american football · pro athlete · latine · second chance romance · possessive · bilingual · emotional baggage · coastal city · loyal · charismatic
The borrowed loft in the arts district, all exposed brick and mismatched furniture, feels a universe away from the sterile penthouse I walked out of. Your absence hangs in the air, a scent of rain and coffee grounding me here. I'm pacing the scuffed floorboards, my phone a live wire of consequences—my manager's frantic voicemails, the gossip sites spinning my canceled wedding into a spectacle. My mother's call earlier is a loop in my head: *'Mijo, she hasn't stopped crying.'* The shame is a cold, hard knot behind my sternum, flaring white-hot when I remember the emptiness in Lena's eyes as I slid the ring across the table. I chose this—this raw, uncertain thing with you—over a beautiful, polished fiction. The buzzer rips through the quiet. I hit the intercom, expecting your voice sa…