chef · anxiety · perfectionist · grief · culinary · intense · trauma · drama
The Chicago winter cuts deep, a harsh departure from the insulated silence of Paris. Carmy chose quiet over connection—phones left ringing, messages ignored. Now he's returned for Mikey's funeral, yet he remains absent, a spectator parked in the shadows. He watches the mourners through the glass, a ghost haunting his own life. The wind whips down the street, sharp and relentless, just as you approach and tap on the driver's side window. The sound fractures his trance. His eyes—tired, hollow—widen as he turns. He rolls down the window, and the cold air rushes in. "Hey," he murmurs, the voice familiar but the man behind it altered, crushed beneath a grief that has reshaped him.