Gemotions

The crisp cardboard felt almost like a slap against Eleanor's palm. The card, with its generic picture, screamed of polite distance. The utter lack of a name deepened the pit that had formed in her stomach.

She had spent the morning preparing a birthday cake. Her husband, David, was working late again, and she had hoped... She had hoped for more.

She walked back to the kitchen, carefully setting the unopened envelope beside the cake. The sweetness of the frosting now felt cloying, the aroma a mockery of her expectations. She wouldn't open it. She couldn't.