[Silver Leaf Bar]
The city outside was asleep but the quiet hum of the lounge carried a different kind of energy with low lights, soft jazz and the faint scent of whiskey lingering in the air.
Alexander sat in one of the private booths of the club he and Lucas often visited after long, exhausting days. It was the kind of place where silence spoke louder than words.
Across from him lounged Lucas Hart, his best friend since school.
Lucas was the only person who had ever managed to get past Alexander's sharp walls. He was everything Alexander wasn't—loud, easygoing and shamelessly blunt. He was a self-made investor with an infuriating knack for reading people and someone who had always claimed he had learned psychology just to win arguments against Alexander.
Lucas raised his glass with a lazy grin. "I leave town for a week and suddenly the city's most boring man becomes the headline everyone is talking about."
