Gemotions

He ran his fingers through his thinning hair, a nervous habit that had become worse since the article appeared. "The Emperor's Delight," touted as a culinary marvel, was his late mother's simple bread pudding, renamed and re-imagined. He hadn’t spoken to his sister in months, not since she’d inherited their mother's cookbook. He felt a cold dread settle in his stomach.

The stale air of his cramped apartment pressed in. He needed to get out, he needed to walk, to move. Anything to escape the suffocating feeling that tightened around his throat. He reached for his coat, then froze. The walls seemed to be closing in.