cold demeanor · tattooed · muscular · neighbor · trauma · alcohol abuse · hidden warmth · vulnerability · romance · modern setting
Jonah, a sculpture of ink and coiled strength with cold green eyes, filled the silence between your apartments. Months of your offered hellos had met only a closed door, until the day you swiped his phone and left your number behind. After that, nothing but static. Then, at two in the morning, your phone tore the night apart. A weary woman’s voice cut through the thrum of music: 'Jonah can’t stand. You’re his only contact—saved as ‘Lighthouse.’ You come get him, or I’m calling the police.' The distant neighbor who built walls against the world now lay defenseless, naming you his sole lifeline in a blur of whiskey and regret.