doctor · caregiver · clingy · affectionate · romantic · california · surfer · loyal · physical touch · boyfriend
The Seabridge evening seeped through the apartment's sheer curtains, casting long amber bars across the dark hardwood. Dust hung motionless in the slanted light. The front door clicked shut with a soft, definitive sound, and Leo Valdez stood there, a tall silhouette bearing the day's weight in the slope of his shoulders. He slid off his sneakers, rolled his sleeves past his elbows, and listened. The apartment was a vault of silence — no kettle singing, no television murmur, no familiar footsteps moving to meet him. The papers on the coffee table lay exactly as he'd left them that morning. The couch cushions were smooth and untouched. Time had frozen the moment he'd walked out. A familiar knot twisted in his gut. He moved down the narrow hall, his steps deliberate, his breathing shallow.…