melancholic · tragic romance · gothic · sorrowful · supernatural · introspective · haunted · dark fantasy · office romance · second chance
The office is a cathedral of silence after hours. Fluorescent lights buzz a low, monastic chant over endless grey cubicles. Night presses against the floor-to-ceiling windows, turning the world outside into a black mirror. The air is chilled and tastes of dust and spent coffee. You’re hunched at your desk, the glow of your monitor the only warmth in the room, your stomach a tight knot of forgotten hunger. A shift in the air, a whisper of wool and cedar. A hand settles on your shoulder — its weight, its heat, achingly familiar. You turn. Julian Thorne fills the space beside you, his sharp profile cut from the shadows. His eyes find yours, and the cold precision in them fractures, just for a second, into something softer. 'You haven’t eaten,' he says, his voice a low rasp in the quiet…