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Chapter 6

“Excuse me sir, I’m sorry to trouble you” the young waitress looked a little sheepish, but Giles put his wine glass down and smiled at the girl.

“Yes Molly, what can I do for you?” There was a crashing sound and a tinkle of glasses, and a roar of laughter went up. Giles threw down his napkin, and said to Anya,

“Excuse me a minute”

“Sure”

“It’s Rack, and his crowd, sir, they’re being a bit rowdy, we’ve already had one complaint from other diners” Molly explained.

Giles said he’d sort it, and went over to their table, and in true professional manner, he sorted things.

The rowdy crowd finished their drinks and left.

“Molly, who was it complaining, are they still here?”

“Couple in the corner, sir”
Giles went over to them

“I’m very sorry that you’ve had your meal interrupted, and I’d like to offer you either a bottle of Champagne or a meal for two with our compliments as by way of recompense”

The couple thanked him and said they’d have the meal for two, and Giles said he’d give them some tickets.

“Molly, give those two free meal tickets, and charge Rack’s bill another $100” the waitress nodded.
When Giles got back to the table, Anya had her wrap on and was ready to leave.

“Going already?”

“Sorry, but I’ve got an early start in the morning, I’m going to ‘Daddy’s’ Swiss hide-away for a few days”

“Lucky old you…come on, I’ll walk you to the door” As they neared the front of the restaurant, they could see two police cars arrive, sirens blaring, blue lights flashing.

“Oh god, what now? – Stay there An, I’ll go see what the trouble is” Giles went outside. Two minutes later, he came back.

“Seems Rack punched a paparazzi – started a brawl!”

“Good for him! I’ll go out the back way then, if you don’t mind, I don’t want to be associated with that. I’ll phone Jenny for you, just casually, I know, I promised – I’ll be subtle”

Giles nodded and kissed Anya, and she left.

*******

“And this is one of the recording suites, we have a dozen here, and another ten in our studios in Burbank.”

“When will I be doing my song?” Buffy asked as they left the room and carried on down the corridor.

“Tonight with any luck, you’ll begin rehearsals after lunch. Excited?” Spike asked

“Nervous!”

“Silly thing, you’ll be fine. In fact…want to know a bit of juicy info?”
Spike had a gleam in his eye that made Buffy’s stomach flip-flop, and she nodded.

“Well, ABC Studios, where you did the show has been totally inundated with phone calls wanting to know where and when they can get your single…oh, thankyou”

Spike took a piece of paper handed to him by a messenger, read it.

“And – listen to this, we have Darla Delaney from ‘Teen’ magazine here right now, she’s keen to do an interview with you”

“With me?” Buffy had a deer-caught-in-the-headlights look

“Yes with you! Look, don’t worry. Tell you what, want me to be there with you? – We could do it all informally – over lunch if you like”

“Please” Buffy felt very grateful. Spike reached for her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze.

“Just be yourself, act natural, and you’ll be fine, ok?” he gave her hand another little squeeze. Buffy nodded, smiled and squeezed right back…


********

“Well, Daddy wants to know, any news?” Lorne asked

“Is he there, can I speak to him?” Cordelia asked

“Sorry, Sweetness, he’s got the doctor with him at the moment, drops for his dry eyes, you know they wont close properly!”
Cordelia shuddered

“Don’t! He gives me the creeps enough!”

“Now Sugar-plum, remember who pays the wages!” Lorne gently admonished her.
“I know. Anyway, relax. Good news, signed, sealed delivered, she’s ours!”

“Thankyou Blossom, speak later” Lorne put the phone down and went to prepare his lord and master’s smoothie, to give him along with the good news that Buffy had signed to Aphrodite.

********


“It’s ok, you don’t have to whisper, the booths are sound-proofed. They can only hear you down there if you hold down this button and speak into the microphone” Spike explained to Buffy.

The booth was tiny, so Buffy had to stand very close to Spike.

Down in the studio, Harmony was gyrating in front of a ‘bluescreen’, singing her song. Above her behind the screen standing on stepladders were two guys gently shaking fake snow down on her.

‘Santa’s on his way,
Sitting on his sleigh…
Children all around the world,
Waiting for Christmas Day!’

The bouncy pop tune had more than a passing resemblance to ‘Jingle Bells’ complete with tinkling sleigh-bells and a soundtrack of children laughing and playing.

Suddenly for real in the studio ten children ran on set, dressed in fleeces, with scarves, hats and gloves began to play ‘snowballs’ and then they knelt around in front of Harmony and joined in with the chorus, heads swaying from side to side, bright smiles on their faces.

One of the guys shaking the snow down suddenly sneezed, sending down the complete boxful of ‘snow’, knocking Harmony’s hat askew, and putting her off singing.

The recording engineer immediately leaned forward, and irritably pressed the button

“Cut! Cut! For gods sake…am I surrounded by fucking idiots?”

“Hey, no swearing in front of the children!” Harmony glared towards the blacked-out booth put her hands over the nearest child’s ears.
The engineer looked at Spike and said,

“Two hours…two hours, that’s all, and I’m already sick to fucking death of that song!”
Spike grinned, and nodded.

“Come on, let’s go up to the café on the sixth floor and meet Darla, eh?” Buffy nodded and followed him out.

“Um Spike, I need the er, rest room?”

“Oh right, come on then, just down this corridor, on the left, door marked ‘private’ through there”

Buffy pushed opened the door marked private, and then saw two doors, she went into the ladies. It was clean and bright. She went into the first cubicle and closed the door, she was just about to undo her jeans when she heard a distinctly male groan. Shocked, Buffy held her breath.

“Oh, baby…yeah…oh yeah…suck harder…”

Buffy’s eyes bugged and she silently bent down and looked under the side of the cubicle, she could see a pair of scruffy boots, with pants sagged around them, standing by the toilet, and a girl’s knees and feet!

Buffy stood up – what was she going to do – they’d hear her if she used the toilet…they obviously were too engrossed in what they were doing to have heard her come in, but…

“Fuck, mind the teeth girl! Oh yes, just like that…harder…oh fuck yes!”

Buffy grinned – this was rock and roll! She had to bite the back of her hand to stop from giggling…then she thought, damn it!

She was bursting to go, so she flushed the loo first! She flushed again, and she could hear the man obviously climaxing…

“Yeah, oh fuck, don’t stop babe, harder, yeah, yeah, yeah, YES, ugh, ugh, ugh, ugh, ooooohhhhh, ooohh! Oh babe!”

Buffy biting her bottom lip, opened the door and went over to the sinks, looking at the end cubicle in the mirror.

To her shock and amazement, the door opened, and out came a girl with long blonde hair and guy whom she recognised as Rack, lead singer of the heavy metal band, Noiz.

The girl didn’t even acknowledge Buffy’s presence, and walked straight passed her, but Rack looked in the mirror at her and winked, grinned and said,

“All right, darlin’?” And followed the girl out! Buffy dried her hands and also left.

Spike was on his cell phone when she came out, so she hung back to give him some privacy.

Spike saw her and beckoned her over.

“Here she is, you tell her, Buffy, it’s Cordelia” Buffy took the phone off Spike

“Hello”

“Buffy, we’ve just had a very special request, nothing like this has ever happened before, apparently the combined American Forces Radio have been swamped with requests for your song, seems like it’s struck a chord with families away from their loved ones!”

“Really, wow!”

“We’ve got an advanced order for half a million copies!” Buffy was open-mouthed with surprise! Spike took his phone.

“It’s ok Cordy, I think she’s a little dumb-struck!…Yes, ok, will do, bye!

Well babe, that’s brilliant news, isn’t it – you’ve already guaranteed yourself at least a gold disc, and you haven’t even recorded the song yet! Come on, this way, I think you’d better come and sit down!”

Buffy followed Spike to the lifts, and they went down to meet Darla Delaney.


************


“When will you be back in LA then?” Anya asked Jenny

“Friday, all being well, I’ll be back for the Radio Awards, will you be there?”

“Yes and no. I’ve done my acceptance speech and thankyou to camera, but I’ll be in Switzerland until Sunday”

“You’ve won then?”

“Yes, Best female singer, but don’t, you know, let it out, not yet”

“I won’t, but thanks for the info, means I can get copy done in advance … anymore?”

“For a price!”

“Anya!”

“Hold on, you don’t know what the price is yet!”

“Go on!”

“Go on a date with Rupert”

“Rupert Giles?”

“How many other Ruperts do you know?”

“None…I’m not sure he likes me”

“Not sure, well I am! I’m not kidding you, I had dinner with him the other night, and all he talked about was you!”

“You had dinner with him?”

“We’re old friends…he was good to me when I broke up with Sven.

He’s been crazy about you for ages, tell you what, you can stay at my place while I’m away, I’ll leave the keys with him for you to collect, take it from there”

“Are you sure?”

“Positive”

“Ok, great”

“So, what’s the gossip in New York, New York, huh?……………………”

“You were going to tell me other winners…”

*********

“So, what inspired you to write the song?”

Darla asked, as she de-constructed her grilled chicken wrap.

Buffy sipped her water, and played with the spoon that came with her low-fat yoghurt.

“I was dating a solider at the time, and he’d been away on manoeuvres for a few months…did a lot of time sitting in my room, writing letters, keeping a diary, generally just waiting to hear from him”

“It was a friend that put you up for the show, is that right?”

“Yes, Willow. We’ve been friends since junior high, when we moved to Sunnydale! I could have killed her at first. I never believed I would win………”

Every so often, Buffy glanced at Spike, and he’d nod or smile in encouragement.

They chatted for a good hour, Darla asking the standard, what’s your favourite colour/band/food/pass-time etc, then she left, saying that she’d send a copy for Buffy to look at.

Suddenly the quiet café was filled with loud and raucous laughter. It was Rack and his band, clattering around with trays and generally acting up.

Spike asked her,

“Do you know who that is?” Buffy grinned, and told him of her experience earlier. Spike smiled and shook his head.

“Guy’s an animal! Does it anywhere, doesn’t care if anyone can see.

A couple of months ago, Cordelia was waiting for the lift, and when the doors opened, there for all the world to see was Rack’s bare arse bobbing back and forth, his girl screaming with her legs wrapped around his waist.

To Cordy’s credit, she didn’t turn a hair, she just got in and pressed for the ground floor!

So pet, are you sure you’ve had enough lunch?” Buffy put her hand on her stomach.

“Yes thanks, I’ve got butterflies the size of elephants!”

“You’ll be fine, so, rehearsals, ok? The guy who’ll be recording you is a nice bloke, looks like a school-kid, but he’s actually in his late twenties. Billy Fordham, everyone knows him as ‘Ford’. Shall we go?”

Buffy nodded and stood up, and they made their way to the recording suites





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