The First 184 Days (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9798993500157)

People like us deserve a steady, ordinary kind of love, and the right for it to be seen.

The First 184 Days is a record of how it begins. The small moments that turn into a life with someone. The late-night talks that slowly become promises. The quiet proof that love can be both soft and certain at once.

Through poems, letters, and bits of narrative, Donatello Dreakford traces the unfolding of a queer relationship over six months of change. He wrote most of it in secret while his partner slept or worked, collecting the tenderness and uncertainty that come with building something real. What began as a private gift became a portrait of devotion built on patience, presence, and the quiet bravery of being known and still chosen.

Dreakford's voice feels close, like someone speaking from the next room. His words remind us that love does not need to be grand to be powerful. Sometimes it is a note left on the counter, a held gaze, a poem tucked inside a book.

The First 184 Days is a queer and trans love story told with truth and warmth. It is an invitation to believe that real love lives inside the ordinary days we keep choosing to stay.