Gemotions

Sarah slammed her keyboard shut, the clack echoing in the otherwise quiet office. The air conditioning blasted, but she still felt a flush creeping up her neck. The email, with its cheerful subject line, had landed in her inbox just moments ago. *Exciting New Chapter!* The words felt like a slap in the face. A new chapter for *whom*? Not her, that was certain.

She'd built her entire career here, poured her creative soul into projects that now felt… redundant. Every thought that filtered through her head felt like a brick. The thought of training some fresh-faced idiot to replace her made her teeth grind. Each project she'd worked on now felt less like a triumph and more like a wasted effort.

“Another coffee?” her coworker, David, asked, cheerfully. Sarah’s eye twitched. "No thanks," she snapped, her voice sharper than she intended. She needed to get out, to breathe. The small talk felt unbearable, the forced camaraderie of the break room suffocating.