"It would..." he mused, smiling softly, finally releasing the hug. He took a breath as the awkward silence started to settle in again, and then he noticed the yawning. "You look tired, so I'll let you head on home, but I'll call you in a couple days," he said, realizing he'd beaten that line into the ground by now.

Taking another breath, he leaned in, giving Zoe a long yet gentle kiss on the lips, as if to say, 'I promise."

"You take care of yourself, or...would you rather me walk you home? Because Duke and I would be glad to," he offered with a small smile.

Zoe smiled when Dante agreed that it would be nice to just hang out sometime.

He said it again, the same thing that he had said to her on the two other occasions they had seen each other, and her smile faded. Yes, Dante seemed more...sure about wanting to see her again, to hang out, to try something. Yet, he had promised her before that he would call, and he hadn’t. Not for four months. What if the same thing happened this time? Zoe didn’t want to feel this way, but she couldn’t stop the thoughts from entering her mind when she heard Dante say he’d call her.

And then he was kissing her. Zoe was a bit surprised by this, but after a few moments, she leaned in, kissing him back. This, she had not expected. She liked it, but she hadn’t expected it. The kiss was still nice, though.

Only for him to pull back and say for her to take care. Though she had started to feel better about the situation during the kiss, that feeling was already evaporating. Until he offered to walk her home. At that, Zoe smiled again. ”I’d really like that.”

The kiss was nice, he had to admit. And then, as it broke, just like that, it was as if he was being given another chance. One he knew better than to mess up this time. Maybe this would work, maybe it wouldn't, but...he had to try. Besides, from the looks of it, his dog wouldn't let him do anything else, it seemed.

Hell, Duke's attachment to her should have told him from the beginning that she was something special. But he didn't listen. Or pay attention, rather; he couldn't talk to Duke, not like Zoe could. Taking her hand, he let her lead the way, realizing he'd never actually been to her place.

As they walked, he struggled to find something to talk about, and the awkward silence set in, but he sort of just gripped her hand, hoping for something to come of it.

Zoe’s smile widened as she felt Dante take her hand. This was different, nice. And promising. Much more so than the two other times they had been together, Zoe thought as she led the way out of the park and toward her apartment. On their only ‘date’, she had taken his arm while they walked, Dante hadn’t taken hold of her hand like this.

This was very nice, Zoe thought as she smiled over at Dante while they walked. At least it didn’t take very long once they left the park to get to her place. Up a couple flights of stairs, and then they were at her front door. Then, Zoe got a tad nervous. Even though she had been the one to suggest he come with her. Despite the fact that she had suggested he come over months earlier.

Pushing those nerves down and ignoring the fact that the last guy she had had in her apartment had been Jay months earlier, Zoe opened the door and stepped into the small entry hall. ”Make yourself comfortable. You want something to drink?” She asked.

Dante smiled, walking to the apartment with her. It was actually pretty nice, and totally overrode all of the negative feelings and insecurity he'd felt after calling her to realize she wasn't even in the country anymore. But now...maybe things would be different. When they got to the apartment, Dante took the leash off of Duke and made his way for the couch and sat down. "I'm okay, thanks," he said politely.

Duke, meanwhile, walked around the room, sniffing out the new environment. Something was different about this place. So many other dogs had been here; they all smelled different, but....the same? The big black bulldog-mix didn't know how to process this, but as he was about to give up and go lie down in the corner, something else hit his nose. Something that smelled....wild. Feral even. Wolf. Danger. Bad.

Duke let out a distressed bark, accompanied by a whine as his tail drooped and his ears pinned back, looking for the threat before barking again.

Zoe nodded when Dante said that he was good and didn’t need anything to drink. The same couldn't quite be said for her, so as Dante sat down and Duke started to explore the apartment, Zoe deterred to the kitchen to grab herself some water.

Only to hear a bark coming from Duke a couple moments later. Frowning, Zoe looked into the living room to see, and hear, a very worried dog standing there. But because she was tired, it took her a couple moments longer than it should have to realize what was bothering Duke.

Eyes widening, Zoe left the glass on the counter and hurried over to the dog, kneeling down in front of him. ”Duke, it’s alright,” she said, her voice soft and calm. ”He hasn’t been here for a long time and he’s not going to come back. It’s ok, Duke.”

Dante stood up from the couch, but Zoe got to Duke before he did. Right, she could actually communicate with him. As she knelt in front of his dog, he had to wonder what that was like. Especially seeing how he reacted in ways that nobody else could get. Duke *hated* most people, but he'd grown fond of Zoe almost instantly. It was incredible, especially after not seeing her in all this time, and he lay down in front of her, calming.

'Other dogs. So many other dogs. Wait...one dog? Or human? Dog? Human? Dog?'

Dante walked over to Duke and started scratching behind his ears. "What, does he smell an ex-boyfriend or something? Or their dog?" he asked, looking at her. Honestly, he wouldn't mind if she'd have seen someone else in their time apart. It wasn't like he'd actually called her back or anything. He looked at her, brushing his hair from his face as he did.

"I...thanks for having me over. Well, us, over. Especially after...well, yeah. I'm sorry I didn't call..." he said, looking away briefly.

Dante was there beside her, scratching Duke’s ears, almost as quickly as she had gotten to the dog. Well, Duke was his, he had to be used to reacting to Duke’s behaviour, right? Hadn’t Dante said that Duke tended not to like people.

”He was something,” Zoe said over her shoulder to Dante before turning back to Duke. ”It was a man who could turn into dogs, So we’re safe, Duke. It’s not a real wolf.”

Then she heard Dante’s voice again, and Zoe looked over her shoulder at him. Only to see him look away. ”Yeah, well, you’re welcome,” Zoe said, shooting him a small smile. ”But I’m glad we did run into each other.”

Dante looked back at her as she spoke, and Duke calmed down considerably as well. Dante nodded, though to him, a girl who could talk to animals and a guy who could turn into dogs was a match made in heaven. But apparently, it wasn't. Which meant...he got a second chance, right? Well, that's what it seemed like, anyway. He just hoped he didn't blow it this time.

"I understand," he murmured as his free hand blindly reached over and took one of hers gently. "I'm glad we did too," he said, looking back over at her again before he leaned over and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek, testing the waters just a bit.

Duke seemed to calm down considerably as she talked to him. That was good, she was too tired to deal with a panicked dog for any real length of time. And it was also good that she wasn’t going to have to explain Duke’s cause for panic in more detail to Dante, either. She could, but really didn’t want to get into it until she had had more time to rest.

Feeling something touching her hand, Zoe looked down to see that Dante had grabbed her hand. Smiling slightly, Zoe looked over at him just in time to see him leaning in.

And then she felt him kissing her cheek. Zoe blushed slightly as she squeezed his hand. She could feel a bit of the hesitation in the kiss, so much different from the two other times they had been together. But it was nice, the sweetness of it. She’d known Dante was a good, caring man.

As Dante leaned back again, Zoe smiled at him before standing up, still holding his hand. ”Let’s go sit. The floor’s not very comfortable.”

Dante loved how good she was with Duke; she was so sweet. She deserved so much better than how he'd treated her. He could make excuses all day long, but he hadn't called her back. And now here he was, in her apartment, holding her hand as he stood up and walked back to the couch as Duke relaxed on the floor, rolling over onto his side with a 'flop.'

Walking to the couch, he sat down, still holding her hand, and flipped on the TV with the remote. "So, did you have anything planned or are we just hanging out?" he asked, looking over at her.

Sitting down on the couch beside Dante, Zoe wasn’t thinking about a whole lot. Now that Duke had calmed down and was laying on the floor in her living room, Zoe was simply feeling that it was very nice sitting there. Holding his hand. Simple, but nice. Though if he had called her back when he said that he would, they could have been having time like this for months.

So lost in her thoughts, or so tired, Zoe didn’t even realize Dante had turned the TV on. At least she did hear when he spoke. Blinking a couple times - had she started to doze off a bit? - as she turned to look at him, Zoe shrugged. ”The only thing I had planned for the day was to have a nap,” she admitted, then gave him a smile. ”I think just hanging out sounds good.”

Dante nodded over at Zoe, sliding a little closer to her. Part of him wanted to put an arm around her, but he wasn't sure how she'd take that. After all, he was the jerk that had never called her back, after promising to twice. And now by sheer happenstance he was in her apartment. He didn't want to mess this up again, but he wasn't sure how to go about that.

Duke was curled up in the corner, going to sleep himself as Dante looked over at Zoe for what was probably too long. "If you need to nap, you can. Just let me know what you'd want me to do in the meantime," he finally said. "I can always leave and you can call me in a few hours...or something."

And, Zoe noticed, Dante slid even closer to her on the couch as he nodded. She couldn’t help her smile widening a bit when she saw that. But then he suggested that he could leave so she could have a nap. If she wanted. Zoe’s smile faltered slightly at that. Did she want him to leave? No, not really. Not at all. Not after the trouble they’d had keeping in touch so far.

Instead, she leaned her head against Dante’s shoulder. ”How about we watch a movie or something?” she suggested. ”That way, if I do end up falling asleep, you’ve got something to do?”

Her head leaned against his shoulder, and his arm instinctively went around her shoulder. His head rested against hers as he closed his eyes a little, taking it in. This was...nice. Unexpected, but nice. His hand moved to caress her hair as he held her close.

"We can just leave it on this, if you want," he answered, his hand running through her long, blond hair.

"So, I take it you just got back, from the loss of energy. Jet lag is a *****," he said with a slight chuckle.

"It's been sort of the same on my end. Business has been picking up, though so I've been able to get some actual furniture," he said with a slight laugh.