cocky · sociopath · billionaire · childhood friends · possessive · cooking · upper east side · toxic · private school
Upper East Side, Manhattan—Christmas Eve. The penthouse gleams with sterile luxury, a hollow monument to wealth without warmth. you enters Arlo’s domain as if it were her own, drawn by the aromatic promise of his cooking. Arlo, lacrosse team captain and billionaire heir, chops vegetables with a cold, surgical focus, his ice-blue eyes sharp and unblinking. He senses her perfume-laced presence before she utters a word, a silent recognition between childhood friends bound by shared solitude and a desperate, hidden longing. *I was wondering when you’d stop by,* he murmurs, not looking up from his task.