The group looked up when the front door to the Magic Box opened, admitting two young women.
"Sorry we're late everyone!" Cordelia said as she held the door open for the other woman. The other brunette woman carried in a white bag. "Fred saw a Taco Bell and well…."
"Sorry!" Fred said as she took another bite of her bean burrito.
As soon as they got to the round table Dawn looked at them. "Xander didn't come?"
Cordelia shook her head. "No, he's upset he couldn't come up with us, but one of the other guys got sick so he had to go help out."
"That's bull hockey!" Anya declared as she slammed the cash register closed. "He's just too chicken to face me!"
"Anya," Willow said annoyed from her spot near Tara. "I don't think that's it. He was the one…" "Damn right that's not it!" Cordelia said as she took a drink from a bottled water Buffy had given her. "His boss called last night and he had to catch a plane. We saw him off before we came here."
"Why are you defending him?" Anya demanded of the Vision Girl from LA.
"Because he's my friend!" Cordelia retorted getting annoyed.
"You're the girl I came to get vengeance for!" Anya pressed harder. "Why would you ever call him your friend?"
"Because," Cordelia said as she stood back up to face the former demon. "After the dress and Graduation we bonded again. But you wouldn't know that now would you?" Cordelia asked her as she got in Anya's face. "You were too busy setting a new land speed record out of here back then!"
"And he topped that record leaving after he left me at the altar!" Anya yelled back at her.
"Alright you two!" Buffy called out as she got between them. "Both of you just sit down, now!" The blond and brunette girls seemed locked in a stare down as they took seats around the table. Cordelia didn't want to leave Anya's dig on Xander hanging so she said. "Look Anya," she said as calm as she could. "Yeah those visions that the demon guy gave Xander were fake. But do you think for one moment Xander would even take the chance of hurting you like that?"
"Oh I see." Anya said not buying it. "He doesn't want to hurt me by beating on me, but leaving me at the alter... well that's just fine!"
"No it's not fine, and he knows it." Cordelia admitted. "At the time it was all he could think to do. It sucks sure, but I don't even know if he will ever risk a deep relationship with that hanging over his head. For the moment he travels so much for work that he's only in town for a week here and there." Cordelia just shook her head. "He's just thrown him self into his new job."
"Ah," Dawn asked the former Sunnydale resident. "What kind of carpentry job does he have that has him travel so much?"
Cordelia smiled as she looked at her watch. "Perfect timing." She said as she went over to the small tv on a cart nearby. Turing it to channel four, she declared "Xander's been working on a tv show!"
"What?!" Buffy, Willow, Anya, and Dawn yelled at that.
"Just watch." Cordelia said as she sat back down next to Fred.
A hunky looking man appeared on the screen. "Hey that's Ty!" Dawn squealed at the image of the man that many teenage girls had a crush on.
"Hi," the man said. "I'm Ty Pennington, and welcome to a new season of 'Extreme Makeover, Home Edition.' Today our group of skilled designers and builders will help a deserving family in Minot, North Dakota."
The image changed to show a group of about ten people. "It's Xander!" Willow grinned as Xander was shown in jeans, blue shirt and a yellow hard hat.
"I bet he does shoddy workmanship!" Anya grumbled as the other women watched as Xander lead a group of men in tearing down a wall.
Two hours later Cordelia and Buffy were out on patrol while Dawn, Willow and Tara were showing Fred the guest bedroom at casa Summers.
"Oh my god!" Cordelia said in awe. "It's the Saloai crypt!"
"What's so great about it?" Buffy wondered.
"It was back when you were… away that summer." Cordelia told the Slayer. "Xander and I hid back there when we were patrolling. We rounded third base back there."
Buffy looked at her old High School rival. "While you were patrolling!?"
"It was the only alone time we had before I went off to Italy for two months!" The former cheerleader said simply. "Besides it's not like I'm the only girl here who's did stuff in a cemetery."
"Point." Buffy admitted softly before she changed the subject. "You seemed a little quick to defend Xander earlier."
Cordelia nodded a tad reluctantly. "It's just ever since he moved to LA… I just have gotten to see what you and Willow had with him."
"What we had?" the Slayer asked.
"You know." Cordelia said. "The friendship thing. He and I didn't have that before we started making out like crazy. Now we go to movies and…" she turned to the blond. "It's just nice to have a friend I can do stuff with during the day. Mostly we talk a lot, or email when he's out of town."
"Back when Willow got the email from him saying he was hanging out with you and Angel," Buffy told her. "Anya was dead sure you and him got back together. She was sure you and him were going to come tonight holding hands."
Cordelia rolled her eyes. "Oh we're not near there at all!"
"So no hanky panky?"
"Well…" the Vision Girl stopped walking. "This doesn't get back to Anya?"
"My lips are sealed." Buffy said quickly.
"About two weeks after Xander moved he and I sort of did it." Cordelia said. "Since then it's become a sort of friends with benefits type of thing. But we are *not* a couple."
Buffy grimaced. "I defiantly won't be telling Anya that."
As they exited the main gate onto the sidewalk Buffy wondered. "I thought by now you'd have some Hollywood guy."
Cordelia shook her head. "Well there was one great guy that I kind of fell in love with, and he felt the same way… but it just wouldn't work out." She let out a heavy sigh. "Its sad really, I think we could have been good together. But you know how the love lives of demon hunters go… Well anyway, Xander helped me through it."
"Would I have ever heard of this great guy?" Buffy wondered.
"No." Cordelia said very quickly.