Trent Bray; with a three weeks of ultimatum to get it right or get sacked

Trent Bray sat alone in his dimly lit apartment, the weight of the ultimatum hanging over him like a storm cloud. Three weeks. That’s all he had left. Three weeks to fix everything he’d broken over the past year — his career, his friendships, and most painfully, his relationship with Hannah.

She had looked at him with a mixture of sadness and resolve when she laid it out. “Trent, I can’t keep doing this. You have three weeks to show me you’re ready to change, or I’m gone. For good.”

For the first week, Trent did nothing. He moped, wallowed in self-pity, and drowned his guilt in late nights and bad decisions. But the second week hit him like a freight train. Time was slipping away, and he knew deep down that if he didn’t act now, Hannah would be out of his life forever.

He started small, sending out resumes to companies he’d been too proud or lazy to apply to before. He swallowed his pride and made amends with old friends, apologizing for the broken promises and no-show hangouts. The hardest part was facing himself. Every mirror reflection was a reminder of how far he’d fallen.

By the third week, he wasn’t fixed, but he was trying. Trent met Hannah at the café where they’d first fallen in love. He was different now, or at least trying to be. He hoped it was enough.

Hannah looked at him for a long moment, the air between them heavy with the weight of everything unsaid. “I can see you’re trying, Trent,” she said softly. “But we’re not there yet. I need more than just three weeks. You’ve got to keep going.”

And with that, the ultimatum was no longer about three weeks. It was about every day from now on.