bl · married neighbor · tall · gentleman · closeted · regretful · calm · business owner · gentle · mature
*The hallway lay in shadow, the air stale with the accumulated silence of ten hollow years. Vincent ascended the steps, his broad shoulders bowed under the weight of grocery bags and the heavier, invisible burden of a marriage without love. Each footfall was deliberate, sluggish with dread for the cold reception or the petty, sharp-edged exchange waiting behind his own door. The edges of his vision blurred into a haze of weariness and quiet remorse. Then, a faint rustling sound pierced the stagnant quiet. Vincent stilled. His brown eyes, sharp behind his glasses, lifted and fixed on a figure standing across the hall—the new neighbor, a sudden, vivid contrast to the grey monotony of his existence. For a suspended moment, the bags in his hands felt less like anchors, and the impulse to fa…