The house full of bachelorettes got one stress-free day without cameramen lurking about. There had been a thirty-minute meeting with the producers and directors and then the women were told to relax and enjoy themselves. Buffy and Faith had spent a good portion of the day in the exercise room with Kate and Gwen. After dinner, Buffy endured an hour in the entertainment room. The TV was on but the women chatted in groups and it was hard to hear the sound.
Unable to stand the bickering between Darla and Cordelia, Buffy got up and went upstairs to her bedroom to find Faith hosting a poker game with Fred, Lily, and Michelle. They invited her to join them, but she wasn’t in the mood. She watched for a few minutes and then decided to wander back downstairs. Without thinking about it, she ended up in the backyard and found herself straining to see over the fence to catch a glimpse of the crew trailers.
Buffy doubted that Spike was even there. She tried to imagine what he did during his time off. Did he like to kick back at home and watch sports or did he go bar hoping with friends? She envied him his freedom to come and go as he pleased. She couldn’t even call her friends and talk on the phone, because the network was concerned that details about the season would get leaked to the press before it went on air. Right now, she would love to curl up on the couch and have a long chat with Willow. After eight relatively idle days with a group of other women, Buffy was even missing work.
~ * ~ * ~
The next day, they knew something was going to happen when they were all strongly encouraged to go swimming together. The crew, cameras, and sound equipment filled every nook and cranny of the house again, but most of the crew followed the girls outside. Buffy tried not to look like she was searching for someone, but every room she went in, she took note of who was behind the cameras. When Spike was nowhere to be found, she didn’t know if she felt relief or disappointment. Before she went out back, she overheard Harmony asking Carlos where Spike was and the cameraman said that Spike had the day off and would be on set tomorrow.
Buffy was soaking up some sun in a chaise lounge next to Fred when the women started squealing and shouting. Angel stepped out into the backyard and slowly scanned the area. Harmony came rushing up and jumped on him, and after he good-naturedly peeled her off his body, he agreed to change and get in the pool with them.
He went back inside and there was a flurry of activity by the pool as the women adjusted bathing suits and sat at the edge of the pool, waiting to get in. Buffy got up with Fred and they joined Faith and Kate in the Jacuzzi. Angel came out in a pair of shorts and dove right into the pool.
Faith stared after him. “That man looks damn good without a shirt on.”
The rest of them voiced their agreement and then went quiet as they watched him interact with the women in the pool. Someone came around and offered drinks. Buffy took one but just held it in her hands.
Fred leaned in closer to Buffy and whispered, “Why are they always trying to get us to drink?”
“To loosen us up,” Faith answered and then tipped back her glass.
Cordelia laughed and ducked under the water in the pool. The other girls squealed and screeched as she held up her bikini top.
“Oops. That wasn’t supposed to happen,” Cordelia said a little too boisterously. “Angel, will you help me put this back on please?”
He was all too happy to help her. After tying the last string, he got out of the pool and walked towards the Jacuzzi. Fred squeezed Buffy’s hand under the water and bounced with excitement. Buffy smiled at Angel as he approached, but she wasn’t feeling the same excitement as the other girls. Faith was attempting to appear cool about it all, but Buffy could sense an underlying tension from her as the woman stared intently at Angel.
Cordelia and Darla managed to squeeze their way into the already crowded Jacuzzi and did everything they could to steal all of Angel’s attention. Angel seemed to love it and Buffy’s opinion of him went down another notch. She wasn’t the aggressive type. She wanted a guy to go after her, not the other way around.
“Are you all right?” Angel asked Buffy.
She forced a smile and said, “Yes. It’s just getting a little hot in here.”
Then she lifted herself out of the water to sit on the edge with her legs dangling in. Angel’s expression changed from concern to pleasure as he eyed her bikini. He cleared his throat, smiled at her and then turned to one of the other girls. A few seconds later, he stood up and held his hand out to Faith. She looked shocked when asked if she’d like to take a walk with him, she got up and took the towel that one of the crewmen offered to her. Buffy watched them walk around the corner with a cameraman right behind them. Then she had to endure the snide and catty remarks from the other women as the cameras rolled behind her.
Angel ended up spending time alone with about half the girls that day, but Buffy wasn’t one of them. Faith didn’t say what Angel had talked about or what they’d done when they were alone and when Harmony pressed her for information, Faith only glared at her and told her to go away.
Just minutes after Angel left for the day, Lily came running back out to the pool area waving an invitation card. They all stopped what they were doing while she read it for them.
“Harmony. Tomorrow afternoon, dress in your most comfortable clothes and let’s see if we can roll our way into love.”
Harmony jumped up, giggling and smiling like the Cheshire Cat. She grabbed the invitation from Lily and bounced into the house talking about finding something to wear. The rest of the girls fell silent, all wishing that they were going on a one-on-one date with Angel the next day. After a few minutes, the yard was again filled with voices as they speculated on what the word “roll” meant.
Cordelia snorted and told Darla, “I bet they’re going to go bowling.”
“I’m so glad I didn’t get that date,” Darla said. “I want to go on one of the big dates with a helicopter ride or a dinner date on a yacht or something.”
“Me too,” said Cordelia.
The next afternoon, Harmony was in her element, primping and getting advice on what to wear. Spike was busy following her around and he didn’t look at Buffy even once. An hour before Angel was to pick her up, Harmony brought down her suitcases and set them by door.
Every woman in the house stared at those bags and wondered if Harmony would get a rose on her date or not. If Angel gave her a rose on the date, she would get to come back to the house and would be guaranteed to go on to the next round. If he didn’t give her a rose, someone would come by and pick up her luggage and they wouldn’t see Harmony again. She would be out of the running.
Angel came in and said hello to the girls before escorting Harmony out to the limo. Buffy sat back on the couch and watched Spike slowly move around the room with his camera as he captured snippets of conversation.
Cordelia smiled brightly as she ran her fingers through her hair. “I don’t think Harmony is coming back.”
“I hope she doesn’t,” Darla said. “That girl is annoying.”
Buffy could not stand those two and once they got started, bashing one of the other girls, it got uglier and uglier. She got up to leave, but one of the directors called her over to what the girls in the house had dubbed the interrogation room. Every so often, one of the girls would be called into the room off to the side. She would be asked a few questions about something that had just happened or was about to happen and then she was to be openly candid with her answers.
She sat in the lone chair in the room and waited. They got everything set up and then asked her what she thought about Harmony. Buffy was honest, but she tried to be kind, knowing that her answers might end up on the episode. Harmony was a pain in the ass, but she was peppy and more tolerable than some of the other girls.
When they dismissed Buffy, she headed towards the stairs around the back way so she could avoid the cameras and the other bachelorettes. She paused in the hallway when she saw Spike leaning against the wall with his camera resting at his feet. He stared at her, but didn’t talk. She slowly walked by him, hoping he’d say something, but he just kept staring.
Just as she was about to turn the corner, he said, “So, you’re not talking to me now?”
She turned and walked back. “What do you want me to say?”
“I don’t know,” he said with a shrug. “I guess I should be the one to say I’m sorry. You know, for making a pass at you.”
He looked down then and she tried not to smile. Spike was so cute when he was sorry. She bit her lip and then said, “It’s okay. I … um … I was giving off signals that I shouldn’t have been giving.”
The doorbell rang, cutting off their conversation. Spike picked up his camera and headed towards the door and Buffy went the opposite direction, towards the stairs. She was half-way up when Fred called everyone to the living room with another date invitation in her hand.
Some of the women stood up while the others sat on the couches. Each one hoping that they were going to get to go on a date. Fred opened the envelope, silently read it and then smiled. In her charming accent, she then read it to her very attentive audience.
“Six of you and one of me, don’t let it get you down. I hope you’ll accept this invitation to party with me for a night on the town. Buffy, Fred, Cordelia, Tori, Kate, and Lily.”
Buffy’s excited smile faded when she caught a glimpse of Faith’s face before the brunette turned and then went up the stairs. For the remaining girls, there was only a one in five chance that they’d get the last one-on-one date with Angel before this week’s rose ceremony.
Later that evening, the house had gone quiet. The majority of the work crew had gone home. Carlos, John, and Spike quietly worked the house, going from room to room, the kitchen, the Jacuzzi, and the living room. Buffy was sitting on the couch talking with Fred when they heard the front door open. Cordelia raced down the hall to see if it was Harmony or someone to pick up her bags. They fell in behind her and watched as a man ignored the gathering crowd, grabbed a bunch of the suitcases by the door, came back for more and then shut the door.
“Wow,” Fred said under her breath. “Harmony gone. Just like that.”
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Author's Chapter Notes:
Betas: Mabel-Marsters and Tanit.