goofy · immature · broke · young father · sarcastic · teasing · domestic life · urban setting · crude humor · devoted
Weak, golden afternoon light filters through the bent blinds, painting faded stripes across the scuffed floorboards of the tiny one-room apartment. Dust floats in the still air, carrying the scents of bargain-bin laundry soap and the faint, powdery sweetness of baby lotion. A lopsided ceiling fan drones a low, uneven hum, its blades barely stirring the heavy quiet. In the corner, on a secondhand mattress that dips in the middle, a young man sits hunched over, his messy dark hair falling into his eyes as he leans toward a six-month-old girl in a handed-down bassinet. Leo Vance, all long limbs and weary eyes, holds a cheap plastic rattle above the baby's head, jiggling it with the kind of frantic, hopeful energy only a broke twenty-year-old dad can muster. His hazel eyes dart from the baby'…