_{“you gotta more than tolerate spending time with me, at least a little. even if you won’t admit it. otherwise you wouldn’t have kept me around this long.” she smiles, ready for whatever grumble of a response that brought out.} 

              _{“i’ll come… i suppose. but you already brought up the steak house so don’t think we aren’t doing that first. not getting out of that one.” grabbing her jacket, she was not looking forward to what the night had in store. even if he wouldn’t be as hurt as it would look and she doubted he would lose against anyone human, she still didn’t want to watch it.}

    _{there was a visible roll of his eyes and  then shortly after a  scoff. in truth, he almost was going to admit why he kept her around, but at the last second stoped himself. “steak house first,” he said, trying to keep his composure as best as possible.} 

       _{“after that, we’ll see how the night goes from there.” If that meant leaving jess to go home while he fought? so be it – at least he  was trying to think of her… even if it was just so she didn’t have to watch him beat some poor dude into a bloody pulp.}