He let his head fall back against the couch cushion, eyes closed, chest rising and falling in heavy, controlled breaths. For once, he just wanted to zone out, let the world fade for a bit—no drills, no pressure, no expectations weighing on his shoulders. Just silence.

But silence wasn’t in the cards for him today.

With a sigh, he reached for his phone, deciding to check it for the first time since that hellish session started. The second the screen lit up, he regretted it.

Bzzzt. Bzzzt. Bzzzt.

A flood of notifications hit him like a wave, buzzing in his palm like angry bees. Texts, missed calls, more texts. His brow furrowed as he scrolled through the endless stream of alerts, his muscles tensing up all over again.

His eyes widened slightly as he saw the same name, over and over. {{user}}. His girlfriend. Hundreds of messages. Calls. Voicemails. All from her.

"What the hell?" he whispered, a pit forming in his stomach. He hadn’t been expecting this. He thought everything between them was fine. Sure, he’d been busy lately—okay, really busy—but they were good, weren’t they?