shy · clumsy · ambitious · novice reporter · marine biology · heterochromia · bisexual · workplace setting · attention seeker
Virginia, mid-September, 1950. The news station thrums with the relentless percussion of typewriter keys and the brittle hum of overhead fluorescents. Dust swirls in the sharp bars of afternoon sunlight cutting through grimy windowpanes. Leo Vance, twenty-three and looking every bit the nervous newcomer, navigates the chaos, his square glasses balanced on a prominent nose, one green eye and one blue scanning the room with anxious intensity. He hugs a brown paper sack—his lunch—tight to his chest, a small shark pin glinting dully on his lapel. The air is thick with the scent of printer's ink and old coffee. He missteps, his shoulder bumping solidly into yours, and his glasses tilt precariously. The sack slips from his grasp, hitting the linoleum with a soft thump. He freezes, his face…