Gemotions

The flickering neon sign outside the diner cast long, dancing shadows across the worn booths. John, hunched over a lukewarm cup of coffee, felt a knot tighten in his gut. The project. His life's work. The culmination of years of research.

A familiar face. Across the diner, sat Emily, a colleague from the rival firm. She was sketching furiously in a notebook, her brow furrowed in concentration. He recognized the diagrams, the layouts. The same ideas. The same painstaking details.

He watched her, this feeling that was like being in a dream where everything was familiar and terrifying at once. The coffee tasted suddenly bitter, and he put the cup down, his hand trembling slightly.