AMARA -» angel

iii

c h a p t e r   t h r e e
"You can go and tell your little 'Watchers Organization' that I said no thank you."

Around noon, while I was working, an old man in dressy clothing walked in with a briefcase. Despite his attire, he looked a bit awkward and out of place. He scanned the store until his eyes landed on where I was standing, behind the register.

"Excuse me," he said with an English accent as he walked towards me. "I'm, uh, looking for Amara Young. I'm told she works here."

I furrowed my brows at him, looking him up and down. I didn't recognize him, so I wasn't sure why he was looking for me. "That would be me. Now who are you?" I quirked an eyebrow, suspiciously. "And who told you that I worked here?"

"Oh, okay. I'm Stanley Stonem, from the," he looked around to make sure nobody else was looking before whispering, "Watchers Council."

I nodded my head slowly. "Okay, and why are you here." I hadn't had a watcher since my first one. That time it didn't end well and I made it very clear that I didn't want another one.

"Well, to be your watcher, of course," he told me, like it was obvious.

"I don't want a watcher. I told them that."

"Yes, well, the thing is that before, when you were in Sunnydale, you had some sort of guidance with Rupert Giles there. Now that you're here by yourself, my supervisors think it would be...helpful to have me...guide you," he rambled, but all I heard was the underlying meaning of what he was telling me.

"They think I'm going to end up like Faith," I deduced.

"I didn't say that."

I glanced behind him and noticed a customer approaching the register with books in her hand. "Look, I'm working right now, so I'm going to just spell this out for you. You can tell your little Watchers Organization' that I said no thank you."

"Watchers Council," he corrected me.

"I don't care! Now have a nice day flying back to England or wherever it is you came from."

***

I was pulling on my black boots when I heard my phone go off, which was already odd. The only people who had my number were Buffy and Giles, and that was only for emergencies. I picked up my phone, only to find that it wasn't the one that was ringing. Instead, it was the rotary dial phone that came with the apartment.

That was even weirder. I had never gotten a call from that phone. Nevertheless, I walked over and picked it up.

"Hello?"

"Amara, hey! It's Cordelia," Cordelia's high pitched voice came from the other end.

"Cordelia? How'd you get this number?"

"I looked you up in the phone book."

"I'm in the phone book?"

"Mm-Hmm. Look, you need to come over and help with the Invoice."

"What Invoice?" I asked, still confused.