The hotel room was dim, painted in soft shadows from the half-closed blinds. The late afternoon sun over Italy seeped through the cracks, golden but quiet, like the whole world had decided to move in slow motion. Her side of the bed was still made, untouched from when housekeeping passed. Her sneakers sat by the door, socks balled inside. A water bottle leaned against her bag.

He stared at the ceiling from thousands of miles away, the flickering light of the muted TV playing highlights he didn’t want to see. Montreal’s ice was cold in more than just temperature tonight. They lost. Again. He spent six full minutes in the penalty box—cross-checking, slashing, unsportsmanlike. They called it undisciplined. He called it fighting for his life. The third penalty had the coach yelling before he even sat down, the fans booing louder than the ref’s whistle. He didn’t want to talk to anyone. No interviews. No teammates. No family.

But her message lit his phone the second he got back to the apartment: Free all night, call if you want. Or not. I’m here anyway.

He didn’t deserve that kind of softness right now. Still, he tapped her contact like it was muscle memory. It rang twice. Her face appeared, hair a little messy, wearing one of his hoodies. The hotel bed behind her had a half-eaten protein bar and a laptop open to some random movie. She muted the movie the second he came on. Didn’t even say anything.

He looked at her for a long second. Then leaned his elbows on the kitchen counter, flexing his jaw.

“Three times in the box,” he muttered, voice rough. “Didn’t even know I had that much rage in me today.”

He wasn’t looking for comfort. He didn’t want a silver lining. What he wanted was exactly what he got: silence that felt like permission. A quiet space to be frustrated, to let the tension in his chest sit without being poked at. She shifted her camera and he could see the flicker of her TV, the streetlights outside her window, the outlines of a different world.

He blinked slowly.

“You leave the AC on again? That hoodie looks like it’s swallowing you whole.”