Richest Man: It All Started With My Rebate System-Chapter 66: The Get Together (3)

The server came back around and orders were placed. The food arrived and the table rearranged itself slightly as plates were distributed and the conversation continued over and around the eating.

It was James who circled back to Steven.

"Alright," he said, picking up his glass. "Your turn. And I want the actual version, not the summary."

"What do you want to know?" Steven said.

"Start with the past two years," Priya said. "Hannah said you were in Montrose the whole time."

"I was," Steven said. "Working at a restaurant. Waiting tables, mostly." He paused. "It was a difficult two years. The job was steady but the environment wasn’t. The manager was the kind of person who made things hard for sport. I stayed longer than I should have because leaving without something to go to felt worse than staying."

"Did you leave eventually?" Marcus asked.

"Two weeks ago," Steven said. "Decided on the morning and walked out the same afternoon."

James raised his glass slightly. "Good."

"How did you land on your feet that fast?" Dani asked in genuine curiosity.

Steven considered the question carefully. He had thought about how to handle this part before he arrived. The full truth wasn’t available. But there was enough of the truth that was.

"Things changed quickly," he said. "There were funds I didn’t fully have access to until recently. It came through at the right time." He paused. "I’m not going to pretend I planned it. I didn’t. It just happened to land when I needed it to."

The table accepted this without pressing. People in their early twenties understood that money sometimes arrived from unexpected directions and that the details weren’t always simple. Nobody pushed.

"Where are you living now?" Sasha asked.

"River Oaks," Steven said.

A brief silence.

"River Oaks," James repeated.

"River Oaks," Steven confirmed.

"The River Oaks," Callum said.

"There’s only one," Steven said.

Another silence. Slightly longer this time.

"Right," James said slowly. "And you drove here in an Aston Martin."

"I did," Steven said.

James put his glass down. He looked at Steven with an expression that was half amusement and half something more genuine. "Steven. I’m going to ask you something and I want you to answer it honestly."

"Go ahead," Steven said.

"Are you okay?" James said. "Like, actually okay. Because two weeks ago you were waiting tables in Montrose and tonight you’re in River Oaks with an Aston Martin and I want to make sure you’re not in any kind of trouble."

The directness of it was so purely James that Steven laughed.

"I’m not in trouble," he said. "I promise. Everything is legitimate. It’s just a strange few weeks."

James looked at him for a long moment, doing the particular thing he had always done, which was read people with more accuracy than he was generally given credit for. Then he nodded once.

"Okay," he said. "I believe you."

"That’s it?" Priya said. "He says he’s not in trouble and you just believe him?"

"Yes," James said simply. "He’s never lied to me. I’m not going to start assuming he does now."

Priya looked at Steven. Then she shrugged. "Fair enough."

"I’ll explain more when there’s more to explain," Steven said. "It’s still very new. But I’m genuinely well. Better than I’ve been since before my mother died, honestly."

The table received that quietly.

"Then that’s enough for now," Priya said.

The conversation moved on and kept moving, as they all talked about different things. They talked about a teacher from their school that three separate people had independent stories about that were all, somehow, about the same incident viewed from different angles.

They talked about music. They argued pleasantly about a film that half of them had seen and half had not. They went back and forth about whether the bar they were currently sitting in was better or worse than a place they had all gone to once in their final year of school and argued about from memory for twenty minutes before admitting no one could fully remember it.

Steven sat in the middle of it and said what he had to say when he had it to say, and listened when he didn’t, and found that the gap of two years was closing faster than he had expected it to.

At some point, later in the evening, James leaned back in his chair and looked at Steven across the table.

"I’m glad you’re back," he said. Simply.

"Me too," Steven said.

The evening continued for another hour after that. The table thinned gradually as people checked times and made their farewells, each departure producing a new round of exchanges, numbers confirmed, promises made about not letting it go this long again.

Steven was one of the last to leave, which surprised him slightly.

He shook hands and embraced people as they went, and when the table had reduced to himself, James, and Callum, the three of them sat for another twenty minutes with nothing more than drinks and whatever the evening had left to say.

When they finally stood and walked out, the street outside was quieter than it had been when Steven arrived.

"Thursday sorted itself out well," Callum said at the kerb, with an approval that was as close to enthusiasm as Callum ever got.

"It did," Steven said.

James clapped him once on the shoulder. "Don’t disappear again."

"I won’t," Steven said.

They went their separate ways.

Steven walked back through the parking area to the Aston Martin, got in, and sat for a moment before starting the engine.

The evening had been what he had hoped it would be, and a few things more. He had not expected it to feel as easy as it had. He had prepared for more friction — more explaining, more justifying, more of the weight that came with long absences.

He started the engine and pulled out into the night.

As he drove, he smiled to himself in satisfaction at the fact that he had recovered the lost connection to his friends. He intends to maintain that connection.

His thoughts drifted to his coming days and how booked they are. His licence test would be in two days time and he expects to receive the due diligence report from Meridian Advisory within two days time.

He really can’t wait to take care of the restaurant acquisition so that he would be able to focus on other things.

He would probably have to call Lena soon. Just the thought of that brought a small smile to his face.