EMERGENCY STOP
Madge and Gale ended up staying at the bar until the lights came on again and the bartender (nicely) kicked them out. Gale's coworkers had long since abandoned the office holiday party, and there wasn't anyone else remaining at either the bar or the restaurant. Madge hadn't even noticed, she was so caught up in their conversation. (She had to keep pinching herself: she was actually talking to the Elevator Hottie! Gale. His name was Gale, like a wind so strong she pictured herself standing on the deck of an old ship, losing her balance and being swept away.)
Squinting at Gale through the sudden brightness of the overhead lights, Madge was relieved to see that he was just as gorgeous as she remembered from who knows how many elevator rides. The bar's dim lighting and all those vodka tonics hadn't been lying to her.
After squabbling about the bill (it was a draw; they split it), they hit their respective restrooms. Madge wasn't sure whether her legs were wobbly because of the vodka or because of the swoony feeling of discovering that her crush was even more promising than she'd hoped. He was interesting, and funny too, with a dry humor that crept out when she least expected it. She felt like her life had been on fast forward for the past two hours and only minutes had passed, and she couldn't wait to get back to him.
They met up again at the elevator bank in the restaurant's lobby. Madge laughed nervously as she spotted Gale leaning against the wall, grinning wickedly while he waited for her. Gone was the polite restraint he wore during the weekday morning elevator rides. Madge similarly threw out all her regular rules about elevator etiquette and personal space, sliding right up next to him as he pushed off from the wall. She tucked herself in so close to his side that he could have put his arm around her.
"Déjà vu?" she said quietly as they waited for the elevator, turning into his body and looking up at him. His face was just inches away from hers and she could see the forest of stubble stretching along his jaw down his neck. He smelled as delicious as she remembered from that first day she fell into him.
"Not quite," he murmured back, his breath hot on her ear.
She couldn't wait until the elevator actually arrived to start kissing him—first his absolutely edible neck, and then his lips—but when the little bell chimed and the elevator's doors welcomed them inside, they stumbled into the privacy of the empty car and kicked the intensity up a few notches.
There were 75 glorious floors to pass on the way to the building's lobby, and for the first time ever Madge wished the elevator was slower. In the back of her mind, she wondered if they could press the "EMERGENCY STOP" button, like on TV shows. Making out with the Elevator Hottie—in an elevator—clearly constituted an emergency (of amazingness) and she for one needed time to stop. The possibility of the fire department turning up to rescue the stranded elevator seemed like only a minor drawback, but she was so caught up in Gale that the idea soon fell away anyway. Madge was only aware of the blissful feeling of being enclosed in a bubble where time didn't exist.
When they arrived in the lobby and the doors slid open with a cheerful ding!, Madge pulled herself away from Gale in a fog. He looked just as disoriented as she felt, and she hoped she wasn't quite as disheveled as he was but suspected that was asking too much. She was wearing a dress so she didn't have a shirt to tuck back in the way he did—(had she really pulled his shirt up? she did vaguely remember being curious about what was beneath that amazing sweater)—but even a cursory check of her hair confirmed that her ponytail had slipped down the right side of her head, leaving a hunk of hair dangling over her left shoulder. Judging from Gale's smirk, she figured the resulting style wasn't so much "sexy" as "hurricane-victim."
(Or maybe the victim of a lesser wind. Like a gale.)
"That bad?" she laughed as she tried to fix it.
"Here, I'll help," Gale offered, stepping forward and reaching up to help her pull the rubber band out. But he must have gotten distracted because instead of helping he combed his hands through her now-loose hair and started kissing her again, more slowly this time.
Madge felt herself being pulled back into a single-minded focus on him, like she'd been the entire time at the bar and on the elevator ride to the lobby. Distantly, she heard the elevator doors shut again, the machine apparently under the impression that all its passengers had all disembarked and that it just needed to wait patiently for the next set or until it was summoned to another floor.
Perfect: that meant privacy. They had unintentionally achieved the EMERGENCY STOP Madge had wanted, with the bonus that the fire department was unlikely to show up. And even better, Gale hadn't bothered to tuck his shirt back in yet so she could continue exploring his abs.
Seconds later, Madge was jolted back into reality by the elevator doors opening again.
She and Gale pulled apart enough to see the grizzled, night security guard standing in front of them with a disapproving glare.
"Thought I heard voices," he muttered. Looking at Madge, he asked, "This guy hassling you?"
She shook her head vehemently, stepping away from Gale and feeling the way she used to in high school when her parents would walk in on her and her boyfriend making out in the TV room. But she and her high school boyfriend had never gotten very far, and with a pained glance at Gale she noticed that she'd started unbuttoning his jeans, which he was trying to casually conceal by adjusting his Darth Vader kitten sweater.
Had she really...? What on earth had she been thinking? They were in a public elevator. It was like she'd been trapped in a Lust Trance.
"All right," the guard said, taking in their rumpled appearances. "How about moving along then?"
Madge made a squeaky sound of agreement and hurried out of the elevator through the building's lobby, bolting to the large bank of glass doors that led to the sidewalk. She was greeted by a blast of freezing December night air and immediately started buttoning her overcoat and pawing through her purse for her hat and gloves.
Gale joined her outside moments later, wearing a sheepish expression.
Madge hid her face with her now-gloved hands and groaned. "That guard always keeps me company while I wait for my cab when I work late." Which was pretty much every single night. She saw the guard more than her roommate lately. "He's like… my office grandpa. How can I ever look at him again?"
"Nothing he hasn't seen a million times before, I'm sure," Gale said with a shrug. "He was probably just glad we weren't Bruce Willis and that he wasn't going to have a Die Hard sequel on his hands."
"I think we'd all like to avoid any more Die Hard sequels," Madge muttered.
Gale chuckled as he glanced up and down the street, which was twinkling and still. White holiday lights and evergreen garlands spiraled up the streetlight poles, the most obvious indicators of the holiday season now that all the shoppers and Salvation Army bell-ringers had left. Madge loved the serenity of the street during the late night hours, a sharp contrast to the daytime hustle and bustle. Tonight, the stillness was also a reminder that the day was over: her long day at work was over, her impromptu pseudo-date with Gale in the bar was over, and even the thrilling elevator ride was over.
What was next?
Madge watched Gale and felt the atmosphere between them ripple with the threat of awkwardness. The cold night air was working hard to prove that the evening's earlier moments, cocooned in the hazy warmth of the bar and the privacy of the elevator, had passed. Madge was also feeling increasingly unsteady and squeezed her eyes shut for a moment to get her bearings, shrinking into her coat for warmth. What would have happened if the guard hadn't turned up? It was a little disconcerting how her body had just gone on autopilot like that. How could she have been so caught up in the moment that she barely realized what she was doing?
"So," Gale said. Madge looked up to see him shoving his hands into his coat pockets. "Where do you live?"
She hesitated. Was he expecting her to come home with him, or for him to come over to her apartment? He probably was, after the way she'd mauled him in the elevator.
Before she could answer, Gale hurried to speak again. "I was just going to offer to split a cab. I'm not trying to invite myself over. Not that I don't want to," he quickly added. "I definitely—You're gorgeous and... I just... Yeah."
Madge frowned, thinking back over the evening. "I can't remember how many drinks I had tonight," she finally said.
Gale seemed to be waiting for her to continue, and when she didn't he offered, "Two with me. Or three? It wasn't more than three."
Plus one with Delly. She waved her hand; the exact number didn't matter. "The point is," she said, "I can't remember, which… Well, that's my rule." For deciding when to go home after a night out, and whether to go home alone.
"Honestly, I'm... kind of a mess this week," she admitted. "This is the earliest I've gone home since Monday." She felt the wave of exhaustion she'd been holding back threaten to slam into her and knock her over. The adrenaline from actually talking to Gale and making out with him in the elevator was wearing off, and the reality of having to deal with work again tomorrow was starting to sink in. Work with a hangover, most likely, she thought grimly; it was also becoming painfully obvious that however swoony Gale made her feel, the drinks were at least contributing to her unsteadiness. Coming outside again had pushed her from feeling recklessly-fun-drunk to just-let-me-sleep-for-ten-years drunk. Why had she thought she could keep up with Gale whenever he ordered another drink? He was bigger than her, not to mention a guy, while she was a wreck thanks to all the deadlines Boss #2 had thrown at her this week. There was only so long she could coast on hormone-fueled bliss and apparently the crash was happening now.
She could see Gale watching her closely, probably thinking about what a disaster she was, going from Elevator Temptress to Sad Sack on the Sidewalk within mere minutes. He would think she was a tease, and all their future elevator rides would be absolutely unbearable now... Even worse, she'd have to start coming in to work even earlier now to avoid running into him. The idea made her nauseous.
Or was she nauseous because the sidewalk was spinning? Madge squeezed her eyes shut again and willed her brain to find the right words to make this situation less awkward.
"Well," she heard Gale say into the silence, "what would you say to dinner this weekend?"
Madge's head shot up. Did he just... ask her out? On a proper date? She stared at him.
"If you're free," he added. "I know it's a busy time of year."
"I'm free. Yes. Yes, dinner!" Madge's words tumbled out before she could polish them. She could also feel her face stretching into a huge, cheesy smile.
Gale grinned back at her. "Saturday OK?"
"Perfect."
Gale beamed, and Madge felt so relieved at the prospect of getting another chance to see him that she stepped up and kissed his cheek.
She heard him suck in his breath in surprise, and then felt his arms wrapping around her in a hug. She pulled her hands out of her pockets and hugged him back. For someone she barely knew, his embrace felt strangely, wonderfully familiar. The little flicker of hope she'd been fanning all night that this could turn into something real was still alive. Through the haze in her head, she scolded herself for not having at least entertained the idea that he would be a decent guy about this. (Another sign that she wasn't thinking clearly, she knew.)
"Come on, let's get you home," he said softly, pulling out his phone.
He was so warm, Madge didn't pull away and let him keep one arm around her shoulders as he used his free hand to unlock the screen.
"I'll plan something fun this for Saturday, take your mind off this place," Gale said, gesturing back toward their building.
"Mmmm, yes," Madge agreed. Still nestled next to him, she watched him use an app to call a cab and then said softly, "Thanks. For understanding."
He squeezed her shoulder. "I've been there. You're looking at a rough Friday at work tomorrow." Then he added, "It's probably a good idea for us to hit pause until Saturday."
"Pause. I like that," Madge said dreamily. "Like the Emergency Stop button in the elevator." If she'd pressed the button, they could have paused their return to reality.
When she realized Gale was watching her quizzically, she explained, "I... uh... thought about hitting the button. So we'd get stuck."
It took Gale a second to catch on, but Madge felt the moment it clicked because he started to laugh, his chest shaking against her head.
"It felt like an emergency," she explained, cringing as soon as the words were out. This was the other problem with drinking too much: not knowing when to shut up.
Still laughing, Gale pulled away from her and she worried she'd said something wrong, but then she noticed the cab pulling over toward them and realized he was only moving to the edge of the sidewalk to wave it over.
He'd stopped laughing by the time he opened the cab's door and gestured for her to get in, though he was still grinning at her. But there was an open quality to his smile that didn't make her feel like he'd been laughing at her; it was more like he was flattered and they were in on something together.
As Madge slid past him to get into the cab, he lightly touched her hip and leaned in to whisper, "I like pause, too. It means you can pick up where you left off."
Madge could have sworn she felt the heat from his hand through all her layers of winter clothes. She met his eyes and got lost for a moment in their steely blend of intensity and playfulness.
"Exactly," she said.
A/N: Wow, this took a lot longer than I expected to post. Sorry! Please use your imaginations to pretend it's still the winter holiday season instead of nearly Groundhog Day. ;)