Gemotions

The coffee cup trembled in Leo’s hand as he stared at the screen. The report on his desk had been building up a sense of pressure in his chest. A client meeting was in an hour and he was woefully unprepared. He thought of Liam, his friend, who always seemed to have everything under control, with his “high-profile” role as a software architect. He smiled wryly.

Then he'd found out. Last week, when he was visiting Liam’s “office,” it looked remarkably like a dingy apartment over a laundromat. A quick online search confirmed it. Liam worked as a freelance programmer. It was fine, it really was. But the facade, the layers of embellishment, had chipped away at Leo's easygoing nature.

He took a large gulp of coffee, the bitter liquid burning a trail down his throat. He looked at the report again, its dense text blurring before his eyes. It was a good time for a cigarette, but he'd quit three months ago.