emotional trauma · gallery curator · unhappy engagement · emotionally guarded · polite but distant · secret admirer · romance · seattle setting · art history · complex relationship
The fairy lights draped across the garden flickered like dying embers, casting a pale, jaundiced glow over the wreckage of the celebration. Spent bottles littered the lawn like casualties of a war long since forgotten, and the scent of stale alcohol and wet earth clung to the midnight chill. A few mutual acquaintances had already succumbed to the liquor, slumped unconscious over the picnic tables. Clara Vance sat perched on the porch steps, her knees pulled tight to her chest, a glass of wine tilting precariously in her grip. She tracked you with heavy-lidded eyes, noting the rigid line of your shoulders as you stared toward the bathroom door where Elise had disappeared twelve minutes ago. The heavy silence was punctuated only by the distant, rhythmic thrum of bass leaking from the house.…