
Part 3: Increasing Exponentially
�Buffasong,� Willow slurred into her bottle, before taking another
drink.
�I didn�t catch that,� replied Toby from his side of the table, where he
was leaning back against the wall with his eyes
closed.
His legs were sprawled on the booth and he rested an elbow on the table,
which was now next to him.
�I said Buffy was wrong,� Willow spoke up, succeeding in her attempts to
enunciate clearly, despite her drunken
state.
�Okay,� Toby said, finishing off his third beer, while Willow started on
her fifth.
�Buffy,� Willow began to explain, her gestures growing wilder with every
sip she took. �She said beer was
bad. She said it doesn�t solve
anything.� Willow frowned,
inspecting her bottle for a moment.
�Or something like that.
Yeah.� She ended with a
sharp nod.
�Your friend Buffy has obviously never had good beer,� Toby said,
drinking half his bottle at once.
He began his attempts to get the bartender�s attention, but the bar had
started to fill up quickly, and he seemed to be occupied for at least the next
ten minutes.
�Dammit,� Toby muttered, eyeing the last three
bottles.
�But this is different,� Willow continued the conversation as if it had
never faltered. �This was just a
breakup. And I�m not gonna do
anything stupid. I�m just gonna get
drunk so that I don�t have to think about how I�m gonna end up an old lady alone
with her sixty cats. The
neighborhood kids will bet each other a buck at a time to come near my
house. I�ll be the crazy witch who
never goes outside.�
Willow let out a little giggle that Toby didn�t even try to
interpret.
�Um,� he began, trying to remember what had struck him as odd about what
she had said. Well, odd for
her.
As he was thinking, she dropped her head back to the
bar.
�Oh!� he exclaimed when it came to him, startling her enough to make her
sit back up again. �What do you
mean �just a breakup�?�
�Well, you know, this time no one
died.�
Toby frowned and watched her for a moment, surprised to see that she was
serious.
�Who died last time?�
�A couple of people. I�m
around a lot of death. It comes
with the territory.�
Toby wasn�t sure he wanted to know what territory she was referring
to. He decided to take another
route instead.
�I�m around a lot of death too.
Ever since I was young. You
think you�ll get used to it. I
mean, you know that it�s a horrible thought, but it�s something you just
assume. And then you never do. Get used to it, I
mean.�
Willow looked like she couldn�t decide to be surprised or concerned. She opened her mouth to say something,
but closed it again quickly. Toby
shrugged and gave her a half smile.
�You�re not gonna end up alone.
Trust me. If you end up
alone, then my faith in the human race is totally
misplaced.�
Willow flashed him a brilliant smile and held her bottle up to him in
salute. He tapped it with his
bottle and they both drank, then falling into a comfortable
silence.
�Someone died the first time too,� Willow said, continuing their
conversation from earlier. �It�s
sort of a long story. Anyway, so my
boyfriend left and when he came back, I was already with someone
new.�
Toby was proud of himself for not spitting out his mouthfull of beer on
the word �boyfriend�. Suddenly,
CJ�s voice came back, louder than ever.
Toby listened to it for a moment, then considered where he was and how
much he�d had to drink, and finally concluded that CJ had no control over him
here. A much smaller voice scoffed
at that thought, but that one was even easier to
ignore.
�What about you?� Willow asked, dragging him out of his
head.
�No, I've never had a boyfriend.�
The redhead rolled her eyes and slapped him lightly on the arm. Toby tried to ignore the sparks that
shot up his arm from her light touch.
�I was married. It didn�t
work out.�
�Are you still in love with her?�
Toby snorted. Then, after
thinking about it for a moment, he shrugged.
�It�s complicated?� Willow asked, finishing her fifth beer, but not
reaching for another.
�Yeah.�
�There�s someone else?�
�Possibly,� Toby replied, suddenly uncomfortable with the direction the
conversation was heading. He
finished his beer and grabbed the other bottles. �What do you say we get out of
here?�
�And go where?�
�I have a room upstairs.�
Willow looked at him for a moment, as if trying to debate it in her
drunken mind. Finally she shrugged
and followed him out of the bar.
NEXT...