After thinking for a few minutes and eating in silence, Buffy decided it was time to have a mother-daughter talk and hopefully discuss the idea of Spike as her boyfriend.
Buffy explained to Joyce how she had met this great guy at school and how she, William, who had a nickname of Spike for liking to spike volleyballs in school, Willow and Xander had all been double dating lately during break.
Her mother was excited for her wanting to meet William tonight on their date to the Bronze.
Her mother was happy to hear that Buffy was meeting new people and had managed to obtain a possible boyfriend.
She was 17 years old and Joyce had met Hank in high school and she was worried Buffy wouldn’t meet anyone and have to live alone.
She never had any boyfriends in L.A. where they used to live so she’s thankful things are looking up for her in Sunnydale.
Perhaps this move was for the best even if she was now fatherless.
Joyce listened as Buffy described her classes, the assignments she had and her hopes of getting a place to move out by graduation.
She also said how she was planning to apply to UC Sunnydale for college to stay local to see her but yet have her own space to be out on her own.
Joyce frowned at how grown up her daughter sounded but realized she was 17.
In just a few months, she would be 18. It was hard to imagine her baby girl growing up but it had to happen eventually right?
Joyce decided to be completely open to this new side of Buffy and told Buffy to call Spike and ask him about coming to dinner tonight before they head off to the Bronze.
Joyce also asked Buffy to ask him what he liked to eat and Buffy said she didn’t have to ask. She already knew.
She listed off a short list of items she had seen Spike really enjoy and Joyce mentioned spaghetti and Buffy, after a mental check with Spike, said spaghetti would be fine. She took the phone to pretend to call Spike to invite him over to the house at 6 knowing it would be dark at 5:30 for a dinner before patrol and hopefully a Bronze trip.
This would be the first Bronze trip that they had ever made.
Spike agreed to everything Buffy had requested, even a Bronze trip.
Buffy even called Willow and Xander after looking up their number in the phone book to invite them to a Bronze trip.
Willow commented on how Buffy hadn’t answered any of her phone messages over the past week and Buffy explained that she had been away hoping that lie wouldn’t get her in trouble.
She had been away, just in Spike’s lair not really on vacation. But it had been like a vacation.
Buffy picked up the book Withering Heights deciding to do her report for English class on the book that Spike had encouraged her to borrow and deciding so far she really was enjoying it.
She smiled to herself as she spent the next few hours enjoying reading.
Joyce smiled seeing how happy Buffy seemed and how she was glad to see she was taking the time to do her work including ready for class.
She was a senior and she needed to really buckle down to get good grades to get into a college.
Perhaps these new friends and boyfriend of her was just what Buffy needed.
The move seemed to be paying off.
Joyce loved her job and was really enjoying the ability to travel and looked forward to meeting Buffy’s first boyfriend tonight.
Life seemed good as she went into her office to type up her inventory for the new art pieces she had gotten from her trip.
Well Buffy was nervous to say the least.
Spike kept trying to send reassuring thoughts and feelings her way but she was just a bundle of nerves.
She spent 30 minutes making a huge mess of her room and then another 30, after picking a flirty black dress with black sandals, cleaning it up.
Then she took a long bubble bath filled with her favorite vanilla scent knowing Spike loved that smell as much as her.
While shaving, she realized shaving in her tub was so much easier than his shower but she had decided to make the best of it there and not complain.
She then put on her outfit and set up her makeup to be perfect well as perfect as can be.
Her skin was a little paler than she was used to but she was thinking it was because she had spent all week in a lair not seeing much sunlight.
She figured with school this week, she would spend lunch catching much-needed waves of sunlight.
And with those last thoughts, the doorbell rang so Buffy’s mom went to get the door.
Joyce was met with a gorgeous guy dressed in black leather with blond hair spiked back holding a dozen roses and a bunch of daisies.
He handed her the daisies and gave her a smile saying, “Lo Buffy’s mom. Nice to meet you.”
Joyce was at once smitten with the guy thinking he was perfect.
His manners seemed nice as he thanked her for inviting him to dinner and he even brought her and Buffy both flowers.
Tasteful flowers at that.
The black leather coat that bellowed around as he wandered around the foyer and the black tee covered by a red shirt and his black tight jeans, left much to the imagination but fit his personality it seemed surprisingly well.
His boots were a bit much but seemed to also fit him.
She could see why her daughter would seem so in love with him even after just a week and half of them dating.
She smiled and yelled for Buffy and offered him a seat on the sofa while she went about dipping out plates for them all.
Buffy came down the stairs and Spike immediately stood up looking at his goddess.
In her black dress accented by the cross she always wore and red headband in her hair, she looked amazing.
He stuttered a, “You look amazing pet” and opened the claim for a minute just to let her feel how amazed he really was by her appearance and she smiled and blushed and replied, “You don’t look so bad yourself.”
Spike grinned feeling how sexy she thought he looked through the claim but instead of responding about it, handed her the roses.
Buffy simply beamed a smile in awe since she had never gotten flowers from anyone in her life before, much less roses.
She gushed about how beautiful they were and took them into the kitchen to put them in a vase along and Joyce offered them a place at the table.
The meal went surprisingly well.
Spike told her he was an English major at UC Sunnydale rather than high school and mom took that well.
Buffy didn’t actually say she met him at school so anything Spike said, would be true in her eyes.
He stated he was 20 years old, which again didn’t seem to bother her mom.
He had the perfect manners and the perfect answers to everything.
He only had to tap into his knowledge of Victoria England to really know what to say and how to act.
He was surprised at how really easy that was.
At the end of the meal, Joyce simply adored him.
As far as she was concerned, he was from England, was the perfect gentleman and had returned to Sunnydale after a bad breakup.
None of it was false so would be really easy to tell her the truth someday if ever need be.
Buffy was simply overjoyed at how well it went.
After they said their goodbyes, Buffy realized once their patrol was done, she would be facing her new friends with Spike at a club.
She was a bit nervous about that but not as nervous as Spike would be around tons of people.
He asked Buffy, “Would you mind if on our rounds we stop by our place and picked up some blood. I’m a tad nervous about all the happy meals on legs in the club.”
Buffy laughed out loud at hearing them called Happy meals on legs but agreed eager to not have to worry about him attacking anyone due to hunger.