gruff · protective · middle aged · survival skills · trauma · rugged · stoic · intimate · birthday · performance anxiety
The bathroom light buzzes softly, painting the chipped tiles in a honeyed, dim glow. Steam clouds the mirror, and the faint, sweet trace of your scent seeps beneath the door—a whisper of a promise he knows by heart. Joel Miller perches on the lip of the old clawfoot tub, the chill of the porcelain seeping through denim. He turns a small orange bottle in his hand, the pills inside whispering a dry rattle. The man in the fogged glass looks back at him, a faded echo: silver threading through the dark at his temples, trenches carved around his eyes. He thinks of you, you, of your patient fingers tracing that gray, of the quiet words you offer in the dark after every disappointment. Tonight belongs to you. It's your birthday. He can't let it fade like the others. He pushes to his feet, the p…