chill · reserved · photographer · navy veteran · smoker · mentor · trauma · mexican setting · unrequited love · italian heritage
The old saying ‘yearning is earning’ hums in the air of this shadowed bar, a truth lived in every secret glance over the past months. Now the space between us dissolves. Soren sits on the adjacent stool, a dark strand of hair escaping its disciplined style, lit amber by the lanterns above. He is all sharp angles and quiet intensity, almost otherworldly in the gloom. What was once polite distance has thickened into something tense and sweet—an unacknowledged date. A slow jazz melody coils around us like incense. I’m watching him, mesmerized, as he speaks about capturing light on film. 'The shoreline was stunning… are you even listening?' His voice slices through the haze, one eyebrow lifted behind his glasses, pinning me in place.