Alex
I’m thinking of all the places I can send this building manager. I know the owner of the parent company that employs the fool.
This elevator has gotten stuck a dozen times in two months, and every time he says it’s fixed for good, it gets stuck again. I haven’t been a victim until today. Today of all days, of course.
It’s fine. I’ve never gotten very upset over little shit some people lose their minds over. Crappy drivers. Potholes. Stuck elevators. It’s all a part of life. While I’d like to bend the world to my will, it’s not possible to do so with everything. Even with a billion dollars. I lean my head back and think of what’s around me. Four walls. Two doors. A panel of buttons. Hailee.
I can smell her. It’s a faint whiff of something a little tropical. Probably just one squirt of her perfume. It’s a strategic amount, because while it smells good, I can’t quite get a read on it. I want to put my lips on her neck and find out its full strength.
Fuck, she looks hot today. Her dark features contrast with the cream blazer. She knows what she’s doing, and pinching her blazer while looking her over was the high point of this shitty morning.
Walking over to her desk and seeing that she’d ditched her anonymous accountant look today made me do a double take earlier.
I can’t help but think it’s because of yesterday. I can suddenly feel her face pressed into my lap again, see her bare butt showing those bunny rabbit panties. I need to calm down. I don’t want to hide an erection on top of this crappy situation.
I glance at the ceiling quickly. I suddenly wonder whether this elevator has cameras, because I get an indecent idea in my head of how Hailee and I could pass the time.
Ridiculous.
She’s Lucas’s little sister. What is wrong with me? Besides, I find her annoying half the time. Don’t you ever say please? Nobody talks to me like that, but there was something about it I almost enjoyed.
I’m being delusional. I don’t enjoy banter.
I just didn’t sleep last night. I knew this article was coming, and I’m running on fumes. I’m surprised to find myself tired. There’s something about my helplessness in this situation that lets me relax. Forces me.
Again, I’m not a control freak. Or someone who loses their patience or mind when things don’t go their way. I do the opposite and roll with it. I use it to my advantage. So, I’m stuck in an elevator with no service. Why not a twenty-minute power nap?
As if the universe is reading my thoughts, the woman’s voice comes back on the speaker. “We’re going to have to turn the power off and reboot the system. I’m very sorry, but the lights will turn off. They might stay off until we’re operational.”
I don’t give any indication that I heard her. I just let the back of my head hit against the elevator wall. The lights go out, and I don’t know what I was expecting, but it was about as dark of a space as I’ve ever been in.
“Great. I can’t see my hand in front of my face,” says Hailee.
“Neither can I,” I respond, although I’m not trying to.
“Got any games on your phone?”
I’m glad it’s dark, because she’d probably be embarrassed by how distorted my face is from her question.
“You think I play phone games?”
“I know you have a guilty pleasure. One that’s boring and human. It might be Candy Crush.”
“I like pizza. There.”
“Oh, give me a break. Everybody and their toothless grandma likes pizza. That’s not a guilty pleasure. How do you have a billion dollars and not know what a guilty pleasure even is?”
“Too busy making money.”
“You’re funny.”
“Hmm.”
“So it’s not Candy Crush? What about Paul Rudd rom-coms?”
“Paul what?”
“He’s an actor.”
“What the hell kind of a last name is that for an actor?”
“I don’t know.”
“Marilyn Monroe isn’t Marilyn Monroe and John Wayne isn’t John Wayne. They changed their names. Has he ever heard of that?”
“Where do you get your human suit?” Hailee teases.
I pause for a moment. “There’s a back room at Bergdorf Goodman.”
Hailee doesn’t say anything, but I can tell she’s smiling. Maybe I shouldn’t have given her a joke, but her tone isn’t flirtatious. I can tell a man like me annoys Hailee. Rich, powerful, and all too aware of it.
I don’t need her to like me, but if we’re working together, a joke can’t hurt to break the ice.
“Wow. A joke from Blackwell. To what do I owe the pleasure?”
I’m not about to get cute with her. I don’t get cute with women. The thought returns of doing something with this darkness. The cameras can see nothing. Hell, they’re off too. This is one of those circumstances Lucas would surely find forgivable. We were stuck in an elevator. The lights went out. It was a stressful day, and we’re both adults.
No. Fuck. It’s the wrong thing to do. She’s like twenty-six and works for me. Yet she gives me more lip than the fifty-five-year-old yes men who line my boardroom.
I think I’m also being a bit presumptuous. I can imagine Hailee kneeing me in the groin just as likely as kissing me back. She knows what I want. She knows I would just be using her for sex like all the other women in my life. And she hates that, as she should. I need to put an end to these thoughts. This temptation is not what I need during this business crisis.
“Look, this article that was published is probably going to keep me awake for the next forty-eight hours. I’m going to take this opportunity of not being able to do a damn thing to sleep.”
There’s no response from the darkness for a while. I’m about to say her name when Hailee finally speaks.
“Oh. Good call.”
It almost seems like she’s disappointed for the conversation to end. Maybe she’s a little frightened, too. But she’s a grown woman, and I don’t need to hold her hand. I lean my head back again and shut my eyes, although there’s no difference in darkness with them closed. I start to nod off. A full few feet from Hailee.
Good, . The angel on my shoulder prevails.
For now.