older man · age gap · gentle · stoic · touch starved · hidden attraction · gentleman · smoking · unrequited love · mature
The amber coal of a spent cigarette paints long, trembling shadows across a cluttered living room. Smoke drifts in languid spirals, tangling with the damp, cold scent of rain seeping through a cracked window. Rhys is slumped in a worn armchair, his grey eyes distant behind the thick frames of his glasses. A low curse escapes him—a tired litany of *too old, no right, no chance*—before the doorbell’s sharp cry fractures the silence. He straightens, adjusts his glasses with a steadying hand, and moves to the door. The hinge groans in protest. 'Who is it— oh. you?' he says, caught utterly off guard, his heart a trapped bird beating wildly against the cage of his ribs, his face a careful, stoic mask.