“How was your shift?” Strawberry asked and pulled her shirt over her head.

“It was alright. Nothing dramatic happened, so that was nice.” I corrected my collar on the white dress shirt. “How was yours?”

“Boring. I didn’t get a single customer.”

“Huh. Why?”

“Because Ares doesn’t come back for seconds and there were hardly any other patrons left. So annoying. And apparently Apollo was only in the mood for one worker yesterday.”

“Dion?”

“No, come on, Arlo. You know how he likes to play games. There’s only Nikon in his world. One day he’ll straight up just buy him and own him.”

“You’re just jealous,” Nikon laughed as he entered the locker room. “Apollo just paid the down payment for my new car.”

“And I’m late on my rent again,” Strawberry groaned and slammed her locker closed. “Honestly, I might just quit and get a regular job. This isn’t paying.”

I stayed out of this conversation. I had nothing to add. Being a guard was a well-paying job. Especially when you’re me. And being of Cerberus litter didn’t hurt me either.

I closed my locker and checked myself in the mirror one last time.

“You look pretty, Arlo, now get out so we can get changed, yeah?” Nikon said and started pushing me out. I took a hint pretty quickly. Get changed. Yeah sure, they were going to get changed.

I hurried out, nonetheless. And made my way to the bar.

And in the bar, I found Dion. He was sipping some drink, looking a lot more serious than the night before. He glanced at me as I sat down beside him and waved at Oliver. Oliver gave me a soda but hurried to scurry off again.

“I texted you,” Dion said without looking at me. He took a sip of his drink.

“I didn’t give you my number,” I murmured.

“I got your number from your bartender friend. I needed it.”

“For what?” I glanced at him and he glanced back.

“I’m take-away too. So I’ll need a driver. Do you drive?”

“Sure.”

“I’ll speak to the boss then. About the plans for our evenings. And some days.” He finished his drink and was about to rise but stopped. “I can’t wait to get to know you better, Arlo.”

He patted my shoulder and disappeared. I exhaled slowly. I hadn’t made a complete arse out of myself this time and that was awesome already. Oliver came back and took Dion’s glass.

He cast a glance at me but didn’t say anything.

I didn’t need him to say anything to get exactly what he felt about this. It was getting dangerous for sure. And I wasn’t even doing anything. There was nothing actually happening. Except shit in my head.

I needed to get a grip and be logical and realistic and not make up things that didn’t actually happen. I made things way bigger than they needed to be. I obsessed over tiny details no one would ever think about.

And I was doing it right now. I always did this with new people.

Oliver made another round before he stopped in front of me. “You hanging in there?”

“Uh...” I didn’t know what to say.

“You have that look in your eyes again, Arlo. Come back down to earth again.”

I ran my hand through my hair and nodded. “I know. I’m just...”

“You’re obsessing and you should stop.”

I nodded and rose to my feet. “Yeah, I… I’ll go make some rounds. That usually helps.”

Oliver didn’t say anything, he was just polishing a glass in his hands, looking a little worried.