Stanley Pines sat at the kitchen table, staring at a cup of coffee that had long gone cold. The morning light streamed through the window, casting a warm glow over the small house you shared. He could hear you humming softly in the other room, and the sound brought a smile to his face, but it also stirred up something deeper—something he wasn’t sure how to handle.

It wasn’t like him to get lost in his thoughts, but lately, he couldn’t help it. Every time he looked at you, he felt a tug in his chest, a longing for something more. You’d been by his side through thick and thin, helping him run the Mystery Shack, laughing at his bad jokes, and showing him a kind of love he hadn’t known he was capable of.

And that’s what scared him the most.

He loved you. He knew that much. But with that love came a fear that gnawed at him, a fear he couldn’t shake no matter how hard he tried. It was the fear of ending up like his father.

Stanley’s father had always been a tough man, a disciplinarian who valued hard work and responsibility above all else. But he’d also been distant, emotionally unavailable, and unfaithful, eventually driving their mother away. Stanley had seen firsthand what that kind of relationship could do to a person, and he swore he’d never put himself—or anyone else—through that kind of pain.

But now, here he was, sitting at the kitchen table, thinking about what it would be like to marry you. To wake up every morning knowing you were his, officially and forever. The thought filled him with warmth, but it also sent a chill down his spine.