Wine was brought to the table by a Lily and served to William and Buffy.
Buffy who was not a big drinker hesitated as William whispered, “Don’t worry pet, I won’t let you have too much.”
So she smiled and took a sip finding it surprisingly sweet and delicious.
It warmed her stomach and made her feel more happier than she had felt already.
She found herself talking as always with William explaining her last two years.
She told him about her first day on the job as a bartender and about Tara and how she learned all she knew from her.
She discussed the various drinks she learned to make, the people she met as well as fact she still would like to be able to go back to school but how she will never make enough to do that.
William resisted the urge to offer her money and instead found himself willing to just listen to her talk.
As the food was brought, Buffy stopped talking and smelt the delicious manicotti in front of her and she smiled saying, “You remembered from our first meeting how I had said I missed my mom’s manicotti?”
William nodded and said, “Don’t know if it’s like your mom’s but it’s my speciality now. I went to school for 2 years and graduated with high honors in cooking school. After that summer with you, I opened up Spike’s Exquisite Dinning in Sunnyhell. It was real popular. Didn’t think it would be. People flocked from all over just to taste my cooking. Was amazed at how fast we hit a $0.00 balance which I had been told never happens in the first year. Att the end of the first year, I had made over $300,000 and that was after hitting the zero balance for the costs of building the place. Xan had told me that would happen but didn’t believe him. Oz plays there sometimes when he isn’t on tour. He plans to play here the first week of it officially opening in two weeks. Xander returns next week from his honeymoon for last minute inspections. The real inspectors come next Wednesday and Friday. Then the following week is touch ups, advertisements, and publicity for the papers to get the word out and if all goes well, in exactly two weeks from tomorrow, we officially open for business.”
Buffy smiled obviously proud of him and still in shock at being here with him in his restaurant.
Then she was reminded of her earlier question, “Why Spike?”
William laughed and said, “Well that’s a funny story. Well ok not so funny. Kind of depressing actually. But you left and I couldn’t find you and Xander and Oz used to say I was walking around like I had been spiked in the heart. So when they saw me, they greeted me as Spike since you had spiked me in the heart. It seemed perfect to open up a restaurant about our lost love and call it Spike.”
Buffy smiled at the romantic gesture of calling the restaurant that and then William continued.”Have some news you might want to know. It’s about your mother Buffy.”
Willliam reached across the table to hold her hands in his as he wanted to make sure she didn’t run knowing her whole past.
“News travels in Sunnyhell as you can imagine. Hank died last year. Your mother had married him but all of his fortune was left to her and there was something in the paper looking for you because the will had mentioned you as well. Apparently Hank was very rich but also She remarried though two months ago. She married Giles. He’s a nice older man. He really enjoyed my restaurant. You might like him but if nothing else pet, you should at least claim your inheritance. Know you’d like to go back to school and while we can marry and my money will be your money, if it makes you feel any better, you might be able to use whatever money Hank left you, to go to college as well.”
Buffy whispered, “Would I have to see my mother?”
William shrugged and said, “Not sure. Can have a lawyer look into that for you if you would like pet. I’m thinking no. Might be wrong though. Would you like me to look into it for you?”
Buffy nodded and whispered, “Might be nice to have Hank pay for my college with all the trouble he caused me. It would give me closure.”
William nodded because that was exactly what he was thinking when he had heard the news.
It had been two weeks since Buffy had come to live with William.
He had asked his lawyers to check into Buffy’s inheritance but hadn’t heard back from them yet.
They hadn’t heard back from the Detective yet either but Xander had kept them posted on the headlines.
It appears that Buffy’s disappearance was listed by the locals as another mysterious leaving of Angel’s charges only this time rumors of a man sweeping the girl off her feet had swept through the papers.
Apparently some of the nurses in the hospital or someone in the club that day had talked but his name was never mentioned therefore no one knew where to find him.
William and Buffy settled into a beautiful schedule.
Buffy checked into colleges in the area and decided UC Sunnydale was the best place for her.
She was looking into taking business classes as well as some accounting classes in order to help William run his business.
William was all for it knowing how much it would help to not have to pay people to take care of those items for him.
William watched over both restaurants and had taken Buffy shopping many times.
Both houses were filled with her items and new pictures of them were taken.
In just under a week, they had settled into habit’s of waking up together, eating meals together, and Buffy had settled into being the perfect housewife.
The beautiful diamond ring on her hand made her dreams flood back and she began making plans for her future.
She was imagining kids and a house and being William’s wife.
She was excited about the idea of belonging to someone forever.
She spent her days doing laundry, vacuuming, as well as dusting.
Since they were spending two days at one house and two at the other, those activities kept her busy.
Xander had returned home and Anya had come over for the two days they had been in Fresno and they had talked girl talk.
It was so wonderful to have a friend to talk to about nervousness, how hot their guys were, their past and hopes for the future.
Anya had helped her shop for clothes and Anya had shown her new ways to fix her hair.
Buffy had shown Anya had to fix up her favorite drink without having to order it from a bar and how to balance trays of food without dropping them.
The two girls got along splendidly and Xander had to drag Anya away by promising her lots of orgasms in order to get her to leave Buffy and William’s place each night.
William came home as always for dinner bringing home a full plate of lasagna explaining it would enough for lunch the next day as well as dinner for tonight.
He also said they had four visitors coming in about 20 minutes so to fix the plate settings for six instead of two.
Buffy happily did so not even questioning William who thinking it was Daniel’s family coming over.
She hadn’t met the kids yet but remembered there was two children as well as him and his wife.
As William took the food out of the oven that had reheated for 20 minutes and began to cut up the bread, the doorbell rang.
William yelled, “Buffy honey, can you get that for me? Thanks pet.”
Buffy went to answer the door and saw Doctor Ben, the Detective as well as two other police officers.
Buffy backed away from the door allowing them to come in and William smiled and said, “I’m William and this is Buffy.”
And he shook hands with each of the men and the Detective said, “Detective Stein as you both know. This is Detective Clem and Detective Finch and we are here to update you on the case.”
William nodded and said, “Well I hope you are hungry. Bought home lasagna, fresh bread with butter and you can have red wine if you would like or if you are duty, we have soda or water as well.”
The four men all nodded their heads and gladly followed Buffy and William into the dining room and sat down eager to eat.
After everyone’s plates were filled, Detective Stein spoke saying, “We are here on business but we trust you won’t mention us eating on duty nor the fact we are all drinking but Clem while on duty.”
William smiled and looked to Buffy who nodded and replied, “Your secret is safe with me. After all I’m the one who suggested it in the first place.”
Detective Stein replied, “Excellent. After the meal, Buffy we need from you a statement about how Angel treated you. William mentioned he expected some repayment from you and I’d like to get it on record if I could. Also if he had hit you or done anything else by way of force to you, we’d let to get that on record too. And William we need a statement from you on the club visit you paid and how beat up you were. The Doctor already took care of writing up the injuries, we just need to hear from you your personal statement of what occurred. Oh and Buffy, since your accident was a hit from of a person walking by a car, we took images of some of the bruises we found on your body. Some appear more like bruises from something other than the accident. We need to know from you if they were made from Angel or not. But for now, let’s enjoy this wonderful dinner.”