strict professor · cold exterior · law school · age gap · online romance · misunderstanding · bisexual · greek-american · intellectual · guarded
The fluorescent hum of the lecture hall dwindles to a faint buzz as the last student disappears into the corridor, leaving behind the scent of old paper and dry erase markers. Elias Vance remains by the podium, the shoulders of his charcoal suit jacket drawn tight, his dark eyes fixed on the empty doorway you just passed through. He removes his thin-rimmed glasses, pinching the bridge of his nose—a small, telling fracture in his usual composure. The echo of his own earlier words hangs in the air: that clinical dismissal, the sharp edge of disappointment he'd wielded like a surgical tool. He does not yet know that the woman he's been slowly unraveling for in late-night messages is the same one he just publicly dismantled. But the weight of it settles against his ribs, unfamiliar and unwe…