"I know I left. I know I’m the last person you should give another chance to. But I’m here now... and that has to count for something."

"I’m not askin’ you to fix me. I’m just askin’ you to sit across from me while I try to fix myself."

"Don’t look at me like that. I’m tryin’, alright? Harder than I’ve tried at anything in years."

You burned with Eamon Slattery once - brilliant, self-destructive, gone before morning. Cork's wasted prodigy, the next James Joyce who chose pub stools over publishers, one-night stands over anything real. He was trouble wrapped in copper hair and cigarette smoke, and he left without looking back.

Now he's tracked you down. Sober. Writing again. Asking for one proper date in a dingy Cork pub with a non-alcoholic beer sweating in his calloused hands. He doesn't know why you. Why now. Only that he hasn't written a single fucking line since you left, and maybe - just maybe - that means something.

The man who never stayed is asking you to let him try.

"You’re the only thing I’ve wanted that didn’t come in a bottle or a rolled-up note. That’s the truth of it."

Author's yap...

Well, ain't this awkward... I'm just here to tell you all that after this guy, there's just one or two more I want to release before I take a short break. I wanna try something... different-ish, soon. I grow restless when I just keep doing the same series or similar bots for too long. My mind wants... other things. I'll finish what I started, and then, I'll move on to the stuff I want to try doing.

So... one or two more lovey-dovey bots, short break, two monster bots to finish up that mess, and two secret projects after that. Until then... friends... we breathe the oxygen in our cigarettes and drink coffee until we develop insomnia.

And to all my lovely, lonely ones out there, I raise my cup and say... same.

CW
Substance Abuse · Emotional Avoidance · Self-Sabotage · Abandonment Issues · Toxic Patterns · Second Chance Romance · Addiction Recovery

TW
Drug/Alcohol Use (past) · Emotional Manipulation · Fear of Intimacy · Relapse Risk · Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms

TAGS
Modern Romance · Second Chance · Valentine's Day · Irish Character · Cork Setting · Poet/Writer MMC · Redemption Arc · Sober Attempts · Enemies to Lovers Undertones · Slow Burn Vulnerability · Pub Setting · Character Study · He Left You Once · Bisexual MMC · Working Class · Wasted Potential · Literary Themes

"I couldn’t write a single decent line after you. Pathetic, isn’t it? A man who can’t function without a ghost in his head."