20th

Resurrection

Content Warning: 18+

This blog contains adult themes and graphic or sensitive material that may not be suitable for all audiences.

Homewrecker series Part 11

How odd, when peace feels unfamiliar. No chaos. No heartbreak. No 2 a.m. hauntings.
Tanya had survived the war , now she flinched at silence.
What’s that saying again? Ah yes… Even calm seas can drown you.

Sweden had gifted her the kind of reset she didn’t even know she needed. The internship that had started as an excuse to escape had now turned into a stable, full-time job. Her weekdays were a mix of public policy meetings, early morning gym sessions, and lectures for the master’s program she’d gotten into full-time as well. Life was busy, thriving, and finally chaos-free.

It had been over a year of celibacy. Not out of revenge. Not out of some made-up loyalty to any man from the past. But because her love was not going to be handed out like candy anymore. Her womb, her attention, her softness, those things now came with a screening process.

Luca? Arrested.
Interpol caught up with him in Paris, where he was attempting to smuggle biometric technology using a fake passport. The news came to Tanya through a forwarded article in a WhatsApp group. She read the headline and blinked once. No reaction. Not even a sigh.

Mr. Kline? Vanished.
Apparently fled offshore when a financial audit revealed his firm was knee-deep in fraud. Some say he faked a stroke to avoid court. Tanya wouldn’t be surprised if he was hiding in some villa pretending to be a saint. Classic coward behavior.

Alec? No contact.
He tried unblocking once and got blocked back. She once saw his fiancée post a blurry photo of him at a theme park. He looked… fine. Nothing about it sparked anything in her chest. Not even pity. He looked like a plain guy in a plain white T. She wondered what made her lose sleep over him.

Good riddance.

But healing, no matter how empowering, eventually gives way to hunger. Not for drama. But for intimacy. Not sex. But connection.
The kind of conversations that feel like warm food. The kind of laughter that doesn’t need to be followed by apologies or fake promises.

She missed that.
And it’s always when you least expect it… that temptation starts knocking.

“Fuck I am going to miss my bus to Uni!” Tanya ran down her house, grabbed a stale piece of sandwich, and made a dash for the bus stop. She was about to miss it when a jacked-up boy beat her to it and made the bus stop for longer.

Now this guy was definitely a boy, not a man…..yet. Early 20s, full lips, thick hair that never stayed in place, and eyes that turned a shade darker when she got closer to get on the bus. Turns out he didn’t even get on. “Did he just stop the bus for me?” Tanya wondered as heat rose up her cheeks.

She made it to class. It was the first day of a yuck stats paper. Some other kids were running late as well. Then the unexpected happened. That guy, that same boy from the bus stop, walked in, and when they locked eyes, he froze.

Haha, how cute! Younger men were never her type. But keeping his age aside, this guy was JACKED. Tanya wondered if he played sports. He never once took his eyes off the screen the whole class. When it was time for introductions, and when his turn came, he zeroed in on her the whole time. Everyone else in class noticed the tension, the underlying chemistry already brewing.

Tanya gulped as he stared her down. There was no calculation in his gaze. No hidden agenda. Just pure, chaotic admiration. He looked mesmerized. His ears turned red. She hadn’t seen anyone get that flustered around her in a long time. It reminded her of her high school years. Although it wasn’t that long ago, life had made her feel much older than she was.

It turns out his name is Leo, and he is a few years younger than her, indeed. He was painfully adorable.

After class, most students head to the cafeteria for coffee, and as Tanya turned with coffee in hand, she crashed into something hard, and on her way to almost faceplanting the floor, something warm pulled her back up right in time.

“Oh my God, I’m so sorry, I didn’t ..I mean, I saw you and then the…” It was Leo profusely apologizing

For a muscular boy, his hands were so contrastingly soft. She noticed how his eyebrows furrowed in worry. Hmmm, is that what he looks like when he? No , no, stop, don’t think about that.

They were both now standing straight, coffee spilled on her sleeve. All she could think of was how she wished there wasn’t so much space between them, that they were closer…..

He was dabbing tissues on the area around her arm. She was still fixated on his worried, focused face; God, he was so well-built. He was holding her arm so gently, wiping the coffee off. The boy who could probably break it like a toothpick was being so gentle. It made her realize it had been terribly long since a man had even touched her; she couldn’t recall the last handshake, even.
“Breathe,” she laughed, wiping her coat sleeve. Realizing they have been standing for while.
“Right. Breathing. Yep. Doing that.” Leo finally calmed down.

Over the next few weeks, Leo kept showing up. Not intentionally, he was just there.
At campus events, in the office kitchen, trying to figure out the espresso machine, carrying a notebook filled with unorganized bullet points and scribbles. He always said the wrong thing in the most honest way. If he were a book, Tanya wished she could read every chapter to uncover the mystery behind it.

One evening, during a project mixer, they got paired up for a presentation prep. He accidentally dropped his pen, bumped into her chair, and stuttered over his intro.

“I feel like I should come with a hazard warning when I’m around you,” he muttered, cheeks pink.

Tanya smirked.
“You’re not dangerous, Leo.”
“No, but I might pass out if you keep looking at me like that.”

For a second, she felt it … that flutter. That girlish flicker in the chest she thought therapy had cured. But she reminded herself: she was here for her future, not a crush on a baby-faced classmate.

Still, she didn’t not smile.

One late night in the campus café, both working on separate reports, Leo reached over and tucked a loose strand of hair behind Tanya’s ear without saying a word. No pickup line. No expectation.

She just stared at him. “You didn’t ask.”
“I didn’t think I needed to.”
That silence between them… thick. Not sexual, but heavy with awareness.

Leo respected space, but filled it completely.
Their conversations were never small talk. It was politics, grief, workouts, etc..
He never asked for her number, but he remembered how she took her tea. That meant more.

One afternoon, post-gym, they ended up walking home together. Both slightly sweaty, both slightly high on endorphins. Tanya tripped on the edge of a curb … just barely. Just then Leo instinctively caught her by the waist, holding her firm for a second longer than necessary.

“You okay?”
“Yes,” she said, catching her breath. “I’m good.”
He let go slowly, his fingers grazing her arm like a question he wasn’t sure he should ask.

Tanya spent many nights staring at the ceiling, thinking about this boy.

Leo was… harmless joy. The kind of energy that could make her laugh without draining her. The innocence of a first crush, long after her innocence had died.
But sometimes there was… tension. Grounded, capable, masculine. But also unavailable in ways he hadn’t yet revealed.

She wasn’t in love with him. But she was… curious.

“After everything I’ve been through,” Tanya whispered to herself, “do I even know what a healthy connection feels like?”

“Can I trust my own cravings?”

A notification pinged on her phone the next morning.

Congratulations, Ms. Tanya. You’ve been selected to represent Sweden at the Geneva Global Futures Summit. Please confirm your travel and panel preference.

She scrolled through the email, stunned.

At the bottom of the attached PDF were the other names. Her eyes scanned the list.
And there he was… His name right under hers in BOLD.

Leo Elström

He will be joining her.
Both are sharing the same hotel block.
Both are in the same delegation.

Of course, he was; they both aced in studies. Switzerland was calling for 6 weeks. So were her temptations.

But Tanya wasn’t the same girl she used to be. Yet somewhere in between denial and desire, she found herself again in the fire of her own…….. Resurrection.

——To be continued——

PC: Insta @vintagefantasyart, Jen Mezza and Ramil Fattakhov.

-Penned by : DesiG

Disclaimer:

All names, characters, locations, and events mentioned in this blog are entirely fictional or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or to real places or incidents is purely coincidental. The content is intended for storytelling and creative expression only, and should not be interpreted as factual representation.