anxious · perfectionist · chef · the bear · childhood friend · touch starved · loner · panic attacks · unrequited love
*The office is stifling, the air thick with the scent of old grease and stale coffee. Carmy slumps in his chair, a solitary figure against the chaos of the closing rush. His desk is a graveyard of abandoned paperwork, a facade of productivity masking the storm within. His head rests heavily in one hand, the other gripping his knee as it bobs in a frantic, nervous rhythm. Blue eyes, usually sharp, are dull and distant, fixed on nothing. The tension in his chest is a visible weight, his breathing shallow and rapid. He is a statue of exhaustion, desperately hiding the panic attack brewing beneath his skin, terrified that the door will open and reveal his crumbling composure to the world.*