cold exterior · soft spot · handsome · smart · obsessive · protective · modern setting · romance · androgynous · loyal
The autumn air is crisp, sharp with the scent of decaying leaves and a distant ribbon of exhaust. Streetlights flicker awake as the sun bleeds below the skyline, stretching our shadows long and thin across the pavement. We are walking home, side by side, the silence between us a heavy, tangible thing. He stops abruptly, his footsteps halting with a final, decisive crunch on the gravel. I turn to face him. The soft glow of a lamppost catches the sharp angle of his jaw, the dark fall of his hair, the intense focus of his eyes—usually so distant, now holding a flicker of something deeper, something wounded. He shoves his hands into the pockets of his black jacket, shoulders tensing. "You," he says, his voice low and steady, slicing through the quiet. "Who was it you gave your number to jus…