One by one, they shuffled forward at a pace slower than a snail and with each step she felt her nervousness mount in triplicate. Clutching the manila envelope in her shaking right hand, she mentally repeated the mantra, “You can do this.” Sadly, the churning in her stomach said otherwise; there was just no way that she could face the hottest actor on television today and calmly ask for his autograph. “Nope, this is so not going to happen.” She said aloud when presented with a flash of the actor’s trademark platinum locks and the hearty sound of his laugh that twinkled down the line.
Just as she thought the sausage and egg biscuit from breakfast was going to make a repeat performance, she spied her two best friends as they wound their way through the crowd in her direction. “Xander! Willow!” Buffy cried when they thankfully stopped by to see how much longer she was going to be. Grabbing hold of the floppy haired brunette, she tugged him into the monstrous line and declared, “You have to do this for me!”
“What?! Have you lost your mind, Buff?” Xander Harris replied, obviously bewildered as he pushed the envelope back at his best friend. “No way! You’ve been yammering on about meeting him for like ever!”
“Nu-uh. Can’t do it, not gonna happen. And you have to since you didn’t get me a birthday present; consider getting his signature a belated gift to me.” Shoving the package back into his hands, she jumped out of the line and pushed him in with both hands.
“I so did to give you a present!” He cried, ready to argue until the tiny blonde cocked her eyebrow at him menacingly and replied, “A hug doesn’t count when it’s the only thing you bring, dork. Seriously, please do this for me, Xan. I’m going to make like the biggest idiot out of myself if I go up there. He’ll say hello and I’ll be lucky if I can manage even one syllable. Not to mention the overabundance of drool if he smiles at me…and oh God, I don’t even want to think about what will happen if he hugs me. He loves to hug his fans! No! Guys, I can’t….one touch and I’ll just melt into a big pile of Buffy-goo! Please, please, pretty puh-lease!”
Knowing full well that he could never say no to Buffy, Xander accepted his defeat with a shrug; ignoring the amused chuckles of the final member of their trio, Willow Rosenberg. “Put a cap on it, Wills. You have to deal with her while I wait in line.” Gaining just the slightest amount of satisfaction as the redhead’s face grew paler than normal; he laughed quietly to himself and settled in for the long haul as the girls headed towards the restrooms.
Finally, it was his turn to step up to the most popular table at the convention and he did so with gusto; proudly handing the actor the picture that Buffy had painstakingly picked out. “Could you make it out to Buffy, please?”
Eyeballing the man in front of him, Spike Thorne cocked his eyebrow amusingly and replied with a deep English accent, “Please tell me your name’s not Buffy, mate. Or were your parent’s hoping for a girl?”
“Hey now! I am very much the owner of all my male parts! It’s for my friend, Buffy. She kinda chickened out and made me stand in line for her.” He hastily replied, tilting his head in the girls’ direction.
“Ah-ha, very well then. And, pray tell, which one of your lovely ladies was so frightened by me that she couldn’t even approach me herself?” Spike inquired with a devilish grin; a plan already forming inside his evil mind.
“You see the little blonde…the one desperately trying to pretend like she’s not dying to know what you’re saying to me? That’s Buffy. Why?” Confused by the actor’s questions, Xander peeked over his shoulder and looked at his friends who were leaning against a pillar about thirty yards away. Turning back to Spike, he was shocked to see that the actor had stood up from his chair and rounding the table in the direction of Buffy and Willow. Hurrying to catch up, he asked, “Hey, wait! Um, whatcha doin’?”
“Jus’ wandering over to say ‘ello to an adoring fan.” Spike answered, deftly maneuvering his way through the crowd towards where Buffy stood. As he closed in on the petite blonde and took notice of her delicate, yet beautiful features, he realized that what had started out to be an innocent prank was quickly turning into something much more. Quickening his pace, he narrowly dodged a teenaged girl dressed up as one of the characters from his show, being taken out by a group of children with one harried chaperone lagging behind and somehow still managed to not trip over the tail of an unidentifiable creature before zeroing in on the beauty just in front of him.
Buffy was doing her best attempt at not being obvious, slyly glancing out of the corner of her eye while leaning against a nearby pole and chatting with Willow. However, during one brave sneak peek to check on Xander’s progress she found herself locked in a heated glance with the very much drool worthy man of her dreams as he made his way through the crowd to where she was standing. Gasping with shock, Buffy quickly snapped her head back around and fixed hr wide eyed stare on Willow. “Oh my God! Wills, he’s coming this way!” She asked, clutching her friends arm as her heart hammered wildly in her chest and breathing quickly became an issue. “Please tell me I’m seeing things!”
“Nope, ‘fraid not, Buff. Spike Thorne is definitely heading this way, with one very flustered Xander on his heels.” Willow confirmed calmly as she slurped up the remaining dregs of lemonade. “So, do you plan on not breathing until he’s gone?”
“Shut it, Will! Why’s he coming this way? What did Xander do?!” Buffy cried, frantically straightening her clothes and fussing with her hair. “What do I do?”
“I’m going to go with breathing, then maybe something suave like hello or something.” The redhead replied with a sugary sweet smile. For as long as their favorite show, Joan the Vampire Slayer, had been on air, which was going on four years now, she and Xander had both been forced to endure countless hours of gushing from Buffy about the ‘dreamy’ Spike Thorne. It wasn’t that Willow didn’t find the thirty-something actor, who played a reformed evil vampire on a quest to prove his undying love for the Slayer, attractive; for he most definitely was the epitome of the perfect male specimen, with his chiseled cheekbones, slim muscular build and startling cobalt eyes. However, the petite redhead had harbored a secret crush on the Slayer herself for many years and was beginning to think she might be gay. “Hmm…seems he’s got his sights on you, maybe I should leave you two alone?”
“Don’t you dare.” Buffy hissed as she dug her nails into Willow’s arm hard enough to halt her friend’s escape attempt and pull her back next to her just in time to appear calm and collected when Spike stopped in front of them.
“’ello, cutie.” Spike drawled. Tilting his head to the side, he visually appraised the stunned female, deciding that she was even more beautiful up close and he was very much interested in anything she had to offer. “So, luv…what’s this about you not wanting to talk to me?”
Standing there frozen in place doing her best impression of a guppy and making monosyllabic sounds, Buffy was completely dumbfounded by the fact that Spike was talking to her. Thankfully, Willow struck quickly with a well placed poke to her side and jarred her out of the daze. Stammering, she replied with a very eloquent, “What? I mean…huh?”
“What my word challenged friend means is that she wanted very much to talk to you, but let nerves get the best of her.” Willow interjected, saving Buffy from further embarrassment. Sticking out her hand, she continued, “Hi, I’m Willow and Buffy’s just a bit shocked, she’ll be ok soon. I think.”
“Nice to meet you, ducks.” Spike replied earnestly. “Do you think she’ll be out of her stupor by say…eight o’clock tonight?” At Willow’s confused nod, he elaborated, “Good, then tell her to be ready and waiting, I’ll be round about then to take her to dinner. Are you all staying at the host hotel?”
“You’ll what? Um…I mean, huh?” Buffy sputtered as she hurriedly glanced at her silent friends then back to an awaiting Spike. “Dinner? You…with me?”
“Again with the ignoring of Buffy for the moment,” Willow jumped in, placing a hand over Buffy’s wide open mouth. “Yes, we’re staying at the Hyperion in room 214, and she will be waiting with bells on at eight.”
“Brilliant, although I’d suggest a dress for tonight instead of bells, might distract me a bit, yeah? We’ll save the festive wear for another night.” Spike replied with a saucy smirk and wink. “Well then, better make m’way back to m’booth before the natives get restless. Kitten, until to tonight.” Taking Buffy’s shaking hand in his, Spike placed a feather soft kiss to the back before placing the coveted autographed picture safely inside and heading back to his station.
A few seconds passed before Buffy was able to croak out, “Did I just get set up on a date with Spike Thorne?”
TBC...
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