The Humanitarian
Max returned home from a hard day’s work to find the apartment she shared with Cordy completely trashed. She just walked in and stopped short. It looked like a hurricane had torn through the place and Max was at a loss as to what happened. She wondered if burglars had ransacked the place, but nothing seemed to be missing. She then wondered if Phantom Dennis was in a snit about something, but she couldn’t sense anything like that. It was only when Cordy emerged from her room that Max began to get a glimmer.
"Oh, thank the Powers," the other woman sighed. "I was afraid you were never going to get home."
"Um Cordy," Max grimaced, looking over the other woman standing across the room. She was wearing her bathrobe; her hair wrapped in a turban style towel, obviously still wet, and was waving her hands in the air. Probably trying to dry her nail polish, Max decided wryly. "What’s going on?" Cordy glanced down at the nails, then continued her frenzied flapping.
"No time for that," Cordy shook her head. "Angel’s going to be here in an hour to pick you up."
"Huh?"
Cordy glanced up again at the stunned response before her features screwed up on her face. She barely restrained herself from giving her forehead a light slap. "Don’t tell me I forgot to tell you?"
"Tell me what?" Max demanded, definitely suspicious. Cordy tried to keep from grinning.
"It’s the Los Angeles Business Humanitarian Awards banquet tonight," she squealed. "I was supposed to go with Angel," she continued, seriously bending the truth. Every year, Angel Investigation was invited, for a hefty price on the tables, and every year, Angel declined. It was just as well, Wolfram and Hart always won. They all suspected that the law firm bought the award with discreet and not so discreet behavior. But now, with Angel at the helm, he’d need to be there to accept the award. Not for one second did Cordelia Chase consider that they might not win it. "But then I remembered a really important premiere that I need to appear at." She mentally crossed her fingers, then raced on before Max could say anything. "So I thought, that maybe you could do me the favor of going with him so he wouldn’t be dateless?" She put her most appealing, little girl look on her face. Max rolled her eyes and sighed.
"Does Angel know you can’t make it?" she demanded.
"I’ve been trying to get a hold of him all day, but I’m sure he won’t mind," Cordy assured her.
"Maybe you’d better try again," Max suggested. Cordy stared at her for a moment. She weighed her chances, knowing it would be easier to pull off the switch after Angel arrived at the apartment. But Max had that stony look in her eye and Cordy by now knew better than to push her luck. She sighed and carefully picked up her telephone receiver, mindful of her still damp nails. Now, if only…she dialed the number and was instantly gratified that Fred picked up. The girl was completely in on and supportive of her plan.
"Hey Fred, it’s Cordy," she announced unnecessarily. The other girl knew her voice by now and Cordy never announced that unless something was up. So Fred was on her guard immediately.
"What’s up Cordy?" she asked softly.
"Is, um, Angel there?"
Fred glanced about the room until he remembered that he had already started getting ready for his reluctant date. "No, he’s in the shower."
"Oh goo-! Uh, I mean darn! I need to talk to him about tonight."
"What’s the problem?" the girl moaned.
"Well, see, Max wants to make sure that he’s okay with taking her instead of me?" Cordelia explained hastily. Fred caught on immediately.
"That’s okay," she chuckled. "Just tell Max that I’ll tell him and if there’s a problem, he or I will call, if not, be ready to go. Of course he won’t call." She knew that her scheming friend would understand her little diversion.
"Oh thank you Fred," Cordelia laughed. "I’ll tell her. Bye now." Fred heard the dial tone and hung up on her end. She quickly scribbled two notes, both for Angel, hid one and then scampered off to her own room to get ready for the evening out.
Back at their apartment, Cordy told Max what Fred had ‘said’. "So you need to get ready, just in case. I even picked out a dress for you." Cordy was almost jumping up and down at the excitement of not only shopping for herself, but for Max as well. Max sighed and shed her coat and backpack as Cordy ran to get the dress. She was back in a flash and was carefully unzipping the garment bag. Inside was a very familiar garment. Max felt the bottom of her stomach drop out and she stared up at Cordy in stunned disbelief.
Cordelia watched her friend and suddenly got a strange feeling from the girl. "You don’t like it?" As soon as she’d seen the Raphael Banks, she’d known that Max would be perfect in it. As if in a dream, Max reached out one hand and pulled the material out of the bag. "I’m sure we can find something else, but…"
"No, it’s okay," Max whispered. It was exactly the same dress that she had worn to the wedding of Logan’s cousin. It held a lot of interesting memories for her. Not least of all, when Logan had told her to keep the dress because she was the most beautiful woman in the room in it. Max felt her reservations about the evening dissolve. After all, it wasn’t many chances she had for getting dressed up. Without any further words, she took the dress from her beaming roommate and made her way to her room, already planning on how to use make-up to cover the scar on her chest. That was something she definitely wasn’t ready to share yet. Cordy returned to her room and continued to prepare for the evening ahead
Over at the Hyperion, Angel was almost ready. He checked his watch. He had five minutes before he was supposed to leave to pick up Cordelia for the evening of torture she had in mind. Not that it would be torture to her, but for him. He just was not comfortable in public situations like the one she was forcing him into. He chuckled to himself. If a year ago, anyone had suggested Angel and his team going to an awards banquet, every last single on of them would have laughed out loud. But now, Cordy had her heart set on going. And of course her excitement had roused Fred’s and before the men knew what had hit them, they were coerced into the centuries old tradition of climbing into a monkey suit, going out, being incredibly bored, just to get a glimpse of a smile from the women in their lives. Angel glanced down at himself, resigned to being forced to accept someone else’s opinion on his appearance. He couldn’t really do an overall check, as he had no reflection, so he’d corner someone to make sure everything was straight on his tux. He headed upstairs to the lobby, which he found strangely deserted.
Angel glanced at the desk, noting a single piece of paper. It was addressed to him, from Fred. In it she instructed Angel to go ahead without them, the rest of the crew would meet him and Cordelia at the hotel where the banquet was being held. Angel sighed and listened carefully. He could hear movements above him, so he knew the others were still getting ready. He glanced outside, glad that the sun had set. Cordy would skin him alive if he were late picking her up. He left the note where it was and headed to his car.
As he drove over, he wondered how he’d be able to get out of this whole deal. Cocktails from seven to eight. Dinner from eight to nine. Awards at nine, then more mingling afterwards. He knew that Cordy would be thriving with all the attention there and nothing could pull her away from that. Well, if they were lucky, a case would come up and they could exit gracefully, and early. Angel chuckled to himself, knowing he’d never be that lucky. He pulled up to Cordy and Max’s apartment complex and made his way in.
He knocked on their door, wondering if Max was home as well. The door swung open and Cordy stood there, still in her bathrobe, a towel bound around her head. "Oh Angel, good, you’re here!" she smiled warmly and motioned the Vampire in. He stepped in and looked Cordy over, a mocking smile on his face.
"I know I’m not that good on current styles," he chuckled, "but even I know that the bathrobe look went out a long time ago, like, with the Romans." Cordy had to hide her grin. She smacked him lightly on the arm.
"I’m so glad you’re okay with this then," she sighed. He rolled his eyes.
"I’m not really okay, with it, but I-!"
She interrupted before he could finish his thought, deliberately misunderstanding him. "Oh, but Fred said she or you would call if it was a problem." He cocked his head, not understanding what she meant.
"Why would Fred call?" he demanded.
"I called her earlier, didn’t she give you the message?" Cordy demanded, hoping that Angel wouldn’t come down hard on her friend for the supposed missed message.
"No, she didn’t," Angel thought back, trying to remember if there’d been another message. But there’d only been the one. "What was the message?"
"I’m so sorry," Cordelia put one hand to her mouth, more to hide the grin that kept threatening to erupt. "I have a previous engagement tonight. I absolutely promised I would be there. But with the excitement over the banquet, I completely spaced it out." Angel smiled and mentally relaxed. Now he wouldn’t have to go. Then he realized that Cordy was still speaking. He knew from past experience that if he didn’t pay attention, her voice would only grow shriller. "…so Max said she’d go with you instead. You don’t mind, do you?" Her look was so hopeful, but Angel was too stunned to answer. Max was going to be his date? No, no date. She was just taking her friend’s place. He and Cordelia weren’t dating. Ergo, he and Max weren’t dating. It was just a dinner. A long, boring, pointless drawn out evening, maybe with dancing. Angel shook his head, Cordy’s voice piercing the haze in his mind as he pictured himself dancing with Max. "Angel? Is that okay?"
"Uh, yeah," he cleared his throat. "Yes, that would be fine." He nodded. "If she doesn’t mind, that is." Any protests or gentlemanly ways of letting her off the hook flew out of Angel’s head when the door to Max’s room opened and she stepped out. She was stunning. She was dressed in a strapless red gown, beaded at the top, flowing in the skirt, with little bits of material behind her that bounced as she walked towards him. She’d pulled her hair up for the evening, leaving a few wisps to trail down her neck. The rest of it was piled on her head, a wonderful array of curls. Angel gaped at her as she came to stand before him. There was silence until Cordy jabbed him discreetly in the side. "Max, you look wonderful."
"Thank you," she said slowly, a wide smile forming on her face. "Are you sure you don’t mind me taking Cordy’s place?"
"No, no," he denied. "It’s just fine." He scrambled in his mind for something to say that wouldn’t offend either woman. "How about you?" he finally decided on. "Please don’t feel that you have to go."
"Well, it’s been a while since I went to an event like this and I need to brush up on my snob-speak. I am so woefully undereducated in that arena," she chuckled. Angel smiled at her little witticism.
"Maybe you could give me some lessons tonight," he suggested softly. "I haven’t had much practice either." Max tilted her head to survey his handsome face.
"Something tells me that you were born with a few other traits to make up for that lack," she whispered breathily. Neither of them noticed Cordy almost bouncing on the balls of her feet in her glee at getting them together on a date.
"And what would those be?" Angel asked, unconsciously moving closer to the woman he was becoming desperate to know.
"Well," Max teased, "you know, there’s those incredible good looks of yours, your impeccable manners, and…" she trailed off, glancing down shyly.
"And what?" Angel smiled. She was so entrancing when she was coy like this.
"Well, I suppose it would be," she paused dramatically before looking up at him again, a merry twinkle in her eye, "that Blarney Stone you must have kissed goodness knows how many times." Angel’s eyes widened and he chuckled. She’d got him. They all knew it and that just caused him to laugh harder. Max had joined in, but Cordy was staring at him strangely. He stopped laughing and stared at his friend, puzzled. Cordy had tears shimmering in her eyes.
"What’s wrong Cor?" She just shook her head and quickly embraced him. He hugged her back, sharing a strange look with Max. Cordy let him go and stepped back, a tremulous smile plastered on her face.
"I just like it when you laugh," she whispered. "I don’t get to hear it enough." Angel smirked, knowing that recently, she was certainly justified. He hadn’t laughed a lot recently, and doing so felt good. Max grinned at the pair and lifted her evening wrap, matched red silk scarf and wrapped it around her shoulders. She picked up the purse that matched her beaded top and looked to her friend.
"Well, then I guess that’ll be our new mission for the next few weeks," she announced brightly. Angel held the door open for her and they took their leave, never realizing that the moment they walked out the door, Cordelia was yanking her robe and towel off, just as ready to go as Max had been.
Angel dutifully followed the beautiful girl down to his car. He opened the passenger door to his convertible and she slipped inside. He rounded to the driver’s side and smoothly pulled away from the curb, wondering what he could say to her. She turned suddenly in her seat, obviously perturbed about something.
"Angel?" she spoke carefully, not wanting to alarm him. A thought had just popped up in her head. "Cordy said that she had a premiere to go to tonight. But as far as I can remember, there isn’t anything scheduled until next week. And why would Cordelia be invited?" Angel glanced at his date, catching on immediately.
"You don’t think…" he began. Max smiled at him. That was exactly what she thought.
"She probably forced you into going to this dinner thing, she already had a dress for me, and I’ll bet anything that Fred was in on it with her," Max surmised. Angel nodded, and then concentrated on one of the things she’d said.
"One thing about Cordy is that she’s got good fashion sense," Angel commended his friend. "You look absolutely gorgeous in that dress. Of course, you always look gorgeous." Max blushed slightly, wondering if she should clue him in that she’d worn this dress before in her lifetime. But she swiftly decided against that. It was a whole different can of worms that she didn’t want to deal with on this night.
"There’s the Blarney I mentioned earlier coming into play," she teased. Angel smiled in return and chuckled.
"It’s not Blarney when it’s the truth," he told her seriously. She didn’t reply and he glanced at her blushing face again. It amazed him that he felt so easy and comfortable with this woman who had come so abruptly into his life. He had to admit that she was a welcome diversion from his brooding over Buffy. But slowly, she was turning into something more than a diversion for him. If anything, thoughts of Buffy were the distraction now. He had to face facts, she had moved on, just like he had told her to those many years ago. But none of that made it hurt any less.
"So," Max drawled, breaking his reverie. "How exactly should we get our revenge on Miss Cordelia?"
"We could always not go," he suggested, tugging slightly at his bow tie. He was gratified that Max laughed.
"I hate to inform you," Max giggled. "But under no circumstances should you ever suggest that a woman ditch an even that she just got all dolled up for. Unless you have a better offer of what to do instead." Angel ginned wickedly at that last part. It took him a moment to remember that what he wanted to offer was strictly forbidden to him.
"All right," he sighed. "Obviously Cordelia wants us to be together. We could just let her know that she needs to keep her nose out of our love life."
"Oh, we have a love life?" Max teased. Angel was glad that Vampire’s couldn’t blush.
"Well, uh-!" he stammered. "I mean-!"
"Don’t worry," Max interrupted. "I know what you meant." Angel was relieved that she didn’t sound upset as she spoke. He wanted to kick himself for blundering like that, assuming that she maybe felt or was starting to feel the same way that he was feeling for her.
"Well, I guess we could go and just see what happens," he suggested slowly. Max stared at him curiously for a moment before nodding her head.
A Familiar Face
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