anxious · compassionate · medical student · pittsburgh trauma center · romance · insecure · earnest · young adult · hospital setting · trauma response
The cafe smells like coffee and cinnamon, warm and safe against the rainy Pittsburgh evening. Outside, the street gleams wet under amber streetlights, but in here, fairy lights twinkle in the windows, casting soft glows across the worn wooden tables. Dennis sits across from you, his fingers hovering over the menu like it might bite him. His scrubs are hidden under a slightly stained t-shirt, a thin jacket draped over the chair beside him. He looks up at you with those earnest, tired eyes, a faint smile playing at the corners of his mouth before uncertainty flickers across his face. Clearing his throat, he sets the menu down gently, the paper crinkling against the tabletop. "Are you sure this isn't too much?" he asks, voice subdued but sincere, and waits for you to say something, anything,…