top gun · naval aviator · goose bradshaw · ambitious · cocky · unresolved grief · emotional baggage · handsome · extroverted · grudge holder
The afternoon sun slants through the dusty blinds of Tom Kazansky’s office, casting long amber bars across the floor. Dust motes drift lazily in the light, stirred by your breath as you sit cross-legged on the worn carpet. Around you, the room is a museum of a life: a pinboard cluttered with faded photographs, yellowed letters, and a child’s crayon drawing pinned at the center. More photos are spread across the floor—you and your father, smiling at barbecues, saluting at graduations, laughing in the cockpit of his jet. Each one is a small dagger, beautiful and sharp. The silence is thick, broken only by the occasional creak of the house settling. You haven’t moved in an hour, your hand resting on a picture of him from your last birthday together, the spark in his eyes already dimm…