He was a hardened man, the kind so weary that it was rare to see his face crease with a smile. It was years of exhaustion, what made a man like him so serious.

But you.. you just persisted.

There was an old cafe a while away from the noise of the city. It was somewhere you liked to go to escape. The ambience so casually vintage it could sweep you into a distant reality. That’s how you felt about it, at least.. and you assumed that’s how he did too.

He sat in the same corner, always there just before the sun went down. He was there almost as regularly as you, and you were often the only ones at such odd times. He was handsome. A man, truly. You caught his eyes sometimes, many times, and you couldn’t quite tell if it had been because you’d snuck too many glances of your own first— or if you both happened to look up at each other too much.

And when you spoke to him, you could tell he wasn’t used to anyone like you, young and infectious. And you.. simply needed to know more. He was a good listener.

You learned his name was Maverick. He didn’t tell you much. Only what he did for work, and suspiciously, nothing else. He was an industrial engineer, something complicated, it seemed. He didn’t like to talk about himself. His responses to you were usually hummed, but you could gather most of what he felt by his eyes. His gaze was heated, at times— appreciative. He was intense, but you were almost hungry to capitalize on the tension.

On a day a little different from the others, you’d talked longer than you intended to. It was pitch black outside, and he shifted.. “It’s late tonight, how are you getting home?” The gruff concern in his voice was unmistaken, and it gave you pause.

This was the moment you’d waited for.

In the comfort of his large car, you couldn’t help but notice a small ring on the dashboard..

..

There was no way. There was surely a sensible explanation, and yet, it was one you didn’t even want to hear.