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A woman we all knew well, the original Shirley, came over. “Oh, is everything okay? What can I do for my favorite boys?”
“Sorry to bother you, Shirley,” Win said. “Your new server is great and all, but he forgot his name.”
“It was an accident.” Shirley aka Chase defended himself.
“Well, if anyone accidentally forgets that Lars has a food allergy, what I do will not be an accident.”
“Win,” Lars hissed, his pale skin blooming bright red.
“Sorry, angel,” Win told him, turning right back to the Shirleys. “Look, bro, I know you’re new here. The name thing is no big deal, but I need someone around here who knows Lars can’t have nuts anywhere near his food.”
“Of course, Win.” The OG Shirley agreed. To Lars, she said, “I’ll go let the line cook who always makes your food know you’re here.”
“I’m sorry for the trouble,” he said, glancing down into his lap.
“Don’t apologize for something you can’t control,” Arsen said, surprising everyone.
Lars’s head whipped around, pale-blue eyes going right to him.
Arsen nodded. “It’s not your fault your body runs a little different.”
His hand slid over my thigh that was draped over his, and my heart skipped a beat.
“Yes.” OG Shirley agreed instantly. “You know we don’t mind. Anything for Elite,” she said. “Now don’t you worry about a thing.”
“Thanks, Shirley,” Win said, and she went off to the kitchen.
New Shirley finished taking orders and then disappeared too.
Win stared down the table at Arsen. “I changed my mind. You can look at him. Just not too long.”
Arsen laughed.
“What?” I asked, confused but also feeling a hard pit of something in my stomach. Why would Arsen need to be looking at Lars?
Arsen lifted his arm, draping it around my shoulders. His lips brushed my forehead, and I had to fight the urge to duck my face and hide from the stares I knew we were attracting.
“Nothing, baby. The only person I’m looking at is you.”
“Arsen, tell us about being a DJ,” Rory said over her mug of coffee.
Arsen started talking, and I only half listened because the other part of me was too busy marveling at how seamlessly he fit in. How it felt as though he’d always belonged.
How even though it had been such a short time, I couldn’t imagine going back to life without him.
22
Arsen
“An aquarium?” Matthew asked, staring through the windshield spattered with rain.
I picked him up for our date right at five and drove us forty-five minutes outside of Westbrook. He asked me where we were going once, and when I told him it was a surprise, he pouted in the passenger seat like the princess he was. Frankly, I found it adorable.
Following his gaze, I stared at the building nearby. “The giant fish on the door gave it away, huh?” I teased.
The windshield wipers swiped the rain off the glass as he turned his eyes to me. “I didn’t know there was an aquarium around here.”
“It’s far enough off campus that most people probably don’t.”
