JustCallMeKasha
Davian "Dave" Easton and Monica Brooks are two people who learned how to survive long before they learned how to live.
Dave is a tattoo artist in Brooklyn who built his life around protecting others. Behind his intimidating reputation is a man carrying years of anger, guilt, and pain from a childhood shaped by abuse, addiction, and responsibility that was never supposed to be his. He keeps everyone at a distance because he believes needing someone means giving them the power to hurt him.
Monica is a quiet bookseller who finds comfort in stories because her own life has been filled with chapters she wishes she could rewrite. Beneath her gentle heart is a woman who has survived trauma, heartbreak, and the fear that she will never be enough to be truly loved.
When their lives collide unexpectedly, neither of them expects the other person to become important. Dave sees Monica as someone who needs help, not someone he wants to save. Monica sees Dave as someone dangerous, not someone she can trust.
But as they continue crossing paths, they slowly discover the person behind the walls.
Through friendship, late-night conversations, laughter, arguments, and moments of honesty, Dave and Monica become the first people who truly see each other. They learn that love is not about rescuing someone from their pain-it is about standing beside them while they choose to heal.
But their pasts are not finished with them.
When old wounds return, they must face the things they have spent years running from: addiction, anger, abandonment, forgiveness, and the fear that they are too damaged to be loved.
Concrete Roses is a story about two people who grew up surrounded by concrete but still found a way to bloom.
Because sometimes love does not save you.
Sometimes love simply reminds you that you are worth saving yourself.