Gemotions

David ran a hand through his hair, a nervous habit he'd developed. The HR meeting had been a blur. Now he was in IT, surrounded by servers humming and blinking in the low light. The scent of ozone and stale coffee hung heavy in the air. He felt like an actor on a stage he hadn't rehearsed for.

His new colleagues, all clad in t-shirts and jeans, eyed him with a mixture of curiosity and something else, something he couldn't quite decipher. One of them, a lanky guy with glasses, pointed at a terminal. "Just log in and get started," he said, his voice flat. David felt a tremor in his hand as he reached for the keyboard.

He sat for what felt like hours, staring at the screen. The code scrolling by was a foreign language. He missed the predictable spreadsheets of finance. He missed the routine. His fingers were itching, his eyes straining.