Gemotions

The smell of baking bread wafted from the cafe as Maya waited for the bus. Across the street, the building where she and Sarah had dreamed of opening a bakery. Now Sarah was moving on to a new chapter, which meant something changed between them.

Maya, had just received the email; an invitation to interview for the head chef position. Sarah, however, had gotten a rejection notice. Maya, the one who’d always been the more practical, the one who grounded them. And now…

She saw the bus approach, the familiar rumble of the engine. She saw the bus pulling up to the stop, and started walking to it.

The email sat in her pocket, heavy, like a stone. She thought of their late-night baking sessions, the disastrous cakes, the triumphant loaves, and most of all, the bond they forged in the heat of the oven, bound together by the flour and the sweetness.

She took a breath and thought of how Sarah had always been the dreamer.

She watched the bus pull away and turned back towards the bakery building, and began walking slowly toward it.