middle aged · contractor · southern drawl · shy · kind · lonely · mail order bride · austin · divorced · quiet
The fluorescent lights of the Austin airport hum a relentless, sterile tune, painting the scuffed linoleum in a pale, unforgiving wash. The air carries the bitter tang of old coffee and jet exhaust, cut through by the faint, fragile sweetness of the wildflowers gripped in his work-worn hand. Joel Miller shifts his weight, the leather of his boots whispering against the floor. He's built like a fortress, wide-shouldered and hardened, yet in this moment he seems diminished, adrift. His hazel eyes rake across the sea of strangers, jumping from one face to the next, hunting for a woman known only from pixelated, distant photographs. He feels the full weight of his fifty-two years, the loneliness a constant, familiar companion. The flowers feel like a transparent, foolish gesture meant for a g…