The idea appealed to her, but then she didn’t know how she was going to feel after all was said and done, and part of her needed some time to catch up to all that had happened between them. She was drunk on him, and it was hard to think.
“I could draw you a bath when you’re done, light a bunch of candles and make it all relaxing like,” he told her as he held her hand up to her door.
She smiled, “Edina can do that too.”
“Edina wouldn’t take the bath with you though.”
Buffy laughed, “Oh, I should hope not!”
William pouted. “I’m going to miss my girl.”
“You’ll see me tomorrow.”
“I want you to call me when you’re done, let me know how it goes.”
“Yes, sir.”
“You know, I can think of a way you could actually say that and it’d be really sexy—“
“Good night, William,” she said and kissed him fervently before releasing him.
“That wasn’t fair, pet. You got my motor revved with that kiss and now you’re gonna go?”
She smiled and stepped inside the house. “Yep!”
He sighed, looking as if he were admitting defeat. “All right. See you tomorrow morning, first thing.”
“Yes, dear.”
He grinned, “I like that. Now, one more for the road,” he said and pointed to his lips.
Kissing him quickly, she pulled away and waited for him to start his way back to his car before shutting the door. Leaning her back against the door, she smiled happily.
Edina came a second later, bustling up. “Miss! I thought you were to be home last night. Is everything all right?”
Buffy straightened, “Yes,” she cleared her throat. “Everything’s good. There was a change of plans.”
Edina eyed her. “How was your date?”
Buffy beamed, “It was wonderful.” She shook her head, “Sorry. I don’t want get all mushy and carried away here.” She thrust a plastic bag of paint and carpet samples at Edina. “We went shopping today. Want to take a look at these with me tomorrow in the rooms?”
Edina primly took the bag and did not bother to look inside. She smiled tightly. “Of course.”
Opting to ignore the behaviour, and hoping that the woman will grow into the idea of changing the house, Buffy informed her she would be taking a bath and then she was not to be disturbed.
“Of course,” Edina nodded and bustled off.
Feeling refreshed, cleansed and relaxed, Buffy strolled to the ballroom, feeling in no great rush to get there. Truth was, she wanted to see if maybe she could sense them anywhere else because again, she had not felt a thing.
It was rather disappointing, she had to admit. Not because up until that point she had particularly enjoyed having them around, quite the contrary, but now that she was at least attempting to make a civilized connection, she felt she was perhaps getting cheated.
What would have made them go? Her blatant refusal to speak with them for so long? Maybe they’d decided they weren’t going to wait around for her and decided to find more, ahem, pleasant accommodations. Not that she knew of many that had the same ability she had, however, what someone didn’t know, they wouldn’t fight or banish.
Tara had said that ghosts could be like children when they weren’t being paid attention to. So, maybe they’d taken a tantrum and decided to just play with her. Or, perhaps they knew what she was up to and decided to hide and scare her with theatrics to pay her back for ignoring them and being so rude to them.
As much as the prospect frightened her, the whole concept of connecting to them, she felt it was something she had to do; for herself, and for her life. She’d been running from it for what felt like forever, and now that she had the gumption to actually try, not to mention the resources, she might as well take advantage of it. She couldn’t forever be driven away by her “gift”.
Finally making it to the ballroom, she opened the door slowly and as quietly as she could. It was dark inside and hurriedly she flicked on the light, flooding the room with a harsh light that had Buffy squinting.
Taking the matches she’d found in her room from the pocket of her pink pyjama bottoms, she heaved a deep breath, and struck one. Placing it against the wick of the vanilla candle she’d selected, she said aloud, “Hi, I’m here. I’m here to talk with you in this room. This will be a safe place for us to talk. Please do not scare me and please understand that it might take me some time to get used to this.”
Rushing to shut the light off, Buffy sat next to the table with the candle in the chair she’d designated for herself and looked at the chair across from her.
Silence.
She shivered slightly. “I know you’re probably upset with me for avoiding you all for so long. I apologize for my rudeness and neglect. Unlike my sister, I don’t take to these things well. I spoke to a witch...I told her I wanted to try and communicate with you, work with you so we can all live her harmoniously, and she gave me this idea. I...Please come and talk to me. I promise I am not going to banish you from the house.”
More silence, and still she felt nothing.
“My name is Buffy. Like I said, my sister Dru lived here for quite a while. I know there’s probably been a lot of traffic coming through here and I assure you, there won’t be with me. I—“
The candle went out. Buffy held her breath, feeling cold drape over her like a bucket of water. She surely felt something now! With trembling fingers she reached for her matches and lit the candle again. Promptly it went out. Again, she lit it, and again it went out.
Okay, now that was just getting annoying. Growling slightly, she put the candle in her lap and lit it. This time the candle stayed lit, but a crash to the floor had her jumping out of her chair, sending the candle to the floor and wax spilling out. Thankfully, the candle went out. Running to the light she flicked it on.
The ceramic star plate the candle had been resting on had smashed to the floor.
Heart thumping, Buffy stared at the mess.
“Miss? Miss Buffy? I know you said you weren’t to be bothered, but I heard a crash. Are you all right?”
“I’m fine, Edina, you can come in.”
The door swung open and in bustled Edina. “Heavens what happened? Oh no, the floor!” She rushed forward, picking up the candle, and picked at the wax. “I’ll get the cleaning supplies.”
”I’ll help you,” Buffy offered.
“No, I can’t get it. Why don’t you go rest, Miss? You look as though you’ve had quite a fright.”
Buffy swallowed and nodded, and headed back to her room.
Sitting down on the bed, Buffy tried to make sense of what had just happened. How was it that she had not felt them for the past two days, and those theatrics happened?
Lying down, contemplating the actions they’d chosen to take despite her best efforts, Buffy began to drift off to sleep.
Her last thought was how Edina had been more concerned about the floor than her. She certainly made the house her life.
“Buffy, my love...” William purred, crawling onto her bed and stretching out next to her. He kissed her lips softly. “Buffy...” he sing-songed. “Wake up, kitten...”
He smiled when she moaned and turned away. Not to be put off, William crawled to the other side and stretched out again, this time he took a chunk of her hair and tickled her nose with the ends. Wrinkling her nose in the most adorable way, Buffy swatted at the hair and him. William started to laugh, not able to keep it in any longer.
Buffy’s eyes flew open and she stared at William. “Will?”
“Yes?”
“What – where –“ she looked around her. “What time is it?” she asked groggily, rolling onto her back and stretching her arms above her head.
William pounced on her, bracing himself on his hands, hovering above her. He grinned saucily. “It’s time for your morning wake up.”
Pouting slightly and moaning a bit, she wrapped her arms around him and brought him close. “Hi,” she murmured.
“You didn’t call me last night, luv,” he said gently, nuzzling her neck. “And then you never answered the phone when I called.”
“I didn’t even hear it ring. Did you call the main house?”
“I sure did.”
She pushed at him, “That’s odd. It would have rang in here.”
He rolled to the side and watched her climb out of bed and go to the phone on her nightstand. She picked it up and frowned, and then placing the receiver back, she followed the wire to the wall.
“It was out of the jack!” she declared, holding up the wire. “That doesn’t make any sense. How did that happen? It’s behind the nightstand. Someone would have had to move it to get the wire out of the jack.”
“Buffy?”
“Yeah?”
“Now would be a good time for you to tell me about the ghosts last night.”