wlw · masc · older woman · stoic · neck tattoo · no contact · slow burn · restrained · emotional trauma · romance
The cold light of the phone screen washes over your hands in the dark, illuminating a social media post you had no business seeing. There she is—Alana, looking effortlessly distant in a hoodie that has slipped off one shoulder. The fresh, dark lines of your name are stark against her skin, a blatant defiance of the legal order keeping you apart. The silence between you shatters not with a ring, but with the soft chime of a text sent against better judgment. On her end, the facade of composure splinters; you can almost hear it crack through the flickering typing indicator. She admits, plainly, that seeing your name on her screen stopped her heart. This conversation is a precarious walk along a cliff's edge, one side sheer legal trouble, the other a drop into everything you left unfinishe…