Chapter 5
“And off air in five, four, three, two, one – ok everybody – that’s a wrap.”
The director pulled off his headphones, and Giles stood up from his canvas ‘Directors’ chair and picked up his running notes. Everybody went about their duties in the studio, moving the chair and desk, autocue, etc.
Giles was going to go straight to his restaurant. Who should be walking down the corridor towards him, was Anyanka.
“Anya, darling, how are you?” he kissed her on both cheeks.
“Fine. I knew you’d be here today; I’ve just done a session for Glory, I thought I’d drop by, say hi. So, how’s the world with you? Heard from Jenny?”
“She’s been in New York this last two weeks, she’s phoned me twice, and emailed me”
“So, things are looking up for you two then?”
Anya linked her arm though Giles’ as they continued down the corridor.
“That’s just it, I don’t know. It was all about work. Every time I try and, well, talk none-work related stuff, she sort of glosses over it and goes straight back to business…”
“Want me to talk to her for you?”
Giles nearly shuddered at the thought. Anya was a good person, a very good person, but, she wasn’t known for her tact and diplomacy, called a spade a shovel, and hit you right between the eyes with what she thought.
“NO! Sorry, um no…I don’t think it would do any good…”
“Don’t know until I try!”
“Look, come and have lunch”
“What here?”
“No, at the ‘Winds’”
“Can’t. I’m doing a radio interview this afternoon, I’ve won an Indie Radio Award, but shush, I’m not supposed to know”
“Dinner then, tonight”
“Great…about 9.30? – Give me chance to do stuff first”
“Great, see you later then, bye”
*********
The lift doors slid silently open, and Spike, ever the gentleman held his arm out indicating Buffy to go first.
She smiled and did so. Just as the doors were closing, his cell phone beeped to indicate he’d got a text message. He glanced at the name an immediately deleted it.
Buffy watched the numbers above the doors, 2…3…4. The doors opened and Buffy walked out into a wide carpeted corridor, the walls lined with framed photographs of all the stars ever signed with the company.
There were lots of doors to various rooms and pot plants dotted around.
“Just down to the right, very bottom of the cor-“ Spike was indicating where they had to go, when a door flew open and a loud high-pitched squeal had Spike closing his eyes and wincing.
“BLONDIE BEAR! There you are! Don’t you EVER answer your messages?”
Buffy could have sworn she heard Spike mutter an ‘oh shit’ under his breath.
A blonde girl, dressed in thigh length black boots, a very short, low cut, red ‘Santa’ dress trimmed with white fur, with hat to match complete with white pompom on the end of it.
She was covered in glitter and fake snow, which fell onto the carpet as she walked towards them. Spike looked irritated beyond belief, and said quietly to Buffy,
“Excuse me for a moment, I’m sorry about this”
“It’s ok…I’ll um…look at the photographs” She walked off to diplomatically be out of earshot. Spike smiled and nodded, his smile leaving his face when he looked at the source of his annoyance.
“My widdle Spikey been ignoring his Harmony!” She ‘walked’ her fingers up his chest.
“Harmony, not now, can’t you see I’m busy?” Spike took her hand off him, and dusted the glitter off his shirt.
“But I’ve left you hundreds and hundreds of messages! And you don’t call!”
Buffy suddenly realised just who this was! Harmony! She tried not to appear star-struck, and stared at a photo.
“Look, what is it that you want, huh? Can’t Cordelia sort it out for you?”
Spike asked, the irritation clearly evident in his voice. Harmony looked all sick- kicked puppy, and pouting.
“But my little lamb…when can I see you?”
“What for?”
“I thought, that you could take me to the Indie Radio Awards”
“Did you now? Well, you thought wrong, it’s invitation to award winners only”
“But I’m up for best female singer!”
“No, Anyanka’s won it.”
“WHAT! Oh!” Harmony’s face creased, and she said in a tearful voice,
“I wanted to win that!” She bobbed her knees once, as would a spoilt child!
“Well, I’m sorry Harmony, but that’s the way it is, oh, and you don’t know that, by the way”
“What?”
“That it’s Anyanka that’s won. Now look, I’m extremely busy, so PLEASE stop calling and leaving messages for me, I haven’t the time.
In fact I was thinking, I’m far too busy for you these days, so I’ll get Xander Harris to take over as your manager, I’ll have Cordelia type up a contract straight away, now I must go” Spike turned away from the shocked blonde girl, and touched Buffy’s arm
“This way, love”
“Oh…right”
Buffy quickly glanced at a very sad looking Harmony
“But Blondie Bear! What about US!” Without so much as a backwards glance, Spike called out,
“Harmony, there IS no us, there never was”
And turned the corner out of sight. A very sad Harmony trudged her way back to studio 1 to start the video for her Christmas song, ‘Santa’s Sleigh’
“I’m sorry about that Buffy. Harmony gets…delusional.
She’s only young, I had to take her to a corporate party once, I was so busy ‘net-working’ I ignored her most of the evening, and in the end, I had to get somebody else to take her home, and she STILL reckons it was a ‘date! I’ve had to be cruel to be kind – Um here we are’’
Spike opened a door and allowed Buffy to go in first.
Buffy looked around the spacious office. It had a dark grey carpet, two big black leather sofas and a huge mahogany desk with leather swivel chair. The walls were a pale minty green, cool and relaxing. By the door was a water-cooler, and a unit with coffee maker and cups.
“Coffee – take a seat”
“Um, love some, thanks”
“How’d you take it?”
“Cream, no sugar, thanks” Buffy said, perching on one of the sofa’s. She briefly wondered why Spike had explained about Harmony…
“There you go” Buffy accepted the coffee from Spike, when there was a knock at the door.
“Yes?”
Cordelia Chase came in, carrying papers. She smiled and said ‘hello’ to Buffy, before handing Spike the documents.
“Cordelia, this is Buffy, winner of the-“
“I know! Search for a Star – I voted for you!” Cordelia smiled at Buffy
Buffy blushed and said,
“Oh, thanks-thankyou!”
“What? - You mean you were watching a RIVAL show?” Spike asked grinning
“Why, who was on – oh, the ‘Acid Queen’ – I ALWAYS give Glory Benson a wide berth, she’s so…un-necessarily bitchy!” Spike grinned again and initialled several sheets of paper.
“Oh, and I’ve just had ‘the encounter’ with Harmony, and given her the good news that I’m no longer her manager, have you done that contract as I asked?”
“On your desk”
“Thanks love, you’re a star…remind me to ask Sweet to give you a raise!” Spike grinned and winked at the dark haired beauty who left grinning, saying,
“That’ll be the day, bye then, see you later” Buffy said ‘bye’.
“Here you go, this is the standard contract, three album deal, the usual percentage royalties cut, plus we give an extra deal on merchandizing, which you won’t find with any other company, well, not as generous anyway”
Spike handed Buffy several sheets of paper to peruse at her leisure.
“Sorry, merchandizing?” Buffy quizzed
“Tee shirts, Dolls, video’s, posters, calendars that sort of thing”
“Oh. Right, stupid me!”
Buffy felt embarrassed at her idiocy, and her cheeks flamed.
Spike poured himself coffee, and came and sat by her. Buffy could smell his cologne, and she felt all tingly as he was in such close proximity to her. She bet he could hear her heart thumping!
“Um, can I ask another dumb question?”
“Another? – You haven’t asked one yet!” He smiled and sipped his coffee.
“Ask away, pet”
“That girl, Harmony, I mean Christmas? It’s only mid-August now, so why would she be doing Christmas stuff now?”
“Well to be truthful, if we were talking about you, say you decide to sign with us, which I hope you do, by the way, we’re even pushing it a bit fine as regards time.
You need to get established, get your pretty face into the magazines, newspapers and on TV, you need airplay, then we’d put out an album for the Christmas market.
But songs have to be written, rehearsed, recorded, doesn’t happen overnight”
Buffy nodded slowly, course, it made sense. Spike continued,
“Harmony is a well-established singer, having been around for a couple of years now, but she’s doing a tour, she’ll be half way through a European tour come early October, which is about the time we’d normally start operations for the Christmas market.
Spike leaned forward and put his empty cup on the low coffee table in front of them, and his knee brushed hers, and he made no move to shift it.
He sat back, and smiled,
“So, tell me about yourself”
Buffy smiled and put her empty cup next to his on the table.
“Well, what can I say…a fortnight ago I was a school counsellor, then I won a talent show at our local night spot, then I was on TV!”
“So, what does your boyfriend think of all this?” This was Spike’s oh-so-subtle way of finding out if this delightful little lady was taken…he hoped not, as he didn’t see any evidence last night at the show, but then, the song was about her missing her soldier boyfriend, so he could be away…
“Boyfriend? – No, I um, I haven’t got one”
“No – oh, you do surprise me, beauty like you. I thought they’d be queuing up around the block for you!” Buffy blushed and looked at her hands folded in her lap.
“Now I’ve embarrassed you, I’m sorry”
“No…well, it’s ok” The telephone on the desk began to ring.
“Excuse me, this must be important”
“Sure” While Spike went to deal with his call, Buffy picked up the contract and began to read.
***********
Drusilla woke with a bad taste in her mouth, a thumping headache, and feeling quite sore ‘down below’.
Disorientated she sat up suddenly and looked around the unfamiliar surroundings.
Her head swam. She put her hand down to lever herself up off the bed when her fingers closed around something hard and round, which suddenly buzzed.
She jumped and looked down and saw it was a vibrator, a foot away from it was a soft dildo. She let go of the vibrator and it stopped buzzing. On the nightstand propped up against the clock-radio was a folded piece of paper with her name on it.
‘Dear Dru – Gone to work, make yourself at home, be back around three this afternoon. What a night! See you later, love Cec XX
She was trying to think, but her brain was like cotton wool. She needed the toilet, and getting out of bed, she kicked an empty wine bottle.
There was also an empty Scotch bottle by the waste-paper basket. She felt sick and shaky, and just about made it to the bathroom in time to throw up in the sink.
Rinsing her mouth, she raised her head and looked into the mirror. She looked very pale, with dark circles under her eyes. An urgent thought came to her, ‘medication’. She needed her purse, where the hell had she put it?
********
“Sorry about that pet, but you don’t put off the ‘big boss’!”
Spike came over and stood in front of her. Buffy smiled and said she understood. She was holding the contract.
“If you get that looked at, and could get back to us ASAP, I’d be very grateful”
“I don’t need it looked at, I trust you” Spike smiled at her
“Oh, um, oh, well that’s great! – Well, if you want, we can sign now, and I can show you what’s in store for you” Buffy nodded.
“Ok, we’ll need two witnesses, Cordy can be one, um…” Spike opened his office door, and called to one of the ‘messengers’, a group of two-dozen people who roamed the offices wearing hands-free head sets that would run messages, call taxi’s, order flowers, fetch sandwiches and do all manner of useful things.
“You’ll do, I need you to witness a contract signing” the girl came into the office, followed by Cordelia.
“Um, sorry, could you give us a moment please, I’ll call you” The two nodded and waited by Cordelia’s desk.
“Buffy, I just want to let you know what you’ve let yourself in for”
She could see he was being open and honest with her, and she frown/smiled and said,
“I’m sorry, I don’t-“
“Before you sign I must tell you this, for the next few months, your feet won’t touch the ground, you’ll be tired, you’ll be sick to death of singing your song dozens of times a week, answering the same questions over and over, each time you’ll have to make it seem like you’ve never been asked that question before.
You’ll wake up in hotel rooms, not even being able to remember what State or city you’re in. Do you think you could cope?”
“I – I don’t know, I think so, I’d like to hope so”
“I’ll help you in any way I can” Buffy smiled
“So, still want to go through with it?
“Is it all bad?” Buffy asked, a little worried. Spike smiled,
“No. Once you’re established, you get to travel, see places you’ve only ever dreamed of, meet famous people, and then, there’s the money of course”
“Gimme that pen!” Buffy joked, and they both giggled. Spike called Cordelia and the messenger in to witness the signatures, giving a copy of the contract to Cordelia to put on file, and a copy for Buffy herself.
She handed Spike his pen back
“Right, so what happens now?”
“Now little lady, your feet don’t touch the ground!”
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