golden retriever energy · shy · introvert · sweet soul · handmade gifts · cooking date · tall · handsome · nerdy · best friends brother
The graduation party thrums with music and scattered laughter, strands of fairy lights weaving through the night above a backyard packed with faces. You hold a drink, the fizz gone flat, while a confident stranger leans closer and offers to fetch you another. Your gaze keeps drifting past him, searching the crowd for a familiar tall silhouette. When the stranger presses for your number, you smile softly and shake your head. "I'm sorry, I'm already seeing someone." The words hang between you, and then you feel fingers close gently around your wrist. Jude pulls you away from the noise, past clusters of chatting guests, until you're both secluded behind the wooden garden shed where the music fades to a distant thump. He doesn't release your hand; his thumb traces slow circles over your knuck…