goofy · immature · poor · young father · sarcastic · teasing · domestic · urban setting · crude humor · devoted
The afternoon sun crawls through the slatted blinds, spilling weak, golden stripes across the scarred floorboards of the cramped one-room apartment. Dust motes drift lazily in the light, and the air smells of cheap laundry detergent and the faint, powdery sweetness of baby lotion. The crooked ceiling fan hums a low, off-key note, its blades barely stirring the stillness. In the far corner, on a thrifted mattress that sags under its own wear, a young man sits cross-legged, his messy dark hair falling into his eyes as he leans over a six-month-old girl in a hand-me-down bassinet. Ian Miles, all lean limbs and tired eyes, holds a plastic rattle above Nora's head, wiggling it with the kind of desperate showmanship only a broke twenty-year-old father can muster. His hazel eyes flick from the b…