Chapter 9
………I know you can more than cope, I’m sorry to spring it on you like this Xander, but with that Grotty exhibition of Stebson’s on, there isn’t much for you to do at the gallery except keeping on top of the emails and post, and any enquiries about my art of course, I’ll pay you full pay, and you only need to spend, what…about an hour or two there a day in the office”
“Of course I can cope – but have you thought this through?”
“What, the holiday? – I’ve been looking through brochures -“
“No! Not the holiday, about, about Buffy!” Xander said with exasperation
“What is there to think about? – She made it quite clear that she’d rather be with Angel Stebson than me and-“
William said flatly, to which Xander burst out (surprising both William AND himself!)
“And nothing! That’s bullshit!”
“I beg your pardon?!”
“Sorry, look, I know you don’t like Stebson-“
“Huh, THAT’S an understatement!” William said his voice heavily laden with sarcasm
“Let me finish! I know you hate him, but Buffy didn’t lie to you” Xander reasoned
“She did! She…she…” Frowning William tried to think what she lied about………
“She was just leaving here to meet you at the bank when you saw her – and that’s another thing, why did you come back to the gallery just before your date, didn’t you trust me or something?”
“Trust – wha – what are – look I went to the office because I’d left my American Express card there in the lockable drawer, when I bought the paint – I wanted it in case I didn’t have enough cash for the restaurant”
“Oh. But that still doesn’t mean Buffy lied”
“But- she was with HIM and I HATE him!”
“But Buffy didn’t know that! She can’t stand him either!” Xander reasoned
“Oh is that so, so why was she holding his hand and – and how do you know she can’t stand him?”
“Because she told me! I bought her into the office, we had a cup of coffee, her mother is the late Joyce Summers” Xander explained
The name immediately rang a bell with William, but he just couldn’t place it………
“Joyce Summers…I know that name, but-“
“She used to part-own that little gallery off Praed Street, at the back of the mall, but she died of a brain tumour three years ago”
“Oh god, that was her mother?”
“Angel had his first exhibitions there, and he never paid them, never bought Mrs Summers anything – not a bouquet or bottle of wine – nothing!”
“Huh, well that’s just typical of him!”
“That’s why Buffy came with him to the opening”
“Huh – I don’t…”
“She only said she’d come if he bought her an expensive Spa pass…she was trying to redress the balance if you like, to get something out of Stebson because her mother never did” Xander explained
William was silent, his mind racing. After a second or two Xander said,
“Are you still there Will?”
“Er, yeah, yes I’m still here” William said
“Give her another chance” Xander said quietly
“How can I – I’ve made a right prat of myself haven’t I?”
“Look, she asked me to ask you if you’d let her explain”
“She did?”
“Uh huh…phone her, you have her number”
“I don’t know Xand…I’m flying to England in a few hours time”
“Well, all the more reason for you to do it now, leave it for nearly a month while you’re on holiday and she’ll think you don’t want to know”
“Are you sure?”
“What have you got to loose?”
“Okay then, I’ll talk to you later”
“I’m sure you won’t regret it” Xander said, William knew he was smiling as he said it
ooOOoo
William took his wallet out of his jacket and got her number, and keyed it in his mobile
It took a little while to connect, and then almost immediately it went to voice mail
“Hello, you’ve reached the number of Buffy Summers, I can’t take your call while I’m at work, but if you leave your name and number after the tone, I’ll get back to you as soon as possible………BEEP”
“Oh, um hello, Buf – ahem Buffy, it’s William here, William Giles…look, I’m sorry for being such an ass the other night, Xander explained a bit to me, and I was wondering if you’d give me another –
“WILLIAM!”
“Ow!” Suddenly he heard her shout his name and it made him jump, then she whispered hoarsely,
“Sorry…um hold on…I’m just going to the ladies room…we’re not allowed to take calls in the office…”
William waited patiently, and after a few seconds Buffy said in her normal voice
“There, oh god I’m SO pleased you’ll give me a chance to explain, I thought I’d ruined everything – can we meet for a coffee or something?”
“Um yeah, that would be great”
“When, this lunchtime or tomorrow – I can make it any day”
“Ah…um you see the thing is…”
“You don’t want to meet?”
Buffy said, her shoulders dropping, she should have known it was too good to be true…
“It isn’t that, I’d love to meet you, only I’m um, I’m going on holiday” William explained, she perked up a bit at this, all wasn’t lost after all…
“When?”
“This afternoon…bit of a spur-of-the-moment thing really; I fly to London Heathrow in about five hours time”
“Oh. That’s nice. I’ve always wanted to go to London. Mom and I planned to, to see the galleries and that”
“Ah yes. But I’m not stopping in London, I’m going down to the West Country, Devon”
“Oh how lovely for you. Will you paint?”
“I hope so, I’ve rented a little cottage on the side of a mountain, hope to get a couple of seascapes in, you know”
“How romantic! I haven’t had a holiday in – golly I can’t remember” Buffy said smiling, all of a sudden the ladies room door opened and a booming voice said,
“Are you in here Mizz Summers?”
“Oh shit, sorry, gotta go…um Yes, yes I am – bye Will, have a great time!” Will could hear the ‘battleaxe’ continue
“You KNOW the office rules about taking private phone calls during office hours”
“Sorry, but it was an emergency, that’s why I had it on vibrate, so it wouldn’t ring out” And that’s all that William heard as the call was ended.
At least he could go on holiday feeling more settled now.
ooOOoo
Two hours later at Xander’s house:
“But is he paying you?” Anya asked
“Of course he is Pooky, he’s paying me full time, AND he trusts me, AND I found out why he came to the gallery that night when he saw Buffy”
“Why – I mean how, no why – what was he doing there? Anya asked smiling
“He’d left his Amex card in the drawer and wanted it in case he didn’t have enough cash while he was at the restaurant. He said he’d left it in the drawer when he bought the paint to decorate the gallery – he just nipped in to get it and – well you know the rest!”
“So, do you think he’ll phone her?”
“I don’t know, he said he might, he was worried that he might have-“
“I’ll get it” Anya said standing to answer their home-phone.
“6704”
“Anya, its William” In the background, Anya could hear the Tannoy system calling and announcing flight arrivals and departures.
“Have you phoned her?”
“Have I phoned who?”
“Buffy of course!” Anya said, rolling her eyes
“Oh yes, we’ll be um, meeting up when I get back, hopefully” William said, know strictly speaking it hadn’t been arranged
“Good”
“Can I speak to Xander please, there’s one or two things about the gallery I need to check with him before I go”
“Here you are” Anya passed the phone to her husband
“Hi Will”
“I don’t think there is much to tell you really…just make sure that Stebson and his mess are out of the gallery by 10am sharp on the morning of the 30th, else he pays for another day”
“Right, got that, by 10 sharp…that it?”
“You know the alarm codes”
“Yes!”
“I’ll be back on the 1st, well 2nd at the gallery”
“Right”
“And um…I can’t think of anything else”
“Right then, have a great time my friend”
“The 1st, that’s a Sunday” Anya said, then she continued,
“Tell him to come to dinner when he gets home”
“Anya said come to dinner when you get back”
“Really, that’s great, save me having to order take-out!”
“Have a great time, bye then Will, and don’t worry, I’ll look after the gallery”
“Thanks Xander…Bye”
ooOOoo
Buffy hadn’t wanted to eat her lunch in front of the gallery, she didn’t want to risk bumping into or seeing Angel.
She ate her lunch in a little ante room at work, but she had to get out into the fresh air, that place, well it stifled her and she wanted to be away. She walked down to the corner by the bank, and who should be coming out of the gallery, but Xander.
She called and waved, Xander waved back. Crossing the road Buffy ran to meet him.
“Hi! Have you heard from William?” She asked brightly
“Um, yes, yes we have actually, he got there safe and sound, he had to stay overnight at the farmhouse until the cottage was vacated for him, but he’s all settled in now, the weather’s great, apparently!”
“Oh good...um, when is he due back?”
“Not till the end of the month”
“Oh THAT long! Never mind – oh golly look at the time, I’m sorry, I’ve got to go - if I’m late back Mrs Keogh will have a fit!”
Buffy ran across the road and disappeared between the bank and the auction house.
Xander went home with thoughts on ball game he’d Tivo’ed last night and a can of beer………only to be met at the front door by his lovely wife Anya, who had other ideas, involving a step-ladder, a 2” brush and a can of paint…
ooOOoo
“Ah-ha! Found you!” Buffy said triumphantly as she shifted the heavy folded curtains off some cardboard boxes in the garage.
Half an hour later, sitting cross-legged sideways on the sofa, she had a stack of photograph albums in front of her; three were on the coffee table. She’d got quite teary at that last album, it was from 1990-1993 she’d been the ages of 7-10 there, and really it was the last years that they were all together, happy as a family. Grammy and Gramps on her mother’s side, and just Grandma on her father’s. The last photo in the album had been at Gramps’ 70th birthday party, it had been a blazing hot day, and everybody had gone outside, they’d decorated the tables with balloons and streamers, somebody had painted a banner that they’d hung from the trees, it said ‘Happy Birthday Jack, although they hadn’t quite left enough room for his name and it looked a bit squashed, but no body minded, the day was full of laughter, and they all wore silly paper hats and everybody was smiling…A single tear rolled down Buffy’s cheek and she swiped it away with the cuff of her sweater. She touched the faces of the people now dead with the tip of her finger and smiled.
1998-2000
A picture of herself, mother and father standing outside the entrance to the ‘magical world of Disneyland’. It had been a last-ditch attempt by her parents to save their ‘hanging-by-a-thread’ marriage, and the whole holiday had been an absolute nightmare – due to, although not entirely on Buffy’s teenage rebellious ‘I hate you, you don’t understand’ sulky behaviour. As soon as they were home, her father didn’t even unpack his case, he just left to live with his mother temporarily, and Joyce filed for divorce. So why all the nostalgia now huh? – Why all the albums out? To remember the last time she’d had a holiday of course.
[Reviews - 270]
-
Table of Contents [Report This]
Chapter or Story |
Chapter or Story | 
Chapter or Story
Has been viewed 2947 times
- Text Size +
-
Table of Contents [Report This]
Chapter or Story |
Chapter or Story | Chapter or Story - Text Size +