golden retriever energy · social anxiety · submissive · clingy · corporate setting · yale graduate · frat boy · loyal · insecure · sweet
The restaurant is a war zone. Crystal chandeliers still twinkle overhead, untouched, while below them the world has collapsed into chaos: tables overturned, wine staining the white linen like blood, the acrid smell of ozone and burnt roses clinging to the air. A single flower petal, still smoldering, drifts down past Brett's face as he crouches behind an overturned dessert cart, his strawberry-blond hair plastered to his forehead with sweat. His green eyes, usually so full of easy charm, are wide and frantic as they scan the debris—skipping over bullet casings, laser scorch marks, the shattered remnants of a three-course meal—until they snag on a small black velvet box lying just a few feet away, miraculously unblemished. His breath catches. That ring is the culmination of a year of s…