Author: Glendaofoz
Rating: PG-13 to NC-17.
Disclaimer: I do not own Willow and Tara or the rest of the BtVS gang that may appear in this story. Everything else comes from my imagination and from my own personal life experiences.

Tara drove to the restaurant but the whole time all that she could think about was how good Willow looked. She couldn't get the smile off of her face. As Tara walked in, she noticed that Taylor was already there and at a table. Tara walked over to the table, took her coat off and sat down.

"Hi!" Taylor said as Tara sat down.

"Hey." Tara said still with a huge smile on her face.

"What gives?" Taylor asked as she just stared at Tara.

"Huh?"

"What are you so happy about? You haven't taken that smile off your face since you walked in the door."

"Nothing. Can't I just be happy for no reason?"

"NO!" Taylor yelled a little too loud and the table behind then both turned to look. "So tell me who is she?"

"Who is who?" Tara asked trying to play dumb.

"Who is the woman that is making you smile like that?"

"I don't know what you are talking about. Can we just eat please?"

"Yeah but don't you think that I am just dropping this. Cause I'm not." Taylor said as Tara pulled the menu in front of her and just stared at it.

A few minutes later the waitress came over to the table and they ordered. The two just chit chatted through the meal and then had some dessert. Once they were done, Taylor was ready to start up the conversation about why she was so happy again.

"So..." Taylor said stretching out the word way longer than it was supposed to be.

"So what?"

"Come on Tara. Why are you so damn happy?"

"Fine I will tell you but just so that you will leave me alone." Tara said as she re-adjusted herself in her chair. "Last week I met this woman..."

"I knew it!" Taylor interrupted Tara with.

"Can I finish please?"

"Yeah sorry, go ahead."

"She owns that graphic design company in town, Butterfly Affect. She was hired by Mike to do the McMillan ad campaign." Tara continued.

"Wait... I am confused. What does she have to do with why you are so happy?"

Tara just gave her that 'would you stop' look. Taylor said that she was sorry again and told Tara to continue.

"She is so beautiful, smart, and amazing Taylor. But..." Tara stopped.

"But what? What is the problem? She sounds great."

"She said that she wants to just keep it professional. She has gotten burnt in the past with getting involved with people that she is doing work for and it ended badly."

"Well, what about at least being friends?"

"I really want that but I just wanted to get through this project and then I would see what happened after that. So I will have to just wait and see what happens after Monday." Tara said as the smile on her face got a little smaller, still there but not as big.

Once they were done talking, they left the restaurant. Tara and Taylor said their goodbyes and went home. As Tara drove home, she started to think about Willow.

"I hope at least her and I can be friends if she doesn't want to have a relationship with me." Tara said as she pulled up in her driveway.

Monday couldn't come soon enough for she couldn't wait to see Willow and get a chance to talk to her. Tara got off to work early this morning so that she could finish up on one of her projects before Mike got in.

"Ms. Maclay." The receptionist said as Tara walked in the front door. "You have some messages already."

"Really but it's not even 8 yet!" Tara said in surprise as she walked over to the desk.

"Yeah, a Ms. Rosenberg called about 10 minutes ago and she just wanted you to call her when you got a chance. Also, Mike called to let you know that he wouldn't be in today but that the McMillan project needs to be submitted this afternoon. He wanted you to call him when you got in so that he could go over the final details with you."

"Thanks Bianca." Tara said as she grabbed the messages from her and headed to her office.

Tara got to her office, put down her briefcase, took off her coat and then sat down to call Mike. There was no answer but she left him a message to call her back whenever he got a chance. Tara then called Willow back.

"Butterfly Affect, Ashlen speaking how may I help you?" Ashlen said as she picked up the phone.

"Can I please speak with Willow?"

"Yeah, may I ask who's calling?"

"Tara Maclay from Devine Advertising."

"Ok just one moment." Ashlen said as she put Tara on hold.

As few minutes later, Willow picked up the phone. "Good morning Tara."

"Good morning. So what made you call so early this fine morning?"

"I just wanted to make sure that everything was ok with the project cause I remembered you saying something about the presentation being today."

"Yeah it is actually this afternoon. As far as I know, everything is fine with it. Mike isn't in today but he had a chance to look in over this weekend. I called and left him a message so I am just waiting for him to call me back about what to do next."

"Well that's good. Just let me know if anything is wrong and needs to be fixed before you meeting."

"Sure will." Tara said as she took a deep sigh into the phone.

"Are you ok?" Willow said hearing Tara sigh.

"I actually wanted to talk to you about something that I have been thinking about all weekend. Do you think that you and I could meet for dinner or something tonight?"

"Yeah I don't see why not but has something happened?"

"No not at all. Nothing like that."

"Ok good. What time did you want to meet?"

"Well, what time do you work till?"

"Usually till around 6 or so."

"Then how does 7 sound?"

"Perfect. How about that new Italian place?"

"That was exactly what I was going to say." Tara said as they both started to laugh.

"Two great minds think alike!" Willow said as she got a huge smile on her face.

"Yeah. Well I will let you get back to work but I will see you tonight." Tara said.

"Ok!" Willow said as they both hung up the phone.