Gemotions

The restaurant was too loud, too bright, too full of happy couples. Maya tapped her fingernails on the table, the rhythmic clicking a frantic counterpoint to the boisterous chatter. She’d meant to text her therapist. The message, a simple request for an extra session, had gone to her ex-boyfriend. A cold wave washed over her.

She picked at the food, the flavorless pasta doing little to quell the knot in her stomach. She felt a hollowness inside, a vast emptiness that nothing could fill. She wanted to scream, to lash out, to shatter the facade of composure she'd carefully constructed.

A ping signaled a reply: "I'm with someone. Leave me alone." She swallowed hard, the words a bitter pill. She rose abruptly, pushing the chair away from the table. She felt the urge to run, to escape the suffocating presence of memories.