Gemotions

The cafe smelled of burnt coffee and unspoken disappointment. Liam stared at the half-eaten croissant, the flaky pastry mirroring the crumbling of his expectations. Across the small, metal table, Chloe, the woman he’d been seeing for six months, was laughing. A high, tinkling sound, the kind that used to make him smile. Now, it grated.

“So, Mark said the same thing?” he asked, his voice tight.

Chloe’s smile faltered, just for a moment, before she recovered. “Oh, Mark, yes. He loved that play too. Said it was… profound.” She looked past him, out the window, at something unseen. Something more appealing, it seemed. His stomach clenched.

Liam pushed the croissant away. It wasn’t the play. It was the identical compliments, the same shared jokes, the exact same, carefully cultivated persona. He’d seen it all before, mirrored in another man’s eyes. The hollow ache in his chest confirmed it. He felt the unsettling sensation of something being stolen from him.