Chapter 8

Buffy stared in disbelief as William pushed away from her and calmly started to scrub at the spots on the carpet. She brought her hand up to her utterly abused and tingling lips. Behind her, she could hear Tara giggling softly, and Buffy pulled herself from her dazed state to turn around and go into the back room. She glanced quickly towards Will as she disappeared through the back door, and then turned to look at Tara.

"See, I told you…" Tara said in a singsong voice as she went back to attacking the pizza in front of them. Buffy started to blush brightly, but then nodded mutely.

*******

Buffy was up in her loft, all alone, and without him. She had retreated to the cozy room almost the instant she was in the apartment after Will brought her home. He had watched her bounce quickly up to her room, had been tempted to follow her, but had stopped him self. He could here her music playing softly, and could see the faint flickering of candles on the walls. They had gotten home nearly an hour before, and he felt she had enough time alone. Besides, he had to be to work soon.

Starting up the steps, William trod quietly, his eyes focusing on a flicker of light on the ceiling. He saw her on the bed when the room came into view. Her long tanned legs were kicking at the air as she lay on her belly on her bed. A book sat in front of her, and as she read, her hand played with a twirl of hair. She had changed after work into a pair of boxer shorts and a black crop top. She had a towel on the floor from her exercises, and Will could smell the faint odor of sweat in the air.

"Buffy? Can we talk?" Will asked quietly. Buffy's head turned to look at him, and she smiled warmly as she sat up and nodded.

"I think it would be a good idea, all things considered." Buffy watched as he came further into the room. He pulled one of her chairs out, and turned it around to sit backwards on it, resting his arms across the back. Buffy grinned up at him, and waited for him to start.

"I'm sorry about what happened earlier. It shouldn't have happened, and I promise I won't do it again, all right? I just don't any weirdness here, and at the shop." Will said softly, avoiding her eyes the entire time. Buffy's heart hitched for a moment as she replayed the words in her mouth, trying to decipher his meaning. As the words played over and over in her head, her face fell. He didn't want it, she thought. He didn't want here, like I thought. He probably wants Dru still.

"Oh, oh… um, yeah, don't worry about it, it's no big deal. I promise… I won't hold it against you or anything." Buffy forced her voice to remain steady as she quietly spoke to him. His head shot up, and after a moment of shock, his face melted with relief. God, she didn't want it, did she, he thought. Bloody hell, good thing I went with the apology rather then another kiss. She'd be moving out faster then shit, then.

"Yeah, well then, glad that's done. Want to do movies tomorrow? I don't work at all, so I can pick up some vid's and we can order pizza." It would be Saturday tomorrow, and it was what they had done the week before as well, though Xander had skipped out. "I can talk to Xander in the morning, see if he wants to as well?"

Buffy nodded and plastered a small smile on her face as she looked up at him. "Sounds fine. Comedy? Maybe something scary? Old cheesy scary, too, not new stuff, but like early 80's stuff." She had turned back to her book, but the words were starting to blur together as she looked at them. She heard Will get up and listened as he went down the steps. Her eyes tightened for a moment, and when she opened them to look back at the book, she saw two small wet blobs soaking into the thin paper.

Will watched her turn her focus to the book, and got up to leave. Half way down the steps, he stopped for a moment and clenched his jaw as his eyes screwed shut. She was up there alone, again, and he was going to bed, alone, again. Poetic justice, he thought. If she had been Dru, they wouldn't have made it past the first word without jumping each other, morals be damned. It's probably why he had the damn things now. No one likes to be stung twice. What was that old song, Once Bitten, Twice Shy? How right those words were, he thought.

Buffy quickly dialed the number from the crumpled paper on her hands. One ring, and then two, Buffy was tapping her foot quickly as she waited for the phone to be picked up. She had gotten the number from Xander after talking with Will the night before. She had also extracted a promise from him to be home and in the living room that night. He had agreed on fear of her beating him up.

"Hello?" Finally, Buffy thought.

"Hi... um, is Willow home?" She asked quickly to the unfamiliar voice that had answered the phone.

"No, she's over at Oz's studying. Can I give her a message?" The soft feminine voice asked her.

"Yes, please. This is Buffy; can you tell her to call me? Here's my number…" She rattled off the number to Xander's cell phone, and then hung the phone up. Damn, she had really needed her best friend right now, too. Buffy had lost contact with Willow in the last few months, with not being able to call each other at all, but right now, Buffy needed advice badly. She had ended up crying herself to sleep the night before after Will had left for work.

She just didn't know how her feelings could have been so misguided with him. More then once in the past two weeks, she had gotten the feeling that he liked her as more then a roomie or a friend, too, but as soon as they acted on it, he freaked and said no. Buffy sighed and pulled herself from her bed to get ready for work. She had to be in at the diner until 4, and then she was done for the day, and had all day Sunday off, as well.

Buffy pulled her still-blonde hair into a tight bun, and put the required hair net over it. She hated doing that, but hell, she hated the job, too. After pulling on her freshly laundered uniform, Buffy headed quickly down the stairs, and nearly ran into Will as he left his room. He looked like he had just woken up, and looked damn adorable. His chest was bare, his blonde locks tousled from sleep, and just a pair of red kissy face boxers. Whoa, kissy face? She thought with a slight giggle, despite her depression over him.

"Uh, Will? Those are cute and all, but um, shouldn't you be a bit more… say, dressed?" He looked up towards her, and blinked the sleep from his eyes before glancing down. She vaguely heard the curse, Bloody hell, before he disappeared into the bathroom. Buffy shrugged, and headed out the front door, locking it behind her. Will came out of the bathroom, a robe on now, and looked for her, only to realize she was gone. Damnit, he thought.