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Author's Chapter Notes:
Catching up again...this was posted originally on the 10th of August...and reposting reviews as I said for the last part of the chapter
Chapter 15: Familial People

Part II: The Party

“Liam! Great to see you, I was getting worried you weren’t coming,” One of Angel’s business partners greeted him as they entered the hall.

“You know how long women can take to get ready; I wasn’t sure we were going to make it either,” Angel joked.

Buffy hated when he did that, acted like everything was her fault. If you thought about it, it really was Angel’s fault, she’d been all ready—on time and everything—but he’d made her go and change. That’s why they were late.

And they were only like ten minutes late anyway, hardly the eternity the two men were acting like.

“I’m going to go get us some drinks, Angel. What do you want?” She knew he hated it when she called him Angel in public, but she was feeling spiteful at the moment.

“Scotch, Elizabeth, of course,” Apparently he’d decided two could play this game.

“Sure, I’ll be right back; nice seeing you again Mr. Henderson.”

“You too, Mrs. O’Connor,” he said, not noticing the glare Buffy gave him at being called ‘Mrs. O’Connor’ which was, for some reason, annoying her more tonight that it normally would have.

Buffy got the drinks, Angel’s usual scotch and just a club soda for herself and returned to her husband. “Here you go, Liam. The bartender said this was his best scotch.” He’d take that as an apology, but really she was just trying to make it easier on herself—she didn’t want to deal with him in a bad mood all night—she wasn’t actually sorry; she still thought he more than deserved it.

“Thank you, dear,” Angel said as he took the glass from her and smiled, “Mr. Henderson here was just saying that we should get his granddaughter to come over and play with Sam some day after school.”

”I’ll have to check with William, I think he has a few after school things coming up soon,” Buffy lied.

”William?” Mr. Henderson questioned, letting his curiosity override his politeness.

“Mr. Giles she means, William Giles is our daughters tutor, we’re home schooling her. He came very highly recommended through St. Luke’s.”

Buffy tried to hold back a grin as Angel went on to explain to the man how they thought the public school in town wouldn’t give Samantha a good enough education, but they didn’t want to send her off to boarding school just yet.

But as hard as she tried, she couldn’t hold it back when the man’s response was, “Oh, really, my granddaughter goes to the public school, her parents and I agree that the private school’s just too stuffy. We don’t want her raised like that.”

“You know, Mr. Henderson,” Buffy said, suddenly changing her mind, “Maybe we can get your granddaughter over soon, I’m sure Liam has your number, I’ll give you a call once I know if William has anything planned next week. Will that work for you?”

“It should,” he smiled at the young woman, “I’ll have to check with her parents first, but I’m sure she’d love to come over for an afternoon; just ring me when you know.”

“I will,” Buffy said, ignoring Angel’s anger at the turn the conversation had taken.

*(*(*(*I*)*)*)*

Buffy decided to play nice and try to be the dutiful, doting wife for the rest of the evening, but Angel was still smarting over their conversation with Mr. Henderson; though whether it was because he’d insulted someone or because she’d shown him up, she wasn’t sure.

“You know Buffy, you really are underdressed tonight, I mean just look around, Mrs. Clark has on a much fancier dress and you can actually tell she has some make up on and Mrs. Rice and Mrs. Nicks are the same.” Angel said to his wife after several minutes of looking around the room.

“You know Angel, most women see it as an accomplishment when you can’t tell they have make up on, so I’m going to take that as a compliment. And as for the dress? Well you’re the one that told me to wear this one.”

“Well, you’re the woman; shouldn’t you have better dress sense than me?”

“I should…” Buffy drew it out, “But sometimes I wonder, you are always telling me what to wear and you spend more time on your hair than I do.”

“Excuse me for caring about my appearance,” Angel snapped. “I actually have to go somewhere every day and impress other people, it wouldn’t do for me to look like I just got out of bed.”

“Are you saying that’s what I look like?” Buffy asked incredulously.

“Not much better some days.”

“Oooh!” Buffy huffed, “You insufferable prat! I can’t believe you just said that to me!”

“What, are you British now ‘insufferable prat,’” he mocked her in a horrid imitation of her voice, “Picking up slang from William really doesn’t suit you Buffy, you’re a California cheerleader, best stick to what you’re good at.”

Buffy honestly would have killed Angel just then, or at least thrown something big and heavy at him or hit him if another one of his ‘business partners’ hadn’t shown up.

“Oh, Angel,” Darla said as she approached the feuding couple, “I was worried you wouldn’t come. I would have missed you,” she said coyly.

Buffy was highly aware that it was only Angel who would have been missed, not herself. Her husband’s secretary never had liked her. And had always more than liked Angel.

“How are you doing this evening, Darla,” Buffy said with false niceness and sincerity, “I do hope you’ve been feeling alright.”

“Of course I’ve been feeling alright, why wouldn’t I have?”

“Oh,” Buffy said, pretending to be embarrassed, “It’s just when I last saw you, you weren’t looking so well, I just assumed,” she trailed off. “I’m sorry.”

“Yes, well,” Darla sputtered, not really sure how to respond, “I’ve been feeling perfectly well, thank you for the concern though.”

“Mrs. O’Connors,” Mr. Henderson said as he approached their table, “I was wondering if I might have the pleasure of dancing with you?”

Buffy had failed to notice that the ‘dancing’ portion of the evening had begun. “Of course, you might,” Buffy replied. “And please, call me Buffy, hearing Mrs. O’Connor makes me think of my mother-in-law,” Buffy said with a slight grimace that could still be seen as polite.

“I hope you don’t mind, Liam,” he said to the other man.

“Of course not, I’ll take the opportunity to dance with Ms. McGuire here, as she is apparently dateless. Have to get in before all the other men sweep her away.” Apparently, only Buffy found it odd that her husband seemed to be half-complimenting, half-flirting with another woman with her standing just inches away.

*(*(*(*I*)*)*)*

Buffy decided to put her thoughts of Angel and his behaviour that night on hold and instead chose to enjoy her dance with Mr. Henderson, who later told her to call him Peter. Apparently, he was one of, if not the only, good men with whom Angel worked.

They had a nice conversation about his granddaughter and how she was doing in school and he told Buffy he hoped that Samantha’s tutor was doing a good job and wasn’t teaching her too similarly to how she would be taught at St. Luke’s.

She assured him that William was doing a great job, but didn’t say anything about his similarities or lack thereof to an education at St. Luke’s. It wouldn’t do for anything to get back to Angel.

*(*(*(*I*)*)*)*

After another few hours at the party, Angel finally decided it was time to go home. Buffy only hoped that William would be alright to show up again it the morning, she couldn’t, for the life of her, figure out why it was Angel’s firm had these “parties” on weeknights. It wasn’t like they were necessary, alls they were was a bunch of ego stroking and ass kissing.

She hated them.

*(*(*(*I*)*)*)*

When they got home, Sam was fast asleep in her bed and William seemed to not be too far behind on the family room sofa.

Buffy had been a bit worried when she came in and didn’t hear the television or anything else. As she made her way into the family room, she found out why, though. William was sitting on the sofa, his shoes off, his foot curled underneath him, and his hair mussed as he ran is fingers through it—reading a book.

Buffy thought he looked adorable. Her bad mood (from the wonderful evening with Angel) evaporated and a smile appeared on her face.

“Hey,” she said quietly, not wanting to startle him, as she made her way over to the sofa.

When she stopped just inches away from him, William put his foot on the ground and patted the spot next to him. “Hey, yourself,” he said as she collapsed next to him on the sofa. “Did you have a nice evening?”

“Not so much,” she said scrunching her nose. “What about you?”

“It was nice. Quite, but nice.”

“So, Sam was good?”

“She was great, went to bed on time and everything. And those are some bloody great cookies, by the way.”

”I thought you’d like them…..Do you have anything planned for after school next week? For Sam, I mean,” she clarified when she saw the look he was giving her.

“Don’t think so,” he said, squashing down any hope he’d had that she wanted to know what he was going to be doing. “Why? Should I?”

“No, I just told someone that their granddaughter could come over one day to play with Sam and I didn’t want it to interfere with anything you had planned.”

“Nope, nothing planned.”

“Okay, well I should let you get going; you do have to be here again in the morning.”

”Yeah,” William said, consciously deciding not point out the fact that the last thing he wanted to do at the moment was leave.

“Oh, let me go get my wallet so I can pay you,” Buffy said, moving to get up.

“No,” William said putting his hand on her knee to keep her from standing up.

”No, what?” Buffy asked, not understanding what he meant.

“No, you’re not going to pay me,” William said, “And no arguing,” he cut in when he saw her opening her mouth to do just that, “It was my pleasure, if anyone should get paid for tonight it’s you, you’re the one who didn’t have any fun,” he hoped he wasn’t pushing it by saying that. “I’ll see you in the morning,” and feeling extremely bold for some unidentifiable reason, he leaned over and kissed the top of her head. “Night, Buffy.”

Not even conscious of doing so, Buffy told William goodnight and continued to sit on the sofa until Angel came to find out why it was taking her so long to come to bed.

“Oh,” Buffy said, trying to come up with something to say other than, ‘Because William just kissed me and not only did it make my night, but I’m also not mad at him.’ Finally she managed, “Just thinking about some things, I’ll be up in a minute.”

It seemed to satisfy Angel and he made his way upstairs, leaving Buffy with her thoughts.

Buffy didn’t make it upstairs for another two hours.

*(*(*(*I*)*)*)*

TBC………………….





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