"What?!", Willow said spitting out her cappuccino.

"I said do you have some secret guy stashed away?", Buffy said using a paper napkin to wipe up the droplets spattered all over the table in the coffee shop.

"N-no, of course not"

"Then where do you go all day? For the last three weeks you disappear in the middle of the day and I don't see you again until late at night", Buffy said checking her watch showing it was nearly eleven pm. They had only got in the last orders at the coffee shop before it closed, luckily Sunnydale was a college town so there was always a steady parade of unkempt teens suffering from the munchies hence the late opening hours.

"I….. go to the library"

"What? For like six hours a day? Even a self-confessed nerd like you couldn't need that much knowledge", Buffy said, "Come off it Will. You don't turn up to the Bronze until nine and sometimes you have sex hair"

"What?!", Willow coughed, spitting her cappuccino across the table again as she rapidly ran her fingers through her hair smoothing it down nervously.

Buffy rolled her eyes and wiped up the spilled drink once more.

"Come on Will, you can tell me anything you know. I promise I won't judge you. So spill, who is it?"

"It's…..no-one. I told you, with college coming up I have to be all super brainy girl so….library"

"You don't have to be evasive. Honestly, you don't have to make something up", pressed Buffy.

"Library", Willow said as her fingers nervously toyed with her mauve tie hanging from the buttoned collar of her pink silk shirt, both being gifts from Joyce. The mother of her best friend. The mother of the girl sitting opposite her. The mother she was orally pleasuring on a daily basis.

"Right. You know I'll find out the truth eventually"

"I'm not lying. See…resolve face", Willow said pointing to her head.

"That's not your resolve face. That's your 'I-have-a-juicy-secret' face. It's the same face you wore when you found out about Giles and his erectile dysfunction. And what's with the tie, I mean it looks good and everything but still"

"Its….nothing. Can't a girl try to look her best sometimes?", said Willow shuffling the half Windsor knot up to her collar a little further.

"But you wear one all the time now. I always thought you'd be all tie dye and hemp skirts, unless you're trying to impress someone who is…... wait ….. i-is it a girl?", asked Buffy with a strange echo mingled in her words.

"Is what a girl?", replied the redhead feeling a strange sense of déjà vu.

"Your secret fancy man…or woman"

"What? I-I'm not gay, Buffy"

"Oh come on, Faith told me about her sleepover. And that game of truth or dare"

"That wasn't my fault. I mean Faith broke into her Dad's liquor cabinet, and you know the Mayor would only have the best sherry in the world. Hence me got drunky, me got silly and said things"

"Will, it's ok with being gay. I'm not going to love you any less for it. I mean, when my Mom came out it took a little while to adjust but there's no way I would ever want her to not be happy with herself", Buffy said holding her friends hand completely unaware where those fingers had been just an hour earlier.

Flashback

As Joyce pressed her lips along Willow's breasts, her necktie being tied round her wrists ready to bind the redhead to the bed once more, but Willow pulled away. And it wasn't just to catch a breather from the two hours of passionate love making they had embarked on.

"Wait a minute", Willow said pulling away from the skin searing kisses, "Sit down a minute"

"What?", Joyce said raising her eyebrows.

"Just sit down a minute"

Joyce rolled off the young woman and reached down to take off her shoes.

"No, don't take them off. You know I love it when you wear them while you and I….you know …..but do you think we could say a few words to each first this time?"

"What words? Oh, you mean like a safety word? Well I didn't bring the paddle or that cheerleader uniform you like with me today. But ok, I just don't think we have much to say to each other"

"All we ever do is come up here and throw off our clothes and leap into bed together"

"What's wrong with that? Are you tired of it? Are you tired of….me?", Joyce said a little hurt.

"No, not that. I could never tire of you and that thing you do with the riding crop and the mango, but do you think we could liven it up with a few words now and then?"

"Well what did you want to talk about?"

"Anything. Anything at all", Willow said trying to loosen the tie tightly fastening her wrists together.

"Ok, so do you want to tell me about your High School experiences?"

"Oh god"

"Well?"

"Mrs Summers, if that's the best we can do let's just forget it and get the damn the ball gag out", sighed Willow wondering just why she asked if they could bring accessories to the same hotel room each day.

Joyce frowned and reached for her shoe, though their wild sex had recently included costumes and sore asses, she didn't need to hear the whiney ramblings of a teenager. She had enough of that at home.

"No, leave the shoes on…..please, Mrs Summers. But can we at least have one conversation. Think of another topic"

"How about politics?"

"Yes, that's a good subject. You start it off"

"You start it off. I don't know anything about it"

"Oh", Willow said a little deflated.

"Do you know about it?"

"Yes, I do. Quite a bit actually. What did you want to know about it?"

Joyce just shrugged as the beads of sweat ran down her breasts until they dripped from her nipples and onto the duvet which would take an awful lot of dry cleaning after this session.

"Are you more interested in left or right wing viewpoints?", asked Willow with brightening eyes, though framed by smeared eyeliner and traces of Joyce's lipstick.

"Neither"

"You're not interested in politics?"

"No"

"Then why did you want to talk about it?"

"I don't", Joyce sighed as Willow stared down at the rug, "Look, can I just buckle on the strap-on yet?"

"No, think of another topic. Er….tell me what you did today", replied the redhead whose hair was once more limp, matted and flailing across the pillows.

"Do you really want to know?"

"Yes. Yes I do"

"I got up"

"And?"

"I had breakfast"

"Mrs Summers, can you at least try and sound like you care. Did anything interesting happen at work?"

"Well a new selection of African erotic art came in"

"Did it now"

"Listen, can I get ready and talk at the same time?", said Joyce as she reached for the long zipper on the rucksack and clasped her hands around the inches of moulded rubber.

"Er…sure", said Willow laying back on bed in a pool of many colors and flavors.

"Thankyou"

"So…er….. tell me about Mister Summers"

"Why? That's a drastic change of subject", said Joyce feeling uncomfortable for the first time.

"Humor me, will you?"

"Fine. He was crap in bed and I only married him because…."

"Because?"

"Oh have a guess, Willow"

"Buffy?"

"Bingo"

"You got married because you were pregnant with Buffy?", coughed Willow in surprise.

"Yes, now can you shut up. I don't want to talk about Buffy now"

"Why not?"

"Because I don't want to", said Joyce as she straddled Willow who gasped under the weight. She could feel the wetness of the older woman's crotch rubbing across her stomach as she pushed Willow's arms up towards the headboard fastening her hands tightly.

"Why not? is it because of me? Am I a filthy degenerate taking advantage of her lonely mother?", said Willow a little harshly as she finally gathered the courage to tell Joyce of her heart's true desires.

"What? You think you're the one using me? Oh please", said Joyce as she reached for the can of whipped cream.

"You think I'm proud of this? Betraying her trust like this, I'm her best friend and you're meant to be her mother"

"What did you say?"

"Nothing", mumbled Willow.

"No, tell me what you said", Joyce snorted feeling slighted.

"I said if you were that much of a mother you would tell Buffy about us so we could take this further"

"Further?"

"Yes further. I'm sick of this, I don't want to be a dirty little secret anymore. I want to take you to dinner and hold your hand and…oh don't try and act hurt"

"Don't you expect me to be a little hurt? Willow, you know exactly what this is. This means nothing, it's just sex", replied Joyce feeling a little flattered that this young woman could want to have a special relationship with her.

"To you maybe but….I don't want to be your fucktoy anymore"

Joyce said nothing, she just slid back off the bed and reached for the cigarettes in her purse.

"Wait, where are you going?"

"I think my work here is done. It's been lovely Willow, really it has, but now you know what kind of woman you are I think you know you need to move on", Joyce said lighting up a smoke and letting small rings of smoke waft across the room, though she only ever smoked after sex her habit had increased so much in the last few weeks.

"W-what? But I…I don't want this to end….I…I just want something…..more"

"I know you do, dear. But I can't give that to you, college is about to start for you and it'll make me so happy to see you find someone your own age, someone who can give you all that I can't. It's been a pleasure to watch you blossom but now it's time for someone else to smell those roses"

"Roses? I don't want roses…do you want roses?", said Willow as she felt her skin chill and her heart ache but not to the depth she expected, "I-I can you get some roses"

"Willow, you're smarter than that, please don't play the naïve card. You're not that girl anymore", said Joyce as she strode around the bed to tenderly stroke Willow's cheek.

"B-but…"

"Shhh, honey. No but's, you know this was going to end at some point. Now how about one last time?", Joyce smiled as she stubbed the cigarette out.

"I…..but…I….thankyou Mrs Summers", replied Willow accepting the soft and moist kiss to her lips, "I don't know how to….well…you know….it's…"

"I said no talking, or should I get the ball gag?", Joyce said with a playful smirk seeing the smile flourishing on her young woman's damp and smeared face, "Thought not, now let's go out with a bang shall we?"

End Flashback

"Ok fine", said Willow fighting back her tears, "I-I have been seeing a woman. An older woman"

"Ha, I knew it", said Buffy victoriously as she clasped her best friend's hand even tighter. "So make with the spilling"

"I can't"

"Why not?"

"Because it….it's over. She….oh Buff, she was such a woman all classy and man, she could do things with her fingers that…"

"Will, that's way too much information"

"Sorry….anyway, though I wish it wasn't over ….to be honest she took a naïve and shy young girl and let her blossom into a woman who finally knows who she truly is. I always knew it was going to end, but I wanted something she couldn't give me and so we parted ways. It hurts Buffy, more than I hoped but not as bad as I expected, I just don't know what's next for me.I mean, I…I have much to thank her for but our time….it's gone now"

"So it was just a summers romance then?", asked Buffy feeling sad for pestering her friend into talking about such an abrasive subject.

"Something like that", Willow said with a small grin wiping away her tears knowing that she was now ready to face the world, for the first time, on her terms.

As her eyes drifted across the room she caught the glimpse of a smile coming from a young woman in a long skirt and baggy knitted top who sat quietly in one corner of the coffee shop. A shy smile hidden behind long blonde hair which seemed to sing out to Willow like a siren beckoning her closer to the gentle hippie girl.

Willow wondered.

Tightened her tie.

And smiled back.