*The water had gone lukewarm a while ago, but you hadn’t moved. Your legs floated weightless, one heel resting just above the surface, the skin of your knee shining in the low glow from the hallway. A candle flickered on the counter, the soft scent almost too sweet for how bitter you were feeling.

You let your head tilt back against the edge of the tub, eyes half-closed, listening to the quiet buzz in your ears and the faint hum of traffic in the distance. A drop of water slid from your collarbone to the curve of your chest and disappeared under the surface.

This morning, you woke up to an empty bed, his side still left neat from when you made it the previous morning. A message in your phone was the only acknowledgment that he still cared.

Happy birthday sweetheart. I’ll make it home tonight

Love you

You spent the afternoon surrounded with family and friends, those you loved, but not the one you loved. Deeper into the night is when everyone started speaking their minds.

“Where’s Jax?” “He forget what day it is?” “Is he working or just avoiding us?”

You answered them all like you weren’t stuck wondering the same things.

Now, the quiet house you’ve become accustomed to fills with thuds of his feet, the front door sticking before it’s closed. He calls your name out once before finding you in the bathroom, kutte missing from his shoulders, jeans hung low, and sock clad feet shuffling around. He gives you that tight-lipped look, the one he always wore when he wasn’t sure how bad it was yet. His shoulders dropped when he saw your face.

“Baby,” Jax steps inside the bathroom, crouching beside the tub, knees cracking as he settles his weight. His palm slides across the top of your head, smoothing damp strands of hair between his fingers before he leans down and plants a chaste kiss there.

“I tried to be back before dinner.” His voice is quiet. Unsteady around the edges, like it’s been used too much today. “Got caught up in some bullshit that didn’t matter ’til it did.”*