Chapter 2


His legs were killing him. After being
up for nearly 20 hours, running all over
town, whether it was dropping Tammy
off at school, working at the bar or
chopping off a few demon heads, he
really thought that standing on his feet
any longer, might actually turn him into
a jelly fish. And he still had 5 hours left
to work.

Pauly wasn’t off much help. He was
too busy hitting on everything with two
legs that walked into the bar. Just earlier
he had been prattling on about the major
hottie that was sitting at the bar just
now, talking to Alyssa. He hadn’t bothered
to look. He had no time to be ogling
women with his busy schedule.

The only woman in his life now was
Tammy. She was all that mattered to
him now, and keeping her safe was
the most important thing at the moment.
And he liked it that way. It kept his mind
off other things.

“Will, I’m telling you, you gotta come
see this chick. She’s like… a 12 on
the scale from 1-10.” William sighed.
Pauly was a hard worker and a good
friend, but he didn’t have much between
his ears. Most of it was between his
legs. “Sorry mate, I’ve got stuff I need
to clear out here first. I’ll check out this
wonder woman when I’m finished.”
Pauly huffed and rolled his eyes at him.
“Listen man, you’ve got to start living
a little. Never once do you stop what
you’re doing for a second and just give
yourself time to breath.”

“I don’t have time to breath. You of all
people should know that.” He finally
took his eyes off the paperwork in front
of him and looked up at his friend. He
seemed to accept Wills’ answer but he
knew he hadn’t heard the last of this.
The subject would be rekindled, if not
by Pauly, then by Marc or Alyssa…
heck, even Tammy seemed to pick up
on his weariness and she was only 5
years old.

“Yeah, I know. But seriously man,
you’ve got to take the day off from
time to time, spend some time with
Alyssa, get some sleep, get laid,
I don’t know. Just take some time for
yourself. If not for you than do it for
your Tammy. She deserves to have
you back home in one piece.”

*She deserves to have her mother
back…
* the words were left
unspoken, but he didn’t have to say
them. Even though Pauly wasn’t the
brightest person in the world, he could
read people pretty well, and he knew
what was on Will’s mind.

The same thing as it had been for the past 5 years.

His daughter.

***

“So, girl. How’ve you been?” Alyssa
asked as she sat down next to Buffy
at the bar. Alyssa and Buffy had been
friends for 3 years, ever since Willow
introduced them. Alyssa had met Willow
in the University they had both been
attending and the two had immediately
hit it off.

“I’ve been good. Great actually!
Everything has been really slow these
past weeks and there hasn’t been much
to do in Rome except being bored.
I was getting kinda restless and I just
knew I had to come back here to get
some action. It’s been too long.” Alyssa
couldn’t help but smile at her friend’s
enthusiasm to get into a fight.

Ever since they had performed that
spell to create all those slayers, Buffy’s
life had gone from boring to the point
where she might actually go insane if
she didn’t kill anything. “How about you,
what have you been up to?” Alyssa
shrugged, “the same as usual. When
I’m not here cleaning tables and keeping
off drunken customers, I’m babysitting
my cousin Tammy. Or, you know… dusting
vamps and such. There’s not much else
to do…”

“Wait,” Buffy stopped her, “back up a little.
Here? You work here?”

“Yeah, what’s wrong with here?”

Buffy shook her head. “Oh, nothing! I just
thought you said you worked at a fancy
restaurant… not a fancy bar!”

“No, I’ve been working here for the past
eighteen years. It used to be my fathers
place but now it belongs to my friend,
William,” Alyssa answered.

“Your friend? You’re father owned
this bar and he gave it to your friend?
Didn’t that piss you off?” Alyssa just shook
her head. “Oh no, I asked him not to give
the bar to me! I’m lousy at all this business
crap! William is much better at it than I am.”

Right then, a young man came out
from the back and walked over to the
two of them. Alyssa smiled when she
saw him. “Pauly! Hi, I didn’t know you
were working tonight.” I’m not; I just
came by to get a drink.” He said, never
taking his eyes off Buffy. “And who is
this fair lady?” Alyssa jumped up when
she finally remembered Buffy was sitting
right next to her. “Oh, sorry! Buffy, this
is my friend, Paul… or Pauly. Pauly, this
is Buffy, an old… well not that old, friend
of mine.” He grabbed Buffy’s hand and
kissed the back of it. “It’s a pleasure to
meet you, Buffy!” She just barely retained
from rolling her eyes at him and instead
just smiled and pulled her hand back.
“Likewise.”

“Well then, maybe we should get going.
I thought we could go see a movie or
something like that?” Alyssa asked Buffy.
“Yeah, that sounds good.” *Anything
to get away from that weirdo who keeps
staring at me,
* she said to herself as
she noticed that Pauly was still staring at
her like she had a frog glued to her nose!
They got up and headed for the door! “Bye
Pauly, tell Will I said hi.” Alyssa waved over
her shoulder as they stepped out into the
cold, night breeze.

Just then, William came out from the back
and went to Pauly. “So mate, where’s
this Wonder woman you’re so enthralled
with?” He shook his hand in front of Pauly’s
face who was staring at the door.
“Sorry, pal! You just missed her and Aly,
said they were going to the movies or
something.” Will just shrugged and went
back to his work while Pauly kept staring
at the door.





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