#wellsandstone

Toronto liked to pretend it was respectable.

By day, Yonge Street was collars buttoned high, hats tipped low, and sermons about proper conduct. By night, the city loosened its cuffs. Behind barber shops, beneath restaurants, through side doors with no signs at all, music lived where the law preferred silence.

Wells knew the sound of hidden joy the moment he heard it.

It was a wet Friday night when he turned down a narrow alley off Queen Street and followed the pulse of a muted trumpet drifting through the rain. A plain steel door waited at the back of a warehouse. No name. No window. Only a small hatch that slid open.

“Password?”

Wells smiled. “Gold.”

The hatch closed. Bolts shifted. The door opened.

Warmth spilled over him like applause.

Inside was another world, amber lamps, cigarette haze, polished wood, women in beaded dresses laughing into gloved hands, men with loosened ties and dangerous smiles. A piano rolled in the corner while a trumpet sighed above it. Glasses clinked quietly. Everyone spoke low, as if joy itself needed discretion.

Wells removed his coat and every eye near the entrance turned.

He looked like he belonged on a poster more than in a basement room, broad-shouldered, dark-haired, trimmed beard, tailored waistcoat pulling clean across a powerful chest. Yet he moved with easy grace, smiling at strangers as though he had known them for years.

The bartender slid him a tumbler without asking.

“You look expected,” she said.

“I usually am.”

Laughter followed him to the barstool.

At a corner table sat a man Wells recognized at once: Mr. Stone, older, composed, accountant’s posture still intact even in a hidden club where posture went to die. His suit was immaculate. His drink untouched. His gaze, however, fixed entirely on Wells.

“Fancy seeing respectable finance in an indecent place,” Wells said as he approached.

Mr. Stone adjusted his cuff. “Strictly observational.”

“Of course.”

Wells took the seat beside him. Their shoulders nearly touched.

For a while they listened to the band. Piano, clarinet, trumpet. Toronto’s heartbeat beneath the city’s official pulse.

“You surprise people,” said Mr. Stone quietly.

“I try not to waste the gift.”

“And what gift is that?”

Wells leaned closer, voice low enough to belong in the room.

“Making careful men reckless.”

For the first time all evening, Mr. Stone laughed openly.

The bandleader suddenly called for volunteers for a strongman wager, five dollars to anyone who could lift a barrel of imported rye onto the stage platform.

Men tried. Men failed.

The crowd cheered when Wells stood.

He removed his vest, rolled his sleeves once, and crossed the floor to whistles and delighted gasps. With one smooth pull he hoisted the barrel high against his chest, carried it to the platform, and set it down as gently as if it were crystal.

The room erupted.

Someone shouted, “Buy that man a drink!”

Someone else shouted, “Buy him two!”

Wells only turned toward the corner table.

Mr. Stone was already on his feet, applauding harder than anyone.

Later, when the lamps dimmed and the crowd thinned, Wells reclaimed his coat. Mr. Stone rose beside him.

“Leaving already?” asked the bartender.

“Never stay past the best ending,” Wells said.

He looked to Mr. Stone.

“Walk with me?”

The older man hesitated just long enough to be interesting.

Then he took his hat, straightened his tie, and answered with the smallest smile.

“Yes.”

They stepped out into the Toronto rain, where the city still pretended to be proper.

Behind them, the music played on.