Dimitri shook his head like Arlo was ridiculous. “What are you talking about? How many shifts did I switch with Remi so that I could work with you? How many parties did I blow off so I could hang out at the shop while you worked?” Dimitri asked.
Arlo shook his head, exasperated. “I have no idea, Dimitri. How many?”
Dimitri smiled at Arlo’s irritation, kissing his pouting mouth. “A lot. So many that even Remi realized how into you I am. He makes fun of me for it all the time.”
Arlo made a mental note to kick Remi’s ass for keeping that knowledge to himself. Arlo had spent countless hours whining to Remi about how much he liked Dimitri and he’d never once spilled this very pertinent piece of information. What the fuck? He thought they were friends.
“Well, that only works if I have all the information. You could have just asked me out, you know.”
Dimitri cocked his head, giving Arlo a look. “You’re never single. Ever. You’ve been with one guy after another since I started working there four years ago.”
His words felt like a blow to the diaphragm, knocking the air from his lungs. “Wow.”
Dimitri shook his head. “What?”
“One guy after another?” Arlo repeated, voice dull.
“I’m not insulting you.”
“I feel pretty fucking insulted,” Arlo managed, looking back out the window, his chest tight.
“Don’t do that. Look at me.” Arlo forced himself to turn and face him. “When was the last time you were single? Seriously.”
Arlo stopped short. He’d started dating Holden as soon as he’d split with Jimmy. Before Jimmy, it was Derek…Jimmy’s lab partner. Had Arlo really not been single in four years?
Arlo shook his head. “I’m sorry.”
“For what?” Dimitri asked.
Arlo gestured helplessly. “I don’t know. I just feel like I’m doing this all wrong.”
Dimitri’s brows drew together. “Doing what wrong? Us? You can’t do us wrong. I’m not like them. I’m sure you’ve heard that before, but I would never hurt you.” He gave a suggestive eyebrow wiggle. “I mean, unless you asked me to.”
Arlo rolled his eyes but couldn’t stop the smile that stretched across his face. “You owe me big time for this. And I’m never doing this again.”
At least, Arlo fucking hoped so. He was not cut out for a life of crime. It was too stressful. He wanted to be done with stressful. He was far too tired for this.
“Well, with any luck, we won’t commit any more murders together that require us to come up with alibis.”
“You realize that implies there might come a time when one of us might commit a murder separately,” Arlo said.
Dimitri leaned forward and kissed him deep, murmuring against his lips, “Well, you have a pretty bad temper. There’s no telling what might set you off. You’re a very, very dangerous guy.”
Arlo let himself get lost in Dimitri’s kisses. A heavy fist suddenly pounded on the glass, startling Arlo. He jumped back, looking towards the window just in time to see a group of people continuing their walk down the sidewalk. Yeah, he really fucking hated fraternity row.
“Should we be parked illegally after we just committed murder?” Arlo whispered, as if people might suddenly be listening.
“Yes. If we’re lucky, campus police will ticket us and we’ll have a police-issued alibi,” Dimitri said.
Arlo surged forward and smashed their lips together once more. “You’re great at this.”
“I’m going to take that as a compliment, even though I’m not entirely sure it is one,” Dimitri hedged.
“Text your mom the location so she can fudge the GPS data.”
Dimitri chuckled. “You’re pretty good at this, too.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Arlo said, waving off the compliment. “Promise me we can leave in an hour.”
