William hesitated. Who the hell was answering her phone? “Hello?”
“Hi! Buffy is tending to a soiled diaper right now and can’t get to her phone. Who’s this?”
“This is William,” he answered tensely. “Who are you?”
“I’m Riley Finn, a friend of Buffy’s.”
“I’ve never heard of you.”
“I just met her today at the bookstore.”
“You just made friends with her today at the bookstore?”
Anne came in the room then and placed a hand on his arm. “Son?” she asked softly.
What happened to Doyle? He’d gotten the impression that things were not going well, or rather not going at all, but who was this bloke that sounded entirely too cheerful and pleased with life? That was just insane.
“She done yet?” William barked into the phone and walked away from his mother.
“Uh…yeah, here she is.” Riley sounded nervous. Good.
“Hello?”
“Buffy, who the hell was that?”
“Riley--”
“Who is Riley?” William pressed impatiently.
“He’s someone I met--”
“At the bookstore, I know. I heard that part. What happened to Doyle?”
“What do you mean what happened to Doyle? He’s…Doyle. Why have you heard something?”
“Aren’t you dating him?”
“Well, no, not anymore, Will—what’s going on? Why do you sound so angry?”
“Are you dating Riley?”
Buffy burst out laughing and William narrowed his eyes. “No, Will, I’m not dating Riley. Riley is married. His lovely wife Sam is right here, with their child, Riley Junior.”
Now he felt like an idiot. “Oh.”
“Were you jealous?” she teased and laughed airily.
“Are you busy right now?”
“Well, we were just having some coffee cake and tea. What’s up?”
“I wanted to know if you would come to dinner with my parents and I tonight.” God, he felt like he was a pimply high schooler asking the most popular girl out. Funnily enough, he was the pimply high schooler that would have been asking Buffy Summers out if he’d ever worked up the nerve to do so. Course, he wouldn’t have been asking her out for dinner with his parents.
“Y-you want me to go out to dinner with your parents?” she stammered so cutely.
He smiled into the phone, “Yes,” he purred.
“Why?”
“Because I want you to meet them and they want to meet their grandson.”
“Oh my.”
“Buffy Summers, are you nervous?”
“Yes!”
He laughed, “Why?”
“Because it’s the parents…that’s a huge deal, Will. What if they don’t like me?”
“Impossible.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I do know that. My mum is already dying to meet you. If you don’t come out, I’ll have to hear it all night that she didn’t get to meet the woman that stole—that gave her a grandson.” He winced, hoping his near slip up of ‘stole his son’s heart’, went undetected.
“When did they come in?”
“This morning.”
“You’re unbelievable, you know that?”
“What?” he said defensively.
“You’ve known for how long they were coming?”
He swallowed, “Two weeks.”
“And I’m just finding out now? A little preparation would have been nice, William.”
He grinned. “I’m liking the scolding schoolmistress.”
She laughed, “When is dinner? I’ll get Brandon and I all gussied up.”
“Oh, pet, you really are a geek. No one says that anymore.”
“They do in my world, so bite me.”
Chuckling, William told her dinner would be in an hour.
“I’ll be there,” she told him. “Gussied up.” And she hung up before William could make fun of her once more.
What did one wear when one met the grandparents of one’s son? How did she exactly describe the exact nature of her relationship with William? What had he told them? Had he said, “Hi, I want you to meet the girl I had a one-night-stand with and now have a kid with”? Did he call her his friend? She hadn’t even told Riley and Sam the exact nature of her situation. That sounded funny. Her “situation”. Women did this sort of thing everyday, didn’t they? Okay, maybe not to this caliber, but they were single mothers, and it was always the same wasn’t it? It was described as their having a “situation”.
So, how did she go about describing William? Her friend? Just the father of her child? He felt like more than that to her. The exact nature of what “more” constituted, she was not willing to explore at that moment. There were still things – Cecily and her antics aside—that warranted Buffy’s hesitancy in delving into the game of “What are my feelings for William Giles?” She was afraid that once she opened that can of worms, everything would unravel—and more so than they had already. Considering all that had unraveled so far, she was thinking that would just bring on the apocalypse.
So, what the freaking hell was he to her?
Buffy hummed thoughtfully while Brandon lay on his blanket in the middle of her bedroom carpet, gurgling and playing with the toys hovering above him.
“I suppose I’m his friend, Brandon,” she told her son. “We’ve certainly been through enough so far to warrant that.” Even if I did hate him for a long time. Even if I do still hate him sometimes…or at least hate myself for not being able to hate him. God, I hate him.
In the end, Buffy decided on something simple and yet elegant. William had told her they were going to a “nice” place, but he was a man, so whom the hell knew what that meant. He could think Wendy’s was fine dining for all she knew. Although, he did just come out of an upscale lifestyle, so maybe he still held some of those “snob” tendencies.
Somehow though, she doubted it. So, she chose a mid calf-length teal skirt that flared and flowed and was quite summery, a white v-neck that had a respectable dip – there would be no cleavage pouring out – and a matching cardigan. Strappy sandals with a slight heel completed the look. She was dressed comfortably, and yet respectably. Just what she was going for these days. Brandon was a light blue jumper with little baby lions sprinkled throughout, and a matching cap that he kept tearing off. He even had a matching bib, and the blue brought out his eyes – his eyes that were just like his fathers.
The door swung open and there stood, who could only be, William’s mother. Buffy smiled brilliantly at her. “Hi!”
The woman smiled warmly at her. She looked like such a welcoming sort of woman – the kind that would bake cookies and have them and a tall glass of milk ready for you at the end of the day to unwind. “Hello, I’m William’s mother, Anne. So nice to finally meet you, Buffy.”
“Thank you,” Buffy said politely.
Ushering Buffy and Brandon in, Anne gasped in delight at the sight of Brandon. “Oh, Buffy, he’s so beautiful!” she gushed.
Buffy grinned fondly down at Brandon. “Isn’t he?”
“Come, come, put him down so I can get a good look at him.”
Buffy placed Brandon down on the sofa in William’s living room, smiling at Anne’s reaction to her grandson. She felt a pang of hurt; her own parents had yet to see him. They’d been appalled of how she’d conceived and it was as if they took on a denial sort of attitude to the whole thing – if they didn’t see it, it wasn’t true. They had barely even called to see how she was. So this, this was nice. At least Brandon would have one set of grandparents that were thrilled with his appearance into the world.
William and an older gentleman, whom she had to guess was his father, came in the room, William beaming at her. “Hey luv. I’m sorry we didn’t think things through well enough. We should have come to get you.”
“Hello, Rupert Giles, but you can call me Giles,” William’s father greeted her, shaking her hand firmly. “I take full responsibility for the inconvenience. I got it in my head to get a rental car for our stay and then of course wanted to drive around the city and see the sights I hadn’t seen in so long.”
Buffy waved a hand, “Really, it’s all right. I’m used to taking public transportation with him. I’m thinking the taxis don’t necessarily appreciate it though. I’m thinking of acquiring a car so that Brandon and I can just zip around much easier.”
“I know a wonderful car dealer in the city, I will take you to him,” Giles smiled, his eyes crinkling at the sides.
William rolled his eyes. “Dad knows everyone in the city and can always ‘get a deal’. You need anything while he’s here, just let him know.”
Buffy giggled. “I’ll be sure to remember that.”
“Rupert, come here and take a gander at your grandson!” Anne demanded, now holding Brandon up and cooing at him.
Buffy smiled broadly at William. “I love them,” she said quietly and turned to watch his parent fawn over Brandon.
“They love you too,” William whispered huskily in her ear.
She jumped a bit, goose bumps forming from his close proximity and the feel of his breath on her skin. “They just met me,” she whispered back.
“I’m their son. I can tell. Trust me.”
She looked up at him, at the tender and warm expression on his face and thought as she shuddered, Oh boy. I’m in big trouble. Those feelings she wasn’t ready to delve in and deal with, well, she had a feeling she was going to have to soon.