Chapter 8
William sat in the car. He didn’t know how he got home, to tell you the truth. He’d forced himself to keep calm, to drive carefully…of ALL the people in the world she had to be with, it was HIM – Angel Stebson, bane of his life since the age of 12. Locking the car door, William walked up the path, feeling a myriad of emotions, pain, disappointment, anger. Suddenly it came to him, what he should do – of course, do what he’d always done in the past – take the easy route, and run away………
Ramming his key in the lock, William went inside and snatched up the brochures advertising holiday cottages…
He went to the fridge, opened a beer and sat down. With a pen he marked which cottage he wanted, and looked up the phone number reaching for the phone, he suddenly realised that he couldn’t phone England now, it would be 4’o’clock in the morning. He drank the beer and fetched another. His stomach rumbled – he’d only had a light lunch, he would have been the best way through a fillet mignon by now if all had gone to plan – but why did she have to lie to him – why? WHY?
ooOOoo
“I knew you’d do this to me – I KNEW IT!” Buffy practically screamed at Angel
Trying to comprehend what he’d done wrong now Angel slurred,
“But this guy knew yer mom…I thought that you’d-“
“I’m not on about that! Oh God give me strength! Why do I let you do these things to me, why do I always let you come in a fuck things up for me?!”
Angel frowned, he hadn’t a clue what she was on about…
“You wan’ this?” Angel tried to hold his wine glass, and look in his inside coat pocket at the same time. He didn’t succeed and spilt the wine
“Oh fuck...here hold this…Buff…Buffster”…he looked up from trying to grope in his pocket for the spa pass, but she’d gone. He did a complete 360% turn but couldn’t see her anywhere, so he decided to go back to the main gallery.
Buffy pushed her way through the milling press personnel, and tried the front gallery door, but it was locked.
“I’m sorry madam, there’s only the back exit open, we can’t have – oh god it’s you!” Buffy turned around to see the guy who’d been with William that day she’d come into the gallery
“What are – I’m sorry I thought William said you were meeting him outside the bank – hasn’t he arrived yet? – Do you want me to call him for you – um, are you alright?” Xander frowned, it appeared that she’d been crying
“I-I was…going to meet him outside the bank…but, but I – “ (her face crumpled) and she squeaked something Xander didn’t understand.
Giving the gallery a quick worried look around, Xander put his arm around the blonde and led her back the way she’d just come from. They stood outside the toilet and office doors.
“Now what’s happened?” Xander asked standing in front of her.
Buffy couldn’t look Xander in the eye she felt so ashamed, and barely above a whisper she said,
“I – I lied to William, and he um, he caught me out – Angel was very rude to him and-“
“Hold on, hold on…when did you see William?” Xander asked
“Just, about ten minutes ago” Buffy said
“Where?” Xander asked
“Right here, where we’re standing now, I came out of the toilets and Will came through that door there” She indicated the door marked private.
“William was here – what for?” Xander asked puzzled. Buffy shrugged her shoulders
“I don’t know”
So what do you mean Angel, was very rude to him, what has Angel got to do with this?” Xander asked, his eyes going round. Buffy glanced up at Xander and said,
“I came here with Angel to the gallery opening. I didn’t know it was today the exhibition opening was until yesterday, and I only found out it was here when I got here earlier.” Buffy tried to explain, Xander frowned and tried to understand what she was saying……………
“………And, and then William looked so angry and he said ‘it looks like you’ve got your hands full’, and then he said goodnight and left” Buffy said miserably
Xander couldn’t really make head nor tail of what Buffy had just told him, except that it was obvious the date was off, Buffy had lied and William was obviously hurt and off licking his wounds somewhere…
They both stood opposite each other not knowing what to say next.
Their silence was broken by Xander’s mobile phone ringing. Buffy slowly turned and went to walk away, but Xander gently put his hand on her arm and shook his head, so she stopped.
“Pooky, it’s me, listen when you go for the take-away, scrub the sweet and sour pork, I’ll have Singapore style noodles instead, it’s got everything in it, pork, shrimp, chicken and beef – so I’ll have that okay?” Anya said brightly
“Er, er yeah, okay cup-cake, listen…something’s cropped up, I might be half an hour late, but I’ll phone our order through before I collect, that should save some time”
“What, what’s cropped up?”
“I’ll tell you later, gotta go, bye”
“Remember Singapore style-“
“Yes, yes I will bye honey” Xander snapped the phone shut and said to Buffy,
“Fancy a quick coffee?”
She looked at him for a few seconds, decided it couldn’t hurt and nodded
“Come on…in here”
Xander turned and fished a bunch of keys out of his pocket, selected one and opened the office door, stepping back to allow her into the room first. Buffy went in and Xander followed closing the door behind him. He busied himself with the kettle and mugs in the little kitchenette area and Buffy sat down.
He placed a steaming mug in front of her and said
“Now, from the top – how do you know Angel, and tell me again slowly what happened tonight………”
ooOOoo
William angrily took off his tie. He accidentally spilt beer on his new shirt, but he couldn’t be bothered – in fact he didn’t know why he ever bothered, he was a non-starter where women were concerned, why did he think things would be different this time? He should know himself by now, nothing went according to plan for him; nothing ever went right as regards women, from his teenage crush on an art teacher old enough to be his mother, to rosy-cheeked freckly faced 12 year old Cecily Adams who told him to close his eyes and open his mouth, instead of the kiss he was expecting he got a big fat earthworm put in there by Angel and was the laugh of the class for weeks after – then there was Dru…what a disaster she was – the morning after he’d lost his virginity to her, after ‘Life –drawing’ class Dru had draped herself in a silk robe and ‘presented’ William with a plaster cast of Michaelangelo’s David, except she’d stuck a huge dildo to the front of it and declared him to have the biggest dick in the whole class………
ooOOoo
“………Angel didn’t buy my mother so much as a bunch of flowers or box of chocolates for letting him use her gallery, So I vowed that any opportunity I got to get money out of him, I’d take it – that’s why I asked for the spa treatment pass, I knew it was expensive…oh god, I wish I’d never heard of the place now.” Buffy explained over the coffee. She then looked at her watch and said,
“It’s twenty past eight, I better be going”
“Is it oh golly yes, well I’ve got a take-away to order”
“If you see William, please tell him how sorry I am, and I’d love to explain and to make it up to him” Buffy stood and picked up her clutch bag
“I will, but…he takes things very much to heart, I think if it had been anybody else except Stebson…” Xander didn’t need to continue
Buffy gave him a sad little smile and nodded
“Well thanks for the coffee Xander – I’ll see you around sometime” And with that, she left the office.
Xander blew his cheeks out when she’d shut the door – oh boy Anya was going to be annoyed about this! And thinking of Anya, he reached for the phone and dialled for the Lotus Garden Take-Away restaurant.
ooOOoo
William’s head whipped from side to side, faces loomed up and then out of focus, everybody was laughing, laughing, laughing…laughing at him! Close your eyes and you’ll get a big surprise……… big surprise………Willie the Geek…Pointing at him – ‘got the biggest dick in the class’ ………biggest dick……………biggest……...Willie the Geek‘s got the biggest dick in the class………in the class………in the class………in the class –
“HUH – WHU-WHAT – oh!” William sat up in a cold sweat, staring wildly around the room – oh thank God, it had been a nightmare………he blinked and rubbed his face, and then surveyed the sea of empty beer cans in front of him on the coffee table.
He stood, swaying a little, and made for the bathroom where he got undressed and had a hot shower.
Wrapped in his towelling robe he padded back into the lounge and looked at the time, it was only 6.20am. Realising it would be late lunchtime in England William grabbed the holiday cottage brochure and got his phone and dialled the number. A woman with a lovely West Country burr to her voice answered the phone
“Appleton Cottages, Rosy Appleton speaking, how may I help you?”
“Ah, hello, I um, I was wondering if you had anything available from say this coming Tuesday until the end of the month?”
William asked
“Hold on my dear…(William could hear pages being turned) how many of you are there coming?”
“Oh, um just me, I’m an artist”
“Oh lovely…let me see………hmm, no not the converted barn, you wouldn’t get a view of much except the farm….er, I have the gun-keepers lodge, mind that might be a bit expensive just for one, it’ll sleep twelve…hold on…oh I know…let me – yes, now I’m sure you’d like that one, sleeps up to 4 people so ample room for one, the game-keepers cottage on the side of Look-Out Hill over Duckett’s Bay, or…………yes, available from Thursday, the Captain’s Cabin overlooks the bay and Smugglers Cove. You can always stay with us here at the farm-house for a couple of days until it’s free for you to occupy”
“Could I – oh that’d be lovely…um, I haven’t booked my flight yet, can I get back to you, but would you pencil me in for the Captain’s Cabin please, sounds ideal” William asked, he yawned and excused himself
“Okay my dear, just let me know when you have your flight booked”
“Thank you Mrs Appleton, I’m William, William Giles”
“Looking forward to seeing you Mr Giles, bye for now”
William put the phone down and his stomach gave a loud rumble he made for the kitchen in search of food…………
ooOOoo
Xander also had digestion problems, it stemmed from eating cold Chinese food and warm beer…it had started out the right way around of course, but with all the questions Anya kept asking him the food went cold and the beer went warm…
“So how did this Angel know Buffy then?”
“Because her mother, now dead, used to own a gallery and he had his first exhibitions for free there”
“Oh, right, and William knows Angel from…?”
“Art school”
“Right…but what was William doing at the office last night?”
“I don’t know!”
“Didn’t he trust you to run things?”
“Of course he did!”
“So why was he there?”
“I just told you, I said I don’t know, if he didn’t trust me, he wouldn’t have left me in charge, or if he’d had second thoughts, he would have come and found me”
“Maybe he DID try and find you, but couldn’t!”
“Anya, he was going on the date remember; it was only because he came to the gallery and saw them together that he didn’t go!”
“That’s true. How can you eat that cold?”
“Have I had any option?” Xander raised the forkful of food to his lips for about the dozenth time before Anya asked him another question,
“Have you tried to phone William?”
“YES! While I was waiting for them to fetch this, but I got his message desk”
“Well try again!”
“YOU try, I’m eating…or rather not, heat this up for me pooky – please – I’ll try and phone him if you do” Xander handed her the piled high plate.
Xander knowing that William wouldn’t want to be disturbed and wouldn’t answer any questions anyway, only pretended to phone him
“Message desk again honey” he shouted to the kitchen. Anya leant on the door-jamb whilst the food heated up in the microwave.
“In that case, I’ll phone him first thing in the morning”
Xander thought, but he just smiled at his Mrs.
ooOOoo
Buffy miserably bounce-sat on the bed and kicked her shoes off. She lay back feeling so miserable that she started to cry again. Why had that damned spa-pass been so important to her? Why? – Oh yeah…she wanted to get money out of him, anything, to try and ‘repay’ the debt of gratitude she thought he owed her mother…it was just a rotten shame it had to mess up the only good thing she’d had to happen to her in ages. Perhaps all was not lost. Perhaps he’d let her explain, or that kind assistant of his, Xander would explain to him for her…she’d leave it a few days then call.
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