“Willow what am I going to wear?” Buffy asked exasperated to her best friend.
“Buffy I’m sure you have at least 5 outfits in that closet of yours,” Willow replied trying to calm her frazzled friend.
“Spike said to wear something sexy yet elegant!” Buffy exclaimed as she was pulling out all the contents of her closet and throwing it on her bed.
Willow just kept sorting through all the garments that were tossed her way. All of a sudden, she heard a shriek from Buffy.
“Ahhhh!! This is the one!” she beamed excitedly.
Willow saw what Buffy’s wide-eyed expression was about. Buffy pulled a beautiful knee length slip dress out of her wardrobe. It was cherry red and dazzled with sequins and a matching scarf.
“This is the dress!!” she exclaimed.
“Oh Buffy, you will look amazing! You definitely have to wear that dress.” Willow walked over to the closet, “And these are the shoes and purse to finish the ensemble.”
“Oh Wills what would I do without you?” Buffy hugged her one true girlfriend and took the black sandals from her.
“Willow, will you help me put my hair up?”
“Sure thing Buff. I tell ya, Spike’s heart would definitely skip a beat if it could,” she laughed.
“Ya think?” The two girls shared a giggle.
“Ya know Will, Spike was so mysterious about this whole date tonight,” Buffy said as she handed Willow some hairpins.
“He wouldn’t even tell me where I’m to meet him. All I’m supposed to do is wait for his phone call in one hour and how to dress.”
“Well, Buffy… I just think Spike wants to give you a good surprise, since you two haven’t been together that long. Deep down, Spike really is devoted to the woman he loves… Even if his last one was a little demented,” Willow stated sheepishly.
“Um..Yeah… Dru really didn’t have much up in the sanity department,” Buffy remarked.
“Willow, I truly appreciate you and Tara taking Dawn for a sleep-over. I know she really likes you both,” she said with a warm smile on her face.
“It’s no biggy Buffy. Tara and I really didn’t have any plans and besides, Anya and Xander are on patrol tonight, so you and Spike go have your wonderful evening together.”
“Thanks Willow, you guys are the bestest friends a Slayer could ever ask for.” Buffy stared at her friend in the mirror and leaned back into Willow’s embrace.
Before Willow could shed a tear, she said, “There. All done. Now I will leave you to get changed and I will check on Dawn to make sure she is all packed for the sleepover.
“Great! I know my mom will really appreciate you watching her while she is away on her buying trip in Europe.”
Buffy heard Willow holler out to Dawn as she closed her door and proceeded to get dressed.
*******************************************
Willow came into the living room to see Dawn and Tara sitting on the couch watching TV and eating some ice cream.
“You all set Dawnie?” Willow asked.
“Yup! I can’t wait until you teach me those spells that you promised.”
“SSHHH!!!” Tara panicked. ”You don’t wanna say that too loud. I don’t want Buffy to know that we will be corrupting your mind with magic.” She carefully looked to see if Buffy was coming down the stairs.
“Tara honey, it’s not as if we are going to teach her to turn boys into frogs or anything,” Willow cut in.
“Besides, you promised to show me those two spells for tinkerbell light and for levitating a pencil,” Dawn whined.
“OK! OK! Just don’t go advertising it out to the whole world Dawnie,” Tara pleaded.
“Mums the word,” she said as she pretended to pull an imaginary zipper across her lips.
Just then they heard footsteps coming down the stairs. Dawn was the first to stare boldly at her sister.
“Wow Buffy!” she stammered, “Just … Wow! Spike is not going to believe his eyes.”
“Yeah since most of the time he sees me in dark leather clothes with my hair in a ponytail and of course ‘Eau d’ Vampire” musk after a long hard night of slaying,” Buffy said jokingly.
All the girls laughed at Buffy’s remark as the phone rang. She walked over to the cordless and answered, “Summers residence, oh hi Spike!” she beamed and decided to turn and walk out of the room for a bit of privacy.
“God, sometimes those two just make me wanna barf!” Dawn said pretending to gag.
“Dawn you won’t think so when it’s your turn,” Tara replied with laughter in her eyes.
Buffy re-entered the room and placed the phone back on the coffee table.
“Ok. I’m outta here in just a few. Dawn, you be good to Willow and Tara, I really don’t wanna have to get paged tonight for an emergency on your part, ok? We’ve got that clear?” she said in a motherly tone.
“Very clear mommy Buffy.” Dawn saluted with a straight face.
Buffy smirked and said, “Ok smartie pants. I do have my pager and make sure you guys lock up before you go.”
“Okie dokie Buffy… You two have a good time tonight, I will see you tomorrow.”
With that taken care of, Buffy hugged her sister and her friends and headed out the door.
Dawn stared at the two witches and said, “OK, do you have all the things that Spike wanted us to get ready?”
“Yup, I had to go to the store to pick it up, let’s go get it all ready upstairs.” Willow took the bag that she was hiding behind the couch so Buffy wouldn’t see it.
Once outside, Buffy noticed a black stretch limousine in front of her house. She stared in wonder as to who on the street was getting to ride in a limo. Suddenly the driver got out of the car and came around and asked:
“Ms Buffy Summers, I presume?”
“Yes?” she answered bewildered.
“I am here on behalf of Mr. William to take you to your destination.”
“Oh, um, ok!” Buffy replied excitedly as the driver held the door open for her to get into the car.
Buffy was amazed that Spike would go to so much trouble for her. She felt like Cinderella going to the ball and Spike was her Prince Charming.
Buffy scoped out the interior as the driver slowly pulled out onto the street to start her adventure. She noticed the black leather of the seats and a small TV with a VCR, as well as a radio with CD player. She also spotted a bottle of champagne in an ice bucket.
“You are welcome to have some champagne, Ms Summers,” the driver offered from the drivers seat.
“Um… No thanks. I will wait a little bit,” she thought that there would be plenty of time for sipping champagne later this evening.
A while later Buffy could feel the car slowing down and pulling up to a new nightclub called the Raven.
The driver stopped the car and proceeded to come around and open her door. As soon as the door opened, it wasn’t the driver that helped her out of the car, but her knight in shining armor. Spike.
“Spike!” she said with a happy surprise. “Wow! Look at you!” Her eyes feasted upon the dashing vampire before her all decked out in black dress pants that hugged his well muscled legs and a cream coloured cotton turtleneck that looked like it was painted on his torso. He also had, of course, his token leather duster. She laid her hand on the duster and said “The duster… Always the duster.”
“Never leave home without it luv!” he said with a dazzling smile.
“And look at you pet!” He took a step back to drink in her beauty. “If I were alive, you’d take my breath away,” he said bending down to give her a quick yet promising kiss on the lips. He wrapped his arm around her possessively as they walked into the Raven.
They entered the club and right away Buffy heard the entrancing music. She could feel the fast pounding of the drums; hear the trashing guitars and melodic keyboards of the alternative song that was being played by the house DJ.
They headed towards the bar and Buffy realized that Spike hadn’t asked her what she wanted to drink. She was about to swat him on the arm when he turned around with two glasses of champagne in his hands. She smiled and took the glass from him. Buffy proceeded to take a sip when she saw something in the bottom of the flute.
“Hey what’s that? There’s something in my drink!”
“It’s a strawberry luv,” Spike said. “It’s supposed to make the champagne better somehow… To enhance the flavour.”
“Oh! Cool!” she said and tasted the bubbly drink. “MMMMMM! This does taste yummy,” she raved as she licked her lips in a seductive manner.
Spike looked on with a gaping mouth. “I’m sure it doesn’t taste as yummy as you do,” he purred.
“Hey we have all night for tasting each other. I want to check this place out.” With that she took his hand to head into the heart of the club.
“Lead the way Slayer!”
Buffy scanned the club and liked the dimly lit atmosphere. She saw that there were gothic wall sconces that held large flame-like bulbs. The walls were dark reddish brown, like the colour of dried blood. She whispered back to him, “No wonder you picked this place.”
“What can I say Slayer, I love it when humans think they know how to be vampires!” he said with a sly grin.
Turning her attention away from her sexy blonde boyfriend, Buffy was thinking that she liked the dark alternative music. It was always full of emotion and angst, fear and belonging, purity and sexuality all at once.
The dance floor was in the centre of the Raven and down one level. It was an open space that everyone on the main level could look down at the dancers from all sides of the room. Buffy stopped and looked below at the writhing bodies.
Spike led Buffy down the far right staircase. Once at the bottom, they found a private booth that said ‘Reserved’.
“Hey Spike, we can’t sit here. It says it’s reserved.”
