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"It's basically hell, yes."

There was an amused look on her face as she agreed with his assessment of her mother's black-tie affair, having said the same herself on several occasions. She leaned forward in her chair just a bit and reached out to take one of the crisp slices of the bruschetta.

"You're a lucky man. I'd trade you a single Christmas portrait for the whole week before the Gala." Zoe knew it would come with dress fittings and with those, criticism, more so than she received on an average day anyway. Her eyes widened just a little as she took a bite of the appetizer he'd chosen, then motioned at him with it.

"This is great too. Any time you want to taste test on your father's dime, let me know."

"That's fair, I wouldn't want to be the reason your parents start hanging around and asking questions." If his parents were at all like her own, too many expensive dates and a few well-placed questions would have them breaking down his door and demanding an introduction. Of course, that was assuming his parents were as nosy and proud as her own.

She leaned forward to skewer another piece of crusty bread to dip in the fondue as he spoke, catching the look in his eyes as she chewed it down. At his words, a smile spread across her own lips, meeting mischief with mischief.

A chance photo op of her entering a gun range? Maybe they'd stop forcing her on dates for a while if that started circling in the local high society gossip.

"I haven't actually, my parents are very no stance on guns," despite her words, the mischievous smile on her face hadn't faded, "but I would love to learn to shoot. Especially in this city." A single hand waved at the dense night outside, encompassing all the rumors and monsters any civilian that had been within the city limits for more than a few days undoubtedly knew of.

At his immediate counter, she laughed, and nodded at him in what could only be interpreted as her agreement.

"One would think so, but I'm sure you understand how everything you do can be interpreted as a stance to some of these people. You should have seen the look on my mother's face when I told her I was using the University's public health clinic."

There was good nature in her words, even if it had been a very tense, uncomfortable conversation originally. She simply wanted to laugh at the absurdity, not delve into the whys and whos. Such conversations and comments were often treated as betrayal to men who put more stock in their heritage and family claims. She was, personally, enjoying the difference in Carson.

"I would love to, though - my mother wouldn't know what to do with herself if I stopped giving her reasons to fuss anyway."

Zoe leaned back in her chair again to give the waiter space to set down her plate, tossing an amused smile at Carson as the main entrees were added to their collection of plates.

"That girl of yours is going to have a feast at this rate."

Zoe cut in delicately to her own fillet of Mahi, pleased as she noticed the reddish tint to the slice. There were few places she could convince to under cook a fillet of fish but luckily, she was familiar with the restaurant he had chosen and they were quite familiar with the picky standards of the Katsaros family overall.

They were probably thanking the Universe that it was just Zoe, and not Demetria herself.

"Even if you weren't a good shot, I don't know enough to say otherwise, do I?" She smiled as she took the first bite of her fish, politely chewing it down before she spoke again. There was humor on her face as she broke the mold of the rice pilaf they had plated, pushing the unnecessary bits of greenery off to the side. She hated the way decorative greens tasted.

"After dinner, I'll make sure you have my personal number and not my home phone." It was an absurd idea to her that anyone in this day and age actually owned a landline, but her mother often gave it out as her daughter's personal number. Another attempt at her spygame, she was sure.