Gemotions

The cold kitchen tiles offered little comfort. He clutched the crumpled list, his knuckles white. “Learn to bake bread,” “Visit Paris,” “Find someone new.” The final statement, so blunt, so devastating, burned into his mind. He found the list in the back of his wife's cookbook.

His chest ached. The fridge hummed, a low, menacing growl. He felt a crushing weight on his shoulders. He felt the impulse to tear the list to shreds, but a morbid curiosity, a desperate need to know, held him back. The world felt dangerous, full of hidden meanings, unspoken betrayals. He imagined her in Paris.

He sat on the floor. He wanted to disappear.