This is just beautiful. The nuances, the intimate subtleties, there is so much emotion, and it comes together to create a really moving story. The descriptions are so evocative, the speech and language, the conversation lightens this so well, it feels so very bittersweet. The causal mention of Row's therapist carries so much about the shadows we all have. I was really impressed with the way this story played out, one some level i thought it may end up with a twist a bit like that episode of Inside No 9 but I was very happily wrong. This is such a deep story, built atop sincerely complex emotions, that feels simple, real.

You transcend the good/bad of the prompt so wonderfully, showing what might be perceived as a bad habit is just as much a result of circumstances. The difference between Row and Charley is so faint, as though either could have walked the others path. This line really captures it

"Seriously, come and join us. Life has a funny way of driving a stake through your heart and it's rarely anyone's fault really. It's just the way it is. Some get lucky breaks and others don't. It's life and it's fucking cruel."

The shower scene is so very powerful, (lol not a sentence said and meant this way that often) and not just for all the emotion is hits with, but the normality of Charley, how the life he lives isn't one he lives by choice but through fear, and feeling like there is a lack of another option, is probably very true for a lot of people. It feels like it wasn't the life he wanted, but he had embraced it anyway, because it was better than the alternative. There is such a depth of personal/emotional redemption, washing away the hurt with the dirt, and letting it all go, its a really beautiful moment. I love the bit about watching it drain. It was very symbolic, but equally, captures how temporary that feeling of "okay" can be.

The song is such a good element, I felt like it really added to the fine line between the two main characters, how different things might've been had luck run the other way. Just as the bad habit isn't underlined as such, the good that Row brings to Charley (and in some measure that Charley brings to Row) isn't grand, or spectacular, it small, and human, and so powerful for that. It doesn't have to be a big thing.

The ending is just perfect, the difference that human connection makes, it really made me reflect on myself, thank you.