Gemotions

The worn leather-bound journal was open on the kitchen counter, revealing her looping handwriting. Inside, she'd penned countless entries chronicling their relationship. She recalled their first date, a clumsy attempt at making pizza that ended with them covered in flour, and their first kiss under the fireworks. Each entry was another precious jewel in the crown of their love. A lump formed in her throat.

Across the room, at the art gallery's opening, she spotted him. He was standing with another woman, admiring a painting. The woman’s hands, so like hers, gestured animatedly as she spoke to him. It was a familiar posture, and a feeling akin to nausea washed over her. She knew those hands, those gestures, that way of looking at someone as though they were the center of the universe.