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Willow said gently, "Aren't you supposed to be doing your homework in the library?"
Buffy grinned at her. "I'm dawdling. With my friends." Playfully she caught Xander's arm between her
own and cosied up to him.
"Works for me," Xander said happily.
Just then, Cordelia, in a mad dash to make some kind of grand exit or grand entrance, bashed into
Willow and didn't even register it. As the Scooby Gang mumbled about her bad manners, she tripped
down the stairs.
A very wicked-lovely black BMW, fully loaded with a moon roof and all the other good stuff, pulled up
to the curb. From where she dawdled, Buffy could see Cordelia's reflection perfectly mirrored in the
sleek black exterior as the self-proclaimed Slayer of Dating took off her sunglasses like an aspiring
spokesmodel and flashed her very large smile at the tinted window.
Oh, God. He had driven his Beemer to see her andeverything. The tinted window rolled down and
there he was, handsome, wealthy Richard Anderson, and he spoke the magic word: her name.
"Cordelia."
She smiled hugely at him and never blinked, just as Doctor Debbi instructed. "Hi, Richard. Nice car."
Some guy was sitting next to him, not as cute, not as fashionable. Cordelia didn't pay any attention to
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him as Richard said, "So, we're having a little get together tomorrow night at the house."
The house. Their fraternity house. She followed his lips, his eyes, his dimples. He glanced at his friend,
then to wherever his friend was looking. But that was okay. As long as she didn't look elsewhere she was
doing what she was supposed to.
Richard was saying, "And it's going to be a really special evening."
Now,Cordelia told herself, and let forth with a lovely trill of laughter: "Ha-ha ha-ha."
Richard blinked and said, "Excuse me?"
Mmm. She had laughed wrong. Recovering, she renewed her efforts to never take her eyes off his face
and said, "Oh, I'd love,love to!"
Richard looked past her again. "Who's your friend?"
Cordelia turned. Buffy was smiling and laughing at some idiotic thing that loser Xander was saying. She
did a mental double-take.What? Did he actually mean Buffy the Chosen Psycho-loony?
"Her? Oh, she's not my friend," Cordelia announced.
Richard's friend spoke for the first time. "She's amazing."
"She's more like a sister, really," Cordelia amended without missing a beat. "We're that close."
Richard smiled at her at Cordelia, the girl he was supposed to smile at and said, "Why don't you
introduce us?"
Fuming on the inside, gazing and smiling for all she was worth, or rather, allRichard was worth, on the
outside, Cordelia gritted, "Okay."
Xander said, "Okay. So tonight, channel fifty-nine. Indian TV sex, lies, incomprehensible story lines.
I'll bring the betel nuts."
Buffy was psyched. Another quiet evening with her two best friends and something weird but not fatal.
Her happy little notion of heaven.
Just then Cordelia walked up, grabbed Buffy, and started to haul her away. "Come on," she hissed.
"Richard and his fraternity brother want to meet you."
Buffy stood her ground. "Well, I don't really want to meet any fraternity boys."
Cordelia gave her a venomous look. "And if there was a God, don't you think He'd keep it that way?"
Cordelia renewed her hauling.
"Hey," Xander called after them, "I believe we were dawdling here."
And here was Cordy's love slave out of his rich kid's car. He flashed a full set of bonded porcelain at
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Buffy and said, "Hi, sweetheart. I'm Richard. And you are?"
"So not interested," she said with feeling. She turned to leave. She only had a few minutes of freedom
left, and she most definitely did not want to waste it on this Ken doll.
Cordelia grabbed her wrist. "She's such a little comedienne!" she chirped, digging her acrylics into
Buffy's upper arm.
"What, she likes to play hard to get?" Richard asked.
"No, Richard." This was the other guy who had been in the Beemer. "I think you're playing easy to
resist." With that as her getaway line, Buffy walked away.
The other guy stepped shyly in front of her and said, "Feel free to ignore him. I do all the time."
Buffy hesitated. This guy seemed a little more normal.
"I'm Tom Warner," he said. "I'm a senior at Crestwood College and I feel just like a complete dolt
meeting you this way." He crossed his arms. "So here I stand in all my doltishness."
Xander, eavesdropping, said to Willow, who was also eavesdropping, "Right. Like she's gonna fall for
that."
Okay, I won't stake him,Buffy thought. Here was a guy who talked the nice talk. Who was actually
being real. Who truly seemed interested in her.
"I'm Buffy Summers," she told him.
"Nice to meet you. Are you a senior?"
She wasn't fooled . . . maybe, but it was nice of him to pay her the compliment anyway. "Junior."
"Me, too," he said brightly, "except that I'm a senior, and I'm in college." He grinned. "So we have that in
common." Then he added, "And I major in history."
"Mmm. History stumps me," Buffy admitted. "I have a hard enough time remembering what happened
last week."
"Nothing happened last week. Don't worry. I was there," he assured her.
Buffy smiled, making a mental list of Tom's attributes: Witty. Friendly. Liking her. Not so bad, for a frat
boy.
* * *
Xander said to Willow: "She's going to walk away. Now."
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Tom must have sensed that Buffy was defrosting around the edges, because he said, "So my friend
asked your friend to this party we're having tomorrow night."
As if that were a huge, entertaining notion, Cordelia's most-fake laughter rang out across the land:
"Ha-ha ha-ha ha-ha."
He lowered his voice. "You know, actually he's not really my friend. I only joined the fraternity because
my father and grampa were in it before me. It meant a lot to them."
Xander was still sending his masterful ESP waves to Buffy: "Okay, boots, start a-walkin'."
"I know, I talk too much. Anyway," Tom went on, "they're really dull parties full of really dull people, so
would you like to come and save me from a really dull fate?"
Temptworthy, she decided, but she said sincerely, "Oh, I wish I could, but I'm sort of involved."
"Oh." He was let down. "Sure. Of course you are. Well, thanks for letting me ramble."
Buffy was sorry. She said warmly, "You know, people underestimate the value of a good ramble."
He smiled, grateful for her attempt to take the sting out the rejection.
"Buffy!" Giles called, clearly irritated.
Buffy turned. He was standing near the front door of the school, tapping his watch.
"Oh, I gotta go," she told Tom. "It was nice to meet you." She meant it.
His smile was genuine, friendly, unsmarmy. "Same here."
Willow nodded to Buffy as Buffy scurried away. The fraternity guy she'd been talking to was still looking
at her, obviously intrigued. Willow sighed inwardly. Must be nice. Scary, though. Those older guys.
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