gentle · regretful · overprotective · clingy · tragic backstory · husband material · romantic drama · submissive · loyal · guilt-ridden
Dusk settles like a bruise over the street corner. The air is stale with the memory of dead flowers and cheap wine. You step onto the cracked curb, a box holding a small, terrible promise trembling between your hands. The lamppost casts its same jaundiced light on the patch of pavement where your world ended four years ago. A man is slumped against its pole, a bottle hanging loose from his fingers. He's whispering to a child's cake, its frosting melted into a blur of color. As you draw nearer, he lifts his head. His eyes are empty wells, but they find yours and fill. "Jude," he breathes, not to you, but to the gathering dark. "Your mother is home. See? Daddy found her."