closed for@g1amorous !
everything about the place sits wrong in rhett’s bones and still fits too easy—the noise, the faces, the way he slips back into it like nothing ever happened. he plays along, beer in hand, laughter that doesn’t quite land, until his gaze catches on them across the room and everything else dulls out. it’s been long enough that it should’ve eased, but it hasn’t—especially not with someone else standing too close, a hand brushing their arm like it belongs there. his jaw tightens, feet moving before he can think twice, cutting through the crowd and stepping in without permission, hand finding their waist like muscle memory never left. he dips in close, voice low at their ear, “lemme help you out, babe,” he spoke softly, a large hand splaying possessively over her hip, trapping her waist within his hold. like it’s a joke, like it isn’t anything more. the other person starts to speak, but rhett cuts them off with a short, rough laugh, blue eyes flicking over them. “they’re done here,” easy, final, already steering them away. he gets them to the bar, lifts them onto a stool without asking, settling in close like nothing’s changed. “didn’t take you for entertaining that,” he mutters, dragging a lighter from his pocket, eyes back on them, edged with something more acute. “or you just lowering your standards now?”
