahead with what’s on offer at the moment…milk board practically want me to sell my soul to them”
Buffy could see he looked downhearted, so she reached for his hand and laced her fingers through his
“There’s other sponsors we cold try”
“Yeah, I know…so, what about you then, Miss TV star!”
“I’m terrified!”
“Why – it’s not like you’re not used to millions of pairs of eyes looking at you!”
“I never really thought about that way”
“You’re kidding!”
“Honestly – I mean I knew there were people at the venues, but I only ever just thought about the judges – I never gave it a thought as to how many were watching on TV”
“Not even at the Olympics?” William asked, incredulously
Buffy shook her head and shrugged
“God no, especially not there, I’d have been a nervous wreck!”
“So who’ve you got to go and see?”
“A Julie Goode, I wrote it all down…will you come with me?”
“Course I will!”
***************
Wednesday
“Miss Buffy Summers, here is your security pass”
“Thankyou, is there somewhere my boyfriend could stay – rather than just down here?”
“Hold on” the receptionist made a phone call, and turned and smiled at Buffy
“Your friend can go to the executive café – he’ll be able to watch the whole proceedings!”
“Oh god, I’m not sure I want you to see me mess up!”
“Nonsense, you’ll be fine kitten, I know you will!”
***************
Lunchtime
“It’s like patting your head and rubbing your tummy at the same time, I’m supposed to look natural, and pretend there isn’t somebody shouting in my ear through the ear piece, remember what camera I’m supposed to be looking at, and also remember who I’m interviewing, why, where and ask the right questions!”
William smiled
“You’ll soon get the hang of it pet, you’ve only been at it for an hour and a half – you’ve been here three hours, and already they think you’re ready to do an interview – babe, they think you’re fantastic – so do I, come here!”
Buffy grinned and hugged William to her.
“What would I do without you huh?”
“Babe, while you were busy, that Chris Donaldson from the Milk Company rang”
“And - what did you say?”
“I told him…I said it wasn’t for me. I don’t want to be known as ‘Dr Milk’ for the rest of my natural, you know? – It would be hard to shake off that image, and I want to be taken seriously”
“Oh course you do! Never mind babe, there will be other sponsors, I’m sure”
William gave her a smile and nodded
She could tell he was disappointed, but she knew he’d said no for the right reasons
“If you want my four-pen’oth, I think you did the right thing, in fact, I KNOW you did!”
“Miss Summers?” a young guy wearing headphones came up to her and handed her some sheets of paper
“Your script for this afternoon”
Worriedly Buffy scanned the papers, and then she smiled
“Oh great – it’s somebody I know! – I’m interviewing somebody I know, that’ll make it heaps easier!”
Later that afternoon, Buffy was rink-side, and the 7th best solo male skater came to the gap in the side of the rink with a spray of ice-crystals.
“Xander Harris – and how’s everything going for the championships, are you 100% fit now?” Buffy asked, remembering to put the microphone towards his mouth so he could answer and let everybody hear him
Xander smiled, he’d been warned it was Buffy going to interview him. He smiled broadly.
“Hi Buffy - what can I tell you, yes, I’m just about fit now, my trainer signed me off this morning, it was a close run thing”
“This morning eh, well I know what that’s like, a few sleepless hours worrying if you were going to make the grade, so what exactly was the problem?”
Again Buffy leant the mic towards his mouth so Xander could be heard, she was great – a natural, like she’d been doing this all her life………
“I’ve had a hamstring problem and some tendons in my foot kept on seizing up”
Buffy nodded, she knew the problem alright, happened to her on many occasions…
“Oh golly I know, the early morning stiffness is the worst though – do you get early morning muscle stiffness? Find it won’t go away unless you rub the offending muscle vigorously?”
Xander couldn’t stop grinning at the ‘double entendre’ and eventually, he snorted a giggle. The cameraman was laughing, as was the director in Buffy’s earpiece…………
“What? – Why is everybody laughing, what have I sa - oh – OH GOD! I mean I, I meant the HAMSTRING, and calf muscle stiff- “
The giggling abound; and Buffy was absolutely mortified. She knew she should just laugh it off and carry on, but truth was, she felt more like crying, wishing the ground would open up and swallow her.
“I didn’t mean it to sound…oh come on guys, gimme a break huh?”
Meanwhile, downstairs in her earpiece Buffy heard the director say,
“It’s okay Buffy, we can wrap up for now…gods, I haven’t laughed so much in ages!”
Buffy mumbled a farewell to Xander, and she ripped out the earpiece, took the security pass from around her neck and put the microphone down on the table
William was waiting in the rink café, and hadn’t seen the interview. So when Buffy found him and she looked near to tears, he wondered what on earth had gone on.
“Baby, are you okay?”
“Just…take me home please”
“Sure”
They drove in silence for five minutes, William glancing over to her every now and again.
She’d been crying, but discreetly had wiped her tears away
“Home mine, or home your, pet?”
“Mine – I need a change of clothes and that”
“Want to go out to dinner?”
Buffy shook her head and whispered ‘no’
“Don’t you want to see me at all?”
Buffy looked all big-eyed at him
“Course I do! I just want to snuggle and forget about today, that’s all, stay at mine tonight for a change”
William felt the tension in his gut give and relaxed
William winked at her and said
“You got it babe!”
She gave him watery smile and he drove her home.
********************
The TV station had left her three messages on her mobile when she checked later.
“You two are quiet – anything wrong?” Joyce asked
Buffy remembered the disappointment that William had had, not taking up the milk sponsorship, and realised she was being selfish
“Kinda bad day all round…I won’t be taking the TV job mom”
“No? – Well it’s up to you honey”
“I know, as I said to Will, with all the travelling, I’d be no better off than when I was competing, and, living out of a suitcase was one of the reasons I gave up”
“I did wonder…so they haven’t anything at the station for you?”
“I didn’t ask – it’s not me anyway, I didn’t enjoy it at all – do this Buffy, look to the camera, keep the mic up, ask about so-and-so, all this is going on through an earpiece and you’re just supposed to carry on – it’s not for me”
“And William – do you need cheering up?”
“Well... I told the milk board no thanks – I don’t want to known as Dr ‘Milk’ - or even worse, Dr ‘Yog-Pods’ or whatever they’re going to call their new yoghurt drink for children - they want me to sell my soul to them practically!
“That’s it with sponsors though. Mr Duggan has one, Aaron Valley wine – they provide wine, coasters and space in their magazine advertising our gallery exhibitions, they’re not too intrusive – they get enough publicity from the photo’s of the exhibitions we do”
“That’s what I want – somebody who wants to put up the cash, but doesn’t want me to walk around like a billboard or drop their name every ten seconds!”
“I wish you the best of luck, William” Joyce said
“Thanks, Joyce…Hmm, something smells good!”
“Lasagne, jacket wedges and salad – there’s garlic bread too if anybody wants”
“Ooh, lead me to it, I’m starving!” William said
“Me too!” Buffy quipped
Later
“Does this sound too ‘twee’:
‘As soon as the spotlight picked out the poor girl on ice, the way the spotlight followed her around, and then when she was joined by her ugly sisters, the way the ice swished, came alive almost, it was that instant I KNEW, I just KNEW I had to become an ice-skater”
“Not to me it doesn’t, is that what really happened?” William asked
Buffy looked up from the computer and nodded, she added,
“Yeah! Cinderella had always been my favourite story, I had the book, the DVD, mom or on very rare occasions dad would read me the story…so when it came to Sunnydale, ‘Cinderella on Ice’ – it was almost Christmas and was too good an opportunity to miss!
“I won’t disturb you, I’ve just come in to say goodnight”
“Oh, night Joyce, great dinner!”
“Thankyou, you’re very welcome”
“Night mom…hey, do you remember when you took me to see Cinderella on Ice?”
“Do I! I remember seeing it advertised in the local paper and saying to Hank, ‘that’ll be the ideal Christmas treat for Buffy’.”
“What did he say?” Buffy asked smiling
“Huh, he was wrong as usual, he said you wouldn’t sit still for five minutes, let alone sit for one and a half hours – you were transfixed, you BOTH were, Willow was good as gold too, you didn’t move until the interval, then you were both happy that there was more! Anyway, night both, I won’t disturb you in the morning”
“’Kay mom, night”
“Yeah night Joyce”
“So kitten…want to tell me what happened today?”
Buffy swivelled on her seat
“Well…everything was going quite good – but as I said, trying to remember everything, not turn my back to the camera, hold the mic up for the interviewee’s answers, ask the right questions, don’t mumble…”
“Well you can’t be expected to get everything right pet, you’ve never done it before!”
“I know…anyway………it wasn’t what I didn’t do, it was what I said – I don’t know how I could have been so stupid!”
William sat there, waiting for her to tell him.
“It was Xander Harris, he’s had a hamstring problem, and some tendons in his foot keep on seizing up – I know what it’s like, I had it before the Europeans in Stuttgart the one year, it’s very painful, especially in the mornings…”
“Yes, after a night of not moving it stiffens up”
“Exactly – and me knowing this I asked him if he got early morning muscle stiffness – the type that will only go away with a vigorous rub…”
William sat there and said, ‘And?’
“And they took it another way, you know, early morning muscle stiffness – all of them, Xander, the cameraman, the director, the producer they were in fits laughing, when I realised what I’d said, I wanted the floor to open up and swallow me”
Realisation hit William and he groaned and closed his eyes and held his arm out to her, Buffy went to him.
“Oh poor baby – I didn’t think, I was just thinking like a doctor would, I didn’t think about the double meaning…”
“Don’t worry, it’s as I said to mom – it’s travelling again so it isn’t for me”
“Have they contacted you?”
“Got three messages on my mobile – I’ll ring them in the morning and tell them thanks, but no thanks”
Buffy yawned
“Sorry…shall we finish this bottle of wine and go up?”
“Don’t you want to do any more writing, kitten?”
Buffy yawned again and shook her head
“Nope…I want to snuggle”
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