Hey everyone. Thanks for reading, reviewing or putting this story on your favourites or alert list. It really means a lot to me. :) This chapter is a little longer, a little deeper and a little more romance with less humour so i'm sorry if you are really enjoying the humour. It should be back a bit more in the next chapter. Please R&R :) God Bless xx

Chapter Four: The Picnic

Melissa lay back on the blanket with her eyes closed and smiled as she felt the warmth of the meadow room sun. She reached out her arms and brushed the sugary green grass before opening her eyes and sitting up again, still positively beaming as she looked around.

Willy's mouth only twitched slightly up at one corner but his rich, chocolate brown eyes showed a love and a joy that truly shone out of him. Melissa would have noticed had she looked.

"It's sooo beautiful in here." She turned to him and he snapped out of his reverie.

"Oh, yes, Thankyou."

She offered him a smile which he returned.

"Would you like something to eat? I've brought a sample of everything Charlie and I have created this year." Slowly he brought out one treat after another. Everything was made of sugar and Melissa laughed inwardly, comparing the spread to her Mum's own cold turkey sandwiches and home-made marmalade.

"What's this?" She eagerly picked up a tiny bottle and unscrewed the lid, "Nail polish?"

"Uh, that's lickable nail polish" He quickly retorted while she carefully painted her right index nail. The colour came out as a glittering swirl of rainbow colours and she laughed after taking a satisfying lick.

"It's really good", she beamed, "so you and Charlie have really been working hard this year. Why was it that you decided to give the factory to Charlie anyway?"

Willy debated with himself whether or not to give Melissa the long-version with his semi-annual haircut and decided to simply reply, "I needed someone to leave the factory to when I'm gone."

Melissa gaped, "what are you talking about. You're still only young!"

"But it will take decades for me to teach and work with Charlie for me to be satisfied that the factory will remain as it is now."

"Oh", she turned her head and looked down at the grass in front of her, "I gather that you decided against having children of your own."

"Yes, well, I would never want to put my child through the torments my father put me through."

Melissa looked back up at him. He stared ahead, his eyes now dark, almost black.

She instinctively reached her hand out to place it over his own but then let it fall back to her side. "So, you don't speak to your father?"

"Oh, I do," his mood lightened a bit, "I went and saw him again recently with Charlie but…"

He suddenly turned to her with a rapidity that made her jump "candy is my life, my passion, my inspiration." He gestured with his hands around at the meadow and Melissa felt she understood what he meant.

"And?" she encouraged him to continue.

"And my father was, is, a dentist."

"Oh". All was silent for a minute while they let that news sink in. "I think I can understand."

Willy looked up to her in disbelief. "You, you can?"

"Yeah," she twirled a piece of sugar grass between her right thumb and forefinger. "You see, my Dad was a developer, of office buildings and me, well, I didn't want him to destroy the trees and the animals and just the general beauty of nature in order to put some ugly office buildings in."

She, as he had done before her, gestured around at the meadow in which they found themselves. All that could be heard was the soothing noise of the chocolate waterfall. "You and I both look at this place and feel as though we'd never want to leave but for different reasons. You have an absolute passion for candy, anything at all to do with it and in here you've made it a sort of detailed craft. You've demonstrated what it means to truly live in a world of Candy. When I look around this place, I am absolutely swept away by the absolute beauty of it all. The detail, the grass, the waterfall, everything is just so perfect and free."

Her face and body fell suddenly then. "My father passed away from cancer about three months ago. In his last few weeks I used to take him out into the hospital gardens and wheel him around. I've never felt so close to him as I did in those last few weeks. As he lay on his deathbed, he held my hand and he said "I'm sorry, I understand now."

She looked up and their eyes met. "It took my father's death for him to truly understand the way I saw things. I hope you have more luck with you own but, I do understand your pain."

The pair were silent for a moment more before Melissa broke the ice and changed the mood by standing up and stretching, laughing as she recalled the beauty and nature of her location.

Willy stood up too and was just about to speak to her when she took a step back and teetered on the slope of the hill. Willy reached out to try and stabilize her but they were both sent tumbling, rolling down the hill amongst the sugar grass, laughing as they went.

When they finally stopped rolling, Melissa fell flat on her back and Willy ended up on top of her.

Her hair lay around her face like the sun's rays and she simply gazed into his eyes and smiled cheekily.

For the first time in his life, Willy felt this overwhelming magnetic pull towards a woman and in particular her rose bud lips that seemed to reach out and lure him in. She looked so beautiful, more than ever right at that moment.

He began to lean in, his lips headed for hers and both of them shut their eyes in happy anticipation and then…

"Willy! Melissa! Huff huff; is it ok if we all go on a boat ride later?"

And then the spell was broken. The pair both opened their eyes and blushed heavily as they realized how they were. Melissa's legs were currently pinned between Willy's and the bottoms of their torsos were touching.

Willy hurriedly retreated just as Charlie emerged from over the crest of another hill.

They tried to avoid eye contact with one another. Melissa had already stood up.

"Yes, that should be fine." Willy laughed nervously.

"Do you two want to finish your picnic?" Charlie asked.

Their eyes met with common understanding, "Uh, no, I think we're finished now Charlie." Willy muttered.

"Oh, ok then. I'll help you pack up then."

Willy and Melissa turned and began the walk back up the hill they had tumbled down only moments before most happily. They could feel the heat of Charlie's gaze upon their backs and they avoided looking at one another as they began the climb. Both of them couldn't help but give a small smile however at what Charlie had interrupted and couldn't help but think of what would have occurred if he hadn't suddenly shown up on the scene.