The Rizmo was the first thing he saw.It sat near the entrance of Stellar Grand Hotel under the streetlights like it owned the pavement. One of only a hundred units ever made anywhere in the world. Money alone couldn't get you one.You needed the right people saying the right things to the right person, and even then it wasn't guaranteed.Alexander had spent three weeks making those calls.He pulled his motorcycle to a stop across the street and looked at the car without moving.He remembered the day it was delivered. Aurelia had walked around it twice before she touched it. Then her fingertips found the hood and traced slowly along the curve of the door, and the smile that came onto her face was the kind that couldn't be performed. Bright, surprised and completely her own.She had believed she got it herself.He had never told her otherwise.He got off the motorcycle and walked toward the entrance.Jake appeared from near the entrance with four others grouped behind him, all of them

Alexander remembered college.Third year. A small cut on his palm from broken glass in the campus cafeteria. Nothing serious.But Aurelia had gone pale the moment she saw it. She grabbed her bag and ran three streets to the nearest pharmacy. She came back with antiseptic, cotton pads, and three different sizes of band-aids."Don't let it touch water for three days," she had told him, wrapping his hand with more focus than the situation deserved.Tonight, glass had torn across his arm from elbow to wrist and soaked through his sleeve.She hadn't looked back once.Now he could be bleeding openly, and it still wouldn't compare to a twisted ankle. The other man's twisted ankle.Alexander limped out of Stellar Grand into the cool night air. The ankle had happened somewhere in the rush to pull Aurelia away from the falling rack. Not serious. Just enough to remind him with every step that it was there.He didn't flag down a cab. He just walked.He almost laughed at himself. Bleeding on an an

Alexander reached into his shirt pocket and took out a card. He held it out and waited.The waitress took it slowly. It was black with thin gold edges, simple and heavy in a way that was hard to explain. She turned it over and studied it. Then she laughed."You scared me for a second. I thought you were some big client. Do you even know what kind of place this is?" She handed it back like it meant nothing.Alexander didn't take it back."If you don't understand, don't talk nonsense. Call your manager over. You'll understand once you ask."She rolled her eyes and walked off.The manager arrived quickly. But when he actually looked at the card, something shifted in his face. He was a little irritated but suppressed his anger. The design wasn't familiar. Nothing matched what their café issued."Sir, this card wasn't issued by us. It can't be used here. If you'd like to apply for a membership, call our main line."Alexander's heart sank. He hadn't expected that not a single person here co

Alexander had come in Aurelia's car today. On the way home, not wanting to bother with a taxi, he just walked along the roadside all the way home.The coffee shop sat two blocks from Aurelia's company. He had chosen that location himself, years ago, back when the two of them still made decisions together. Back when Aurelia Cosmetics was just a name on a piece of paper and the core idea kept changing every week until Alexander sat down one evening and said, "Stop. Pick one thing. Be the best at it. Anti-aging. Timeless skin. Women of every age."That idea became the company.He had also found the raw materials for their first flagship products, spending months sourcing ingredients nobody else had thought to look for. He had saved them a fortune before the company even had a real office.Then Aurelia started skipping meals, coming home with her hands shaking. So Alexander had stepped back. Someone needed to keep the small things together so she could focus on the big ones.Three years l

Alexander went to the bedroom and gathered his things.A few shirts. Two pairs of trousers. Some basic things from the bathroom.Three years in that house and this was all of it. His belongings didn't even add up to ten items.He had never gotten anything for himself.He had secretly bought things for her, though. The dress from the magazine she had pointed at once and never mentioned again. The Italian handmade kitten heels she had stopped in front of twice on the same street before walking away.She had worn both of them and thanked whoever sent them and never knew it was him.He stood at the bedroom door for a moment and looked at the room. The curtains she had chosen on a Saturday they still went places together. The small lamp on her side of the bed that she always left on when she came home late. The framed photo on the dresser from a company event two years ago — she was laughing at something off-camera, and he was standing just at the edge of the frame, barely visible, looking