"Fred...we need to have a little talk."
Fred closed her book quickly and looked at me with that grin of hers that shows slightly too many teeth.
"It's about Angel. He's not like other men. He has this thing going on with a curse and a blonde and well it all adds up to him being out of the market for the next few...hundred...years."
Fred looked sort of crestfallen and confused at the same time.
"Oh...well, I never really thought that he'd-I mean he's so brave and heroic and handsome and I'm just...me."
"No, Fred he's really fond of you, I swear. It's just...that's as far as it goes."
Fred flashed me a tight lipped smile and started to blink a lot.
"Fred?"
"Uh huh?" Slightly strangled.
"I'm...not like other girls. I'm not going to be in the market for guys any time in the next few...hundred..years. I'm really fond of you...and that's not as far as it goes."
Wow. I managed to say something that shut Fred up for thirty seconds. Oh scratch that...29.
"Oh. Oh! Oh well, Cordelia you know I don't really...I mean I'm not...well then again, how can I know, I mean I've never tried it and how can anyone really know what they like if they don't try, I mean before I came to LA I was sure I wouldn't like tacos and then my first visit to Taco Bell and it was just like wow and then there was the time mmph-"
The 'mmph' was because I'd just leaned over and kissed her and a kiss is as good as a shock when it comes to shutting Fred up. Trust me, I've had a lot of practice.
"Oh..." she said when I pulled away. "Oh."
I was tense. I'm not really good at being tense and you may have noticed I was being kind of the aggressor up to this point. Still, Fred could undo all that with a simple 'get lost.' She actually stayed quiet for two whole minutes and they have got to be the worst minutes of my life. Then she sort of smiled and slid over to me, resting her head on my shoulder.
"Oh," she said, smiling, and I grinned as I leaned my head against hers.
"I'm glad we had this little talk," I said eventually.