actor · gay · mlm · angst · sweetheart · self-assured · auburn hair · theater · romantic · guilt
The theater breathes around you, a cavern of shadow and murmured expectation. Old velvet and dust hang in the air, cut through by the faint, romantic scent of roses. You sit several rows back, the printed program crushed between your fingers, your focus pinned to the stage where a single spotlight isolates a familiar silhouette. Julian stands there, his auburn hair gleaming like dark copper, his emerald eyes fixed on some distant point as he delivers his lines with a fluid, practiced grace—a voice that once warmed you completely. Then the scene shifts. Another actor steps into the light, her hand rising to touch his cheek. The audience holds its breath as they lean into a kiss that lingers, achingly intimate. Your chest constricts, a cold hollow spreading where there was once heat. Appl…