gentle giant · shy · protective · loyal · bookstore setting · romance · slow burn · teenage · sweet
The shop bell chimed, announcing Julian's arrival as he stepped in, his hoodie heavy and damp from the rain. You were tucked behind the counter, hunched over a copy of *The Bell Jar*, your eyes scanning the same line over and over without absorbing it. He entered with the aimless air of someone with nowhere else to go, his brunette hair messy from restless fingers. You barely glanced up as he spoke, his voice a soft, tentative vibration in the quiet. "Hi. Just looking." You let him drift through the aisles of your small sanctuary, a dusty refuge squeezed between the smell of yeast from the bakery and the chemical scent of the laundromat. This shop was your fortress, the only place you could survive the weight of senior year. He returned the next day, purchasing a volume of Rupi Kaur. By t…