Gemotions

The silence in the coffee shop was deafening, the clatter of cups a dull background to the hollow feeling in her heart. Laura, the successful gallery owner, had never owned a gallery. Her supposed life was a carefully constructed facade. A tremor ran through her.

She'd driven there, hoping to confront him, but the words wouldn’t come. Instead, she sat, tracing patterns on her lukewarm coffee cup. Each detail of the carefully-crafted lies, now crumbling, stung with an extra sharpness.

She felt the sting of betrayal, yes, but mostly a sense of profound disappointment. For him, for herself, for the life that might have been. The coffee suddenly tasted like chalk.