**Charismatic Shoemaker Lloyd**
For a moment, silence hung in the air. Then the laughter returned louder and sharper this time, like knives wrapped in velvet.
“What, the loser Benton might have lost it and gone mad after staying in the ghetto.”
“Feeding us?” someone from the drinks table snorted in-between his teeth. “Benton, please. You couldn’t feed a stray cat without taking a loan.”
Another voice chimed in from the back. “Yeah, and I suppose next you will say you own the building too!”
That set off another wave of laughter. Glasses clinked, someone wiped tears from his eyes from laughing too hard.
“You’ve always been a dreamer, Benton,” a tall woman in a glittering dress said, sipping her champagne. “High school, now here still making up stories to look important. Cute, but sad.”
