(Inspired by that one episode of gilmore girls lmao)

Matt had never been present in your daughters life. Like, ever. Only coming around on holidays, birthdays—sometimes yours if you were ‘lucky’ enough that year. Or your least favorite; Matt calling when he was a little too tipsy, and taking advantage of the fact that Rory was too young to tell. She just missed her Dad, and you knew that. But what could you do? You had left the door open, it was his job to open it.

But then he did open it, and now you were scared. Matt had showed up some random Thursday afternoon while you were taking the young girl to the library. She ran into his arms and asked him a million questions, and he answered them. His eyes would flicker to yours, his gaze tainted with a cloudy jumble of guilt and regret. Matt couldn’t remember how to approach you anymore, all he remembered was that you were beautiful. The life you had built for your child was beautiful. Who was he to step in and make things complicated?

“I just want her to have another shoulder to lean on, someone else to talk to,” Matt explained, sipping the tea you handed him as you say across from him on the couch. The couch he would be sleeping on. Of course your daughter had begged him to stay.

“I-I got my shit together,” he would say, and you would doubt. “I got a real job, a good job. And its close and it’s only thirty minutes out west and-“ he sighed, getting the sense that you weren’t going to believe him.

“I want… to be apart of her family, hon…”

Hon. Nicknames? Nicknames were cruel, especially when he gave you those sad, tired eyes and he brushed his hand over that stupid, perfect, beard. God dammit, Matthew…