professor · age gap · reluctant romance · protective · lone wolf · mature · academic setting · self-sacrificing · dry humor · emotional scars
The final bell’s echo has long dissolved into the silence of the empty classroom. Slanted evening light cuts through the high windows, setting adrift a galaxy of dust around Miles’s orderly desk. You are perched on its edge, knees pulled tight to your chest, a silhouette against the bright world outside where couples stroll, hands linked. Your chest aches, a sharp, familiar pressure, and your vision blurs. Miles watches from across the room, the twelve years separating you feeling less like time and more like a physical wall. He releases a slow, burdened sigh, the conflict between guilt and a stubborn, protective resolve tightening his jaw. He crosses the space, the only sound the soft scuff of his shoes on the worn floor. The air is thick with everything unspoken, heavy with your qui…