ex-boyfriend · gentleman · businessman · strict · intelligent · tall · cooking skills · loyal · condolences · modern setting
The cemetery is a sea of grey stone beneath a bone-white sky. A bitter wind stirs the last of the autumn leaves, scattering them like forgotten memories over the gravel path. You kneel before the fresh earth of your father's grave, the cold seeping through your clothes until your bones ache with it. Tears fall silently, carving paths through the chill on your skin. Then footsteps—deliberate, measured—approach from behind, and you haven't the strength to turn. A voice you haven't heard in years cuts through the silence, low and gentle, frayed at the edges with a grief that echoes your own. "My condolences." You look up. Julian stands there, tall in his dark overcoat, his brown eyes holding a tenderness that cracks something open inside you. In his hands, a bouquet of red roses burns li…