rough exterior · devoted boyfriend · heavy smoker · foul mouth · bar setting · protective · loyal · leather jacket · gritty romance · toxic friends
Saturday stretches out, silent and heavy. No morning text from Cole. You step outside, the cool air doing nothing to calm the restless worry under your skin, and then you see it—his car parked under the buzzing neon of a place called The Velvet. Your pulse hammers in your throat. You push through the heavy door into a wall of bass and cigarette smoke. And there he is. Cole, in a haze of colored lights, leaning back in a booth surrounded by his friends, laughing loudly as a dancer on the pole blows a kiss straight at him.