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CHAPTER 21 -- Complications

Your reviews are wonderful!!! Thank you so much! AND THANKS FOR GIVING ME AND CAROL STORY OF THE WEEK ON SPUFFY ANCHIVES!!!! You guys rock! And you convinced me -- I’m doing shorter chapters with more frequent updates. I’m hoping to put the next update up tomm or Tuesday. Thanks and happy reading!

Buffy raced around the empty house, gathering her last minute items distractedly. Her purse remained in the kitchen, her gold hoop earrings on the living room coffee table, and her wrap was God knows where. Ben would be there any minute to pick her up and she wanted everything to be faultless. An abrupt knock on the front door made her jump. Nervously, she flung the door back, an expectant smile on her face.

Coming face to face with the man on the other side of the door, her brightened features quickly vanished. She left the door in it’s halfway opened state and walked away.

Buffy kept her back to her visitor, “What do you want?” she asked, shuffling through a pile of junk on the coffee table for her missing jewelry.

Spike ran his gaze warily over the entire frame of the door, looking for some sort of invisible barrier. With the animosity he was receiving from Buffy, there might as well have been. Taking in a breath, he only ventured as far as the foyer. His eyes followed her form, clad in a black spaghetti strap dress, “Are you going out with him tonight?” he spoke sullenly.

Buffy spun on her heels to face him, a fire in her eyes he hadn’t seen in a month, “This was your idea you know! All this! You came back into town pushing guys at me! Trying to fix me!”

“I know,” he said in a hushed tone, looking at the floor, his palms wiping restlessly on his jeans.

Buffy threw up her hands, “Why the problem with this all of a sudden? I like Ben. I like him a lot. I’m happy.” She rushed past him into the kitchen, never looking him in the eye.

Spike cringed at her words, standing in the living room alone to compose himself before following. She was at the kitchen table, rummaging through her purse, probably for nothing but to keep her hands and mind occupied. “Where’s your mom and the Bit?”

She hesitated at his abrupt subject change, “Visiting my grandmother. They’ll be back on Sunday.” She made her way over to the refrigerator. “You want something to drink?”

He shook his head in response, “No.” She extracted a bottle of water, then reached up to the cupboard above her, taking down a pill bottle. Spike furrowed his brow, worried, “Since when do you take aspirin?” All the years he’d know her, she was stubborn when it came to pain -- always said she could handle it without any painkillers, even when the uncomfortable throbbing was obviously too much.

“Fighting with you makes my head hurt,” she replied quietly.

Spike smirked nervously, “Not unlike the time you actually hit me over the head with your Ramen Noodle bowl junior year.”

The look Buffy shot him was less than amused, “Don’t try to change the subject.” She bravely met his eyes, “Spike . . . What’s this all about?”

Spike closed the distance between them. Buffy looked startled, but didn’t move away. He cupped her cheek, rubbing the pad of his thumb over her soft features. He gently, slowly brought her mouth up to his. The softness of his lips coaxing her tongue from her mouth. She moaned into the kiss. They soundly tasted each other’s lips for a full minute. He pulled back and gazed into her eyes, swallowing hard, “I’m in love with you.”

“So I’ve been told,” she whispered. The lipstick she had worked twenty minutes on getting right was smudged and her lips swollen. He ran his thumb over her bottom lip. Buffy blinked and pulled away, the spell broken, “So, what . . . I’m supposed to ignore my feelings for him and jump into your arms?”

A bitter smile graced his features. He rocked back on his heels, “No, you’re supposed to decide you love me more than you love him and leave him for me.”

She scoffed aloud at the idea.

“Do you love him?” he asked. She didn’t reply and walked over to the counter to fetch her shawl, smoothing out the edges. “But you’re going to sleep with him,” he stated.

Buffy froze, turning slowly, “How did you . . .” realization came over her face, “Willow.” She shook her head, “God, is nothing sacred to you people!?” When Spike didn’t answer, she continued. “Can I ask you something? Why Spike? Why do you care?”

Spike’s eye pleaded with her own, “Because your first time shouldn’t be with him . . . It should be with me.”

The color drained out of Buffy’s features, “So that’s what this is all about! You getting a piece of ass! It has nothing to do with me! I should have known!” She paced violently around the kitchen.

Spike followed her, “Buffy, no, luv, you got it all wrong!” The sound of car wheels on gravel echoed in the night outside -- Ben had pulled into the driveway.

Buffy grabbed her things, making a quick exit towards the front door, “This is all about you, isn’t it? It’s been about you since day one! You used me to get a big magazine project and now you want to bang a virgin! It’s only about what you, Spike, Bachelor extraordinaire, wants. It always has been.”

“Buffy! Wait!” he reached for her.

She whipped her arm around out of his reach, “You can show yourself out.” With that she slammed the door behind her.

TBC





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