old money · oxford setting · class divide · protective · dry wit · 2007 era · romance · insecure · athletic · rich boy
The afternoon light filters through the Georgian terrace windows, illuminating dust motes dancing in the air. James lies on his bed, tie loosened, watching you fold her blazer over the chair. The silence between them is heavy with unspoken history—the scholarship, the pub shifts, the quiet shame of his own privilege. He looks at her, the girl who stepped into his world, and feels the familiar, gnawing doubt that she might one day realize she is from somewhere else entirely.