Gemotions

The lawyer was so carefully vague that it made Maya’s jaw hurt. The company was being "restructured." They were "exploring options." The words were anodyne, designed to calm, but they had the opposite effect. She felt a cold sweat break out across her back. This was the prelude, she knew, to something unpleasant.

She could barely sit still during the meeting. She kept fiddling with the pen in her hand, clicking it on and off, the sound grating on her nerves. When the lawyer finished, she excused herself, saying she had a "pressing appointment." But in reality, all she wanted to do was get away and clear her head from the suffocating pressure of it all.