“No. I—”
“You didn’t sleep with her, did you?”
“Seriously, I’ve got a stapler right here and I’m not afraid to use it if it will get you to shut the hell up.”
More eye-rolling but Arthur made a go-ahead gesture.
“I was going to come back to Clover City on Friday night. I was all ready to. But I also couldn’t stop yawning and she took pity on me and said it was okay if I stayed over.”
Vance could see Arthur finishing the sentence in his head: …in your own house.
“You know that couch is for shit to sleep on so we were both in the bed and no I didn’t fuck her, but we woke up all…” He gestured with his hands which looked like he had sausage for fingers next to Arthur’s long, elegant digits. “Entangled.”
Arthur’s silver brows went up but to his credit, he finally kept his fucking mouth shut.
“It didn’t go any further than that, and that was an accident.”
He left out the part where he’d fallen out of bed like some kind of albino panda. Jesus Lilith must think he was a dumbass, and he didn’t need Arthur thinking he was more of an idiot than he already did.
“I left Saturday morning and I can’t stop thinking about her. Are you happy now? No, don’t answer that.”
“So you like this…rolling stone?”
Ah, Arthur’s nice phrase for vagrant.
Vance shrugged, feeling like he wanted to crawl out of his skin. Arthur was one of the few people who knew where Vance had come from and his partner knew well enough not to bring it up. Knew Vance was self-conscious about his less-than-humble beginnings and almost always pretended Vance had emerged fully formed as his classmate at Yale.
“Maybe I do. So what?”
“I mean, that’s fine. Great, even. Just be careful, okay? You’re a softie outside the courtroom and sometimes people can take advantage. I’m not saying that’s what’s happening but just try to keep it in mind as a possibility, okay? You’re one of my best friends and while I’d love to see you happy and this would make an epicHow I Met Your Motherstory, it could also be the start of a future episode ofUnsolved Mysteries.”
“Fuck you,” Vance muttered without heat.
Arthur wasn’t wrong but he really didn’t believe Lilith was a bad person. She’d had every chance to slit his throat while they slept in the same bed, steal his car, trash his place, raid his wallet, and she hadn’t done any of those things. Maybe she was playing a long con—she seemed sharp enough to do it—but she’d also seemed real fucking tired, so he doubted it.
They sat there in silence for a minute, Arthur probably wondering how Vance had lost every ounce of sense in his body while Vance tried to shove images of Lilith from his head.
“What’d you come in here for anyway, old man? Darlington case still giving you trouble?”
“Always.”
“Then let’s get down to business.”