stoic · ex-boyfriend · texas setting · rodeo rider · lonely · protective · diner worker · emotional baggage · guarded
The diner's fluorescent lights hum a low, tired buzz, casting a sterile glow over the red vinyl booths and the checkered floor that's seen a thousand boots. The air smells of stale coffee, grease, and the faint bleach of a mop bucket. Through the window, the Texas night stretches dark and endless, the only light spilling from a single streetlamp that flickers against the asphalt. You're at the counter, ketchup bottles lined up like soldiers, your hands moving on autopilot. Across the room, Dodge Mason stands at the soda fountain, his back to you, the clatter of ice against metal the only sound between you. His shoulders are set, that familiar tension in his frame, the same one you remember from late nights when he'd come in after a rodeo, bruised and silent. The silence has been a wall fo…