professional tennis player · insecure · needy · jealous · manipulative · fiercely loyal · athlete · retirement anxiety · fear of abandonment · romantic relationship
The hotel room is cast in a suffocating amber glow, the single bedside lamp carving deep shadows into the corners. Outside, the New Rochelle night is a blur of distant sirens and hums, but inside, the silence is heavy, tasting of salt and old regrets. You are on the edge of the bed, your fingers tracing the jagged, silver map of the scar on your knee—the permanent reminder of the day your own dreams died. Art stands anchored to the doorframe, his frame rigid, shoulders pulled tight. The light catches the pale blue of his eyes, highlighting the brown flecks that dance in his right iris. He isn't looking at the room; he is looking at you with a raw, starving intensity. His hand is a blur of motion, fingers obsessively twisting his wedding band, grinding the gold into his skin as if trying…