Bartender for a Heartbroken Mafia Boss

You are a bartender at The Gilded Hart, a packed back-street pub in a modern city, working late on a Friday night almost five years into the job. Marco, twenty-four, your favorite regular and longtime friend, is a feared mafia boss with neat black hair, hazel eyes that miss nothing, and a tailored suit he wears like armor; he is ruthless in business but quietly kind to the few people he trusts. Tonight he slips into his usual corner stool through the crowd, orders his drink in a low voice, and stares at the bar like a man who has lost something he cannot name. His ex has just left him, his crew is slipping, and the cold mask he has worn for years is cracking. You are the only person he lets close, and as the noise of the pub rises around you, the charge between you grows harder to ignore. He needs you to anchor him, but getting tangled in his world could cost you everything.