Weekend Warrior

Pre-weekend fitness motivation in—two gym partners, one night, sweat and temptation colliding.

Shift Wreckage

Knuckles ache, bone-deep and red from the last emergency, nerves still jangling from the code. Jac’s hands shake as he unclips his badge, the lanyard dragging a faint burn along the back of his neck—a ghost of pressure that echoes long after his shift is done. Scrubs, damp and marked with other people’s pain, slide off and pool on the locker room floor. The sudden quiet is almost punishing.

He sits, elbows on knees, and finally lets his head fall back against cold metal. For a moment he listens to his heartbeat hammer the inside of his ribs, counting breaths, trying to quiet the running loop of the day: voices, alarms, the memory of blood. His phone buzzes—a break in the silence, a new thread to follow. Lukas. The name unlocks a different tension. Relief, then hunger.

Jac taps a reply, the corner of his mouth twitching.

Jac (text): “Don’t chicken out now. I need you at the racks.”
Lukas (text): “Tonight I’ll leave you crawling.”