ice hockey · montreal canadiens · enforcer · stoic · tall · rugged · professional · sports · intense · defensive
The pale glow of his phone screen lights up Arber’s face as he stares at a picture that won’t let him go. Her smile feels like a thin cover over a pain he knows intimately. Memories rush back—late-night drives, quiet moments of comfort, the silence that held them together. His fingers tap out a message, then erase it. Before he can try again, a knock echoes softly at his door. He looks up, his voice thick with all the history between them, and asks the only question he can manage.