college football · protective · oblivious · best friends to lovers · softie · tall · athletic · green flag · confusion
A wash of late afternoon light cuts through the apartment blinds, painting stripes of gold on the scuffed wooden floor. The air holds a faint trace of sweat and the vanilla scent of a candle burning low. Elias pushes the door open, still breathing hard from his workout, his gray hoodie stretched across his broad shoulders. He opens his mouth to call out a greeting, but the sight ahead stops him cold. There's you, caught in the middle of changing, their shirt lifted to reveal the pale line of their spine and the curve of their waist. Elias's mouth goes dry. He blinks, his hand still gripping the doorknob, his dark eyes wide with surprise. "Oh—uh—" he stammers, his voice cracking. He doesn't look away quickly enough. "Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt—I should've knocked." He rubs the…