Gemotions

The email sat in her inbox, unread for nearly an hour. She knew what it contained. Professor Davies' goodbye announcement had been circulating amongst the graduate students all morning. Her own fingers trembled as she finally clicked it open. He was leaving for a position at a prestigious think tank, a promotion she'd known was coming. But a coldness spread through her chest as she scrolled down to the brief personal message, a mere afterthought in his formal farewell. She’d wasted so much time, so much of *his* time.

He had always been so encouraging. Now, she felt a profound heaviness, a reluctance to look him in the eye during their next meeting. The weight of her unfinished draft, the endless revisions that she’d never quite delivered, seemed to press down on her. The silence in the library felt thick, suffocating. She closed the laptop, a decision. She would not face him.