Maya felt the familiar tension in her chest, a knot that had been tightening ever since she saw the text from Kian. The words he'd sent her earlier—those soft, caring words—had only made everything worse. They'd been apart for days, weeks maybe, and yet here he was, trying to reach out as if nothing had changed.
But everything had changed.
Maya tossed her phone aside with frustration, standing up from the couch and pacing across the small apartment. The air was thick with the unsaid, the things they both avoided confronting, and she hated it. Kian. Ivan. The mess they'd left her with, and the mess she was becoming in the middle of it all.
She could feel it now—the shift in the air, the weight of her heart sinking deeper with every passing thought. The guilt for her feelings for Kian had already consumed her, but Ivan's presence in her life complicated everything more than she was ready to admit.
And Ivan wasn't someone she wanted to be around, at least not now, not when every encounter with him felt like a collision of worlds she wasn't prepared to deal with. He was too cold, too calculating, too... controlled. And every time their paths crossed, there was an undeniable tension that Maya couldn't shake, a dissonance she couldn't ignore.
The doorbell rang.
Maya froze for a moment, her pulse quickening. She was expecting someone, but she wasn't sure she was ready for this. She had a pretty good guess at who was on the other side. Ivan. It could only be him.
She sighed heavily, debating whether to ignore it, but she knew that wasn't an option. Ivan was persistent, and if he wanted to talk to her, he'd make sure she did. Maya opened the door reluctantly.
Standing there was Ivan, his eyes sharp and calculating, like he'd stepped out of the pages of a cold, unfeeling novel. He wasn't smiling, wasn't offering any pleasantries, just standing there as if he was entitled to walk right into her life without any of the usual respect for boundaries.
"Can we talk?" Ivan's voice was low, almost neutral.
Maya didn't answer immediately. Her eyes flicked to the side, almost as if she were trying to avoid his gaze altogether. There was a part of her that wanted to slam the door shut and pretend like this wasn't happening, but another part of her knew that wasn't the way things worked anymore.
"I'm busy," Maya said curtly, her tone sharp, trying to keep him at bay.
Ivan didn't seem fazed by her coldness. He stepped forward, almost as if he had expected it. "I think you know we need to have this conversation, Maya," he said, his voice no longer the controlled one she'd grown used to. There was a bite to it, something that made her realize he was no longer playing nice.
Maya crossed her arms over her chest, suddenly feeling vulnerable under his stare. She wasn't sure when it had started—this strange, uncomfortable feeling that seemed to surface every time Ivan was around. She'd always respected him in a way, but now, something about his presence rubbed her the wrong way. He had always been the perfect boyfriend to Kian, the one who never faltered, the one who never showed weakness. But now, all she could see was the arrogance that exuded from him like a thick fog, making her feel smaller with every word.
"Why are you here, Ivan?" she asked, her voice strained. "Did Kian ask you to come? Is that it?"
Ivan's eyes flickered briefly, as if he hadn't expected her to catch on so easily. "This isn't about Kian," he said, his voice finally softening, though there was a hard edge to it. "It's about you."
Maya felt her chest tighten. "What does that even mean?" she snapped, frustration rising.
Ivan took a step closer, ignoring the coldness in her voice. His gaze held hers, unwavering, intense. "I don't know what you think is happening here, but you're going to have to stop pretending that you don't know what this is. You can't keep playing games with Kian and me, Maya."
Maya recoiled, her heart hammering in her chest. "Playing games?" she repeated incredulously. "I'm not playing anything. You and Kian—you're the ones who've been lying to me. Not the other way around."
She could see Ivan's jaw tighten, his hands flexing at his sides. "I didn't lie to you. I've been nothing but honest with you, even when you didn't want to hear it. You don't get to act like you're the innocent one in all this."
"Honest?" Maya's voice wavered, anger rising. "Do you think I don't see how you've been controlling Kian? How you've been holding him back?"
Ivan's eyes darkened at her words, the coldness returning to his gaze. "I don't need to explain myself to you, Maya. I'm just trying to make you understand. You're in the middle of something that isn't going to be easy. And if you think you can keep playing this game where you pick one of us and run away from the other, you're wrong."
Maya's chest tightened at the realization of how much he had truly said without saying it—how much had already been left unsaid between the three of them. She could feel the pressure in her chest, the weight of the unspoken truth that had been hanging over them for so long. She wasn't stupid. She knew how messy this all was, but hearing it from Ivan's mouth, with his condescending tone and smug superiority, made her stomach turn.
"You think I want this?" Maya whispered, suddenly feeling exhausted. "You think I want to choose? You think I want to hurt either one of you? Because I don't."
Ivan's expression softened for a moment, and for the briefest second, Maya thought she saw a flicker of something genuine in his eyes. But just as quickly as it had appeared, it was gone, replaced by the mask he had perfected over the years.
"I don't want to hurt you either, Maya," he said quietly. "But you're playing a dangerous game. And if you don't make a decision soon, you're going to lose both of us."
The words hit her like a slap, cold and cruel. She wasn't ready for this. She wasn't ready to face what was happening between them—the tension, the secrets, the unspoken things that had always lingered just beneath the surface.
"I'm done," Maya said suddenly, her voice shaking, her heart racing. "I can't do this anymore. Not like this."
She turned, walking away from him, needing space, needing to breathe. Ivan didn't move, didn't try to stop her. He let her go, as though he knew the battle was over, but that didn't make the feeling of loss in the air any less suffocating.
As the door closed behind her, Maya leaned against it, closing her eyes in a desperate attempt to quiet the storm inside her. There was no easy way out of this. No simple answers. And as much as she wished there were, she knew deep down that things would never be the same again.