Buffy was trying not to laugh as Cordelia painted Willow’s toenails.

“Cordy, are you sure I can’t move?” the redhead asked.

Cordelia didn’t even look up when she answered. “No. In fact, you can’t even talk. For some reason, it makes your toes wiggle.”

Willow watched her feet carefully. “It does not,” she argued. Cordelia glared up at her and she sighed. “Fine. But what if I get a phone call?” she asked.

“You’re not going to get a phone call. Who would call at 1:00 am?” Cordelia asked, glancing at the clock. “Now will you please stop distracting me with all these silly ques...” She was cut off as the phone rang. “How did you do that?” she asked incredulously, looking up at her friend.

Willow shrugged as Buffy answered the phone. “Willow’s sex line. Do you prefer blondes, brunettes, or redheads?” she greeted the caller perkily.

“Oh goddess, I hope that’s not my parents,” Willow muttered.

“I need to borrow your mum’s car,” Spike told Willow once Buffy had handed the redhead the phone.

“What’s wrong with yours?” Willow asked with a frown.

“Battery’s dead,” Spike told her, sounding distracted. He read over his shopping list again. “Are you allergic to anything?”

“Brussel sprouts. When do you need it?”

“Right now. Can I keep it until tomorrow night?”

Willow thought for a minute. She couldn’t think of anywhere she needed to go the next day. “Sure. I’ll be over as soon as I can.” After saying goodbye and hanging up the phone, she turned to Cordelia. “Spike needs to borrow my car. Can you follow me over there and bring me home?” she asked her friend.

Cordelia sighed and rolled her eyes, capping the nail polish. “Of course,” she said, pulling Buffy up so she could go with her.

Spike cringed when Cordelia pulled into his driveway next to Willow, knocking over his garbage can with a loud clatter. He met the girls outside, taking Willow’s proffered keys.

“Remember what I said earlier about scratching Mom’s car,” Willow warned him.

Spike grimaced. “I’ll remember, kitten,” the vampire promised, then climbed into the car. “See you tomorrow night, luv.”

Willow waved as he drove off, then walked over to Cordelia’s car, picking up the garbage can as she walked by. “I think you dented it,” she teased her friend as she climbed into the car.

“Well, it looks better then that stupid ‘Welcome to Sunnydale’ sign that Spike keeps hitting, so I don’t really care,” Cordelia retorted.

Buffy, who had transferred to the back seat while the two other girls were talking, laughed. “I still don’t know how he can hit that sign every time he passes it,” she giggled. “Maybe he needs corrective lenses.”

Cordelia smiled at the thought. “He might look sexy with glasses,” she said, glancing over at Willow, who had shivered. “Don’t you think so?” she asked, pulling out into traffic.

The redhead nodded, a small smile on her lips. “Doesn’t he always look sexy?” she retorted, then turned bright red. “Oh goddess, did I say that out loud?” she asked, mortified.

Buffy snorted from behind the girls. “You did. And he does,” she laughed. “If you go for that tall, blond and gorgeous look. Which I don’t.”

“That reminds me, how’s it going with Oz?” Willow asked, mostly to change the subject. Buffy and Oz had been hanging out together quite a bit lately, and Buffy had just recently admitted to Willow how much she liked the werewolf.

“About the same,” the Slayer said. “But that’s mostly because he doesn’t know that I like him,” she admitted, slumping down in the seat.

Cordelia glanced back at Buffy in the rearview mirror. “If you want anything to happen, you’re going to have to tell him,” she said, quickly returning her eyes to the road. “As far as I know, Oz is just a werewolf, not a mind reader. But I think he likes you too.”

Willow nodded in agreement. “He was talking about you earlier,” she told her friend. “Nothing specific, but he definitely mentioned your name more than usual.”

Perking up, Buffy smiled. “Really? Do you think if I asked him to a movie, he’d say yes?” she asked Willow.

“Don’t you two already go to the movies together?” Buffy nodded. “Then I’m pretty sure he’d say yes. Maybe you should ask him to do something you wouldn’t be doing anyway,” Willow suggested.

“Like what?”

“Like midnight bowling in Argentina,” Cordelia suggested, rolling her eyes at the incredulous look Willow gave her. “What? You didn’t say it had to be a feasible idea.”

Willow laughed. “How about dinner in a nice restaurant,” she said. “You know, one where you both have to dress up.”

“Or you could ask to go with him when the band plays in LA next week,” Cordelia said, having obviously racked her brain for something normal to do. “Willow and Spike could go along, it could be a double date.”

Buffy nodded. “That’s a great idea. And while we’re in LA, we could have dinner in a nice restaurant.”

Willow was bright red again. “I’m sorry, Cordy, but did you just say Willow, Spike, and date in the same sentence? There is no dating between us. Just dinner tomorrow night, and then that’s probably it. And then I have to take him shopping soon...but after that, he’ll probably never even think about me again.”

Cordelia rolled her eyes again. “When are you going to believe me? That stupid vampire is completely in love with you, he just doesn’t realize it yet, for some strange reason. And you have the exact same problem.”

“She’s right, Will,” Buffy agreed. “You’re so totally in love. If it was any vampire but Spike, I’d be horrified, but he’s not so bad. I can’t believe I just said Spike’s not so bad,” she laughed.

“He isn’t that bad,” Cordelia said. “Amy creature of the night that will brave the shopping mall for something other than a quick and easy snack is not a bad guy. Which reminds me...see if you can get him to buy new clothes when you two go shopping. That red and black ensemble is getting on my nerves.”

Willow nodded. “Mine too,” she admitted. “A guy can only wear an outfit for so long before you start to wonder if he owns anything else. Spike has abused that rule to the breaking point.”

“I can’t believe you’re going shopping with Spike,” Buffy said. “Actually, what I really can’t believe is that Cordy’s gotten him to go shopping with her before.”

“It wasn’t really all that hard,” Cordelia explained. “He was visiting us in LA, and it was either go shopping with me or spend quality time with Angel. I guess I was the lesser of the two evils.”

Spike swore and kicked the wheel on the shopping cart. “Damn basket,” he muttered, pushing it down the aisle of his local 24-hour supermarket. He was not in a good mood. the wheel of the cart was sticking, he couldn’t find pasta sauce, and some woman had been following him around for the past 15 minutes. It was starting to piss him off, and he wasn’t going to take it anymore. “What do you want?” he asked, finally turning around and confronting the woman.

She blushed furiously and backed away from him. “I’m sorry, sir, I didn’t mean to bother you,” she said quietly.

“Bloody hell,” Spike swore, feeling bad that he had obviously frightened her. “I didn’t mean to be rude, ducks, but you’re making me nervous, following me everywhere.”

The woman smiled, and Spike was surprised at how much she seemed to relax at his statement. “I make you nervous?” she asked. “I have to say, that’s the first time anyone has ever said that to me.” She chuckled, then seemed to remember what it was she had wanted. “Have you ever thought about modeling?” she asked, brushing her black hair out of her eyes. “I’m sorry. Let me introduce myself...I’m Rae Swanson, I’m a modeling agent, and you have the most arresting look I’ve ever encountered.”

Spike grinned and began to walk away. “I’m Spike, and I’m not interested,” he said. “I’m not very photogenic.”

Rae followed behind him. “Honey, everyone is photogenic with the right photographer, and I only use the best,” she persisted, frowning as Spike picked up a jar of pasta sauce. “Yuck, that stuff is terrible,” she said, taking it from his hand and returning it to the shelf. Picking up another brand, she handed it to him. “Try this, it’s 417% better.”

“Is that number guaranteed?” Spike laughed, taking the jar from her. She obviously wasn’t giving up easily, so he decided to be polite. “What kind of modeling is it?” he asked.

“Fashion. Mostly magazines,” Rae replied, moving down the aisle to the noodles and picking up a bag of linguini. “Who are you making dinner for?” she asked.

“Willow,” Spike said with a smile, thinking about the redhead.

“Is that your girlfriend?” She studied him carefully now, and he tried to get rid of the silly grin on his face.

Spike cleared his throat. “Erm...no,” he replied. “Unfortunately, I think she only sees me as a friend.”

Rae appeared to be thinking about that as they made their way to the wine aisle. “A friend, hmm?” she murmured, checking out the wine selection. “Do you want that to change?” she asked.

He had to think about that for a minute. “There are so many complications between us..” Spike said, fingering the label on a bottle of Merlot thoughtfully. “I don’t know if it would be a good idea.”

“Complications just make things interesting,” Rae smiled up at him, her blue eyes twinkling. “And good ideas are not always the best ones. Which brings me back to my very first question...do you think maybe you’d like to model for me?”

Spike laughed. “Cor, luv, you never give up, do you?” She shook her head, and he nodded. “Ok, fine, if you’re so sure I’d be good at it, I’ll give it a go.” He gave her his cell phone number, then turned back to the wine, looking helplessly at the selection before him.

Rae chuckled and picked up a bottle, placing it in his basket.

“Thank you,” he said gratefully.

“You’re welcome. And don’t worry about things with Willow. They’ll all work out,” Rae assured him, then walked off, leaving him alone in the wine aisle to think about everything she had said.

Willow woke up late the next morning, crawling slowly out of bed and stumbling down the stairs to make a large pot of very strong coffee. Cordelia came in right behind her and collapsed into a chair at the kitchen table.

“Mornin’,” Cordelia mumbled, resting her head on the table.

Willow just grunted in response, glaring at Buffy as her friend breezed into the kitchen.

“I smell coffee,” Buffy said perkily, opening the refrigerator and pulling out a slice of cold pizza from the night before.

“Ick,” Cordelia said, picking her head up long enough to see what Buffy was eating. “Can’t you at least heat that up first?”

Willow set a cup of coffee down in front of Cordelia and handed one to Buffy after adding four spoonfuls of sugar and some cream to it. “Here’s your caffine-laden sugar,” she teased her friend, making a face at the pizza she was finishing off.

“Thanks,” Buffy said, taking the cup from Willow and adding a little more cream to it. “Mmm, perfect.”

“Ick,” Cordelia said again, taking a sip of her own coffee.

Willow smiled at her friends, then went to see what kind of cereal she had. “Time to go shopping again,” she murmured, shaking the almost empty box of Cheerios. “Cordy, did you want to eat something?” she asked.

Cordelia shook her head. “I don’t do well with food in the morning. Coffee is fine.”

Once the girls had eaten and cleaned up, they started cleaning the rest of the house for Willow and Spike’s dinner that night. After they had finished that, they went up to Willow’s room to help her choose something to wear. The girls were deep in conversation in front of the closet when the phone rang. Willow dove to answer it, remembering what Buffy had said the night before.

“Hello,” she answered, hoping it was Spike calling about their dinner plans.

“Good afternoon, kitten. What time would you like to be fed tonight?” Spike greeted her.

Willow smiled. “How about right after sunset?” she suggested, absently playing with a lock of her hair.

“Sounds lovely, ducks.”