Part 2: Way Back When
Angel felt as if a weight lifted off his shoulders as he finished with his little tale of woe.
“You didn’t!” Cordelia gasped, truly surprised by Angel’s revelation. She threw back her head and laughed until her sides ached with it. “Well, I guess that must’ve been the highlight of Buffy’s day.”
She was enjoying the irony a little too much, Angel noted, his lips twisting. “Enjoy it while you can. It’s your turn to cough up a little piece of the past.”
That put an end to the laughter. Cordelia was curled up on the couch facing him, her bare feet tucked beside her. Drumming her fingers against her thigh, she tried to come up with something equally worthy.
Grinning, Angel chimed in, “I’m waiting.”
“I’m thinking,” she answered back. “Ooh! Okay. Way back when Willow, Xander and I were in kindergar—”
“No, something more recent,” Angel prodded, “since I’ve known you. Something about me.”
Cordelia pointed out there was nothing about their agreement that stated she had to cough up anything involving him. Besides, he hadn’t confessed to anything about her. “You told me about Buffy.”
“That’s what you asked for.”
Damn. “Okay, so you’ve got me there,” she admitted. “I asked. You confessed.”
“So spill it, Cordy,” the challenge in his voice matched his smug look. He didn’t really think she was going to do it. “The deal was to be honest with each other.”
Nudging at his thigh with her knee, Cordelia warned him, “Just remember that you asked for it.”
How bad could it be? Angel wondered.
“The very first time I laid eyes on you, I decided that you were going to be mine,” Cordelia waited for a laugh, but got a wide-eyed stare instead. “At the Bronze. You came in looking so very hot. I so crushed on you for like— weeks. Until I got over it.”
She expected surprise, but Angel simply looked smug. “I knew that.”
“You did not!”
“Gotta be honest, Cor, I did,” he reminded her of the rules of the game. “You laid it on a little thick from time to time. How did that go again— ‘drive me home, Angel, I’m still fragile’?” he mimicked.
Cordelia flopped back on the couch pillows and propped her feet in Angel’s lap. She glared at him for a moment until he started to rub the sole of one foot with his thumb. Her pout spread into a smile and she let out a contented sigh, “Mmm, I like that.”
“So do I.”
TBC?….There’s plenty more to confess.
