Forever the Taylors?

26

**

Noelle nervously slips her hand inside of Zac's as they walk out of the Nike Store. He accepts her hand without hesitation, and they continue their stroll through the mall. "Hey, there's an Auntie Annies up there, you want a pretzel?"

"Who is annie?" Noelle laughed at him

"The pretzel place right there." Zac pointed ahead.

"Zac. It's Auntie Anne's."

"It's Dead not. Its Annie's"

"ok bet. If I'm right you have to do a cartwheel in the mall." Noelle challenged him

"Ok that's cool cuz WHEN I'm right, you're gonna have to sing the national anthem in front of the fountain." Zac challenged back.

They walked to the pretzel place still hand in hand laughing about their bets until Zac got close enough to read the sign. "Shit!" He cursed as Noelle laughed on. "Ok so here's the things. I knew it was Anne's the whole time. I was just tryna confuse you." he lied

"Ooooohhhhhh the bullshit. No sir. I want my cartwheel. Now please." Noelle was getting a kick out of Zac trying to plead his case. She didn't actually want Zac to do a cartwheel in the mall. She just wanted to see if he would.

"ok. But when I break my neck, I hope you're gonna quit your day job and become my night nurse. Imma need constant sponge baths." Zac flirted as he took the cartwheel position.

Noelle is cracking up. "OK OK Ok! Just buy my pretzel and I think we can call it even!" She manages to get out through the laughter.

"you're a mess girl." Zac says to Noelle as he pulls her in sweetly for a kiss. Their first.

Meanwhile, across the food court Fatima is exiting Children's place and witnessed the entire interaction. She watched as Noelle wrapped her arms around Zac's neck and deepened their kiss. Fatima could feel her heart beginning to Race and her face flushing. Just as their kiss came to an end Fatima whisked herself away from the sight, unable to take anymore.

"That was... something." Noelle said blushing, realizing they'd just made out like teenagers in the mall.

"It was." Zac admitted smiling with all 32. Zac peeped up thinking he saw a familiar face in the distance but dismissed it when he didn't see anyone. Zac and Noelle arrived at the pretzel counter and was greeted with smiles from women who were also uninvited guest to their make out session. "Your order is on the house. We love black love" the pretzel makers announced. Zac and Noelle blushed wildly as they thanked the women for the food. The rest of the mall trip went well for the pair. Zac let Noelle know he had to end the date so he could pick up his son and took her home both agreeing to call the other once they were settled. He arrived at Rich's house just around 6:45 as he and Fatima agreed earlier. He got out of the car and knocked. Amaya opened the door for him. "Hey Mr. Zac." She greeted him and stepped aside so he could enter. "Hey Mya."

"Hey Zac, Rich's deep bass voice entered the room before he did.

"Wassup Rich. How're things?" Zac asked not caring in the least for the answer.

"Things are great. Listen, I wanted to thank you for making accommodations for me and Amaya on this trip. I know how special it is for the family. "

"It's no problem. You and Amaya have become like family."

"That's wassup. I'm glad you feel that way. Zane is my Lil Dude. You and Fatima have done an amazing job raising him." Rich complimented. "Look. I wanted to give you this the other night but everything with Zane went down at school so we haven't had the chance to talk." Rich reaches into his pocket and retrieves a check addressed to Zachary Taylor in the amount of 17.5 thousand dollars. "I hope this covers everything. I know you had to make changes and adjustments on our behalf." Rich said offering Zac the check.