Buffy wasn’t surprised that her friend would slap a price tag on helpful advice and try to go out and sell it. Anya’s done if before on numerous occasions, and it didn’t even matter to her who the person was. If you wanted proof, ask Xander…hell, even Buffy’s kids had been subject to Anya’s will to get money.
“Anya, I don’t need to pay you money to find out what a guy likes.” Buffy groaned. She still couldn’t believe she hadn’t changed the subject yet—that she was actually encouraging Anya to continue blabbing her words of wisdom for all to hear.
“Well obviously you do. If you did, William would have gotten his happy by now.”
Buffy looked to the ceiling of the coffee shop, up at the high heavens, and whined, “Why me?”
“I know a great place that you can get all kinds of costumes and props.” The embarrassed blonde buried her hands in her hands and let out a weak growl.
“Oh!!!” Anya jumped up in her seat as she instantly though of something, “There is a great sex store in LA that will have everything you’ll ever want; I think they have a website too.”
“Anya!” Buffy gasped, moving her hands away from her blushing cheeks and looking around at all the customers in the store, “Shh!!! People…people will hear you and they’ll kick us out! Could you image the gossip this will cause in a little town like this if they hear us? I can see it now on the local news, ‘Tonight at six, two local women thrown out on their asses by a Starbucks employee for talking like perverts.’”
“Oh please!” Anya waved her hand at Buffy’s silly talk, “Like people in here are not eavesdropping just to find out where ‘Well Blow Me Down’ is.”
“What?!” Buffy gasped in a whisper, she gripped the edge of table when she nearly fell out of her seat. ‘That can’t be the name of the store’ she thought.
“That’s the name of the store.” Anya explained with a shrug, “They are big on pirate theme things for some reason, but don’t worry about it… they have other stuff too, stuff that is not piratey.”
Before Buffy had a chance to stop her wondering mind, a mental image of Xander with an eye patch, a parrot, and a captain’s hat flashed before her eyes. ‘Oh god, I can never look at him the same again!’ she thought with horror.
“You want the website address? I can forward it to you via email.” Anya asked. She chose to ignore her friend’s shocked and freaked out expression on her face-- she was use to having this affect on a number of her employees when she went on and on about her fantasy’s and sexual goals.
Buffy got up from her seat without a word, her face was beat red and she still had a rather dazed look. She could feel her heart was beating like a jackhammer in her chest, and she had an urge for something cool to drink. “Umm…can we go and talk about this somewhere else…please?”
“Oh fine!” Anya rolled her eyes, “But you know, one way to stop being boring is being able to talk about sex casually.”
*~*~*~*~*~*~
“I’m not saying William was bored.” Buffy started, “He may not be.”
Anya took a big slurp out of her new iced coffee as the two girls walked out of Starbucks and ventured down the sidewalk. “But you have your doubts huh?”
“I shouldn’t have said anything.”
“Who got you thinking about his anyway?” Anya asked while her eyes scanned a pair of 3 inch heals in a display window at a shoe store.
“My old high school friend, Cordelia. She is divorcing a guy I use to date. Seems her husband was a bit bored with the whole ‘loving family scene’ and decided that he was better off without them.”
“What a jerkass…” Anya scowled, “…and this is what got your mind running wild with the idea that William will turn into that Dumbo?”
“I don’t know!” The whine coming from Buffy was clear indicator that she was frustrated and tired of her mind nagging her with doubts. She wanted to tell her mind to ‘shut up and go back to normal’, but at the moment the voices inside her head were winner the battle against what her heart truly knew. “I mean it makes sense right? You do the same thing everyday for eight years and then bam--you wake up one morning and find yourself asking ‘What am I doing with my life? Could I have more?’”
“William isn’t a jerkass Buffy. He doesn’t take you, Matt, and Sarah for granted…right?”
“No!” Buffy quickly said; she knew for a fact that he adored their children. “He loves them…and me…just…well, last night after we were done washing dishes…”
The previous evening…
The man that stood on the opposite side of the Pratt’s front door raised an eyebrow when he was greeted with a laughing wet shirted curly haired brown man and a smiling petite blonde with wet jeans.
“Umm…hi.” The stranger said with a friendly smile. ‘What people do in the comfort of their own home is their own busy’ he reminded himself as he eyed the bubbles of soap attached to William’s shirt.
“Umm…hi.” Buffy said with questionable look. She glanced down at her wet clothes and blushed instantly. “Oh god…umm…this is just--” '
'A dish washing game that got out of control?' she thought to herself.
“We were just washing dishes. Can I help you?” William explained quickly, covering for his wife’s embarrassment of the situation.
“I’m sorry I came over here so late, but I don’t get off work till 7 and well… I’m here about your ad” the man explained and held up a rolled up newspaper.
“Ad?” Buffy asked, “I think you have the wrong house maybe—“
“Right. The motorcycle…you interested?” William interrupted and stepped outside the door.
“Ya, I’m trading my car in---thought it was best with the gas prices and all…”
“Right. It’s the garage. I’ll show you.” William said as he handed Buffy his wet towel.
“Umm…Will?” Buffy asked.
“I’ll be a minute love.” William said without further explanation. As he kissed her forehead and went out the door, Buffy could hear William talk with the stranger about gas mileage and the history of his bike.
“So he decided to sell old Black Beauty huh?” Anya took a guess half way through Buffy’s story. The two girls were strolling through a clothing store and checking out the new summer bathing suits. When Buffy picked up a one piece solid black suit, Anya quickly snatched it out of her hands before she had a chance to look at the price tag.
“No, no, no…” Anya said and placed it back in the hanger, “Unless you’re going off to teach Sarah’s swimming class, I’d stay clear of anything that looks like that. If fact, stay clear of this entire rack.”
“What’s wrong with it? It’s…”
“So wrong that I can’t believe that it made it into the 21st century.” Anya openly said. A few feet away from them, a lady in her mid 60s that was holding the exact same bathing suit that Buffy was, but in green. “Oh you know I’m right” Anya said to lady that obviously overheard her.
The lady snuffed Anya and walked toward the casher with her bathing suit.
“Must you always do that?!” Buffy scolded Anya in a whisper, she felt like she was yelling at one of her kids.
“There is nothing wrong with being honest. People are just asking for trouble when they lie…I have no problem telling Xander he looks bad in the clothes he wears.” Anya said as examined a bikini top. “Do you think this would make my breasts look bigger?” she asked Buffy as she held up the top near her chest.
“How does Xander stand you?!” Buffy muttered as she grabbed the hanger from Anya’s hands and put it back.
“I told you, car sex…pool sex…”
“Pool? You didn’t say…oh god!” Buffy shook her head and went over the children’s section of the store.
“Get back to William and Black Beauty.” Anya said as she followed closely behind her friend.
“He’s selling it.”
“Kind of figured, but what’s the big deal? You’ve been hounding him for years to trade it in or push it into a lake or something. You finally got your wish.”
Anya could recall various times that she watched William and Buffy fight over what should be come of ‘Black Beauty’—the number of chainsaws Buffy swore she would hack up the bike with if he didn’t rid of it.
“I know…should be a dream come true, right? Finally being able to get rid of that noisy, dirty, dangerous, space-taking-up piece of junk.” Buffy would have used more adjectives for William’s most prized position, but she decided to say no more when she spotted a few young kids modeling clothes for their mother.
“So what’s the problem?” Anya asked as took the last sip out of her iced coffee cup and threw it in a nearby trash can.
“That bike meant so much to him…” Buffy started, “…and I just feel guilty that he just decided to get rid of it. The fact that he went ahead and did what I said without a fight makes me feel like, I don’t know…an ogre.”
“Let me get this straight…” Anya jumped in front of Buffy’s path, “You’re upset that your husband did what you wanted?”
“Well…when you put it that way—“
“There is just no pleasing you, is there?” Anya shook her head; the sympathy she had for Buffy earlier was now leaning towards William.
*~*~*~*~*~
“This would look cute on Matty…” Buffy said as she held up a striped polo shirt.
“Boys don’t want to look cute…”Anya said as she leaned back up against the wall, waiting for Buffy to be finished buying for Sarah and Matt. “…especially your son.”
“What does that mean?” Buffy laughed and picked up another polo shirt.
“Oh come on, his father at one time was ‘Spike the badass musician’.” Anya pointed out. A few hangers away she spotted a shirt that she thought would be more fitting for Spike’s son. “How about this?”
Buffy turned around from the display of little girl dresses and saw Anya holding up a young boys black t-shirt with a white scull placed in the middle of the fabric. “Very funny” Buffy muttered with a fake smile.
“Very Spikish, don’t you think?” Anya smiled and handed it to Buffy, encouraging her to buy it.
“Don’t think so…put it back.” Buffy shoved it back at Anya. ‘Who on earth would buy that for their child?’ ’ she thought as she headed towards to cashier.
*~*~*~*~*~
“Mmmm…that feels good.”
“I’m live to please, love.” William smiled against her ear as continued to rub Buffy’s back gently. As he hit a tiny knot in her back she let out a gasp, ‘How could I forget the aftershock of shopping…?’ Buffy thought to herself.
Her eyes opened with a lazy smile to take a look across their bedroom at the pictures displayed on the dresser. Between Sarah’s first birthday photo and Matthew’s soccer picture was a photo taken in college of Buffy and William’s friends. ‘Wow…that felt like a million years ago’ she thought when she saw a few old friends that she hadn’t seen in years and a few others she couldn’t even remember their name. She zeroed in on William’s hair and clothes, well, truthfully, Spike’s hair and clothes. The man in the photo was not the same man behind Buffy currently. William wasn’t wearing a chained necklace and big combat boots.
“What’s the matter?” William whispered softly as he felt Buffy tense up a bit.
“Nothing…”
“You’ve been saying that a lot an awful lot lately.” William said as he turned her shoulder around so she was facing him, “I didn’t buy it then and I’m not buying it now…so might as well tell me.”
“Really, it’s nothing.” Buffy admitted as she got up off the edge of their bed and moved into the master bathroom. William followed.
“Is it Cordelia?” William asked as he stood behind her, leaning back against the door, watching for a reaction in the mirror.
“Sort of…” Buffy said as she fussed with rearranging items near the sink, never once looking up in the mirror to meet his eyes.
“Got you thinking huh…?”
“Sort of…”
“About Angelus?”
Buffy turned around and crossed her arms over her chest. “A little…” she admitted with a small shrug.
“Aren’t you glad you took a chance on this handsome git instead of staying with that poofter?” he whispered as he leaned into her—resting his hands on either side of the sink counter.
“Handsome? I never said that.” She teased.
“But it’s what you’re thinking…don’t deny it.”
Buffy gazed into the blue eyes that she loved and considered to be hers...only sparkled for her. Inside his dark pupils she swore she saw spark of fire light up his eye. She shivered at the sight of it, at the remembrance of it. Buffy hadn’t seen that look in a long time, or maybe she didn’t look hard enough before. Whatever the reason was, those blue orbs had her attention now. ‘Have I been killing that fire?’ she asked herself.
“What are you thinking about?” he asked as he broke eye contact with her, moving his head towards her neck and around her earlobe.
“You…”
He drew back and smiled at her, “That’s always nice to hear.”
“What are you thinking about?” she asked as she placed her hands on his hips.
“Always you…” he said as he cupped her cheek and drew her closer to his lips.
The climaxing moment was short lived by a yell down the hallway, “Daddy!”
TBC…