Gemotions

Empty coffee mugs littered the coffee table. The air was thick with the scent of burnt toast. Michael’s stomach churned, a physical manifestation of his internal state. He stared at the whiteboard, the words “PET DECISION – YES/NO” scrawled in a frantic hand. Chloe had presented her case: a goldfish. A small, silent goldfish. It seemed so innocuous.

He picked at a loose thread on the sofa, his gaze fixed on the blank space beside the “YES” column. He'd never really thought about having a pet. He liked things tidy, predictable. Now, a finned creature, a tiny universe in a glass bowl, threatened to disrupt the carefully constructed order of their lives.

He wandered into the hallway, then back into the living room, a restless pacing that did nothing to soothe the tremor in his hands. The goldfish, he thought with a deep breath, could be a problem.