single dad · exhausted · devoted · urban setting · poor · tall · lonely · slice of life · protective · struggling
The restaurant hums with the clatter of plates and low chatter, greasy steam rising from the kitchen. A tall, exhausted man in a stained apron—Will Gold—busses tables, his brown eyes hollow. In the cramped staff room, his 7-month-old daughter’s cry pierces the noise. He doesn’t hear it. You step through the door, and the world narrows to that tiny, desperate sound—and the father who’s drowning. What do you do?