one kiss from you and I'm drunk up on your potion

He was glad that the table was still open, and from the wink Jamie gave him, it was clear the other man had kept it open for them. Ordering the food was a quick affair, and he simply mentioned to the man to add his usual order to the list, before turning his attention back to Hunter. She was a strange person. Clearly not from the city, and clearly not as simple as she appeared. If anything, he wouldn't have given her a second look. However, now that he had learned a few things about her, it certainly piqued his interest.

The man smiled at her words. "Thanks, it took a while to renovate it back in the day; it used to be an old pub but we modernized it after a while. You kind of have to stay on top of things to do well in this city. Speaking of, you're not from here, are you?"

He peered curiously at her, as if there was something to figure out about this woman. "Not trying to be rude or anything, but you seem like you're from out of town. New Yorkers aren't usually very friendly, and they're not all that trusting of strangers either."

Ah, the book shop he had yet to enter. He wondered what kind of books she'd sell. He made a note to himself to check it out sometime. He nodded as she talked about going to the pet store, and he raised a brow when she asked him to come along. Frankly, he wasn't all too fond of that dog of hers, and more wary of it than anything. Spending time with a hellhound like that didn't sound like a good self-preservation tactic.

He gave her an apologetic smile. "To be honest, Sylvan isn't my cat," he replied with a quiet laugh, "he's my sister's. Guess he crawled in when I left her apartment earlier, so I probably have to bring him back later tonight. She's very...attached to him, you know?" He knew how Rhiannon got when Sylvan decided to sneak out and go on his own adventure. Despite being her familiar, the two were often at odds, snarking at each other whenever they could. It was funny, even if he didn't understand a single bit of it.

It was moments like this when he missed being a warlock. He no longer had the ability to understand familiars, even with the blood magic that Rhiannon had used when trying to make the two of them immortal.

He chuckled. "Yeah, I grew up here and you kind of get to know how people act," he shrugged. He wasn't exactly lying; living here on and off for the last hundred years meant he could quickly discern whether someone had been born here or lived here for years, versus someone brand new. It wasn't even an accent thing anymore; the New York accent was dying out these days.

"Really?" he replied, intrigued. The city was so quickly changing he barely remembered how Victorian homes looked like these days; his memories of the past were rather short-lived and hazy, after all. The city had always been his neighborhood more so than the village he had come from.

"I get it," he replied with a smile, "the community is hard to find but sometimes it feels stifling too. I guess anywhere feels like that if you've been there long enough, huh?" They had moved to a small town once, a few years back, in order to find some interesting gateway to a certain magical power, but that town was so small, and everyone knew each other. He had never felt more an outsider than there.

He chuckled as Hunter chatted about the kitten who was now curled up, purring on the table. "Yeah, he's a picky one that's for sure, but I can check my schedule and get back to you." Ah, the waiter finally arrived with their snacks and drinks, and he leaned back a little to give the man some space to put their food in front of them.

"I mean, I might as well give you my number, you know, if you ever need help or if you're around or something. Better to have friends around the city if you're new," he replied. Better to keep an eye out on any potential threats too, he thought, and that meant keeping friends close and other supernatural involvement even closer.

He chuckled as he recited his number, glancing to her phone to make sure she entered it right. Yep, that was fine. He quickly handed his own phone to her before entering her name. Hunter - book girl. He'd never admit it but his memory was a bit sketchy sometimes, having lived for so many decades. These days, phones and all helped, but it always worked better to keep track with extra notes and stuff.

Interesting. Books in a weird language huh? His interest was immediately piqued. "Books in a weird language?" he leaned forward a little, "did you know what kind of language it was? There aren't a lot of foreign book stores in the city." Old books in another language were always mildly interesting; Hywel wasn't a collector of any sorts, but he knew Rhiannon was. "I think my sister likes this kind of stuff, so maybe I'll tell her about it."

He smiled at her words, expression softening a little. "I get that, cities are a bit big and lonely compared to a small town innit?" he shrugged, "but you live here long enough and you get used to it. Different neighborhoods still have their own communities, you know? I grew up in Brooklyn years ago, but it's changed a lot since, but I remember back then we had our own Irish community too. It was chaotic, but...kind of nice back then. It's all different now but I miss it too."