Things had definitely been different for the last month. Her and Jay were back to hanging out normally, though after that horrific blind date even that time hanging out had gotten better. Or at the very least, easier. Since he'd broken up with that girlfriend of his, who Zoe wasn't even sure why he was dating with how he'd always acted around her, they no longer had to hold back. Which was good, Zoe had had trouble with that from the first day they'd met.

But Zoe didn't have any illusions of things getting serious with Jay. She knew what Jay was like, she'd been friends with him long enough, and had seen how he had acted around her from the start to know that he wasn't the kind of guy to do serious relationships. Not that she would trust him not to cheat on her if things were to get serious between them.

And for that reason, Zoe would never have a serious relationship with him. But what they had going on was pretty fun.

In fact, Jay was supposed to cook over that night. Since today was her day off, Zoe was going to cook dinner, and then they'd likely watch a movie or something. That was how their evenings normally ended up. Though, more often than not in the last month Jason ended up spending the night when he came for dinner.

But that meant that Zoe needed to head shipping since her fridge was almost empty. So out Zoe went, walking to her favourite little market to head to on her days off. She would have liked to be able to go there more often, but it was a little far for when she worked.

Zoe was about a block away from the market when she saw Jay ahead of her on the sidewalk, making his way toward her. Smiling, Zoe hurried forward. Maybe Jay would like to come over early, maybe help her make dinner. That was always fun, as long as they didn't forget about the food and burn dinner. Or at least she could ask what he was in the mood for.

Zoe was about ten feet away when she realized that Jay wasn't alone. She held no illusions about the fact that Jay was sleeping with other women. But he had said that he had broken up with her . Zoe didn't even realize that she had stopped walking as she stared at Jay. She'd never actually seen the woman, but she had seen a picture of her at Jay's place before. Before he'd said that they'd broken up. He knew that she didn't want to sleep with him when he had a girlfriend, he knew she didn't want to be the ‘other woman’. He had told her that she wouldn't have to be, that he had broken up with her. ”What the hell, Jay!” Zoe demanded as she strode forward, coming to a stop in front of Jay. ”You said I wouldn't be, that you were breaking up with her!”

Zoe was pissed. She couldn't believe that Jay would have done something like this to her. And not only that, but to have continued to lie to her for a month.

No, ‘pissed’ wasn't enough for how Zoe was feeling. Reaching up, Zoe slapped Jay across the face before she stormed off.

Zoe had been walking for a while. At first, she wasn't even paying attention to where she was going. She had even forgotten that she had been going to the market because of her anger at Jay. By the time she realized this, Zoe decided not to bother. Jay was crazy if he thought that she would still be cooking for them tonight.

Better yet, Zoe thought, she shouldn't even be at home. If he had lied like that, who knew what Jay would be willing to try and pull that night. The problem was, Zoe didn't exactly have a whole lot of friends, and none of them lived near the neighbourhood she was in.

But after a few more minutes of walking, Zoe remembered a day months earlier, when she had walked down this street in soaking wet clothing after the sprinkler went off in a restaurant.

Well, it was worth a shot, Zoe thought. And if nothing else it would delay her getting home a bit. So in the building she went when she reached I, and up the stairs. Then she froze for a minute, simply standing there. Finally, Zoe swallowed her nerves and raised her hand to knock on Dante's door.

It had been a slow day at the office, so Dante had left work early, directing all calls to his cell phone in case he actually had an appointment to make or something. He'd gone home, since it was too early to go out drinking--at least by society's standards, anyway, so he did the next best thing. Sitting on the couch, shirtless, playing his acoustic guitar.

The soft music filled the room as Dante's eyes closed. He was in his zone, letting his fingers dance along the strings. But then...there was a knock on the door and he snapped to attention. His eyes flew open, and he walked to the door, setting the guitar up against the wall as he opened the door.

He blinked when he saw it was Zora? Zara? Zelda? Zoe. That was it, Zoe. That girl he never called back...and here she was at his door? He furrowed a brow, hoping she wasn't too mad at him.

"Hey, Zoe. What's up?" he asked casually. Yeah, that was perfect, he hoped.

It felt like she had been standing there forever after she knocked, waiting for Dante to answer the door. Was it really taking him this long, Zoe wondered. Or, maybe he wasn't even home, and she was standing outside an empty apartment. Not that that would be very surprising, it was a weekday, a lot of people would be at work right now.

Had it been five minutes or five seconds since she had knocked? Zoe really wasn't sure, though it definitely seemed like much more along the lines of five minutes. No, this was a stupid idea, Zoe realized. Even if he was home, he hadn't called her back, even though he had said he would. He probably wouldn't even want to see her. Despite how well they had gotten on that day, she hadn't slept with him and he hadn't called her. If she had, would he have called her then?

Yeah, this was a very stupid idea, Zoe decided. She should never have even come here. She was just turning to go when Zoe heard the door to Dante's apartment open. Turning her head back, she saw Dante just staring at her for a moment before he spoke. "I'm sorry, are you busy?" she questioned, her voice soft. "If you are, I can just go..."

He looked her over as she stood there. Something did seem....off, yeah. But he couldn't quite put his finger on what. Hell, they'd only had one date, and then he didn't call back, so there was really no way he'd know what was going on. It'd been long enough that this probably wasn't his fault, but...if not...why come to him about it? Or maybe he was just over analyzing.

"Nah, I'm not busy. Come on in," he said, stepping out of the way so she could step inside. "I can make coffee or something if you want it..." he said, not sure of what to say here. "I mean, what's on your mind?"

As they stood there, Dante not saying anything at first, Zoe couldn't help but think that she had been right, he hadn't called her because he didn't want to see her. Yeah, this had been a bad idea. But then Dante spoke again, thankfully before Zoe had actually started to turn away, inviting her in.

So Zoe stepped into the apartment that she'd only been to one other day, a couple months earlier. And he offered to make coffee or something, asking what was on her mind. That was a dangerous subject at the moment, one she wished she could just forget, if only for the moment.

Dante had been pretty distracting once before.

Instead of answering his question, Zoe stepped further inside, pushing the door closed with one hand as she let her bag slide down to the floor. Then she stepped up in front of Dante, wrapping her arms around his neck as she kissed him.

Dante stepped aside so she could come in, and she pushed the door closed. But it was silent and he was still mildly confused as to what the hell was going on here. She'd just randomly shown up, and something was obviously going on, but he had no idea what--

Aaand she was kissing him. Her arms were clearly around his neck as her lips pressed against his, and he let out a surprised gasp, but....he wasn't one to argue with things like this, so his arms wrapped around her waist as he returned the sudden affection. But he couldn't shake the thought that something was amiss here. So after a few moments he broke the kiss.

"Seriously....what's going on."

It took a couple moments, but Dante returned the kiss, his arms wrapping around her waist. And, as with the last time they were together, the kiss was quite enjoyable.

Up until the point that Dante pulled back from the kiss. So Zoe just stood there, her arms still around his neck as she looked at him.

But then he asked what was going on, and Zoe blushed slightly. ”Honestly,I wish I could just forget the last month even happened.”

"That bad, huh?" he asked with a wince. Then again, if she was showing up at his doorstep of all people, she must have been having a rough time of it. He looked up at her, her arms still around his neck and his still around her waist as he gave a slight shrug.

"Though," he murmured as he continued looking up at her, "from your actions, I think it's safe to say you don't wanna talk about it?" He pulled her closer as he rested his head on her shoulder, just trying to process this whole crazy situation.

Zoe nodded when Dante winded at her brief mention about the previous month. At the time it had been quite fun enjoyable, in a lot of ways easier than hanging out with Jay had been before that night at the bar. But now… The fact that Jay had lied to her about something that she'd been so adamant about not wanting to do…

”No, I don't,” Zoe said. Though based on his question, she was a little surprised that he pulled her closer and laid his head down on her shoulder. ”I just want to try and forget it happened.” And to try to forget about Jay, but Zoe wasn't sure that would be possible.

Dante listened to her words, and he was right about something going on, being wrong with her, but it didn't have anything to do with him. Or maybe, in a way, it did. As she finished speaking, he leaned back to look at her and everything suddenly just clicked, and now it was quite obvious what she wanted.

His arms around her waist, he pulled her into a passionate kiss, closing his eyes; somehow he missed that. He didn't know how he could have been so stupid with how obvious it was, but...well he hadn't quite pegged Zoe as that type of girl. Though there was nothing wrong with being wrong, right?

When she finished speaking, Zoe saw that Dante had lifted his head to look at her again. And she just looked back at him, very conscious of her arms around his neck, and of his around her waist. But he didn't say anything.

And then Zoe felt his arms tightening around her, pulling her closer again. The moment that she felt his lips touch her own, Zoe closed her eyes. As she returned the kiss, her arms tightened around Dante, one hand clutching at his shoulder as the other went to the back of his head.

He smirked behind the kiss; it reminded him of their first--and only date, and it was sort of making him regret not calling her back. Though he really wasn't the kind of guy who did the second date anymore. Not often, anyway. But now, feeling her hands on his neck and behind his head, he was really regretting not calling her.

He pulled back from the kiss, tugging her shirt over her head and tossing it to the floor. "I will say this was a pleasant surprise," he murmured, diving right back into the kiss again, leading her to the couch.

If Zoe were really paying attention to what that little voice in the back of her mind was saying, she would have realized that it was wondering what she was doing. This wasn't how Zoe normally acted, she didn't normally do things like randomly showing up at a guy's place who she had only met once before and start kissing him as soon as she was inside. But then again, she also wasn't normally the kind of girl who slept with guys who had girlfriends, girlfriends that weren't her, yet that was apparently what she had been doing for the last month with Jay.

What Zoe was paying attention to was the feeling of Dante's arms around her waist and his lips on hers. Then she felt him pulling away from the kiss again, and Zoe couldn't help the slight frown that started to form on her face until she felt his hands tugging her shirt up. Then over her head. Zoe gasped slightly, even as Dante was already leaning back in to kiss her again. A pleasant surprise was one way to term this.

The next thing Zoe knew, Dante was leading her...somewhere. Not only was he walking her backwards slowly across the room, but Zoe's eyes were closed as she returned Dante's kiss, so she had no idea where he was trying to take them.

At least until her leg bumped into the arm of the couch. That stopped the movement of her legs, but her upper body was still moving, as was Dante as he walked oh so close to her. Before she knew it, Zoe felt herself falling backwards toward the couch. Instinctively, her eyes shot open even as her arms tightened around Dante.