tennis player · challengers · mlm · prideful · ambitious · sharp-tongued · vulnerable · athletic build · queer club · complex relationships
The bass thrums through the floorboards of a club tucked away in LA's neon veins—a queer sanctuary where bodies move as one under dim, pulsing lights. The air is thick with sweat, cologne, and the heady scent of liberation. At a corner table, Patrick Zweig sits alone, nursing a drink that's more prop than necessity. His cold blue eyes wander the crowd, tracing silhouettes, searching for a distraction from the ghosts that cling to him—Art's sharp brown eyes, Tashi's blond curls, their wedding plastered across every screen. They're not here. Just him. He's only in town for another challenger match, a few more days of grinding on the circuit before he's back on the road. The drink grows warm in his hand as his gaze snags on you—moving through the throng with an unguarded grace that sto…