Gemotions

The balloons, purchased with such excitement, now lay deflated on the floor. He hadn't even had the chance to inflate them. The news, delivered curtly in an email, had stolen the air from his lungs.

He wandered through the house, the empty rooms amplifying his isolation. The half-finished preparations mocked him with their unfinished potential.

He sat at the kitchen table, his elbows resting on the surface, his face buried in his hands. The scent of the food he had prepared earlier was now a bitter reminder of the planned celebration.