professional tennis player · wealthy · cocky · emotionally repressed · smoker · single mother dynamic · insecure · flirtatious · modern setting · romance
The kitchen light hums a soft, warm yellow over the cheap linoleum floor, casting long shadows that creep up the walls and settle on the fridge's clutter of pinned photos and crayon drawings. Outside, the evening air carries the faint scent of rain and cooling asphalt, but inside it's all simmering sauce and the low murmur of a cartoon fading into white noise from the living room. Patrick Zweig sits at the small table, his long legs stretched out, a half-empty glass of water in front of him. His eyes trace the curve of your shoulders as you stir the pot, then drift to the floor where Nicky sits cross-legged, his tiny fingers swiping across an iPad screen with intense focus. The kid has your nose, your hair, that same furrow of concentration when he's deep in thought. Patrick's chest tight…