Buffy managed to crank out three more chapters of Poker for the Soul by avoiding Professor Benson at all costs. The money she'd won from Riley was more than enough to get her by while she effortlessly typed out some of the best imaginary sex she'd ever had. It was him. Spike. She kept hearing his voice reading her words. Hearing him tell her just how he'd take her. Just thinking about the effects he'd had on her that night made her tremble.

"What the Hell am I doing?" she asked herself out loud.

She looked around her room and decided that two weeks had been long enough. She'd take the risk of running into him. She just had to get out of the house before cabin fever settled in completely. She dug through her drawers for something to wear. She'd been sitting around in her bathrobe eating Ben and Jerry's Phish Phood since she'd embarrassed herself on the phone. Very un-Buffy-like.

She grabbed her cell phone and decided to text Willow a message.

It's Bad Disco Night... want to go Bronzing? she typed into her phone.

A few moments later, she read Willow's response of leisure suits, afros and Gloria Gaynor? I'm so there. What time?

Meet me there at 9 was Buffy's quick reply.

"Miss Rosenberg?"

"Eep!" Willow tried to put up her phone as Professor Benson approached her seat.

He held out his hand and read the message on the screen. He tried to hold back a small smile as he looked up at the pink-cheeked student in front of him.

Nine will be splendid, he typed in before handing the phone back to Willow.

"By the way," he whispered, leaning in conspiratorially. "The little blonde beer wench likes you."

Willow's face lit up at the secret he revealed. She hit send on the message knowing that Professor Benson wouldn't be too far behind her in going to the Bronze.

"Splendid?" Buffy read aloud. She shrugged it off. "Whatever."

The kilted skirt she wore was just a little too short. The heels on the black leather boots were just a little too high. And the vee of the little black cashmere tank just a little too low. Her eye make-up was just this side of being whorish and it made her think of a scene at the end of Ferris Beuhler's Day Off where Charlie Sheen informed Jennifer Grey that "You wear too much eye make-up. My sister wears too much eye make-up. People think she's a whore."

Not whorish, she told herself. Smoky. Yeah. That's what Cosmo called it... the smoky eye. Whorish would be equally huge amounts of Fuck Me Red lipstick which she'd forgone in favor of a soft, pinky-peach. She stared at herself in the mirror.

"God, Buffy," she chided herself with a shake of her head. "Are you just hoping you'll run into him?"

Part of her was.

Willow arrived at the Bronze by 8:30 and immediately set to scanning the club for a peroxided head. He didn't disappoint. He sat at his usual table with Xander and Angel. Professor Giles seemed to be missing from the little group. Willow took a deep breath and walked over to join them, hoping Tara would be working.

"Fancy seeing you here, Red," Spike winked at her. "Come take a seat by me, Pet."

He patted the barstool beside him and she understood that he had saved it for her. Sneaky Spike. How could a professor be so yummy and likeable? And now he was helping her get a date with the girl of her dreams. She was glad she had written that timed assignment about liking girls better than boys.

"Tara," he called, as Willow's cheeks went pink. "Be a love and get Red here anything she wants on me."

Tara smiled at the blushing girl in front of her and asked her what she wanted.

"Yeah, Love," Spike teased. "Tell her what you really want."

She kicked at him under the table and missed, causing him to chuckle.

"Might I suggest a Maiden's Blush?" he continued. "Or, perhaps, a Pink Lady."

She mentally took back the yummy and likeable thing she'd thought earlier.

Tara grinned as Willow's cheeks burned bright crimson.

"I... I like your pendant," Tara told her, pointing to the coin hanging from a black satin cord. "It's the Triquetra, isn't it?"

Willow's eyes shot up to meet Tara's sea green orbs. The were sparkling in recognition of the protective Triple Goddess symbol.

"How did you know that?" she asked.

Tara leaned closer and brushed her fingers over the silver coin at Willow's throat.

"It's the three yonic vesicas surrounded by the Wiccan Rede," she smiled as if it was something everyone knew. "An it harm none, do as you will," she read.

"So, what'll it be, Red?" Spike asked again.

"A diet Coke, please," she smiled at Tara.

And just like that, he was yummy and likeable once again.