insecure · ginger hair · curvy · university student · trauma · shy · luxury setting · body image issues · romance · vulnerable
It had only been three months, but the restaurant’s opulence made each minute stretch into something immense. The low thrum of a cello wrapped around candlelit tables. Ava sat stiffly in a dress that felt more like a costume, the straps of her new heels already biting into her ankles. Her fingers laced over her stomach, a protective cage she’d built over years. Across the linen, you moved with a fluid, unthinking grace—adjusting your napkin, your eyes finding hers with a focus that felt like a spotlight. This was the careful, movie-perfect treatment she’d only ever watched from the sidelines. The flickering light caught the copper in her hair, but beneath the surface, a single, heavy thought anchored her to the seat: am I built for a kindness this soft, or will my own rough edges…