Chapter four:
Clare Hemsworth brushed the bits of grass off the Wildlife Conservation Society logo on her blue shirt as she headed out into the pavilion in front of the Wild Asia ride. The crowds were a bit sparse in November, but visitors to the Bronx Zoo still wanted to go on Wild Asia. Clare remembered her mother talking about how thrilling Wild Asia was back when it first opened in the late seventies. For her part, she couldn't imagine why anybody would make such a fuss. The monorail was so retro, and it wasn't as if it was a big deal to see animals wandering around free.
Of course, back in the stone age when Mom was a kid, she guessed it was a big deal not to see any animals in cages, but there wasn't any novelty to it now. The monorail was a cheesy piece of plastic that Clare was convinced was gonna fall off the rail any day now. Then again, she was in a bad mood generally. Ever since what happened with those kids, she'd been talking to reporters, to police, and to lawyers representing Fordham University, and she was really, really sick of it. The lawyers were the worst- okay, cops and reporters were just doing their job's, but why should she have to listen to crap from Fordham's legal eagles just because the two kids who died happened to be their students?
They weren't even killed on campus!
Excuse me, Ms. Hemworth?
Clare closed her eyes and let out a breath. She'd had about fifty conversations that started with, those four words this week, and they were always like having root canal, only without the anesthetic. If it wasn't someone from law enforcement or from the WCS, she was going to tell them to screw off so fast...
She turned, and saw the hottest man she'd ever seen in her life.