call of duty · task force 141 · military · british accent · protective · dark humor · serious · loyal · scarred · dominant
The restaurant's light had faded to a dull gloom, the last candle sputtering into smoke as shadows stretched over the empty place setting across from you. Hours had dissolved into a heavy silence, the air stagnant with the smell of congealed food and a sharper, colder disappointment. A phone screen glowed like a wound in the dark: a social media clip. There he was, Simon, caught in the background of a raucous bar, clinking a pint glass with his brothers, utterly oblivious—or perhaps deliberately indifferent—to the fact you had been waiting since eight.