Chapter 7:
Buffy hung up the phone after she made a quick call to a cab service. With her coat in one hand and her cosmetic bag in the other, she walked back into the living room.
“William?” she called out when she realized he was no where in sight.
Buffy’s eye caught the movement of the red curtains across the room; they moved a bit after a summer breeze got caught drifting inside. She ventured closer and noticed that there were two French doors leading out onto a small balcony.
“William?” she pushed one of the doors opened and saw him leaning his arms on the iron rail.
“You call your cab?” he asked.
“It will be here in twenty minutes.”
“That’s good…I’d offer to take you home myself but my car is sort of blocked in.”
Buffy remembered the number of cars piled up in the Pratt driveway. ‘Poor man, he couldn’t leave even if he wanted…’ she thought to herself.
“It’s okay…”
She moved up beside him and looked out into the backyard. After a small hill that scaled downward, Buffy saw that there was a pool and playground set.
“You and Dru…you don’t have children, do you?”
William looked at her with confusion before looking out to see that she must have saw the little slide and swing set in the corner of the yard.
“No, we don’t….that was here when we bought the house a month ago…” William explained, “Not sure what to do with it now…”
“You don’t want kids?”
“I…I don’t think we are going to have any.” William whispered as he moved back from the rail and sat down in one of the two cushioned chairs that were set on the balcony.
“That’s not what I asked…” Buffy said as she frowned down at him.
“I think we should wait inside so you don’t miss your cab.” He started to get up and make an exit back into the living room, but Buffy blocked his path.
“We can hear the doorbell from here.” She argued, “Besides…I think you should talk to someone about your…well…” Buffy searched through her mind for the right words, “…your—“
“Unwillingness to leave my wife when I should?”
‘Man, it sounds like I have a disease…’ William thought to himself when he heard what he just said.
“…your words, not mine.” Buffy pointed out.
“It’s not like I haven’t tried to leave, Buffy…because I have, I tried many times and only got half way out the door.”
“What stopped you?”
“Would it sound lame if I were to say…me?”
Buffy paused and though about it, she gave him a small ‘I’m-sorry-but-I’m-going-to-say-something-you-don’t-like smile’ and muttered, “Kind of…”
Despite of what she said, he too gave her a small smile, “Not going to hold it against you, love.”
“Care to explain?”
“Well…when I met Drusilla, I kind of wasn’t what I am today…”
“Meaning?”
‘Was he geeky?’
“I kind of was a punk.”
“Punk? Like a punk rapper like LL Cool Jay?” Buffy needed him to narrow this down a bit, because it was kind of hard for her to visualize him as some sort of rap artist.
He laughed, “No, pet; less LL Cool Jay and more Billy Idol wannabe.”
“Oh…”
It didn’t take long for Buffy to magically convert William’s hair into bleach blonde and give him an earring on his earlobe inside her mind. ‘Hmm…I can see it…’ she thought to herself, ‘I can see it and I don’t think it would look ridiculous.’
“You’re imagining the hair, aren’t you?” William smiled when he saw Buffy’s eyes drift off like she was in some sort of daydream.
Buffy blushed and turned away from him for a moment.
“No…” she lied.
“Come on, you’re mildly curious aren’t you?”
Buffy looked back at him, she still couldn’t shake her visualization of him dressed as the 1980s rock star.
“Just a bit.”
“Don’t worry, I won’t tell.” He smiled.
‘Wouldn’t matter if you did…’ Buffy thought to herself sadly, ‘Angel doesn’t care what I’m doing now. At the moment I have no macho jealous husband that is suppose to kick a guy’s ass for flirting with her…’ Buffy’s eyes widen a bit— not that she was flirting with William at all or vice versa. ‘Blushing did not equal flirting…’ she argued with her subconscious.
“Anyway…” she breathed out and started to change the subject, “You were saying…”
“Ya well…I was a punk and played music in a band back in England.”
“Really?” Buffy sounded impressed and fascinated.
“Ya, but not long, just for two years.”
“Two years more than most musicians get.” She pointed out.
William shrugged shyly; he wasn’t use to compliments. Drusilla never seemed to be big on the support wagon when it came to his music.
“What instrument did you play?” she asked.
Buffy knew she kept drawing him away from the point of his story, but she couldn’t help herself. Conversations at home were becoming dry and boring with Angel, too much about work, and none of Buffy’s friends were doing anything exciting at the moment, so she needed this kind of person to relieve her of the dullness she was stuck in.
“Guitar…and I sang.”
‘A British singer, for real? What the hell is wrong with Dru?’ Buffy now thought the dark haired vampire girl named Mrs. Pratt was clearly crazy, ‘Why do you need a swinger party when you’re married to a singer in a band? ‘
“Oh…” Buffy smiled and tried to act as cool as she could.
“I wasn’t that good…just…” he stopped himself before he could embarrass himself further, “Anyway…”
‘If his voice was as calm and gentle as I’m hearing now I would beg to differ.’ Buffy thought as she once again noted his blue eyes and sharp cheekbones. The handsomeness that is this man seemed to be flooding out of his body as he kept talking about his hobbies and about himself. The only thing that could make her frown was his lack of confidence that he had with himself.
The doorbell rang before William could continue any further.
They both turned toward the inside of the house in surprise.
“That’s my cab.” Buffy muttered.
“Right…” William said with a frown when he watched her walk way from him.
William heard the front door open and close as he turned away and leaned his arms back on the iron rail. He could hear the silence screaming inside the house now for a brief moment...
His head snapped up and he straightened his slumped over state when he heard her.
“Sorry…just had to tell him to go.” Buffy gestured to the cab driver that rang the bell.
“Tell him to…? I mean, you’re—you’re not going to go?” he stammered.
“Even though I’m not too fond of your home at the moment, for obvious reasons, I don’t want to leave you here alone—alone with THEM in the morning.”
Buffy nodded up to the second floor, where all the partiers were, when she muttered the word ‘them’.
“You don’t have to love…really, I’m used to—“
Buffy stepped up and brought her finger to his lips, “Shhh…that’s the problem, your use to this treatment that she's giving you and it’s wrong. I want to be your friend William…and I want to help you…but this can’t be a one sided thing, I’ll need you to want to help yourself. I mean…do you want out of this?”
William’s eyes followed her finger as she lifted it from his lips.
“Yes…” he breathed out.
“But what about you love?” William asked when he looked up to meet her eyes, “What about your husband?”
Buffy didn’t want to think about Angel at the moment. She didn’t know if things could be pieced back together and fixed with her husband, or if he was a lost cause from the get go. She knew that William would call her a hypocrite if she were to say that she wanted to try and fix things and play veterinarian for a while, to see if there was a cure yet for changing a leopards spots.
So, instead of settling for being called a fool and a chicken, she lied. “Angel and I are over.”
William’s lips lifted up into a genuine smile. He felt this wave of relief wash over him when he knew he wasn’t going to go through this alone.
TBC…