Gemotions

The bookstore was quiet, the only sounds the rustle of pages and the distant chime of a cash register. Sarah ran her fingers across the spines of the books, settling on an old copy of *Pride and Prejudice*. A folded piece of paper fluttered to the floor. Picking it up, she saw it was a receipt from a florist, dated decades earlier, with a single line of handwritten text: "For my darling wife, on our anniversary." Sarah was struck. She pictured the bouquet, the joy the flowers once represented. She imagined the emotions in the air, the love and loss. She carefully placed the receipt back inside the book. She needed it to stay together.