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CHAPTER 20 -- Pivotal Moment

Author’s Note: Ok, this chapter is long, but not as long as I originally planned (and promised). It’s my first week of school, so until I get a set schedule, I didn’t know when I’d have time to update, so I split the chapter in two so I could give you an update sooner. Don’t hate me -- happy reading! And a BIG THANK YOU again to everyone currently voting for “Game of Love” on Spuffy Archives!!!

Willow couldn’t help but smile across the front room of Fairytale as Buffy laughed at something Ben had said, jokingly placing a bridal crown with a three-foot veil on top of his head. Willow was glad Buffy had found someone. At least for now. Granted, she liked Ben, but he just didn’t seem to be a perfect match -- something Buffy deserved. He was more like a training-wheel boyfriend -- something to practice on until the real thing came along. Willow’s smile quickly faltered and she quirked a critical eyebrow at the couple. Buffy was engrossed in a conversation with Dawn -- a story about an adventure she had with Janice, and the result of the current high school dreamboat, Kevin, getting a plate full of coleslaw and lima beans on his varsity letterman jacket. From behind, Ben slid his arms around his girlfriend’s waist. Buffy smiled at something Dawn had said, gently extracting herself from Ben’s arms and immediately finding something vastly interesting behind her desk. Before Willow had the time to further contemplate their budding relationship, the bell signifying the opening of the front door sounded throughout the store.

A bride, crying out of happiness at all her dreams coming true, exited the store as Spike made his way in.

He lurched out of the hysterical girl’s way, her mother following closely behind. Spike’s brow furrowed at the sobbing girl’s entourage as it passed him, “How’s Sam’s Club’s favorite Kleenex customer?” he asked, walking into the store.

“Hey!” Buffy popped up from behind her desk, attitude instantly brightened at his entrance. At her reaction, Spike’s chest grew a little tighter and his confidence bloomed. Buffy made a bee-line over to Spike, throwing her arms around his neck and giving him a kiss just to the left of his lips. He returned with his own almost-kiss. It was their new thing. Spike wasn’t sure when exactly it had started, but these hugs and close kisses after not seeing each other for a while was their own tradition.

Pulling back, Spike ran his hands firmly up and down her sides, eliciting a giggle from the blonde in front of him, “How’s my girl?”

“Not bad,” she replied, leaning all her weight on the arms slung around his neck. He swayed them back and forth, Buffy completely trusting him not to let her fall. “I missed you.”

“I called,” he defended.

Buffy rolled her eyes, “Yeah, and talked to my mother and sister more than you did me,” she pouted.

“I can’t help it if your family finds me irresistible,” he smirked.

“We played poker again the other day,” Dawn chimed in. “You should have seen her.” Dawn made a face, further solidifying the fact that her sister was a horrible liar and card player.

“Hey!” Buffy yelped. “I was the pure image of composure.”

“Not unlike you that day on the hill . . .” Spike’s face broke out in a smile.

Buffy gasped at his insinuation, “Well I wouldn’t have went that fast if you hadn’t pushed . . .”

“I was steadying you!” he interrupted.

“I was on skates! That hill must have been at a ninety-degree angle!” she yelled, her own smile upon her.

“The face you made when . . .” Spike burst into laughter.

Buffy couldn’t help it -- she rolled into an uncontrollable fit of giggles, “And then the old woman . . .” Buffy couldn’t finish the sentence at the two laughed harder at the memory.

The blonde couple continued to reminisce in code. Willow shot a glance over at Ben, who stood off to the side, smiling uncomfortably, trying to get in on the joke that only his girlfriend and old friend shared.

Willow felt bad for the odd guy out, how he was barely acknowledged when Spike walked in the room. Spike continued to tease Buffy about their apparent mishap on one of their skating trips and she began slapping at his chest half-heartedly amidst her laughter. Spike turned his back defensively to Buffy and her pummeling hands. In response she jumped on his back playfully.

Willow continued to observe Ben’s dejected attitude. Even when Buffy and Spike hated each other, whenever one would walk into the room, the other would forget that anyone else was in the room and zone in on the torturing. Now, their relationship had grown. The torturing was gone, but that aspect of only the two of them in their own little world still remained.

“Oi! Watch it, Summers,” Buffy rode Spike in a zigzag fashion around the room, using the neckline of his t-shirt as reins, before parking him over by the desk and sliding off him.

“Ben,” Spike nodded in the direction of his friend.

“Spike,” Ben greeted back.

The guys began conversation as Buffy carried a dress over to the far corner, laying it down on the table, a smile in her lips.

“So . . .” Willow ventured over to her friend, “Where are you and Ben off to tonight?”

“Oh, just the standard dinner and movie. And then . . .” Buffy’s lips curled into a smile, “We’ll see.”

“What do you mean?” Willow looked perplexed.

Buffy glanced over at her boyfriend, who was across the room talking to Spike, “I’m going to sleep with him, Will,” Buffy bounced on her heels.

Willow didn’t look so excited. After what she had just witnessed with the Ben-Buffy-Spike dynamic, she was even more hesitant to say that Ben was Buffy’s perfect guy. Whether Buffy admitted it or not, she was a bit of a romantic. She had the one-guy-one-girl-forever innocence. You could see it in her wedding store, by the fact that she never had a boyfriend, and that she shied away from cereal-dating losers like the other girls their age.

“Don’t you think you should wait a little, you know, until you’re sure?”

The joy drained out of the blonde, “What? Will, you guys always treat me with kid-gloves when it comes to dating. You sleep with whoever you want!”

“No, Buffy, I’m just telling you not to settle.”

“What about Ben is settling?”

“What about Spike?” Willow countered.

Buffy squinted, “What about him?”

“Buffy, I just witnessed you blow off Ben when Spike walked into the room.” Buffy was a smart girl, always had been, but when it came to certain things, she was blatantly oblivious. “Buffy, he’s kind of in love with you,” Willow braced herself for a reaction. “And I think you like him too.”

Buffy deflated, “You have got to be kidding me.”

“Buffy, the way you two act around each other. It’s so obvious. Why don’t you just admit it?”

Buffy’s jaw dropped. What had brought this on? She knew she was the most inexperienced out of their little group, but she was also an adult capable of making her own decisions about her love life. First Spike showed up with his little “Get Buffy her first boyfriend quick” scheme and now Willow was pushing her in the opposite direction. That was it. Buffy was fed up with being everyone’s project. She had her own life, her own relationship, and the rest of them couldn’t handle their Little Buffy growing up, no longer everyone’s den mother. Confused and angry, she shook her head, “I have to go,” Buffy grabbed her coat, leaving the store.

Both men’s eyes followed Buffy out of the store, both unaware of what had made her so upset. Ben turned back to Spike, “I guess that’s my cue,” he shrugged, grabbing his own coat and heading towards the door.

“Yeah, guess so,” Spike replied distractedly, his gaze still on the place where Buffy had disappeared, all the while knowing it should be him, not Ben, running after her. It was a battle to keep both his feet glued to the floor.

When the door finally closed for the final time, Spike let out a long breath, eyes closing.

Willow’s voice filtered from behind him, “She’s going out with Ben tonight.”

Agitated, Spike raked his hands though his hair, “Red, I’m the fucking idiot who set them up, of course I know they’re dating.”

Willow moved to say something, but Spike spoke again, a sigh of defeat in his voice, “You know what? Fine. Let her date him. I’m not gonna stick around like some little lost boy!” Spike held his head high, pride apparently back in place, “I’m moving on. I’ve got . . . prospects,” his last sentence wavered uncertainly.

“Spike, she’s going to sleep with him tonight,” Willow replied quietly to his tirade.

Spike looked around the room helplessly, “Son of a bitch!” he yelled. Willow winced at his exclamation. “I’m in love with her!” he screamed at Willow with the same intensity. Apparently his new-found pride was a front.

Willow smiled nervously, “I know, that’s why I told you.”

Spike collapse on the steps, wallowing in his own self-pity. “This is very inconvenient,” he stated dully.

Willow couldn’t believe what she was hearing, “What? It’s inconvenient for you so your just going to let her go out with him!? Sleep with him!? Spike, you have never in your life made anything easy for yourself, why should finding the love of your life be any different?”

“Red, you couldn’t stand me and Buffy being anywhere near each other. What’s with the cupid?”

“Well, I think it’s kind of romantic.”

Spike looked at her doubtfully, “You got another word for that? Projection?”

“What?” Willow stuttered nervously, “Don’t you go making this about me!”

“You’re banging my assistant, Red.” Her face flamed the same color of her hair and Spike rolled his eyes and sighed, “You’re in love and now you have some misguided notion that everyone should be as happy as you.”

“They should be,” she replied quietly before regaining her voice, now strong with rousing conviction, “Think about it: It’s mortal enemies, sworn to despise each other, turned lovers. Shakespeare couldn’t write that!”

Spike looked up at her from his place on the floor, “He did, Red, it’s called Romeo and Juliet. And before you continue, let me just remind you how THAT love affair turned out.”

Willow had no other choice. It was time for drastic measures. She put on her resolve face. “Spike, I’ve been your friend for years. I know your track record. Falling for Buffy is the smartest, albeit most ill-timed, decision you’ve ever made.”

“What are you saying I should do?”

“Go get her, stupid!”

“Red, she has no idea I have any intention of being more than friends,” he fought.

“Well . . . She might have . . . An inkling,” Willow stumbled over her words.

Spike shot her a piercing gaze, “Don’t make me hate you, Red,” he warned.

“Spike, I . . .”

“What did you do, Willow?” he growled, trying to control his rage. He would hate to have to go ape-shit on the most sunny-dispositioned girl in the world.

His use of her real name guilt-tripped her over the edge, “I kind of told her you were in love with her,” she released quickly, then shut tight her eyes, waiting for the inevitable blowup from her short-fused friend.

But she was met with silence. Warily, she ventured an eye slightly open. Her gaze met open air. Startled she shot both eyes open, venturing around the store.

He was over by the coat rack, slinging his jacket around his shoulders.

“Where are you going?” Willow called frantically.

“To find Buffy,” he replied.

The store clock chimed seven o’clock behind him.

TBC





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