| Nathan |

The zoo itself wasn't particularly crowded today, seeing as most people were heading to the local water parks with the hot summer months approaching. We were standing in line under and awning shielding us from the mid-day sun. My eyes were shielded from the sun with a pair of black Ray-Ban sunglasses.

Isabella was shifting from foot to foot, looking slightly bored at the wait time but I was just fine.

Out of all things, I didn't have a problem waiting, especially when building my company required that you be good at playing the waiting game. Lines didn't really bother me, but if it was just ridiculous I wouldn't bother with the line at all.

Finally we got to the front and she was about the take out money to buy the tickets when I grabbed my wallet out and handed my card to the guy in the booth, beating her to it.

I felt her eyeing me as the guy handed us these little green, plastic tokens to hand to the security people at the front of the gates. We stepped out of line and walked to the gate.

"You know I could have gotten that right?" she asks. Sliding her wallet back into her purse.

"Yep, but I wasn't going to let you." I say shortly and I hear her huff. We handed our tokens over, got the map of the zoo and then she tried to decide where we should go first.

"Well, I want to go get a locker for my bag first." she says glancing around and I saw the locker rooms.

"Over there." I point. She smiles and nods and we walk over, she got a locker, locked it up and then came back holding her phone and sunglasses.

"Where is the key?" I ask.

"It's a code, so when I want to go back for my purse I just enter the code. I have to remIsabella though, its locker number 219." she says. "Okay, look at this with me."

"Alright." I mumble and she holds out the map. We looked over it a few minutes.

"There, do you want to go see the Giraffes?" she asks pointing to it on the map. "They were my favorite animal as a child."

"Okay." I say, fine with whatever she wanted.

"What do you want to see?" she asks me and I made a face, trying to decide.

"How about, those." I say pointing to the 'Penguin Exhibit' and she nods.

"Then at noon they have the bird show, so we should see that." she says, motioning to the day's program which had come with the map. "Hmm, unless you'd rather see the dolphins show."

"Let's see dolphins." I say making the decision and she nods. We walked to the giraffes, and she got super excited by it, which I found oddly cute. She refused to feed them though, insisting they might eat her tiny hands, which nearly made me laugh, but only nearly.

The penguins were kind-of boring, they didn't do much so we ended up making it over to the lions cage and we watched them playing with each other. There were two baby cubs, which Isabella nearly 'died' over seeing. Apparently they were just too cute.

Then 12:30 rolled around and we walked to the dolphin show, which was actually quite good if I'm being honest. At the end of it one dolphin pushed the trainer in to the water from his platform, which actually made me laugh, but I couldn't decide if it was part of the skit or if it wasn't supposed to happen.

When it was over it was 1:30 and I was feeling hungry, but we went and saw these little tiny ferret-like creatures. Isabella insisted they were actually ferrets, but I disagreed, and it turns out I was right.

We then debated on eating at the zoo or leaving to go get food.

"Well we should go to a good restaurant, so let's just look here." she said and I agreed. I didn't, honestly, feel like leaving quiet yet. I would never admit it, but I was having a tiny bit of fun. She was funny, she talked about the most random things, and was so blunt that it was comical. She wasn't like most people I hung around with, she was normal, different, but a good different.

We ended up finding some little café that looked like it might be good and we got a table.

"So are you enjoying yourself a little bit?" she asked me and I bit my lip.

"I guess I am." I tell her. "Not what I was expecting."

"Well good, I know you don't normally do this but-well I'm having fun." she says. "You're not quite as mean and intimidating as they say."

"That's because we aren't at work." I mutter. She nods and drinks some of her water. We were sitting in the fenced in patio at the café in the zoo, underneath a little red umbrella at a metal table. The people walking by going to this exhibit or that one, were all little families or couples.

The server came back and took our orders. I got a burger and she got some kind of pasta.

"Pasta is my favorite food. All kinds, except for that thin disgusting spaghetti, I like my spaghetti nice and thick." she comments. "Gnocchi, the Italian pasta, is my favorite pasta of all time though."

"What is that?" I ask, confused.

"You've never had it?" she asks. "Oh my friend, we are going to get some sometime and I will make it for you."

"Alright then." I say smiling. Was I seriously smiling? What was wrong with me?

"So what's your favorite food?" she asks.

"Well my mom made these buttermilk biscuits all the time when I was a kid, I've never had anything like them, they were perfect when she had just baked them in the morning. I would wake up and she would have them all set out for me and my siblings." I tell her, without realizing I was being partially open with her.

"That's cute." she says. "What about...hmm, what's your favorite color?"

"Probably the orange color the sky turns in the evening sometimes." I say. "What about you?"

"White." she says instantly. "It's basically the only color in my room. So what is your favorite animal?"

"Are we just doing all the favorites then?" I ask. She nods and I let out a breath, bracing myself. "Well I don't really like animals."

"Really?" she asks. "Even sea otters, they're so cute! Or what about a lion, that suits you."

"No I just don't like animals." I tell her.

"Oh okay." she bit her lip thinking. "Favorite band or artist?"

"I like some smaller artists but I don't really like music."

"Favorite dessert?"

"Hate it."

"What?" her eyes widen and she shakes her head. "Well if you had to choose."

"Red velvet cake." I tell her.

"I've never really met a guy who's a health nut." she says honestly. "What's your favorite movie?"

"The Shining."

"Favorite TV show?"

"Hate them, they're a waste of time when you could be working."

"Favorite childhood...memory?" she asks and that hit a nerve with me, that was personal, my past was my business and everything that happened in it.

"I do not ask about my past." I snap and she shakes her head. "Tell me your favorites now."

"Well, my favorite artist is Hozier, dessert is probably gelato, movie is easily Silver Linings Playbook, TV show is Psych or Pretty Little Liars and my favorite childhood memory was going on Friday adventures with my mom." she tells me and I listened, putting all of that to memory. She seemed like the thought of her mother made her sad, but she brushed it off, I wanted to ask her but I knew what the value of privacy was and so resisted that urge.

Our food came and we talked about easy things, like the people passing by, and the weather

We then finished our food and went to see more exhibits, wondering about, talking about little things occasionally. I felt relaxed when I was with her, she made me feel like there was no pressure, but she said so many un-predictable things, it was hard to figure her out.

I didn't know what kind of personality type she had, I didn't know if she was controllable or if she would be free the rest of her life. It scared me a bit, there was nothing about her that fit in my life, but she was in it anyway, of her own volition, which terrified me most of all.