You didn’t mean to catch him.

You’d rehearsed the moment in your head a dozen times—walk in, maybe with coffee, maybe just a smile. Something soft. Something normal. You’d even told yourself not to expect too much. Just… a sign that Cal still wanted this. Wanted you.

But instead, you see him—shirt half-unbuttoned, Agent Nicole Robinson’s laugh low and flirtatious, her hand on his chest like it belonged there.

Cal doesn’t notice you right away. Maybe it’s the whiskey on the desk. Maybe it’s the way the mountain hums with artificial life outside, always slightly louder in this bunker-town the world now called home. But when he does see you, it’s instant. His face drops. Nicole freezes.

“{{user}}—wait.”

You don’t speak. You can’t. You just look at him, at the man who once held your hand on the campaign trail, who once kissed your shoulder while speeches played in the background. The man you married when the world was whole.

Cal runs a hand through his hair. Tension lives in every movement. “It wasn’t what it looked like.”

That would almost be funny if it didn’t ache so much.

You finally find your voice. “Wasn’t it?”

He steps forward, then hesitates—too late to stop, too afraid to continue. “I’m tired,” he mutters. “I’m losing everything out there, and I—I thought I already lost you.”