“Buffy sounds like a smart girl,” Anne said later while she sipped tea and poured over the few photo’s William had of Brandon.
“She is,” William couldn’t help but gush.
“And your son is absolutely gorgeous…” Anne gushed, “My grandson,” she got a faraway look in her eyes. “When do I get to meet them?”
William fidgeted in his chair and busied himself with collecting the photo’s back in the album he’d bought specifically to keep photo’s of his son in. “I don’t know, Mum.”
The sound of the clock and Giles’ muffled voice talking to Angel in the next room were the only sounds in the apartment. William itched for some background noise and stood to put the TV on.
Anne sat at the dining room table and watched her son, studied him with that acute eye and William braced himself for the onslaught of questions that she’d have now that they were face-to-face.
“You love her, don’t you, William?”
Here we go, William thought.
“Cecily?” William joked, turning on the TV. “No.”
“Come sit down. Don’t hide from your mother. I know you, William.”
William sighed. “Yeah, I know you know me. Doesn’t that come with the territory?”
“Not necessarily.”
William slid back into his chair. “What do you mean?”
“Well, do you know Brandon?”
“What do you mean? Of course I know him. He’s my son,” William answered indignantly.
“Do you know his schedule? Do you know what makes him laugh? Cry? Do you know the things to do to make him stop crying? Do you know when he takes a nap? When he goes to bed?”
“Well,” William said thoughtfully, “I know he likes it when I hold him. He smiles at me an awful lot.”
“That’s a good first step. Why don’t you have a place where he can stay here, hmm? You’re his father, you need to make a room for him, William.”
William ran a hand through his hair and sighed heavily.
“Anne, for heaven’s sake, leave the poor boy alone. We haven’t even been here an hour yet!” Giles admonished his wife. “Things are precarious right now with the Adams’. If he starts bringing a child round here, those sharks will be all over it, ready to smear William’s name as well as Brandon’s and the young lady.”
“Buffy,” William offered.
“Right. Buffy. Angel and Lindsey are working on Cecily’s attorney right now.”
William smiled. “I know Dad. Seems the bugger isn’t helping matters by not putting the pressure on her to sign. He’s playing games.”
“That’s why he’s their attorney. Those that play dirty always have someone to pay them to do it. Angel and Lindsey will do what they need to do to put the pressure on him as well, I’m sure.”
“Meanwhile, she is trying to single-handedly ruin my life and Buffy’s. Do you know that I’m virtually un-hirable in this city? I can’t get a fucking job anywhere and then Buffy nearly lost hers because of Cecily. She had pictures, Dad, pictures of Brandon, pictures of me and Buffy and Brandon together.” He turned to his mother, “That is why I can’t have a room here for him. Not yet. Not until those papers are signed. Once that happens…she can’t touch me, she has no more sympathy vote.”
“That’s not true, son,” Giles amended. “She will for she is an Adams, however, people will lose interest in the ‘woman scorned’ routine quick enough. What jobs have you tried for?”
“Just about every marketing firm in the city.”
“Have you considered trying something else? You have a strong background in English studies and writing. Perhaps something in that field?”
William stopped and stared, feeling stupid. “No, I haven’t tried that.”
Giles grinned sympathetically. “Sometimes when we meet a few obstacles like that, we tend to start seeing the forest before the trees.”
William shrugged, “I guess. It’s just what I’ve done for so long. Plucked out of school and placed in hell.”
Giles chuckled. “Well, now it’s time to find your own hell instead of one that’s been made for you. Let me take a look at your resume.”
“Dad, you don’t have to do that. I’m not a child.”
“I didn’t mean to insinuate that you were,” Giles bristled.
“Now who’s poking their nose where they don’t belong?” Anne asked dryly. “Listen, William, it’s not that we don’t think you can handle these things, we just want to give you the benefit of our experience. In some ways, you’ve not been connected the world having been under their thumb. There are certain privileges that come attached and ready made when you have a name for yourself as the Adams’ do. We just want to look out for you, dear. You sounded so lost and bereft on the phone, we want to do what we can to help.”
“I understand that, Mum, but…but I don’t want you doing everything for me the way they did. I want to be able to stand on my own two feet and walk like a man for once,” William explained.
“You have to learn to crawl before you walk, son,” Giles said wisely.
William rolled his eyes. “I know. Unfortunately, I know. I just don’t have to like it.” He hated it, in fact. His mother was right about how he’d been kept from the world in some respects. He felt as if he’d been stripped bare and all the things he’d known as his reality once upon a time had shifted and changed. He had a whole new world laid out before and there were a lot of things in it that scared him. As much as he thought he was much more cultured and in tune with life than the Adams’ had been, he was figuring out that there were a still a lot of things that he didn’t know – and was learning every day. He was his own man all right, except he wasn’t quite sure who that was.
“It will get better, William, you’ve just got to give it a bit of time is all,” Anne assured him.
“I just feel like I’ve been out of touch with the world in so many ways for so long…I feel as though I were leading someone else’s life and now I have no choice but to be me and I don’t know who that is,” William confessed. “All I know is that I love my son and …”
“And you love that young woman,” Anne said softly, reaching across the table and patting her son’s hand. “Don’t you?”
William took a trembling breath and nodded, “I do.”
“Does she know, William?”
“No, I can’t… I can’t tell her that.”
“Why ever not?”
“Anne, honestly,” Giles scolded once more.
“No, Dad, it’s all right. It actually feels really good to be able to tell someone. I haven’t had many to talk to about this.”
“Tell me dear, why can’t you tell her? Wouldn’t she be happy to know that you love her? Anyone I think would be happy to know someone loves them.”
“Not necessarily by me, Mum. Not after what I did to her. How I lied to her.”
“Have you been honest with her since then?”
“Since she came back in my life? Yes.”
“Continue with that then. Show her by your actions and not your words for now.”
William smiled, “Thanks, Mum.”
“So, when do I get to meet my grandson and the woman that stole my son’s heart, hmmm?”