Need advice with collections

Last year in 2024 my gf and I got an apartment together. I broke the lease in January 2025 to move into a home we bought.

They told me they would send me a bill for breaking the lease early to a physical address which I gave them. Between moving into our new home and having another baby I forgot about the bill for breaking the lease. Fast forward to yesterday (7/18) I get a call and voicemail from collections telling me they were calling from Rent Recovery Solutions to call them back.

Immediately I remembered about the bill I was supposed to receive from our apartment complexes but in reality I never received, not even a call or email reminding me about it. I know I should have remembered, it’s not an excuse.

I checked annual credit report and 1 of the 3 credit bureaus had the balance that I owed to the apartments on there. It apparently went to collections in May, but have never received anything.

I’ve been reading a lot on here about asking for pay and delete, and to not acknowledge it’s my debt to them. I never wanted my credit to take a hit from collections, I was ready and willing to pay the apartment’s amount for breaking the lease early. Unfortunately it ended up like that, I recognize it’s my fault, I should have remembered.

My question is, do I contact the apartment complex first to see if I can pay them instead of collections and have it taken off my credit report or do I deal with collections. When I do deal with this, I’m not sure if my gf got hit with it too, but if she did, will it show up on hers that it’s been paid/settled too?

I have never gone through this, I don’t know anything about collections, any help would be greatly appreciated in what I should do

TL;DR my gf and I got an apartment together. I broke the lease and never received the bill and now it went to collections. Thanks!