Safe Word Read Online Free Page A

the waitress brought a fresh pitcher of beer. “Maybe I’ll have one more.”  So much for her one drink limit! 
    “You look like you had a good day,” Zane observed.
    “What do you mean?”
    He grinned.  “You haven’t stopped smiling since you got here.”
    Mortified, Melody immediately frowned.  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
    “Hey, it’s cool,” he reassured her.  “It’s actually pretty cute.  So...was it a good day?”
    She shrugged.  “It was a day like any other, I suppose.  How was your day?”
    “It’s better now that you’re here,” he said, holding his glass up in a mock toast.  “Here’s to you!”
    “Nice try, smooth talker,” Melody told him. 
    “Smooth talker?  Me?”
    “Yep, you,” she nodded.  Then, changing the subject, she demanded, “Tell me about you.”
    “What do you want to know?”
    “What do you do for work?”
    He hesitated.  “Honestly?”
    “Well yeah, of course I want the truth,” she replied.  “And if you try to tell me you’re a dragon slayer I’m going to know that you’re lying to me, Zane Shepherd.”
    “Dammit, and that was going to be my answer, too.”
    “So...?” she urged.  “What do you do?”
    “Um...nothing,” he replied.
    “Oh, so you’re in between jobs?” Melody asked, feeling awkward that she had put him on the spot.  “I get it.  I mean I, of all people, should get it right?” 
    “Yeah well that’s not exactly what I meant,” he clarified.  “I uh...remember I told you I’d been in a bad car accident?  Well I lost control of my car because of a faulty part.  The manufacturer was involved in a class action lawsuit and I ended up getting a pretty significant settlement out of it.”
    “Ah, I see.  So you choose not to work?”
    “I guess you could say that.”
    “So...what do you do all day?” Melody asked curiously.
    “Whatever I want to do,” he admitted with a shrug, looking rather embarrassed by the whole discussion.  “Sometimes I try to pay it forward and help people out.  And other days I’m a lazy, selfish bastard who’s drunk by noon.”
    “So basically what you’re saying is you’re living everybody’s dream,” Melody summarized.
    “Am I?”
    “Aren’t you?”
    Zane didn’t reply.  Instead, he refilled both their glasses until they were overflowing with ice cold beer.  Then he nodded over to the stage where a guy with a microphone appeared to be getting set up.  “It looks like trivia is about to start.”
    “Is it weird that we’ve made it our mission to lose?” Melody asked.
    “Nah, winning is overrated,” he replied.  “I want to see how bad you can be, Melody.”
    “Then prepare to be impressed!” she bragged, feeling her face inexplicably heat up at his words.
    “You talk a big game, but can you really deliver?”
    “You will have to wait and see,” she told him with a sassy flip of her hair.
    *****
    “You don’t disappoint,” Zane told Melody a while later, once trivia had ended. 
    “Oh?”
    “You really are very, very bad,” he told her with a devilish grin.
    “You have no idea,” Melody purred in a seductive – and slightly slurred – voice.  Then she immediately wished she could take it back.  Since she couldn’t, she instead opted to laugh and announce, “I am really drunk.  I am like, really, really drunk.  I so wasn’t planning to drink that much tonight!”
    “You and me both,” Zane replied as they both stood up.  “You want to share a cab?”
    She made a face.  “It’s a nice night out.  I think I’ll just walk.  My parents’ place isn’t that far.”
    “I’ll walk with you,” Zane offered.
    “Hey you two, wait up!” one of the bartenders called as they made their way to the door.  “You forgot your trivia prize!”  He jogged over and handed Melody an envelope.  “Congratulations, you two really sucked tonight.”
    “Did you hear that?” Melody giggled as she and Zane stepped outside.