Klein clicked his tongue.
He looked at Peter — face blotchy, glasses smudged, still mumbling something about hoping Gwen would be happy — and made a decision.
"Check please!"
He settled the tab, then hauled Peter up from the booth by the arm.
Peter's legs had approximately the structural integrity of cooked noodles. He grabbed the table edge on the way up and nearly took it with him.
"K-Klein — what are you — I have a shift this afternoon, I need to—"
"You're not going to work."
"But the money—"
"Forget the money." Klein got Peter's arm over his shoulder and steered him toward the door. "Today you do what I say."
He flagged a cab outside, bundled Peter into the back seat, and gave the driver an address in Midtown.
The taxi wound through Manhattan traffic and eventually turned onto a quieter tree-lined street near Fifth Avenue, pulling up in front of a low-key off-white building. No flashy signage — just a single line of gold-leafed cursive script set into dark marble beside the entrance: Elysium Club.
Klein had heard about it during his Hell's Kitchen operations. According to various people who'd mentioned it under circumstances that weren't ideal for them, it was currently the most sought-after high-end club in New York. The kind of place where, if your bank account looked right, almost any top-tier service was available.
He paid the driver and got out.
Peter climbed out after him, squinting at the building with the focused expression of someone trying very hard to make their eyes work properly.
"Klein... where is this?"
"Somewhere you can forget about George Stacy for a few hours." Klein steered him toward the entrance.
Two large security guards in black suits stepped forward immediately — eyes moving over the two of them with the practiced assessment of people whose job was to decide who belonged and who didn't. The cheap clothes didn't help.
Klein didn't slow down. He reached into his jacket, pulled out a stack of bills, peeled off twenty without counting — a thousand dollars each — and tucked them into the guards' breast pockets with the ease of someone who'd been doing this for years.
"My brother's having a rough day. Appreciate the hospitality."
The wariness evaporated. The guards stepped aside, one of them even reaching out to steady Peter on the step.
"Of course, sir. Right this way."
Inside, the lobby was warm and softly lit, with the faint trace of expensive incense in the air. A woman in a fitted skirt suit and precise makeup appeared almost immediately, her smile widening slightly when she clocked what Klein had just handed the door staff.
"Good afternoon. Welcome to the Elysium Club. How can we help you today?"
"SPA for me — your best available." Klein glanced at Peter, who was looking around the lobby with the cautious wonder of someone who had stumbled into a foreign country. "And for my friend — somewhere comfortable to sober up first. Water, food, whatever he needs. He can figure out the rest when he's thinking straight."
The woman's smile stayed professionally warm. "Of course. We'll take excellent care of you both."
Klein patted Peter on the shoulder. "Drink some water. Eat something. Clear your head." He met his eyes. "Then decide what you want to do with the rest of the afternoon. No pressure. This one's on me."
Peter looked at him for a moment — still glassy, still a little wrecked around the edges — and nodded.
An hour later, Klein was in a private suite on the fourth floor, deeply relaxed and entirely unconcerned with the outside world.
He'd put his new money to thorough use. The SPA was exceptional. The subsequent company — two women from Eastern Europe who'd appreciated his rather unusual physical fitness with genuine enthusiasm — had been a mutually satisfying arrangement.
He lay back afterward feeling like a man who had earned every second of this.
Two hours after they'd arrived, Klein was settled in a corner booth in the club's restaurant, a glass of decanted red and several plates of small plates in front of him, when Peter walked in.
The hair was slightly disheveled. The glasses were sitting at a mild angle. His shirt had been re-tucked with the careful precision of someone who had re-tucked it deliberately. He had the specific expression of a person who had made an unexpected life decision and was still in the early process of figuring out how he felt about it.
Klein refilled the second glass and slid it across the table.
Peter sat down. Stared at the glass. Picked it up and drank half of it, slowly.
"...I stayed," he said finally.
"I can see that."
"I didn't — I mean, I sobered up and I could see what it was, and I—" He stopped. Started again. "I made a choice."
"Good," Klein said simply.
Peter turned the glass in his hands. He was quiet for a while in the way that meant things were reorganizing themselves internally.
"I don't feel as bad," he said eventually, with some surprise in his voice.
"That's generally how it works."
"That's — is that a healthy coping mechanism?"
"Probably not," Klein said. "But it's a Tuesday and you're twenty years old and your heart's broken. You're allowed one afternoon."
Peter looked at his glass again. Outside the restaurant's frosted windows, the sounds of the club carried on quietly.
"She really did make me happy," he said. Quieter now. More settled.
"I know."
"It's just — her dad wasn't entirely wrong either. About where I am right now."
"Where you are right now," Klein said, "is not where you're going to be. Those are different things." He picked up his own glass. "Stacy looked at your current circumstances and made a permanent judgment. That was his mistake."
Peter was quiet for a moment.
"You really believe that?"
"I believe you're one of the most genuinely capable people I know," Klein said, "and that you have absolutely no idea yet what you're capable of." He raised his glass. "So — to figuring it out."
Peter looked at him for a moment. Then something loosened in his face — not gone, not fixed, but lighter.
He raised his glass and clinked it against Klein's.
"To figuring it out," he said.
[End of Chapter 13]
Show Some By Powerstones
Next BONUS CHAPTER at 200 powerstones