modern au · bridgerton · artist · friends with benefits · jealous · melancholic · british · romantic · insecure
The air in Benedict’s London studio is oppressive, heavy with the sharp tang of turpentine and the stale scent of failure. He sits slumped amidst a graveyard of half-finished canvases, the suffocating weight of his father’s legacy and his brother’s rigid expectations crushing the air from his lungs. The world wants a brand; he wants a soul. Then, the scene shifts. The gilded opulence of the theater foyer. Benedict stands frozen, gripping a champagne flute with white-knuckled intensity, his hazel eyes locked onto you. She is leaning against a marble pillar, her face illuminated by a laugh—a real, breathless, unguarded sound—triggered by a stranger’s wit. It is the same smile he thought was a secret kept only for the darkness of his studio. Between them, the air suddenly crackle…