Okay... please bear in mind... this update has not even been
remotely beta'd. I just finished it two seconds ago and now I am posting it... so sorry for any spelling and/or grammatical errors.
Otherwise, enjoy!
___________________________________________________
Tara sat alone in her kitchen staring at the cordless phone sitting on the counter in front of her. The white plastic instrument sat mutely, waiting to for its guts to ring, or the buttons on its belly to be pressed with deliberate precision so that one of its relative’s guts would ring somewhere else on the planet. From its silent position, face down on the counter, its plastic back turned to Tara’s gazing eyes, it seemed almost to mock her immobility. Tara bit her lower lip in concentration, her hands wringing in her lap as she considered her next move. Finally, as if she was expecting it to bite back, she reached out her hand and quickly snatched the phone from its resting place, pulling it to her and glancing to the number pad, swiftly dialing the seven digits that would connect her to the outside world.
“Graphics By Design,” the voice sang from the other end of the line.
“Hi, Dawn,” said Tara nervously, “Is…uh…Willow there?”
“Sure, just a sec…”
Tara heard the clicking sound of being put on hold, followed by another click indicating a transfer to a new line then muted sound of ringing that suddenly ended. “This is Willow.”
“Hi, Will…it’s Tara…”
“Hey,” Willow smiled into the phone. In her office, she reclined back into her chair, relaxing at the sound of the blonde’s voice. “What’s up?”
“I...um… was wondering if you wanted to grab something to eat after work,” Tara asked hesitantly, “that is... if you don’t already have plans.”
“Nope, no plans,” Willow replied, “I’m all yours.” Tara blushed on the other end of the line. “Where would you like to go?” the redhead added after a moment.
“Um…I don’t know…do you like the Green Mill?”
The Green Mill was a Denny’s style restaurant with a buffet near the center of town. It was a popular eating place for families and high school students who preferred not to hang out at the actual Denny’s. It wasn’t what you would call a “happening place”, but the food was relatively decent and the atmosphere relaxing.
“Sure,” Willow agreed. “I’ll be getting out of here at around 4:30, did you want me to meet you there?”
“Okay,” answered Tara. “Is five too soon?”
“Five sounds great. I’ll see you there.”
They said their goodbyes and hung up. Tara sat motionless again, looking intently down upon the now quiet receiver in her hand. Taking a breath and squaring her shoulders, she set the phone back down on the counter in front of her before pushing up from her stool and leaving the kitchen for her room.
*****
Willow stood outside of the Green Mill waiting for Tara to arrive. When finally she saw the white Corolla pull into the parking lot, she let out a sigh of relief she didn’t know she’d been holding. She approached the car as Tara stepped out. The blonde wore a pair of loose-fitting white cotton pants and a baby blue button-up casual dress shirt. The front half of her hair was pulled back into a braid that rested gently at the back of her head where the rest of her hair was down long against her back. On her feet was a pair of simple sandals, the soles too thin to appear as comfortable as they actually were. She looked casual and comfortable, and yet still as though she had put some thought into her appearance. Taking off her sunglasses, she smiled softly at the approaching redhead.
Willow hesitated for a moment in her advance, Tara looked stunning. But of course, the blonde always looked gorgeous in Willow’s eyes, but something about her today really sent the message home. The redhead grumbled internally at her own haphazard dress. Though she had been in the office today, she hadn’t had any appointments, so she had just thrown on a pair of jeans, an old t-shirt and pulled her hair back in a ponytail. The only saving grace to her appearance was her sneakers, a stylish pair of distressed Baker’s and her brown deconstructed leather jacket. Still, it was only dinner at the Mill and no one expected the patrons to dress in anything beyond…well, clothing in general. Nudity was definitely not allowed.
Especially at the buffet, she mused momentarily. Regaining her stride she completed her journey to Tara’s side.
“Hello,” she smiled.
“Hey,” said Tara, smiling back. She leaned in and they shared a quick “hello” hug. “Are you ready to go inside?” the blonde inquired.
“Sure,” Willow replied as they started toward the establishment’s front door, “I’m starved. I didn’t have time for lunch today.”
“I’m sorry,” Tara automatically apologized.
“It’s not your fault”, Willow smiled charmingly as she opened the door for Tara.
“Thanks,” Tara said, walking past and her and ducking her head a little bashfully.
They were seated right away at a small table near the center of the restaurant’s main dining area. “Menu or buffet?” the hostess asked politely.
“Menu please,” answered Tara.
“Me too,” Willow agreed.
The hostess smiled and handed them each a menu, telling them both, “Enjoy. Your server tonight is Steven. He should be with you shortly.”
“Thanks,” the girls responded I unison.
“So, how was your day?” asked Willow as she glanced over her menu.
“Dull,” Tara sighed. “I’m starting to regret having quit my job.”
“You did it to stay home with your mom… it’s understandable.”
“Yeah,” she acquiesced, “but she’s gone now… and... well, money’s not really the issue. It’s more… entertainment value.”
Willow chuckled, “Daytime soaps aren’t doing it for you, huh?”
“Definitely not,” Tara giggled, rolling her eyes. “I’m not much of a T.V. watcher anyway. And the house is in perfect condition, so there isn’t anything I can fix, or clean or muddle with. I think if I wipe down my kitchen counter one more time, I’m going to erase it out of existence.”
The redhead laughed at the imagery, pondering the look on Tara’s face if something like that were to indeed happen. Priceless. Then a thought occurred to her. “Well, if you want, you can put in some hours at my office sometime.”
Tara regarded her thoughtfully, rolling the idea around in her head. “Maybe…”
“I mean, if I remember correctly didn’t you mention once that you were interested in graphic art?” Willow recalled a conversation they had had more than a year before when she had first announced that she was starting her own business.
“Yeah…”
“I mean, I can’t afford to pay you that much, but--”
“You wouldn’t have to pay me,” Tara interrupted her. “It would be nice just to have something to do.”
“Okay, well… think about it… let me know,” Willow smiled.
Tara nodded agreeably just as their waiter arrived to take their drink and dinner orders. After he left, the girls chit-chatted amiably for a while until their food arrived, at which point they both dove in hungrily to their plates.
After a few minutes of quiet chewing, Tara spoke up, “So…what were you doing after this?”
Willow finished swallowing a bite of her food before answering with a shrug, “I don’t know, nothing that I was aware of.”
“Cuz I was thinking if you wanted to come over,” Tara explained, “I just got a couple of DVD’s in from Netflix.”
“Oh, which ones?”
“Gosford Park…”
“Good movie!” Willow interjected excitedly. “I love whodunits! Have you seen it before?”
“Not yet”, she confessed.
“Okay, well, I won’t spoil it for you. My lips are zipped. But you’re gonna love it.” The redhead bounced a little in her seat, unable to contain her giddiness.
“You’re funny,” Tara chuckled.
“Well, I try,” said Willow, “I spend hours each night in front of the mirror working on my standup.”
“I’m so sure,” the blonde grinned.
“What else did you rent?”
“Oh…um…” Tara blushed a little, looking down and nudging the food on her plate with her fork. “The…um… The Hours.”
“Wow…really?” Willow was impressed. “Have you seen it?”
“No…”
“It’s really, really good. I saw it in the movie theatre twice. Once with Xander and then again by myself…cuz it was just so good, I had to see it again,” she gushed.
“You went to a movie by yourself?” Tara was amazed.
“Sure, why not?”
“That’s so brave.”
“You think I’m brave for going to a movie?” Willow raised an eyebrow skeptically. “I do it all the time.”
“By yourself?”
“Yeah.” Willow nodded. “I do a lot of stuff by myself. I go to restaurants by myself, I go hiking by myself, I go to the beach… shopping… a lot of stuff.”
“And it doesn’t bother you?” asked Tara.
“Why should it?”
“Don’t you get lonely?”
Willow’s expression became introspective and distant for a moment. “Sometimes,” she acknowledged. “But…I just came to realize a long time ago that I was tired of no one ever being interested or available to join me when I finally had the time to do these things. I wasn’t going to stop my life because other people weren’t interested in it.”
“I’m interested…” Tara softly contradicted.
“I know,” said Willow, feeling horrible for how she must have sounded.
“I just…had stuff that I was dealing with…”
“Tara…I know that,” Willow stated humbly. “I wasn’t talking about you. I really wasn’t…okay?”
The blonde nodded mutely. “I know”, she finally admitted. “I just hate the fact that I was cut off from the world for so long.”
“You’re getting back into the swing of things,” Willow said encouragingly.
“I guess,” Tara acquiesced.
Willow quickly changed the subject, hoping to cheer the sudden drop in mood. “You know, my Hallowe’en party is next week.”
“Yeah,” said Tara, a look of confusion forming on her soft features, “but I never got an invitation.”
“That’s because I wanted to ask you personally,” the redhead smiled. “So…will you come?”
“Sure, where is it this year?”
“At my parents’ house, as always,” Willow replied, adopting a poor Mafioso accent she continued, “We have this unspoken agreement that every Hallowe’en they vacate the premises and I get the run of the joint… so long as nothing gets broken, the agreement stands. Ba da bing, ba da boom.”
Tara laughed lightly at Willow’s sloppy dialect. “Well, then I’d say it’s safe to count me in.”
“Great,” Willow grinned broadly. “Um...I’d invite Lisa, but, there’s going to be copious amounts of alcohol so…I’d rather not take the chance…”
“That’s okay…I think she already has plans that night to visit all the haunted houses set up in town with her friends, “ Tara recollected.
“Good, at least she won’t be sitting at home cursing you for being over 21.” Willow glanced at her plate, and then across at Tara’s. Finding them both empty, she asked, “You ready to go?”
“Yeah,” Tara agreed.
Willow raised her hand in the air and adopted a faux pompous attitude. “Oh, Garcon?” she sing-songed, signaling for the check; Tara giggled at her friend’s antics.
*****
Tara led the way into the empty house, with Willow following close behind. Lisa was out with her friends again and so the pair of women had the house to themselves. Tara dropped her keys on the table inside the front door and walked a ways into the foyer to flip the switch that turned on the family room lamps illuminating the room ahead of them.
“The envelopes with the DVD’s in them are sitting on the coffee table,” Tara explained as she walked into the kitchen and opened the fridge. “Did you want anything to drink?”
“Water would be great,” said Willow, shrugging her jacket off onto one of the bar stools and walking around to the coffee table, picking up the DVD’s and beginning to open them to see which was which film.
Tara pulled two bottles of water from the fridge and walked over to where Willow stood, examining the video disks.
“Which one did you want to watch first,” the redhead inquired, looking up to see Tara standing in front of her a water in each hand.
“You pick,” stated Tara, handing her one of the drinks.
Willow took the water and set it on the table behind her, looking back to the movies she now held, one in each hand, as if she was playing a mental game of “eenie, meenie, minie, moe”. After a few more seconds of contemplation, she announced, “The Hours… cuz it is just so cool, you have to see it…and I really want to see it again.”
“Sure,” Tara nodded and watched as Willow walked away from her and over to the DVD player, loading the disk inside. Swallowing a quick gulp, she followed her and stood behind her waiting for her to turn.
Willow turned to find the blonde standing right in front of her, the proximity of their two bodies throwing her off a little. “All... set,” she managed haltingly. She was even further surprised when Tara took another step forward and wrapped her arms around her in a warm hug. Willow hesitated for a moment before bringing her own arms up around the blonde and holding her gently, yet firmly. Her heart rate increased to a rapid beat and she could feel beads of sweat beginning to form on her brow, even as her throat went dry. What is going on here?, she thought to herself, trying to maintain her composure as Tara rested her head on her shoulder, her nose brushing up against the tender skin of her neck. She felt the blonde squeeze her embrace more tightly and answered in kind, unsure what else to do. And then… it happened. The most unthinkable and wonderful and terrifying thing; Willow felt Tara begin to place soft kisses on her skin. Willow stopped breathing, her body frozen in place.
“Do you like that?” Tara whispered softly, her breath tickling the delicate peach fuzz on her ear.
Willow exhaled sharply in an attempt to regain control of her impossibly constricted throat muscles. “Uh huh,” was all she could bring herself to utter. Tara now kissed a little higher on Willow’s neck, moving toward her jaw-line. The redhead was near faint with the girl’s attentions, trying desperately hard to remain in control while becoming painfully aroused. She needed to understand why this was happening, because despite this being the thing that she had dreamed of for almost five years, she knew that this wasn’t right, and when she felt Tara’s lips open and her tongue taste her flesh, she somehow found the ability to pull away and look Tara in the eyes.
“What are you doing?” She asked carefully.
Tara looked at her, doe-eyed and innocent, the pangs of rejection beginning to seep into her heart. “I thought…” she began, trying to find the words. “Isn’t this what’s supposed to happen?”
“Supposed to…?” Willow echoed, confused.
“I thought this is what happened when two people went on a date,” Tara answered in a small and embarrassed voice. She pulled out of Willow’s arms and walked away, toward the counter. “I guess I was wrong…”
Willow’s mind was spinning. What had she just said? A date?! her mind repeated, Did she say “a date”? “’A date?’”, she said aloud, echoing her thoughts. “We’re on a date?”
“You didn’t know?” Tara’s naïve honesty was heartbreaking.
“No,” Willow responded, becoming flustered, “I… I would have dressed nicer… and… I would have picked you up… we would have gone someplace better…and…I would have paid...for both of us…instead of splitting the check.”
“Oh…” the blonde’s voice was remarkably tiny.
Something suddenly occurred to Willow. A realization that took all of her self-control to not leap in the air and start dancing with joy. “Wait a minute,” she said, “you want to go on a date…with me?”
“Yeah,” Tara admitted, “is that okay?”
“Is that okay?” she repeated, barely able to contain her excitement. “It’s….it’s only the most wonderful thing in the world that’s ever happened to me in my entire life!”
“It is?”
“Yes,” Willow emphasized, crossing to the stool were Tara was now sitting at the kitchen counter, taking the girl’s hands into her own. “You have no idea how happy you have just made me,” she said softly and sincerely, looking into the blonde’s eyes. Tara blushed and looked down to her lap where their hands were clasped together. Willow also looked down, admiring the way Tara’s hands fit so perfectly within hers. “Alright…” she spoke again, “tomorrow is Friday…how about I pick you up here at seven and we go out for some dinner…maybe a movie afterwards?”
“You mean… a real date?” Tara smiled, a blush creeping over her cheeks.
“Yeah,” Willow acknowledged, her lips forming into a smile.
“Okay,” Tara agreed, nodding her head a little.
Willow squeezed Tara’s hands a little in gratitude. “Alright…for now I’m going to go…because… I don’t think I’m going to be able to concentrate on anything now… even ‘The Hours’.” She chuckled softly. Tara nodded again, her voice stuck in her throat. “I’ll let myself out,” Willow continued, leaning forward and kissing Tara softly on the cheek before pulling away and stepping back, grabbing her coat from the stool next to her and smiling broadly. “I’ll see you tomorrow night.”
“Yeah,” Tara finally managed to speak. She watched Willow give a little wave from were she stood before walking back out of the family room, into the hall and out the front door. She smiled when she heard a muffled “Whoo-Hoo!” come from the front yard, followed by the sound of a car door closing and an engine turning over.
Tara tried to take stock of the gamut of emotions racing through her body. She didn’t know or understand what they all meant, but something in her imagined that it at least had to be something good.
*****
TBC...
edited because honestly, I know the difference between gambit and gamut... really, I do... 
"Promise me you'll never be linear." "On my trout."
Edited by: DarkWiccan at: 4/8/04 10:01 pm
by Footman311 » Tue Apr 06, 2004 7:18 pm 
and it seems like she is starting to realize her patience is paying off. I am glad Tara is trying to take some initiative in finally pursuing a romantic relationship with Willow. Great news Tara is finally coming out of her stalled emotional state. Things are looking brighter for our ladies. 
at: 4/6/04 11:02 pm
Love sammi xx 
Good thing Willow won't mind taking things slow with Tara, esp. not now she knows Tara is willing to go along somewhat at least.
. (on the other hand she also might not have *wanted* anybody besides Tara to go with)
more