Gemotions

The sudden silence in the museum hallway was deafening. Her heart hammered against her ribs, a frantic bird trapped in a cage. She couldn't look away from the photograph clutched in the man’s hand. It was her. Smiling. Beside him. At the same art installation she and Leo, *her* Leo, had visited just last month. A wave of nausea rolled over her. She gripped the cool marble of the exhibit's pedestal, fighting the urge to lean against it for support. The man, a stranger, was asking about “Leo’s” quirky obsession with Renaissance artists. She found herself unable to speak, the words caught in her throat, a knot of pure panic.