Elevator Relations

It has been a rough day at work. I am ready to get home, where I can have a glass of wine by the fire before getting in bed for the evening. It has felt like such a Monday. Everything that could possibly have gone wrong, indeed went wrong. Network errors, incomplete assignments, several staff members out sick, and of course the big bosses stopped by for a surprise visit. 

As soon as five o’clock arrives, I clock out, collect my belongings, and head toward the elevator. I have recently been forcing myself to take the stairs to become more active, doctors' orders. Today I am just not in the mood. I deserve the elevator ride, and I will take the short trip downstairs. The faster I can get home, the faster I can get to that bottle of wine waiting for me. 

There are already a few others waiting for the elevator as I approach. The elevator dings and the door opens before I reach the gathering. As I step in, I find myself around several familiar faces. Ryan and Pam from my office were the two waiting to get on the elevator, Nicholas from another office upstairs, and Sarah from the daycare, were already in the elevator. I smile shyly at Nicholas as I move to the opposite side of the elevator. I have had a crush on Nicholas for about a year now, but have never found the courage to say more than “hello” to him over these long twelve months. Every time I have tried, Brittany from my office, always shows up and talks to him.  

Brittany is one of my least favorite people at work. She could be very pretty if she was not such a slut. That may be brutal honesty, but she has cheated on every single guy she has dated. She is always in the boss's office, sitting on his desk, and leaning in with her low-cut shirts, and shorter than appropriate skirts. She is also very smart, but chooses to flaunt her looks to get ahead, rather than work for it. We have all seen our boss staring down her shirt instead of watching her work ethic.  

Maybe I can turn this day around. Maybe I can finally work up the nerve to talk to Nicholas. Of course, I have placed myself as far away from him as possible in the elevator, but what if I tried to get closer and make small talk. Maybe ask him what he does on the eleventh floor? What do I have to lose after a year of being too shy to even try? I usually take the stairs now anyways. If this goes badly, I can just remind myself to take the stairs to avoid embarrassment. 

As I make my move toward the center of the elevator, and the doors are beginning to close, I hear someone yelling, “Hold the elevator!” 

I step closer to Nicholas, who looks up and makes eye contact. He smiles as if he is happy to see me coming closer. I feel some anxiety lift off my shoulders, and a small sliver of hope emerges. I begin to say, “Hey Nick, I didn’t see you there...” 

Someone put there arm out to hold the elevator door open just in time. In walks Brittany, “Oh thank you Ryan! I didn’t think anyone would hold the door.” 

As soon as Nick begins to reply, Brittany catches his eye, and moved in front of me, “Oh Nicholas, how handsome you look this evening.” 

“Hi Brittany,” he says while looking over her shoulder at me, with a possible look of disappointment on his face. Maybe I am just seeing what I want. I want him to be disappointed that Brittany interrupted us, but that may be wishful thinking on my part. 

“Nicholas, you should come out with me tonight. I would love to have a drink with you, and maybe dinner too?” Brittany flirts, a bit too aggressively. 

“Brittany, I am flattered, but I have other plans tonight.” He replies, while again looking over her shoulder toward me.  

“Oh, Nicholas, cancel your plans. It's not every night that I am available,” she pleads. “You know you’d only benefit from being seen out on the town with me,” she continues. 

“I don’t know how to tell you this Brittany, but...” Nicholas begins, but is interrupted by a strange grinding noise, which begins at the same time as the lights begin to flicker inside the elevator. The screen of the elevator stops at level 5 and the screen goes out. The elevator comes to an abrupt stop and the lights go completely out.  

After a moment, everyone begins to regain their balance as the emergency light above the door comes out. The light is extremely dim, and just enough for us to see everyone's outline.  

Ryan is the first to speak, asking “Is everyone okay?” 

Everyone murmurs back a “yes,” or “yeah, I think so.” 

I did not even realize I had not replied until I heard Nicholas say, “Carrie, are you alright?” He was by my side by the time I looked up into his eyes. I swear I saw genuine concern in them. 

“Yeah, I’m fine. I just wish I took the stairs like usual,” I chuckle uncomfortably. 

He smiles and replies, “Glad you’re okay, and that you’re here.” 

I could feel my cheeks blushing, and am instantly grateful for the poor lighting. He keeps his eyes on mine, and I look away shyly. He begins to reach up for my arm when the screaming begins. 

“HELP! SOMEONE LET ME OUT! GET ME OUT!” Pam is frantically yelling at the emergency button on the elevator, but there is no power, and it does not seem like anyone on the other end can hear her. 

Ryan tries to get Pam to calm down, “Pam, Pam,” he tries as she struggles against him.” 

“GET ME OUT!” she continues to yell, and begin to cry as the panic screaming continues. 

Ryan continues to try to break her focus on the door, “Pam, it is okay, you are going to be okay.” 

“I CANNOT STAY HERE! IT IS TOO MUCH!” Pam continues to yell, as the crying begins to take over. Pam stops screaming as the tears overcome her. She begins to sink down to the ground under a fountain of tears. Ryan holds onto her arms and tries to help her down to the ground gently.  

“Pam, it will be okay,” Ryan says slowly in a soothing voice. Ryan has been following Pam around like a teenage with a crush since I've known them. Pam has kept him at a distance. No one knows if it is by choice, or if she is ignorant to his feelings for her. 

“Ryan, I’m sorry. I cannot be stuck in an elevator again. I just cannot do it.” Pam explains through her tears. 

Ryan slides down to sit next to her, “It’s okay.” Ryan slides his arm around Pam and holds her close. She turns into his chest and continues to sob while Ryan tries his best to calm her, “I’m here. Everything will be okay.” 

“Oh, come on!” Brittany says, clearly annoyed. “Why the attention hog?” 

Sarah, who has been standing quietly in the corner speaks next. “Ma’am, please do not judge the emotions of others. You do not know anything about what she is feeling or why she is feeling it.” 

“What do you know about it, “Brittany snaps at Sarah. 

Sarah begins to reply, “your attitude will not help anyone in this elevator.” 

“If you know everything, then why don’t you get all of us out of here?” Brittany interrupts.  

Nicholas steps in, “Okay, let’s everyone take a breath here.”  

Brittany sighs and turn toward the corner, where she crosses her arms, and slides to the ground where she sits before replying, “Well I’ll just sit here while you guys figure out how we are going to get out of here.” 

Nicholas looks around at everyone, then looks down at me before saying to the group, “Let’s all just sit down and relax. Someone will be working on getting us out as soon as they can.” 

Sarah is the only one who replies, “Do you think they even know that we are here?” 

“They’ll check every elevator after any issue, to be sure they’re empty. Someone will check eventually,” I reply, surprising myself. But I have seen plenty of people getting rescued from stuck elevators, after years of working in high rise office buildings. 

Sarah also slides down to the floor, where she makes herself comfortable in the corner next to the door. Pam is still crying, more calmly now, into Ryan’s shoulder at the next corner, next to the elevator buttons. Brittany is in the next corner still sitting there with her arms crossed in disgust.  

Nicholas gently takes my arm and leads me to the last corner. “Carrie, we should sit too. No point standing here for who knows how long. Do you mind if I sit with you?” he asks sweetly. 

I sit down near the corner, grateful for casual Friday allowing for Jeans as todays wardrobe, and motion for Nicholas to join me by patting the ground next to me. Even in the darkness, I can see his face change into a happy, yet nervous smile. Nicholas sits next to me, careful to not sit too close, and nervously glances over at me. An awkward silence lasts several minutes between us. The others have all begun talking to each other about the work day and their plans for tonight, to help the time pass. 

“Carrie?” Nicholas breaks the silence. 

“Yes Nicholas?” I reply nervously, looking up into his eyes. 

“Can I ask you something?” 

This is terrifying. Ive been wanting to talk to him for a year now, but this is far from what I imaged our first conversation to be like, in a dark elevator, with random co-workers, and an unclear length of time we will be stuck. “Umm, okay, sure,” I reply slowly, trying to hide the butterflies in my stomach and the nervousness I can hear in my voice. 

“Have you been taking the stairs to avoid me?” 

“What? No,” I reply in shock. “Why would you think that?” 

“Well, you began to take the stairs ever since I tried to talk to you one Friday afternoon.” 

I am very confused when I ask, “You tried to talk to me? When? I really am not sure I remember that. I think I would remember that.” I realize I am rambling. Why am I asking so many questions? How did I miss him trying to talk to me? “I’m sure I would have answered.” 

He laughs nervously and looks relieved when he replies, “Well I’m glad to hear that you would have replied, and that you’re not avoiding me.” He stops and tries to look into my eyes, but I look away nervously. “Carrie, I’ve been waiting for another chance to talk to you. I even considered going down to your office, but that seemed like a bit much.”  

I look up, trying to not maintain eye contact for too long, “Why have you wanted to talk to me?” 

He looks surprised that I don’t know what is going on, “Carrie, I’ve wanted to ask you out for months now. Whenever I’ve worked up the nerve to talk to you, someone interrupts, or you’ve walked away from the elevator too fast.” 

“Really,” I ask, surprised. 

“Yeah, honestly, I just assumed you were way out of my league. I figured I’d never have a chance.” He says, this time he looks away embarrassed.  

“Me, out of your league? Why do people think that? Why would anyone think that? I’ve been too scared to talk to you. I never thought you noticed me. I figured I was just another person in an elevator.” 

“That is far from the truth,” he says, turning toward me, and getting just close enough to reach for my arm. “Carrie, I’ve been waiting for a chance to ask you out since I first saw you. I could never figure out if you were single. I did not want to waste my chance unless I knew there was a chance.” 

“Since you first saw me?” I ask, still completely shocked by all these statements. 

“I’ve been wanting to stare into your eyes for a year, Carrie.” We sit there for a moment, looking into each other's eyes, searching for what to say next. 

“God, get a room already! You two are so ridiculous,” Brittany chimes in. 

Sarah interrupts her, “Leave them alone, I think it’s sweet.” 

“Ask her out already,” Pam says while still leaning into Ryan’s arms in the corner. 

Nicholas looks back at me and smiles, “Carrie, would you like to go out with me sometime?” 

Sarah speaks up before I can form words, “Say yes!” 

I look up at Nicholas searching for words. All I can get out is, “Yeah, sure.” 

Sarah, Ryan, and Pam all cheer and clap. Brittany crosses her arms and rolls her eyes in her corner. 

Sarah gets up and stretches, “Now all we need is for someone to let us out of here, then you two can go write your love story.” 

As if on command, the lights flicker on, and a voice begins to speak through the elevator speaker, “Hello, is anyone in there.” 

“Yes!” we all reply, almost in unison.  

The voice on the speaker continues, “Okay, sit tight for just another minute. We had a building wide power outage. We are rebooting the elevators now. We’ll be able to get you out shortly.” 

Everyone stands up in relief.  

Ryan helps Pam to her feet. She has stopped crying, but will not let go of Ryan. “Ryan,” she says waiting for him to look at her, “thank you. That was really sweet of you to calm me down.” 

Ryan looks at Pam, puts his hand on her arm and replies, “I’d do anything for you Pam.” 

Pam blushes, without being able to hide from the elevator lighting. 

“Oh great, I’m surrounded by a reality TV show,” Brittany chimes in while getting to her feet.  

Sarah surprises everyone with her honest reply, “Maybe if you weren’t such a slut, you could find happiness too.” 

Brittany’s face drops and she stands there staring at Sarah for a moment. Brittany never replies.  

A minute later, the elevator slowly begins to chime as it descends the last few floors to level 1. As soon as the door opens, we are greeted by a building engineer, asking if everyone is okay. Brittany instantly gathers her belongings and pushes past the engineer. 

Sarah is the first to reply, “Yes sir, thank you so much. We are all perfectly fine.” She gathers her belongings, turns to smile at me, and proceeds to the exit.  

The engineer replies, “Good news then,” before walking away. 

Ryan leads Pam out of the elevator, “Feeling better now?” he asks. 

Pam looks embarrassed, “I do not like elevators, but yes. You've help me feel better.” 

Ryan smiles at her, reached for her hand, which she willingly gives him, and they walk away together, hand in hand. 

Nicholas hands me my bag, that he has picked up off of the floor for me, “How about a drink?” he asks. 

I take my bag, look up at him and reply, “How about dinner?” 

Nicholas smiles and lifts his arm, offering it. I slide my arm through his, and together we exit the elevator, leaving the terrible events of the day behind us. I am not sure how an elevator ride encouraged such a huge change of pace for the day, but I am grateful that I did not take the stairs, because now, I can go out into the world, with Nicholas, to write our love story.