My boyfriend quit his job 2 months ago and still refuses to look for a new one. I’m the one who supports us right now. All he does is watch TV. Once, when I saw the bills, I lost it. Turns out he had forgotten to pay them for weeks.
We were behind on rent, electricity, even internet. And he just sat there, acting like everything was fine.
I was working doubles at the cafe just to keep us afloat. I’d come home, exhausted, and find him lying on the couch with snacks and Netflix. Not once did he ask how my day was.
The night I found the unpaid bills, I confronted him.
“You said you’d handle this,” I snapped, waving the stack in his face.
He barely looked up. “I thought I did.”
“You thought? Are you serious right now?” I couldn’t believe the casual tone in his voice.
He finally turned the TV off and sighed like he was the tired one.
“I just… I’ve been feeling off, okay?” he mumbled.
“That’s not good enough, Adrian. You can’t just check out of life and expect me to carry us both.”
I stormed into the bedroom and slammed the door.
I laid awake that night, thinking about when we first moved in together. Things were different then. He had this spark—ambitious, curious, full of ideas. He wanted to start a food truck, remember? Now I couldn’t even get him to take the trash out.
Something had changed, and I had no idea when or why.
The next morning, I left early. I didn’t even bother waking him. I had three back-to-back shifts and barely time to think. But in the back of my mind, I kept replaying the conversation from last night. His tone. His face. The way he avoided eye contact.
It wasn’t just laziness. Something was up.
When I got home, he was still on the couch. But this time, no snacks. No TV.
He looked up and asked, “Can we talk?”
I sat down, bracing myself.
“I’ve been having panic attacks,” he said quietly. “Since I left my job. I didn’t want to tell you because I didn’t want you to think less of me.”
I blinked. That wasn’t what I expected.
He went on. “That job drained me. I hated every second. I didn’t quit because I was lazy—I quit because I felt like I was drowning. And now… I feel useless.”
For a moment, I didn’t say anything. Because I realized I hadn’t noticed. I was so busy working and being angry, I didn’t even ask how he was doing.
The story doesn’t end here –
it continues on the next page.
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