Gemotions

"Climb Mount Everest," the scrawled handwriting read, the ink bleeding in places. Sarah stared at the list, her eyes narrowed. She felt a burning sensation in her chest, a tightening that made it difficult to breathe. She hadn't even known her partner liked hiking.

They’d built a life, a quiet, comfortable routine. Dinners in, movie nights, the predictable rhythm of their existence. And now, this. This blatant declaration of an entirely different person, a stranger she’d been living alongside.

She ripped the paper in half, then again, and again, until the tiny pieces littered the floor.