Gemotions

The email arrived mid-afternoon. “Dear Valued Customer, We regret to inform you…” Emily stopped reading. The words blurred into a meaningless jumble. She'd been a regular at "The Cozy Corner" since she moved to the city, feeling like a weight was constantly on her.

Her apartment felt so small, so empty. She’d been using the restaurant as a substitute for a sense of belonging, eating her dinners there alone, yet comforted by the soft lighting and gentle music. She hated that she felt like she would have nowhere to go.

She closed her laptop with a snap. The silence in her apartment was deafening, the walls closing in. She felt a familiar tightness in her throat, a sensation she had come to associate with helplessness.