Chapter 3

Tara shook her arms out and stretched her back and shoulder muscles. Slowly tilting her head first to one side, then the other, she felt slightly sore, but mostly just tired. It had been a busy day at the Espresso Pump, the busiest Tara had ever seen it in her five weeks of employment. Last minute holiday shoppers ducked into the warm, bustling shop for a coffee break or a nice mug of cocoa. Not that it was all that cold out. Quite the opposite, in fact, it was unusually warm. Maybe it was just something to keep with that holiday feel, Tara supposed with a shrug.

"What's up, you getting sore toting all those orders out?" a friendly voice asked from behind.

Startled, Tara spun on her heel to see Mary emerge from the back, tying on her apron. "Oh, n-no, well yeah, a little bit. But you know. I'm okay." She smiled apologetically. "I'm just a little jumpy. It's been busy out there today."

Mary nodded, expecting it. "It's that last minute rush. The rest of the week will be even worse, and then it'll settle down again. Who ever said it's the most wonderful time of the year obviously didn't have to wait tables in the shopping district," she noted, tucking a yellow pencil behind her ear, the garishly bright color mostly buried under waves of her chestnut hair. "So," she continued conversationally, "Do you have all your shopping done already?"

She almost wanted to reply, "What shopping?" but kept the urge at bay. Instead she merely nodded. "I'm mostly all set. Just a couple things to take care of." She had something for Amy and Michael, but wanted to give Willow a gift as well. It needed to be something perfect, something to express her feelings without overdoing it. She had wracked her brains trying to come up with the exact right gift, but everything she had thought of was either too over the top or not meaningful enough. She wanted to give her….

Mary grinned and squeezed past Tara, making her way to the front and her waiting customers. "I'm glad you've got everything sorted out, Tara," she said, her tall slender frame silhouetted in the doorway for a moment before she turned and let the door swing shut behind her.

"So am I." The witch grinned widely and picked up the waiting tray of steaming mugs, following Mary out to the crowded restaurant. Her smiled brightened even more when she saw Willow sitting at one of the tall chairs, absently doodling on a napkin. She approached and lay a menu before the elfish girl. "Hi there stranger, what can I get you this afternoon?"

Willow looked up with a grin, dropping her pen back to the tabletop. "I'll take one of those mega-muffins, blueberry, and a little mocha. And you, after you get off your shift." She suddenly raised her eyebrows and quickly clapped a hand over her mouth, then cleared her throat. "Um, sorry, that sounded sorta questionable. I need to talk to you. Denise said your shift ends in ten minutes, so I thought I'd … you know … walk you home? Unless you've got plans. You don't have plans yet, do you?"

"No plans, queen of broccoli," the Wiccan chuckled, then dodged a playful swat from her fiery haired friend. "Let me finish my shift and I'm all yours." Realizing what she'd said, she quickly excused herself to the back, placing Willow's order and waiting on her other customers.

~~

"So, you needed to talk to me?" Tara inquired, folding her jacket over one arm as she stepped out of the coffee shop's open front door into the warm sun. "Sounds serious. People usually only say they 'need to talk' when it's serious."

Willow nodded and offered Tara a chunk of her mega-muffin, which had proved too mega for one appetite alone. "But if it's okay, I'd rather start at your place. The talking, that is. I mean, we can talk, but not about this yet." Tara took a piece of the muffin with an amused smile. "Sorry, I maybe shouldn't have ordered the mocha. It's making me all sugary and stuff."

The fair-haired girl didn't even try to suppress her laugh. "Don't worry about it, I'm not. Sometimes a little mocha is a good thing." The streets were a lot nicer when it was still light out, and with Willow by her side. The few blocks it took to walk to Tara's building went by pleasantly, but the witch was now a little nervous. A serious talk could mean something good, or something very much bad.

Taking a seat on the purple sofa when they arrived at the apartment, Willow smiled gently up at Tara. "Hey, what's wrong, you look all anxious. Come on, it's not like I'm about to tell you we think the world's coming to an end."

"Sorry," she said apologetically as she sat down next to Willow. "Just the whole 'it's serious' thing. Do you have any idea what that can do to a girl?"

"Yes, actually, I do." Willow's attention was momentarily diverted to the tv set fish tank. "Hi Zeus, hi guys. Sorry I haven't been over in a few days!" One of the snails drifted upwards with an air bubble in his shell, then let the bubble out and dropped back to the floor, narrowly missing a collision with an oblivious Venus and getting a laugh out of Willow.

Tara grinned, leaning over to see what was so funny, but saw the tank's occupants looking pretty normal. "What, what happened?" she queried.

Willow turned back to face Tara, and was a bit startled to find her so … close. She didn't jump back or anything, though, entranced by those blue eyes, nor did the blonde back away. "The … the fish. I mean, the snail," she whispered. She fumbled for anything to say, but could only manage to blurt, "Oz told me that he wants to get back together."

Tara now did sit back, her eyes flitting from the pillows to the floor to the fish tank to the window. "Oh. I, I guess that is serious." Trying to keep her heart from breaking, she reminded herself that for some reason, Willow was here and not out with Oz celebrating their reunion. She just had to find out what that reason was. Now she did look directly at Willow, who also looked like she was struggling with something. "And what did you tell him?"

"I told him, I told him I didn't know. I mean, I didn't know, so I didn't really say much of anything. And he said, he said if I needed more time then he would wait." The words flowed out before she could really think about them, think about what it was that she was saying before it was already said. "But I'm not sure I need more time."

Tara took this in for a moment. "So, you want to get back together with him?"

And at that moment, her heart screamed 'No!' loud enough to make her head listen. "I, no, I don't think I do." She shook her head, auburn locks flying out and settling again. "I don't? Wow. I don't."