The Japanese restaurant was a place built off of high standards. People were expected to dress nicely, they were expected to spend money, and they were expected to tip very, very well. It wasn't typically the sort of place that Sam would bother with, but he and Ruby had some meaningful history here. It was the place where things first began to change. Sam had started seeing Ruby as less of a monster and more of a woman as they sat side by side at this very restaurant, playing along on the note that Ruby had to experience what it was like to actually go out with a man who respected her. He had been determined to prove a point to her. That's all that it had been. Now, a year later, Sam found that it had turned into something so much bigger than either he or Ruby could have ever imagined. Personally, Sam didn't regret a single moment of it. Through the good and the bad, he wouldn't have changed anything.
...except for maybe the demon blood. And the part where he started the apocalypse.
Fortunately for both Sam and Ruby, the employees didn't seem to recognize Sam as the celebrity that he had taken decidedly taken on the name of and mocked during his last visit here. Maybe they had long since forgotten him or maybe there were different employees on the clock - whatever it was, Sam found that he was grateful. He was pretty sure that by now they would have figured out that he looked nothing like Brad Pitt. How they didn't manage to figure out that one before was beyond him, but that was another matter entirely. Already settled at the table that he had reserved for himself and Ruby (which was a little ways off from the separate table that Sam had also reserved for Jo and Eliot), Sam anxiously straightened out the dining arrangements settled before him and tugged at the collar of his jacket. He was nervous. What if he saw Ruby and tried to cut her open right on the spot? What if, even after all this time of trying to recover from the demon blood, he still wasn't strong enough to be around her? It was already embarrassing enough that he had to have Jo come along and keep an eye on them in case he did something stupid. What if Sam actually did do something stupid to boot? Keep it together, Sam urged himself. He had to. For Ruby. Pushing a hand through his hair, Sam slid out of his seat and shrugged the black suit jacket off his shoulders. He needed to calm down, maybe get some air before the others arrived...Sam rolled the sleeves of his shirt up to the elbow and turned for the bathroom, but the sight of a familiar face walking through the front entrance was more than enough to make him freeze. So much for the fresh air. They were here. She was here.
For a moment, Sam forgot about the blood pumping away inside of Ruby completely. What with them having spent so much time apart from each other over the past while, Sam found her appearance doubly stunning. That black dress, the way that Ruby wore her hair just how Sam liked it...he found himself staring. God, she was beautiful. It wasn't all skin deep, either. He knew what was inside that body; Sam could remember what it felt like, reaching out with his mind and latching onto the demon within. She was there. Completely, one hundred percent there and even in spite of his addiction to her blood, Sam could do little more than focus on how stunning she was. He bit down onto his lip and put an arm out, waving lightly so that both she and the host would know that she already had a place to go. Soon, Ruby, the man that Sam immediately recognized as Eliot, and their blond friend would - the one that...wait. Was that Jo?