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“What?”
    “Don’t you want to see what the prize is?” he asked as he opened the envelope.
    “Not really,” she replied defiantly, yet she made no move to walk away. 
    “We got two passes to the petting zoo down at the river,” he told her, holding them up.
    “Oh.  Well I’m sure you’ll put the passes to good use.”
    Zane stared at her.  “What, are you seriously telling me you don’t like the petting zoo?” he asked, seemingly having recovered from whatever strange sentiment had come over him following the failed second kiss.
    Melody shrugged.  “Who doesn’t like the petting zoo?”
    “Atta girl,” he told her.  “I’ll meet you outside the bar tomorrow, say around one o’clock?”
    Melody raised an eyebrow.  “I don’t understand you,” she told him, crossing her arms.
    “What part about me meeting you tomorrow is confusing?” Zane asked with amusement.
    “No, I don’t mean that.” 
    Melody decided to call Zane out on what had happened rather than sheepishly attempt to sweep it under the rug.  But then at the last second she chickened out, too mortified to call attention to the fact that she had completely misread his signals, as evidenced by his embarrassing refusal to kiss her a second time.  Had the first kiss really been that bad?  Because she thought it had been pretty great...
    “So uh, what do you mean?” he asked.
    Shaking her head dismissively, Melody told him, “I’m busy tomorrow.”
    “Doing what?”
    She stared at him wide eyed, the question unexpected. “Stuff!” she replied indignantly.
    “What sort of stuff?” he pressed, his eyes twinkling.  She could definitely see a glimmer of the annoying older boy who had terrorized her and her friends at sleepovers back in the day.  It was infuriating...and yet also kind of endearing.
    “It’s none of your business,” Melody snapped.
    He burst out laughing at that.  “You’re right,” he agreed as she glared daggers at him.  “It isn’t.  But here’s the deal.  I want to go to the petting zoo.  I mean, who doesn’t love baby goats?  They’re cute and I want to pet them.”
    “Then go to the petting zoo.”
    “I can’t go alone.”
    “Why can’t you?” 
    “Macho Idiot Law – which yes, is totally a thing – dictates I can’t go to the petting zoo unless I am in the company of a woman or small child,” he informed her matter-of-factly.  Then he looked at Melody expectantly.
    “That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard,” she told him.
    “It kind of is,” he agreed, unfazed.  “Come on, you’re not going to make me beg, are you?”
    “I already told you, I’m busy tomorrow.”
    “All day?” he asked.
    “Yes.”
    “You can’t find even half an hour to let me buy you an ice cream and wander around the riverside with me?” he coaxed.  “Come on, I’ll get you as many scoops as you want!  And after that, there will be cute little baby animals to pet.  Some of them might even be fuzzy.”
    “Oh God, if I say yes will you stop embarrassing yourself?”
    “Yes.  Please say yes,” he begged, giving her puppy dog eyes.  “This is humiliating.”
    “Okay fine.  Yes, I’ll go to the petting zoo with you tomorrow.   Goodnight.”
    “Goodnight,” she heard him say as she walked away.  She didn’t look back because she wouldn’t let herself.  She didn’t want to give Zane that satisfaction.  But she could feel him looking at her, watching as she walked away.  It made her tingle all over.
     

Chapter 04
    The following day, Melody headed down to the bar in the early afternoon.  She was wearing a yellow sundress with a sweetheart neckline and a pair of strappy sandals.  Her hair was tied back in a side ponytail, loosely braided, and though her makeup was minimal she’d spent a hell of a long time making it look barely there!
    She wasn’t sure why she had taken such care to dress nicely.  Zane clearly wasn’t interested in her, so what was the point of