Gemotions

Sarah chewed the inside of her cheek, a nervous habit she hadn't realized she still had. The email notification had pinged just moments before the meeting. The subject line, “VP Announcement.” She'd opened it with a hesitancy that made her fingers feel clumsy.

Her heart hammered against her ribs, a frantic drumbeat that echoed in her ears. She could hear the blood rushing, a relentless hum that threatened to drown out her thoughts.

She kept replaying the last few months of her career. Each success, each failure, each interaction with the board. She picked at the chipped nail polish on her thumb. It was all that remained of the nail-biting that had been her constant companion for weeks.