As Jay set the table for the two of them, Zoe switched off the oven and stained the pasta. Then it was just a matter of bringing everything to the table. And the parmesan cheese,a small container of real, grated Parmesan that Zoe grabbed from the fridge at the same time she grabbed herself a pop.

”You think it's the puppy dog eyes?” Zoe asked, pausing to look at Jay before sitting down. She nodded. ”I think you're right. I'll have to remember not to fall for them, won't I?”

As she finished joking, Zoe sat down, again looking over to Jay. ”Dog in, even with the two of us, I'll likely have leftovers,” she told him before starting to dish out her plate.

"From what I hear, that's hard to do," he said with a small shrug. He really was trying to be careful here, but from what he could gather, she was far more innocent than he could ever hope. Which hopefully would help him out in his self control issues.

He nodded, fixing a plate, and smiling at her. "Thanks again, it looks good," he replied as he started eating, spending the first part of the meal in relative silence.

As Zoe looked at Jay, she figured he was probably right, he was probably fairly hard to resist when he pulled out the puppy dog eyes. And, Zoe thought, it would probably be harder for her if he pulled out the puppy dog eyes while he was shifted into a dog. Or that cute little fennec fox. ”I’ll have to watch myself, then” Zoe said, a smile on her face as she looked at Jay.

”Thanks, and it’s really no problem,” Zoe said with a slight shrug. ”This was already my plan for dinner, and as you can see, I would have had enough leftovers to last for days if you weren’t here.”

And then they were eating. It wasn’t the best meal she had ever made, but it wasn’t bad. After a few minutes of eating, Zoe looked back up at Jay on the other side of the table. ”Are you playing anywhere soon?” She asked.

He smiled back at her, really enjoying the meal, and this banter was quite amusing as well. And the meal was rather enjoyable, about as good as anything he made when he got around to actually cooking. If not better.

And then she asked if he was playing anywhere soon, and it made him pause for a moment, deer-in-the-headlights style. Usually, when a girl went to see him play...well, it ended in a way he wouldn't have even second guessed if he was still single. But...that wasn't the best idea. Not at all.

"Well, I'm playing at a bar and grill called The Missing Link with Wyvern, Friday night," he said after a moment, really hoping he could keep it together.

When she asked if he was playing anywhere soon, Zoe thought that it looked like Jay froze as he sat there. Taking another bite of her food, Zoe sat there and waited, wondering if Jay was going to answer her question.

But finally he did answer, and Zoe nodded. Though he sounded a little hesitant when he spoke. ”Never heard of it,” Zoe said with a shrug. ”But I’ll look it up. That is,” Zoe paused with a bit of a frown on her face as she looked over at Jay. ”If you don’t mind me coming to see you, of course.”

"We've never played there, but I hear it's pretty nice. And Wyvern is a three piece band I belong to. It's me, the guitarist and vocalist, and the drummer. We had a keyboard player who doubled as vocalist, but she quit after her and the guitarist broke up." he said with a shrug. "Band drama. Comes with the territory." He gave a nervous shrug, then took a deep breath.

"Well...I wouldn't mind you coming to see me, but...there tends to be this....trend...among women who come to see me play," he said slowly, biting his lip a little. "Let's just say...it always ends the same...and while not necesarily....bad...." His voice trailed off a little, trying to figure out how to say it. It was hard to explain, and while he wouldn't necessarily complain about the hypothetical outcome....the overall ending would likely suck for him.

Zoe listened as she continued to slowly eat. The one good thing about not exactly having many friends was that Zoe never really had to deal with drama like apparently had recently happened in Jay’s band.

As Jay continued speaking, Zoe just became more and more confused. Setting her fork down, she tried to sort through and make sense of his words, but still had no luck. ”I don’t…” Zoe started with a frown. ”If you wouldn’t mind me coming, and it’s not a bad thing, then what’s the problem?”

He took a breath, realizing how bad he was at explaining this sort of thing. "Well...Most of the time when I invite a girl to watch me play...we end up sleeping together." He sighed, looking down at his plate. "And...well I'm in a relationship, and probably shouldn't do that. And there's my problem," he said, still not looking at her. He knew it made no sense whatsoever. He was committed, yet he had no self control.

Well, maybe he did have some self control. After all, if he didn't, he probably wouldn't have made it this far.

Jay explained what tended to happen when a woman came to watch him play, and Zoe blushed, looking down at her plate. That...Zoe had had brief thoughts about that possibility, though she never would have brought it up like that.

Though she wasn’t sure what the big deal really was. Especially with all the flirting they’d been doing off and on during the course of the day. But despite that, he had said he didn’t want to lead her on.

Because he was in a relationship.

Zoe blinked, realizing that she was suddenly looking up at Jay again, the blush from earlier still on her face. Standing up, Zoe took her plate over to the sink before coming back to grab the pans from the table to wrap everything up. But before she did that, Zoe turned around, standing in front of the counter, looking at Jay. ”That...Yeah, so maybe we should just plan another trip to the zoo?”

Jay noticed the blush, and from the looks of it, he was guessing she didn't think this 'trend' was a bad thing. At least until he mentioned the relationship. He knew this was his fault; after all, he didn't do a very good job at not flirting with her. Though he didn't intend to; he was just a little....flirtatious, sometimes--a lot, actually.

"Yeah....maybe we should," he said with a slight chuckle. "I mean...I'm sorry if I had you thinking otherwise. You really are pretty awesome," he said, smiling sincerely.

Zoe shrugged when Jay apologized. ”I kind of was,” Zoe admitted, still standing at the counter. ”But it's probably just as much my fault. Considering how weird most people think I am, having a good looking guy who knows I talk to animals flirting with me…”

Zoe hadn't fully realized what she was saying until the words were out of her mouth. Then Zoe blushed once more, turning back to the leftovers on the counter. ”But yeah, the zoo… When did you want to go again?”

"Yeah...I'm sorry about that," he repeated, looking at her. Then he bit his lip at her next words. "Yeah...it isn't easy for me either, honestly. I mean, I've never met someone who can understand me in shift. And understanding me probably didn't help that much either," he said with a chuckle, fighting every urge and just staying seated. It was for the best.

However, her turning around caused his eyes to wander, and he sighed, pondering her words. "I really don't know. I mean....I'd be free almost any time..." he said as his voice trailed off.

As Zoe went about packing away the leftover chicken parmesan as an excuse to not look at Jay at the moment, she did hear his words. Words that said that sounded like he was saying it had been hard for him to not flirt with her. Even though he was in a relationship and shouldn’t have been.

That was a little confusing. If he was in a relationship, why was it hard, and why was he flirting?

But Zoe pushed those thoughts from her mind as she finished wrapping up the leftovers. After putting them in the fridge, Zoe turned to look over her shoulder at Jay. ”I’m off work next Tuesday, if you wanted to spend longer there,” Zoe told him before turning back to move the pans into the sink. She’d take care of those later. ”Or you can just meet me one afternoon when I finish work and we can just see parts of it at a time.”

Jay really did want to spend time with her. It'd just been awhile, if ever, since he had a female friend that he didn't sleep with.

"That sounds good actually. Then we can have time to really look around. See animals, maybe even snag a few more obscure shifts..." he gave a smile; he'd forgotten how much he loved just looking at animals, especially canines. It reminded him of when he used to run with the neighborhood strays.

"Dinner was amazing, by the way."

Zoe nodded as Jay said that Tuesday sounded good for going to the zoo. It was strange, but she was actually excited about going to her place of work on her day off, and she smiled about that slightly. But as she glanced around the kitchen, Zoe realized that she had tidied up and put everything away she was able to unless she was going to stand there and actually do the dishes right then.

So Zoe turned away from the sink and made her way back to the table just in time to hear Jay’s comment about dinner. ”Thanks,” Zoe said, beaming. ”I like trying new foods, but that can be expensive, so I try making new things instead.” Zoe shrugged as she sat back down at the table. ”Gives me something to do, but it means a fair bit of leftovers on a regular basis.”