They spent nearly two hours with the employee and got to meet and talk with some of the staff and zookeepers.

Mateo took notes on his notepad, and with the help of Emilio, and permission of others, recorded some conversations on his phone. Emilio took a lot more photos.

“We still have half an hour until the next play with the baby thing.” Emilio said as they walked out of the staff only area. “We’ve seen and done pretty much everything else except...” he nodded in front of him to the booths of games.

“You want me to win you a giraffe?” Mateo asked as they rounded the corner and saw a bottle ring toss game. The big prize? A giraffe nearly the same height as Emilio.

“Oh you think you can get me the dolphin?” Emilio raised his eyebrows.

“I have really good aim.” Mateo shrugged, smirking as he made his way to the booth and bought a turn.

“How do you get the big prize?” Mateo asked the worker.

“You have to get all fifteen rings on these bottles in middle.” The worker replied.

“You know these are usually rigged right?” Emilio said as Mateo collected his rings.

“I know, I wrote an article about it.”

“Ah, so your cheating the system with insider information,” Emilio nodded as leaned against the booth, “I like it.”

“No,” Mateo said, taking a moment to aim before tossing the first ring.

It landed on it’s target.

“I just have really good aim.” He said with a smirk as he turned back to a visibly impressed Emilio.

Mateo’s grin grew wider.

He repeated this with the next fourteen rings, each one landing perfectly on it’s target.

Mateo turned to face an open mouthed Emilio.

After a second of mental rebooting Emilio closed his mouth and, whistling, said, “not bad Angeles.”

“Just not bad?” Mateo said, feeling a confidence boost from winning.

“Uhh-” Emilio stuttured, “v-very, very impressive.”

“Yeah?” Mateo smiled, subconsciously looking down at Emilio’s lips.

“Ahhhhheeeeemmmmmm.” The man behind the booth interrupted them, bringing them back to reality as each took a step away from the other.

“Do you want prize or not?” The man asked Mateo impatiently.

“Yeah.” Mateo said his face turning red again. He muttered a thanks as the man handed him the gigantic giraffe then turned back to Emilio.

“Here.” He said passing it to Emilio, whose face color resembled his own.

“Thanks.” Emilio said.

Mateo grinned as Emilio grabbed it, it was nearly as tall as him.

“Do you like it?” Mateo asked.

“I- I think giraffes are my new favorite animal.” Emilio said, looking at the giraffe then back at Mateo.

Mateo looked at Emilio, “I think Koalas are mine.”

Emilio’s face turned a little pinker. Mateo grinned.

If someone had told him a week ago that he would be making the Emilio Everhart blush he would have asked them how much his friends paid them to prank him.

“Um,” Mateo finally said, “we should probably go the babies thing. It’s the last one of the day.” He didn’t want the moment to end but he also didn’t want to get fired.

“Right,” Emilio nodded, taking a step back with his giraffe, “your article, that we’re here for.”

Mateo offered three times to help carry the giraffe, but Emilio refused each time.

“I’ve got it,” he said, switching the giraffe to his other arm and holstering it up on his hip so his legs wouldn’t drag on the floor.

“If I’d have known you’d be so stubborn about it, I would have gotten you a smaller prize.”

“No! I love my giraffe!” Emilio said, readjusting it.

“Emilio,” Mateo persisted, as he reached for the giraffe. “I can help, it’s no big deal.”

“No,” Emilio said, frustration growing into his voice as he stopped walking, “I always have people everywhere I go that help me with everything. Sometimes I’m not even allowed to carry my own umbrella! They do everything for me,” and don’t let me do anything for myself, Emilio stared at Mateo, “you’re not one of those people, right?”

Mateo brought his hand back. He could feel a heaviness in the question.

“No,” Mateo said softly and firmly. “I’m not.”

“Good.” Emilio said, and began walking again.

“But,” Mateo said, catching up to Emilio, “us normal people have others that help us too. They're usually called friends and family. And they do it cause they're happy to help, not because they have to, or because they want something in return, they just do it out of love.”

Emilio glanced at Mateo but kept walking.

“So… as a,” Mateo hoped he wasn’t crossing a line or assuming too much, “as a friend, can I please help you carry the giraffe for a bit? We can take turns.”

Emilio stopped walking and looked at Mateo.

As a friend.

“Okay,” he said, relenting as he gave Mateo the giraffe. “Just for a moment, be careful with him.”

“Him?” Mateo asked as he grabbed the giraffe, it didn’t seem as big in his arms.

“Yes, his name is Steve.” Emilio said, a small grin on his face.

“Steve?” Mateo said. He almost added should I be jealous of a guy named Steve? but pressed his mouth shut and grinned. “Hello Steve. Wanna go meet some baby animals?”

They first sat through a lecture by one of the zoologists and had to undergo a 20 minute training and prepping experience before they were allowed into the enclosures. They left Steve the giraffe in the zoologists office during their experience.

Emilio immediately pulled out his phone and started snapping photos and Mateo talked with the zoologist as they walked through the enclosures.

“Okay you have one more minute to interact with the babies.” A voice on the intercom informed them.

Mateo and Emilio joined the chorus of aww’s that arose from the group.

A baby monkey crawled up behind Emilio and grabbed his phone. He swung down into Emilio’s lap and, laying on his back, started pressing at the screen.

“I have it locked.” Emilio explained to the worried Mateo. “It’s recording, so the only thing he can do is take more pictures and make a fun video to watch later.”

“I’m looking forward to watching it then,” Mateo grinned.

There were two monkeys going to town combing through his hair.

Emilio had to remind himself that he had already taken about a thousand photos of Mateo like this and that he didn’t need to rip his phone from the monkey’s hand to take one more.

“That was fun.” Emilio said as they were leaving the zoo.

“Yeah,” Mateo said, he shifted Steve the giraffe to his other arm and pushed out some confidence, “I don’t think it would have been nearly as fun without you. Thanks for joining me.”

Emilio grinned. “I’m happy you asked. Thank you for inviting me.”

Mateo could only manage to grin, his brain felt like puddy.

They walked to the car in silence. A hidden smile on both of their faces.

When they reached the car Emilio patted his front pants pockets, then the back pockets.

Mateo’s grin faded, “What’s wrong?”

“I can’t find my keys.” Emilio said.

Mateo looked back at the zoo, the lights were starting to dim as the last few patrons were exiting.

“It’s okay.” Mateo nodded reassuringly, “I’m sure if we run back and tell them what happened they’ll let us in to look for them.”

“Mateo we visited literally every single place. It’s a big zoo.” Emilio said, voice worried. “And you said the movie you had to review starts in 20 minutes and it’s the last showing. Mateo, I’m so sorry.”

“Who cares about the movie, I’ll run ahead and explain everything to the workers.” Mateo said, pushing Steve the giraffe into Emilio’s arm and getting ready to run back to the main entrance.

“Wait! Mateo!” Emilio said, grabbing Mateo’s arm.

“What?” Mateo asked, urgency in his voice.

His face changed to confusion as Emilio burst out laughing.

“I’m so sorry,” Emilio said as he calmed down his laughter, “Ricki,” a blue light on the car activated, “open the door and start ignition.”

The driver's door clicked open and the car’s engine turned on.

“Ricki where are my keys?” Emilio asked as he maintained eye contact with Mateo.

“This car does not require keys,” Ricki said through the car speakers, Mateo nearly jumped at the unexpected voice, “it uses face and voice recognition.” Ricki continued, “You do however always keep a spare set of keys in your back pocket that you sometimes use out of nostalgia. You were simply teasing Mr. Angeles because you like-”

“Okay Ricki, that’s enough!” Emilio quickly cut her off. “Hehe, my Ricki has a bit more personality than the commercial ones.” He explained looking shyly at Mateo. “Sometimes she says… the darndest things….”

Mateo was staring at him blankly.

Emilio laughed awkwardly, “Um, so I was just teasing you, about the keys. Figured since you don’t have an EvCart you might not know about the keyless activation. It was stupid sorry.”

“No,” Mateo smirked at him, “it’s almost as if you were an actor in another life or something.”

Emilio laughed dryly, “if only it had been another life.”

Right, Mateo reminded himself, not good memories for him.

They quickly moved along and focused their attention on trying to fit Steve the giraffe into Emilio's car. It took them five minutes before they were off driving to their next destination, the movies.