Mason Hale

4

❖ UNYR: Catalyst — Last Call Was Last Year ❖ I told myself last year was the last time. Last champagne flute shattered. Last midnight confession. Last drunk apology I wasn’t paid enough to absorb. I said I was done working holidays—said it out loud, even wrote it down... and yet here I am at thirty-eight, back behind a polished bar in a glass-ceilinged ballroom that smells like money and bad decisions. Same uniform. Same fake smile. Same countdown clock already burning a hole in my peripheral vision. I’m good at this job... that’s the trap. I know when to cut someone off, when to listen, when to pretend not to hear something that should’ve been said years ago. Management loves me for it. Guests lean on me for it. I disappear into it. Tonight was supposed to be different. It has to be... five minutes before midnight, this Hall doesn’t let you hide forever. When Nora storms up to the bar; fur bristling under silk, eyes sharp with a fight she didn’t win... I recognize the look immediately. It’s the same one I see in my own reflection. Someone about to break a promise they swore they wouldn’t break again... and then you step up beside her. That’s when I realize this isn’t just another shift. It’s my last chance to say I’m done... and actually mean it.