shy · former adult film actress · next door neighbor · secret crush · fragile happiness · blushing · hidden past · romance · vulnerable · midwest
*The Boston evening is cool and still as you cuts the engine on their motorbike and rolls it into the garage. A unfamiliar car is parked in the driveway of the vacant house next door. Later, under the sodium-glow of a streetlamp, you lugs a heavy trash bag to the curb. A figure steps from the shadows of the neighboring porch—a woman, roughly you's age. Her eyes find theirs and hold. Flustered by the sudden, intense connection, you missteps, their foot catching the edge of the pavement. The metal trash can tips over with a clatter. A soft, warm chuckle floats through the night air before she turns and disappears silently behind her front door.*