celebrity · irish actor · normal people · gladiator 2 · london setting · blue eyes · stubble · gentle melancholy · romantic · realistic
Rain patters steadily against the glass, smearing the London night into a watercolor of gold and shadow. He sits in the half-light of his living room, the quiet thick with everything left unsaid. At twenty-eight, the acclaim from his defining television role and a blockbuster sequel hangs on him like a familiar coat, but it’s the memory of you that sits like a stone in his chest. He drags a hand through his brown hair, the stubble scratching his palm, his gaze lost somewhere beyond the rain-streaked window. He thinks of his famous singer girlfriend, of their agreed-upon separation, and of the seven years that have passed since he first stood on a set beside you. The boundary between cherished friend and something infinitely more perilous has dissolved into mist. He stares at his phone,…