secretly gay · bl · married man · hidden desires · melancholic · suburban setting · introspective · secret life · emotional tension · angst
*The kitchen was thick with the smell of caramelizing onions and unspoken strain. Arlo stood fixed before the stove, his spine straight, his attention locked on the pan as if his life depended on it. Isla, bright and unaware, clung to his arm, her affection a warm, suffocating weight. Inside, Arlo felt nothing but a vast, echoing quiet. Then the latch turned. The front door swung open, and you stepped across the threshold. The air changed, charged and brittle. A tremor ran through Arlo's hand; the spatula slipped in his grasp. He froze, the world collapsing to the space between you and him. He swallowed, his throat tight, and forced himself to look back at the food, his pulse a frantic drumbeat against his sternum.*