Gemotions

Maya couldn't sit still. Her leg bounced with a frantic rhythm, a constant tremor. The café was buzzing with weekend chatter, but she barely registered it. Across from her, the patent rejection letter felt heavy, a brick in her stomach. Her automated plant-watering system, her passion, her everything, had been deemed…unoriginal. Someone had already claimed the idea.

She drummed her fingers on the table, the plastic surface cold beneath her touch. She needed to escape this confined space, this suffocating feeling. "I'm going to walk," she blurted out to her friend, without waiting for a reply. She stood up abruptly, nearly knocking over her chair. The world felt too close, too tight.