Emily

It was the afternoon after the celebration and Emily had just woken up after 8 straight hours of sleep. "Ughh" , she groaned into her pillow. She felt extremely nauseous and slowly got up to find pills in her room. When sitting on the side of the bed she noticed things on her nightstand. There was water and pills with a note. She picked up the note and it read, "For that hangover of yours -A", with a smiley face under it. Alison took me home! Emily thought, slightly embarrassed. She barely remembered anything and a part of her didn't want to. She snatched her phone from inside her bag and called Aria.

"Look who's finally awake. Had a long night huh?", Aria said sarcastically.

"How'd you know?"Emily responded in shock. It had been less than 24 hours and people that weren't even there probably heard about what had happened.

"Em! How could I not know? Everyone knows who your best friends are so of course they'd tell me and Spence. Plus social media is a thing you know?".

Emily bowed her head in shame and covered her face with her hands.

"Oh gosh", she mumbled into her palms.

"I'll send you the video." Aria told Emily.

"You have a video?!" Emily blurted out.

"Uh yeah. And I prefer Emily speech 1.0." Aria said while beginning to laugh.

"Okay. Okay. Talk to you later" Emily said preparing for the cringey feeling she would have while watching herself.

A few minutes later she received the video from Aria and took a breath before pressing play.

After watching the video, Emily noticed how both Paige and Alison rushed to her and she was somewhat glad it was Alison that got to her first. Even though Alison was kind of her reason for being drunk in the first place, Emily thought it was nice of her to take her off the stage instead of laughing and watching like the others. She knew she should give her a huge thanks but she felt too embarrassed.

Alison wasn't the only person she was supposed to speak to, Hannah needed an apology. It was inappropriate to be drunk at a celebration for work and her emotions got the best of her. Emily let out a large sigh and fell backward onto her bed.

Monday Morning

First thing in the morning, Emily apologized to Hannah about her actions at the celebration.

"It's okay. We all have our moments. Plus, certain people in the workplace can have that effect on you." Hannah said, raising her eyebrows at her.

Emily didn't know what to think of that statement. She squinted at Hannah and received a smile in response.

"Go on now. Back to work missy." ,she said cheerfully.

Emily walked slowly toward the door, having an unspoken staring contest with her boss. When she was completely outside the door and on her way to her desk, she could only think about what Hannah meant by that.

It was Wednesday and Emily was still avoiding Alison. Since their offices were right next to each other, Emily decided to work with Caesar, the photo editor, to be on a different floor and not bump into anyone, especially her. Although there were a few people that gave her weird looks or huge smirks.

She knew it wasn't a big deal to just say thank you to Alison and move on but it was more to it than that, in her opinion.

"I'm going to get some lunch,'' Emily said to Caesar as she was exiting the room

She was on the fifteenth floor and pressed the button for the elevator. Her office was on the tenth floor and she hoped no one would get in the elevator after her.

Ding.

The elevator arrived and she entered wishing it would go straight to the lobby.

Alison

Alison hadn't seen Emily since the night she took her home and it was the middle of the week. Their offices were right next to each other which made it even more weird to Alison. She knew Emily came to work because she left her coat on the back of her chair but she never stayed in the office.

She wanted to ask Aria or Spencer but she knew they probably weren't the biggest fans of her. She thought of texting her but she went against it for some reason.

She noticed it was a little after noon and she wanted to go to a new salad bar that opened two blocks away. She made her way to the elevator and pressed the button.

After a few seconds of waiting for the elevator, it came and before the doors fully opened Alison could already tell who was standing inside.

Once the doors opened Alison and Emily made eye contact but Emily averted her eyes to the elevator panel. Alison walked in and stood on the opposite side. The ride down felt like forever as they both secretly watched the number on the top go down. Alison knew it was now or never seeing that they were already on the sixth floor.

"Are you alright?" Alison questioned, now facing Emily.

"Ye-" Emily coughed a few times trying to clear her throat which had Alison raise an eyebrow.

"Yeah I'm fine...Uh thanks for the other day." Emily said not looking her in the eye.

"Of course, it was the least I could do."

They were almost on the first floor but then Alison felt the elevator jolt and stopped moving entirely. She looked at Emily who started pressing the first floor button. After she noticed pressing buttons over and over was ineffective she pressed the button that notifies the fire department. A voice followed not long after.

"It appears that this elevator has a malfunction and the fire department has been notified. In the meantime, do not try to pry open the door or jump up and down. This could result in upsetting the brake system or shifting the car. Please stay calm and help will arrive momentarily."

"Great", Emily sighed leaning back on the wall.

Alison became more relaxed. Even if this was the only way for them to be alone, she'd take it.

"Were you avoiding me because of what happened?" Alison asked.

Emily pouted her lips, "Pfft! Avoided you..noo..why would I do that? Emily responded with nervous laughter in between her words.

"Right", Alison said knowing she wasn't being honest. But it didn't bother her because that meant Emily cared about what she thought of her, even if it was a little bit.

Emily

About 10 minutes passed of being stuck in the elevator and it was getting hot. Emily and Alison were both sitting on the floor because it was slightly cooler. Emily could see some water droplets on Alison's forehead and Emily knew she had some on her hers too. She noticed Alison starting to take off her top.

"What are you doing?!" Emily asked a little too loud.

"Temporarily preventing my excretory system from releasing anymore waste through my epidermis." she said successfully removing her shirt, revealing a black camisole.

Emily laughed. "And you couldn't just say stop sweating because…"

"Because there is no fun in that." Alison said with a wide grin.

Emily rolled her eyes and smiled. She looked at Alison noticing how much more skin was now exposed. All of her arms were out and her chest was more visible than ever. Emily quickly caught herself in a daze and looked away.

"Feel free to continue" Alison said with a sly smile.

"Get over yourself" Emily said, taking out her phone to stop herself from blushing which made Alison laugh extremely hard.

This girl is something else Emily thought.

Minutes later, Emily and Alison were going over multiple topics to pass the time.

"So what's your story with photography?" Emily asked Alison, genuinely curious.

She watched Alison's eyes wander around while she took a deep breath.

"Well there were a lot of family issues while I was growing up. My parents weren't happy together so there were lots of arguments. I don't know how they lasted as long as they did. I did have my 2 older half siblings, Jason and Charlotte which made life less suck-ish. Long story short, for my 13th birthday they went half-and-half on buying me a camera. I brought it with me pretty much everywhere I went. The idea that one picture can tell so many things amazed me and I knew I wanted to be a photographer since."

"Wow." Emily was in a daze. She didn't expect to learn so much about her from one question.

"Yeah. It's kinda funny because I can't really say 'without those experiences, I wouldn't be who I am today' because I'm not necessarily ecstatic about who I've become." she said with a soft chuckle, leaning her head back.

She was shocked that Alison was being so open to her. Emily didn't know what to say, but she knew she had to say something.

"You can't be that bad. At least you know where your faults lie, so you can change for the better overtime. Not everyone can see what's 'wrong with them" she said with air quotes.

"Thanks."

There was silence but it wasn't an awkward one.

"So let's see these wonderful siblings of yours" Emily said, scooting a little closer to see Alison's phone.

Alison went to her photos and started scrolling. Emily looked away so she didn't invade her privacy. A few seconds later, Alison showed Emily three of them in one photo.

"This was at a family barbecue about 2 years ago".

Emily observed the photo. They were all blonde and the women who she assumed was Charlotte also had blue eyes while the man's were green. He was very muscular and she was thin. They were all beautiful in her opinion.

"Your parents might not have given you three the most love and affection, but they did pass down fantastic genes. All of you are freaking gorgeous."

Alison began to laugh and held her stomach from it starting to hurt. "Thank you" she said in between catching her breath.

After Alison sat up straight from laughing, they were both at eye level, looking at each other from less than a foot away. Emily could feel her heart race looking into her ocean blue eyes. Neither of them broke eye contact and she saw Alison closing in the space in between them. Her mind went blank and she leaned in as they both began closing their eyes.

Buzz!

The doors began to open, which startled Emily and caused her to quickly back away from Alison. Through her peripheral, she saw Alison putting her shirt back on and began standing up.

"About time" Alison said offering a hand to help Emily up.

"Haha right".

Emily knew they both didn't mean that. If she had the option of an extra minute, she'd take it to see what would have happened. The thought of it made her stomach do flips.

When the doors opened, there were 2 firefighters directly in front of them with some nosey workers surrounding them.

"Are you ladies alright?" One of the firefighters asked.

They both nodded yes and gave their thank-yous. As they left the building they realized they were heading in different directions.

"I guess I'll see you later. Enjoy your lunch even though most of our time is gone".

"You too" Emily said smiling, as they both walked away.

"Emily!" she heard Alison yell out.

Emily turned around to look at Alison and raised her eyebrows to show she had her full attention.

"Will I get to see 10th floor Emily again?"

Emily giggled. "Yes she'll be back."

"Great." Alison said with her eyes lit up. She turned and started walking and Emily did the same.

As Emily walked down the block, she felt a small smile that couldn't leave her face.

Authors Note: Ahhh it's been so long sorry. I wanted to change the middle of the story a little bit (from what I had in mind). Hope you enjoy and Happy New Year! Thoughts/Comments appreciated.