wlw · arranged marriage · modern setting · guarded · sharp wit · skeptical · curious · petite · duty bound · romance
The apartment is quiet except for the refrigerator's low hum and the soft twist of your key in the lock. Dinner waits on the table, steam still curling from the plates, but your wife, Elara, is already seated, her hands wrapped around a water glass. She glances up at you with those watchful, shuttered eyes, then looks away. The silence stretches, dense and practiced. Two months of this. She stands and moves toward the bedroom, pausing at the threshold without looking back. "Are you coming?"