He looked up at her, at the proffered juice she was handing out, a sympathetic look on her face. “How’s your back?”
“How’s my back, she asks,” Spike muttered, grabbing the juice bottle from her hand. “What are you trying to do to me?”
“I didn’t realize there was enough room; I thought I needed to make the rope shorter.”
“And you yanked me down on my ass! I didn’t even get up far enough so that it would look at least somewhat cool. No, I just looked like a gigantic ass!”
“And looking like more of one the more you keep yelling at me,” she retorted, annoyed, crossing her arms across her chest. “You need more ice?” she asked, gesturing to ice pack he had pressed against his back as he sat on a bench against a blue wall while other climbers laughed and had fun.
He scowled at her. “I’m fine.”
“They said you can keep that pack. Do you want to go now or wait a few? Can you walk?”
“I don’t know if I can walk, I nearly had to crawl over here didn’t I? Why don’t you just rip my dick off while you’re at it?”
“Would you stop being such a baby?” she hissed at him. “I said I was sorry like a dozen times!”
“Well say it a dozen more!”
“Hi, I was just wondering if you were okay?”
Both heads swiveled to find a buxom blonde looking directly at Spike with sympathy, her doe eyes appraising him as if she might cry for him.
Spike smiled easily. “I am. Thank you.”
“My name is Tina. If you need anything,” she handed over a slip of paper with a number scrawled on it. “Call me.” She smiled quickly and bounced off, her tits bouncing like air bags.
“How does she know that we’re not together?” Buffy wondered aloud, frowning. “Honestly, some women have no shame at all. Reminds me of that goddamn Cordelia Chase. Just moves right in on my guy and doesn’t care who’s in her way.” Buffy shook her head and looked down at Spike, who was looking up at her, slightly amused now. “What?”
“Working out some issues, luv?”
“Yes! I hate women like that. I hate men too, but I’m an equal opportunity hater I think. I hate them all.”
“Such strong words, pet.”
Buffy rolled her eyes and sat down next to him, grabbed his juice and took a sip. “I like to exaggerate. In this instance though, not so much. I’ve decided I have a lot of rage inside me.”
“I think you do too and it’s all directed at me.”
She rolled her eyes again. “Stop being such a wuss. Come on, I’ll make it up to you and take you out for a really nice dinner. Whaddya say?”
“I say let’s blow this Popsicle stand.”
Giggling, Buffy helped him to his feet and gave him a gentle, tentative hug. “For what it’s worth, I really am sorry.”
“I know you are, luv,” Spike said gently, inhaling her scent, amazed that even after a workout, she still smelled sweet. “I’m over it now.”
“All right, come on my little cripple. Keep the ice pack on!”
“I can’t walk and hold it on me at the same time, woman!”
“Fine, I’ll hold it there and you just walk.”
Spike hobbled out of the gym with as much dignity as he could after having fallen on his ass in front of everyone, and currently having Buffy pressing an ice pack against his lower back as if he were a child.
“Buffy, what about your house?” Spike asked over chicken marsala at the Olive Garden.
Munching on her garlic herb chicken con broccoli, Buffy shrugged. “It’s mine. He moved in with me. Now he can move his lopsided ass right on out.”
“Don’t you want to make sure he’s not taking something that’s yours and wants to claim as his?”
“What is he a Viking? No, I really don’t give a shit what he takes. And I spent so little time at that goddamn house; I probably wouldn’t even know what he took that was mine to begin with.”
“Buffy that sounds really sad.”
“Haven’t I been saying this? Besides, that bitch won’t want anything that has to do with me anyway. I hear she’s quite jealous and territorial. Yeah, hope that works well for her. I wish those idiots all the luck in the world, cause you know what they say: If they’ll do it with you, they’ll do it to you. This is the third time that whore managed to snag someone already involved.” She bit on a piece of broccoli with vigor. “I hope she rots in hell.”
“Tell me how you really feel because I don’t feel that you’re quite yet in touch with your emotions.”
Buffy giggled and surveyed the room, spotting a couple, a young couple smiling shyly at each other. The guy had his leg bouncing up and down and the girl was playing with the bracelet around her wrist. Buffy smiled at them.
“What are you smiling about?”
“That couple over there, they’re on a date.”
Spike looked in the direction of the couple. “How can you tell?”
“Just watch them for a minute. Look at the way they’re looking at each other. They’re all shy and sweet…”
Spike watched them, smiling softly when he saw the guy fumble with some bread he was trying to hand to the raven haired girl he was with. “Okay, yes, they are on a date.”
“It’s sweet, really. The way they’re both blushing, how he keeps laughing nervously, the way she’s ringing her hands in her lap every so often.”
“The way he keeps taking a sip of wine and she’s barely eating,” Spike said, continuing her narrative.
“Even if he’ll most likely cheat on her and she’ll become a scorned and angry woman instead of the happy girl she is right now. He’ll brag about how he ripped her heart to shreds and--”
“Okay Buffy, look away, they’ve caught us staring and look freaked out. Not to mention you’re kind of freaking me out and dampening the mood.”
Buffy turned and looked at her friend sheepishly. “Sorry.”
“I still see my sweet girl from before, and yet, there’s a bitter, haggard woman inside of you that keeps coming out.”
“It’s like I’m Dr. Jeckyl and Mr. Hyde,” Buffy said dryly, ripping a piece of garlic bread off and popping it in her mouth.
“Little bit. More like, well, a woman scorned.”
“Can you blame me?”
He shook his head, “No. I can’t. I hated that bastard from the start.”
Her eyes widened. “You did? Really? What was it about him? The fact that he can’t really act? That he looks like a big doofus and when you look at him you just know that he’s really not thinking anything?”
The fact that he was dating you, was the ready answer that ran through Spike’s mind, but if the thought threw him for a loop, then he was sure it would throw her for one too. Even if it was the truth, and even if he’d known it to be the case for some time now. That was neither here nor there. Whatever little “crush” he’d had on Buffy Summers, was long gone. Or at least it was supposed to be.
Finally, after some deliberation, he answered. “All of the above, luv.”
That seemed to be the right answer for she smiled triumphantly and sat back, taking sip of her wine. “Yes, all of the above.”
“If you wanted to go to the house, let me finish before you get your knickers in a twist…” and he waited for her to sit back. “If you wanted to go to the house and see what was happening, I’d come with you.”
“You would? You never wanted to visit me before.”
“That’s not true. I did want to.” I just didn’t want to have to see you living with that pompous ass. It was bad enough that I knew about it. “I just never got to.” Cause I lied and said I was following a story when you’d call and ask me out. “But now, as you know, I have the time. And if he is there, I can punch his bloody lights out for hurting you as he did. “It’s the least I can do.” Since I was never supportive of your relationship with that talentless hack before.
Buffy sighed heavily and stared at him thoughtfully. “I don’t know, we’ll see. I just like being away from it all. I’m afraid I’ll get sucked into some kind of vortex and be dragged into it all over again.”
“I am all for you taking a break, Buffy. It sounds like you need one, but I’m just saying that you might want to at least make sure that idiot isn’t screwing you over even more than he already has.”
“We’ll see,” Buffy murmured and sat up. Grabbing her fork, she stabbed a piece of his chicken. “You mind?”
He smiled, “Not at all, luv, not at all.”