An hour after Wade had woken up he found himself outside of Zoe's apartment door. When he first got there a couple was leaving and he was able to sneak in. He took the stairs instead of the elevator; he still had no idea what he was going to say to her when he was face to face with her. But the trek up the stairs only angered him more for her to blow him off so easily. Most the times he would just walk away if some chick pulled this BS on him, but this wasn't just some chick this was a woman that he had grown to like having around as a friend, a woman that he could easily grow to have romantic feelings for one day if she would let him in. He could see the mile wide walls that she had around herself that she closed herself off to happiness in all forms except for work, she had told him enough about her family to gather a picture, and he wanted to think that she was like that because her dad had left her and her mom kept herself busy with work ignoring her growing up. He knew how that felt to extant, his father became a raging alcoholic after his mom had died and his brother had jet on him. He envied his brother for so many years, his brother had pissed him off along the way leaving him there to take care of his father, but Jesse was only going out there to do what he wanted and why should Wade play babysitter to a man that can take care of himself?
Shaking the thoughts from his mind, he pushed himself off the wall opposite Zoe's apartment and knocked on the door. He couldn't waste anymore time staring at the door, in his own thoughts. He came here to see Zoe and get answers on why she had ditched him last night and why she no longer wanted to be friends with him.
"Wade?" Zoe questioned, pulling her door open. "What are you doing here?" She asked, leaning against the door jamb, crossing her arms over her chest.
"I want some answers Princess," he replied, stepping closer to her.
"What answers?" She asked, playing dumb. "And what did I say about calling me Princess?" She scoffed, battling the smile that wanted to come out and Wade had picked up on that.
"You know what answers Princess," he smirked, "we can either do this out here for your neighbors to hear or we can go inside and be left in private," he winked at her. She glared at him as she pushed the door open wider, stepping aside to let him enter. "What's going on?" He asked, leaning against the back of her couch, his feet crossed, and his hands resting on the back of the couch. "I thought you had fun yesterday, what changed?"
"The fact that I blew off work for you and now come Monday I might be kicked from the fellowship," Zoe gruffly told him, keeping herself at a safe distance. Telling him things wouldn't work out in text was so much easier than telling him to his face.
"They'd be nuts to do that to you," Wade stated.
"How would you know?" Zoe asked, hands on her hips.
"'Cause anyone with a brain and eyes can see how medicine is your passion," he retorted in a duh tone.
"Anyway," Zoe stated, letting the compliment roll off her back like it was nothing, but in reality him saying that had lightened her mood. She had tried for years for her father to see that and he couldn't but one stranger could see that in less then 48 hours. "I have a very important meeting on Monday that I need to get ready for, therefore I don't have time to mess around and goof off all weekend long," she sighed, losing the need to fight with him.
"Zo it's Saturday, you don't have to lock yourself away to prepare for a meeting that you have in your back pocket already," Wade told her, a hand running through the short hair on his head. Zoe gave him a smile.
"I have some Chinese food coming, more than enough if you want to stay," Zoe told him, moving to sit down on the couch. Wade flipped himself over the back of the couch, a grin plastered on his face.
"No need to ask me twice," he smirked, "Whatcha watching?" He asked with a soft groan seeing the chick flick on the TV screen. "Don't you have something with gore, violence, explosions and car chases?" He asked.
"Uh no," Zoe told him with an amused smile on her face.
"Then it's settled after the food gets here we're heading out for the day," Wade informed her. Just because there had been a small hitch in his plans doesn't mean that he can't still pull it off. "Go get dressed," he told her, looking her over. She was wearing an old tee shirt and what he had assumed was shorts underneath because she had a lot of tone and tanned leg on show.
"There's money by the door for the food," Zoe informed him, pushing herself off the couch and walking to her bedroom.
The second her door shut there was a knock on the main door. Wade got up pulling his wallet out of his pocket. He took the food and paid the delivery guy, giving him a tip and all. With the food in hand he headed into Zoe's kitchen and dug through the cupboards until he had found everything he needed to find. "You're the only person I know that randomly has a picnic basket sitting on their kitchen counter," Wade laughed, not looking up from what he was doing when he heard Zoe approach.
"It's my Mother's doing," Zoe replied, with a shrug not really able to explain why it was there in the first place, she hadn't really noticed it. "What are you doing?" She asked, leaning against the counter next to him.
"We're going to the park and not Central Park, 'cause everyone goes there," he replied.
"And what park are we headed to?" Zoe asked, moving over the fridge to get a couple bottles of ice cold water.
"Prospect Park," he replied, taking the water and placing it in the basket.
"But that's in Brooklyn," Zoe stated.
"I know," Wade smirked. "Are you afraid of Brooklyn?" He teased.
"Of course not," Zoe replied, walking ahead of him, getting what she was going to need, seeing the money was still there, she bit the inside of her lip, pulling the door open letting him go first. He was always finding ways to amaze her. She turned around to lock her place up, joining him in walking to the elevator. "It's just that there are parks a lot closer," she stated.
"Ya I know but my buddy George told me all about Prospect Park and I wanna see if it lives up to it's hype," he shrugged. Other than Central Park he didn't know any other parks and what they had to offer except for Prospect Park and the way George talked about it, he wanted to check it out himself.
"Are you good with riding the subway?" Zoe asked. There was no way they could walk to the park and she wasn't about ready to sit in traffic in a cab either.
"Me?" Wade laughed in her face. "You were the one that didn't want to get on," he pointed out.
"Because I saw how panicked you were. So I took the focus of that and put it on me" she shrugged. "I didn't want you to feel uncomfortable. Other than that creepy dude, and the kid that kept sneezing and coughing on me, I really thought I was going to catch what he had, I had nothing against it," she explained, pulling out her Metrocard.
"Quite the little manipulator you are," he quipped, with a smile on his face. Because he wasn't sure about riding the subway the second Zoe started to freak out about going on, all he could focus on was getting Zoe to loosen up and enjoy the ride and his own freaks about the subway vanished. "Bravo to you," he laughed.
"It worked and that's what counted," she shrugged. She wanted him to enjoy the city as much as she loved it here, so that way he would come back. "You know I've heard about Bluebell and your friends there and very little about your parents, but I haven't heard much about you, other than your band what is it you do?" Zoe asked, as they made their way down the stairs that led to the subway.
"I work as a bartender at the Rammer Jammer," he replied with a shrug.
"The Rammer Jammer?" Zoe questioned, raising an eyebrow.
"Uh yeah, it's a bar and restaurant, the only one in town. Well there is Fancies but you need to dress up and have a reservation and whatnot," he told her with a shrug. "Can't say I've been there before," he added on. It was the truth he never needed to go there, never had anyone that he needed to dress up for and make any kind of an impression on. "Let's see, I played football in high school, broke a rib blocking a player once."
"I can see you playing ball," Zoe smiled.
"I would like to say I could see you as a cheerleader but that isn't even close is it?" He asked a smile on his face. "Nah, you were the big nerd in school," he tacked on not giving her a chance to reply, lighting bumping her shoulder with his.
"I'm proud of the nerd I was in school," she replied back sticking her tongue out at him. He laughed at her antics. Yeah she was pretty awesome once she let her guard down and let herself have some fun.
Getting to the park was filled with laughs and jokes. Things flowed between them like they had known each other since they were little kids. They had found a nice little spot in the long meadow to sit and enjoy their little picnic.
"How do you like the city?" Zoe asked, swallowing the bite of food she had in her mouth.
"Honestly?" He asked around a bite of rice. "I hate it," he told her, swallowing the food in his mouth. "It's big and loud and crowded. There are no frogs or crickets at night, just cars and people. This place isn't for me," he explained.
"That's too bad," Zoe sighed, pushing her food around.
"Hey Zo," he whispered, moving closer to her, lifting her head up so he could see her brown eyes. "The best part of being here is spending time with you. I'll deal with everything else, but I've enjoyed every single second I've been with you. Highlight of my trip," he smiled, pressing a kiss to her cheek, feeling her blood rushing to her cheeks under his lips.
"How about we head to the Zoo?" She asked, cleaning up the mess they had. She giggled lightly seeing the way Wade's eyes grew with excitement at her little suggestion.
"Let's go," Wade stated, helping her grab the trash.
They had talked as they looked at the prairie dogs; Wade had skipped over the porcupines saying he's seen his far share of those guys. Zoe rolled her eyes and followed on behind him to the red pandas, emus, dingos, tufted deer and the river otters. Walking to the next exhibit on Animal lifestyles their hands were linked together, fingers laced. Zoe adored the Golden Lion Tamarins, the dwarf mongooses and the meerkats.
"I want one," Zoe cooed, looking at a little fluffy Pallas' Cat. Wade chuckled, and caressed her hand with his thumb.
"I don't think they're made for your apartment, Zo," he replied, looking at the cute little cat with orange eyes.
"I could hide it in there," she retorted, moving to walk to the next animal on their way. Wade shook his head, keeping his mouth shut.
"They look like my brother," Wade commented looking at the Hamadryas baboons. Zoe stifled her laugher and lightly hit his arm. "What it's true," he laughed.
"That's not very nice," Zoe scolded him, pulling him from the baboons.
"You haven't met my brother, princess, you wouldn't know if he looked like them or not. I swear the big one was him. He was scary looking, that's Jesse," Wade told her, a serious look on his face. Zoe rolled her eyes at him and kept walking; Wade slung his arm over her shoulder, pulling her close to him as they headed to see the Sea Lions.
Before they got to the Sea Lions Zoe pulled him off in a different directions. He was confused at first until he saw that she had stopped in front of the Poison's Dart frogs. "Here are those frogs for you," she commented with a sly smile. Wade laughed, pulling her in for a hug. She was something else and he was more than glad that he had met her.
After walking around most of the park, enjoying each other's company, the sun was starting to set on them they decided to call it a day and head back to Zoe's place grabbing a pizza on the way. Zoe was happy that Wade had showed up and made her see just how silly she had been about things.