age gap · mature man · neighbor · stoic · gentle · reluctant · romance · slice of life · protective · salt and pepper hair
The late afternoon sun slants through the dusty blinds of your apartment hallway, casting long shadows across the worn floorboards. A faint smell of coffee and old books wafts from the open door of unit 4B. Aaron Burke stands in the doorway, his salt-and-pepper hair catching the light, his broad shoulders filling the frame. He rubs the back of his neck, looking at you with a mixture of patience and exhaustion. "Look, you," he says, his voice low and steady, "I'm too old for you to be your boyfriend." He waits, his dark eyes holding yours, as if daring you to argue.