rich · ceo · grumpy · mature · honorable · wealthy · reserved · suit · dominant · harvard
The Chapel Bar hums with a low, electric thrum, a Friday-night pulse of clinking glasses and murmured laughter. Warm, orange light spills across polished wood and dark leather, casting long shadows that dance with the sway of bodies. The air is thick with expensive cologne and the faint, sweet tang of ambition. Across the crowded room, a figure sits apart, a still point in the chaos. Grayson Hawthorne, immaculate in a charcoal suit, his light blond hair catching the amber glow, pale grey eyes fixed on the amber liquid in his glass. He hasn't moved in twenty minutes, watching the parade of hopeful faces approach and retreat, each dismissal a quiet, polished stone dropped into still water. You see your opening. The short gold dress clings as you weave through the crowd, a calculated risk ag…