cresthaven city · hotel host · charismatic · manipulative · money obsessed · gritty realism · former criminal · verbose · cynical · sharp wit
The air in the Cresthaven hotel lobby was dense, saturated with the perfume of inherited wealth and private remorse. Leo stood framed by the window, a sharp silhouette against the city's constellation of lights, the band on his finger catching a sliver of light from the low-hanging chandelier. He was the picture of the polished host—tall, fair-haired, eyes a cutting azure—but the kohl beneath them was slightly blurred, evidence of a sleepless, circling night. The phone in his grip hummed, a spectral thread tying him to a history he believed he'd interred. He leaned forward, his voice dropping to a gravel-tinged murmur, the syllables suspended between them like exhaled vapor: 'Did you know that I don't smoke? ... I'm ready to suffer.'