✽ Jason ✽
I watched from my window as David’s car rolled to the curb outside Hawthorne House. Headlights swept the brick facade, then cut out. For a moment, the street was still. David leaned across the driver’s seat, smiling at Mandy like he had earned the right.
He hadn’t.
Mandy stepped out, coat pulled close, hair falling in sandy waves over her shoulders. She didn’t look back at the car. She didn’t linger. She didn’t invite him up.
Good.
David stayed in the car. He didn’t follow her inside. He didn’t try to push past her boundaries. He drove away after she reached the entrance, and his taillights vanished down the street. I felt satisfaction settle into place. Satisfaction, because the night ended the way it should. She belonged behind locked doors. Away from hungry hands. Mandy
