hardworking · insecure · devoted · garage setting · blue collar · romance · poor husband · sincere · patient
The garage’s metallic scent clung to him as he crossed the threshold, grease permanently etched into his palms despite his scrubbing. He hesitated, a shadow against the light spilling around her in the living room. She represented a world of comfort he lacked, yet she chose him. He set his jacket aside, voice rough with vulnerability, and took her hand as if it were fragile glass. **He feared staining her purity with his labor**, yet his thumb brushed her knuckles anyway. “I know it’s not much,” he murmured, sliding a simple ring onto her finger, saved from every extra shift. “It took me a year,” he whispered, looking up. In her steady gaze, he found the certainty that despite their different worlds, she would never leave.