“I want food, but I just want to get it from one of the stands and keep moving,” Sharon said, catching up with them just in time to hear the end of Michael’s statement. Behind her, Jake followed along with a somewhat bemused expression on his face, Lexie and Patrick just behind him. Although he knew the women had plotted this zoo outing to get some extra time for him and Ellie outside of the club - and he thoroughly appreciated their efforts because it really did feel like he and Ellie were out on a date even if it was a group date - the most revealing part of today had actually not been Ellie’s willingness to hold his hand and act like they were on a date. Nope, the most revealing part of today had been watching Jake and Sharon needle each other, then observe Jake doing his best to keep up with Sharon while pretending he was doing no such thing, and Sharon running around like a maniac just to see if Jake would follow while pretending she was doing no such thing.

“I’d rather sit down,” Ellie said, making Michael smile, because he’d rather sit down with her too.

In the end, Adam was left sitting by the prairie dogs waiting for Angel to get enough of them (Michael assured the other man they’d swing by for them on the way out. Adam hadn’t found him very funny, but then Michael hadn’t been entirely joking. Angel had a very strange fascination with the little rodents) while Jared and Leigh went to get them food. The others were also going to get food at the stand, but they were going to move on afterwards. Only Andrew and Kate were interested in going and sitting down with Ellie and Michael at the zoo’s restaurant. Okay, it was overpriced, but the food wasn’t that bad, and Michael was actually glad the others were more interested in continuing to move around the zoo.

Or maybe they hadn’t really been and were just trying to give him and Ellie more time together. Andrew and Kate might just be volunteers to act as a buffer in case Ellie needed it.

It ended up feeling like they were out on a double date, which could have been uncomfortable because Ellie and Andrew had had sex in the past, while Kate and Michael had scened together and been intimate during those scenes, but somehow it just worked. Open communication between all of them previously had led to no awkward feelings now; and Andrew was a good enough friend of Ellie’s that she was able to completely relax.