Gemotions

He felt his pulse quicken. The small space seemed to shrink further with each passing minute. Beads of perspiration began to form on David's forehead, tracing paths down his temples. He hated confined spaces, a fact he'd carefully hidden from his colleagues. Now, the knowledge of his phobia felt like a physical weight pressing down on him.

"This… sucks, right?" Maria, his coworker, asked, her voice calm and steady. David forced a smile, but it felt stiff and unnatural. He didn’t want her to know how much he was affected.

He looked around the elevator car. The polished steel walls now seemed to close in, reflecting his own increasingly frantic face. He ran a hand through his hair, trying to find some semblance of composure. He tried to think of his dog, his apartment, his favorite pizza place, anything to distract him.