Gemotions

“It’s nothing,” Chris had said, his voice clipped and his gaze averted. That single phrase echoed in Ben’s ears as he stared at the phone, at the evidence. The evidence of calls made late at night, calls he was clearly not privy to. The fury he expected to feel was oddly absent, replaced by a dull ache in his chest. He saw Chris’s face, etched with a kind of weary defensiveness, and felt a pang of something akin to guilt, as though he, somehow, bore some of the responsibility. He closed his eyes, picturing the scenario unfolding in his mind.