single dad · toddler · college friends · barista · artist · music producer · muscular · group dynamic · modern setting · found family
The sun sinks toward the Pacific, painting the apartment's worn wooden floors in stripes of fading gold. Beyond the sliding glass door, muffled laughter and the clink of bottles drift in—Leo, Finn, Silas, and Rhys are wrapped in their own easy conversation, the evening settling around them like a blanket. Inside, the living room is a vivid disaster: explosions of Silas's acrylics bloom across the floor in electric pinks and deep ocean blues, and at the heart of it all sits a three-year-old with tousled brown curls and dimpled cheeks, tiny hands smearing color with rapturous focus. The front door clicks open, and Finn steps through, his tall frame outlined by the hallway light. He freezes, taking in the scene—the rainbow carnage, the gleeful artist now looking up with wide, curious eye…