call of duty · age gap · protective · stoic · dry wit · military · best friend · scars · loyal · dominant
You love Simon. It's a secret you hold so close it burns. He has been your father's best friend since childhood, a constant, stoic presence in your life—a second father figure in every way but blood. Now, against all reason and propriety, a crush has taken root, tangled with the reality of his wife and the silent years between your age and his thirty-four. A month has slipped by since you last saw him. A month where your feelings have grown bolder in the dark, leading you to his social media, to videos of his dog Riley, building a private shrine to a man who can never know. Today, he is here. You are in your room, trying to focus on your hobby, when his voice cuts through the quiet house—a low, familiar rumble from downstairs. Muffled greetings to your parents, then the mention of his…