Stuck and Unstuck in the Elevator - A Short Story
There's Nothing Good About Being Stuck In An Elevator - Or Is There?
Dammit. This had to be the slowest f'n elevator on the face of the earth. Of COURSE the day she was late for work, when the new manager Katie was in - 2 months out of college, and already trying to make a name for herself by ratting people out for every little g'dmn thing - of course, THAT freakin' day, the elevator decided to stop on practically every floor of the building. She sighed-it figures. Now we're on 19, now 20...wow, we actually passed a whole floor?! Amazing! Naturally on 21 the doors slid open once again. Amanda thought she'd literally never get to 37.
After a few furtive glances at her watch, willing it to stop for a few minutes, she took a deep breath, tried to relax, and allowed herself to look up. Thank God, they were passing 35 and...
No. It couldn't be. It just couldn't freakin' be. She could NOT be standing in a stuck elevator 35 minutes past the time she was supposed to be at her desk. Amanda stared at the control board.
"It's going to be at least half an hour", some moron said behind her.
She turned around. Somehow, during all of her inner ranting, the designer-suit zombies must have filed out of the elevator. She stood there, facing some guy who had obviously walked into the wrong office building. Yup, no way this dude was into direct marketing.
"What the hell are you talking about?" She suddenly remembered she was pissed.
He smiled. "Well, I saw the elevator guy leave about 10 minutes ago, and he mentioned that his cell phone was dead."
His slouch against the wall started to annoy her. "Great. Obviously, we need to push..."
"The call button is broken." He grinned again. "I'm actually Carlo's replacement. I was going up to get my radio."
"I'm sorry to be rude, but that's ridiculous. How could we not have someone here..."
"I know, Jimmy called in sick today. It's f'd up. They pulled me from 10th Ave at the last minute to cover. Oh, do you mind that I cursed?" Mind? He was the first non-phony person she'd ever met at this job. She noticed his brown hair was messy but not sloppy. Just relaxed, like him.
She told herself he was just a dumb elevator repairman.
"No, you should hear me sometimes.” Why the hell was her face hot?
That f'n smile again. And then he nodded like he knew what she meant.
"Don't worry, I already texted the office manager. Someone'll be here soon." He looked around the elevator cabin, as though searching for clues. "So what do you do here, anyway?"
She reminded herself that good-looking straight men are always married.
"I'm part of the administrative support team in the Direct Marketing division." As soon as the words came out of her mouth, Amanda felt like a complete idiot. "What I mean is, I'm a secretary."
Suddenly, they both started cracking up. She wondered why she had never said it that way before.
"I used to worry about sh*t like that too-for about five minutes. Then I realized, what am I gonna do, tell people about the novel I'm writing? The 3 languages I taught myself? They wouldn't believe it anyway. I think you really just gotta say to yourself, 'Who gives a sh*t?'"
She realized his eyes were green. "Are you serious?"
He shrugged through his denim button-down. "That's just my opin..."
"No, are you serious about the 3 languages?"
"Yeah, Spanish, Italian and Russian."
She tried to remember what was wrong with him.
"I... taught myself Italian and German." Amanda scooped out the Berlitz guides she hid in her bag and showed him. She wondered where his wedding ring was.
Now he was looking at her. "E vero?"
"Si, e vero."
Just then the elevator lurched down to 34 and the doors flew open. As they walked out, Amanda forced herself not to look at him, pretending to be rummaging through her purse.
"Jeff." He laughed at her startled reaction. "So do they give secretaries business cards?" he asked, smiling again, offering his own to her.
A couple hours later, Amanda sat in the manager’s office. As Katie went on about the merits of promptness, she pretended to listen - and tried to keep from smiling.
Comments
rhondakim (author) from New York City on February 07, 2011:
Thank you so much, kittythedreamer! I honestly can't tell you how great that makes me feel. I hadn't planned on a part II, but maybe! You might like my short story "Perfect". Let me know if you read it. And thanks again!
Kitty Fields from Summerland on February 07, 2011:
wow...i loved it! will there be a part 2? Voted up and beautiful from me! :)
