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QUENTIN SIGHED AND RUBBED the back of his neck as he closed and locked the door to his apartment. His gym bag was at his feet and every muscle in his body was already aching due to how strenuous his workout was about to be.
After a good thirty-second walk down the hall to the elevators, the doors to the elevator on the right sprang open and with no hesitation, Quentin stepped inside and jammed his finger into the button that held the letter 'L' before closing his eyes with another sigh, his body now resting against a corner wall.
"Wait! Wait, hold the doors!" A feminine voice exclaimed from further down the hall, Quentin sprang his eyes open at the noise and managed to push the button labeled 'open doors' just as a young woman in a pencil skirt and a matching powder blue blazer came rushing onto the elevator.
"Thank you," The woman sighed, her left hand was carrying high heels and her right had an iPhone pressed to her ear, "Yes, Sammy. I have your lunch in my purse. When I'm there, I'll buzz the office so they can get you."
Quentin pressed the 'close doors' button and then curiously slid his eyes onto her face, noting that while he had lived in this building for almost a year, he had never seen her before.
The first thought that came to his mind was how much this woman looked like Tinkerbell. With her button nose, full lips, and high cheekbones, she looked like she had flown straight from Neverland to this part of Manhattan.
She's beautiful.
The elevator began to descend the pair a few floors before stopping with a troublesome vibration as she hung up the phone.
The woman, however, did not hold the same level of calm as Quentin did, looking wildly around at the small space they were in, "What the fuck just happened?"
At the sensation, Quentin simply sighed before pressing the button to the intercom on the panel of buttons, "Yo."
"Yes?" A polite feminine voice answered back.
"Elevator's stuck," Quentin replied.
"Help's on the way! Sit tight!" Quentin lowered himself to the elevator floor and then dug his phone out of his jogger pocket.
The woman looked down at Quentin, "Does this happen a lot?"
"A couple of times every few months." She sighed at his response, bringing one hand up to lightly rub the side of her palm on her forehead, "Of course. Of course, this happens today of all days."
"We're gonna be here awhile. You might as well sit," Quentin cleared his throat and then pushed himself off the wall, sticking one hand towards her, "Quentin."
The woman glanced down at his hand for a moment before sitting beside him and extending her espresso bean-colored hand, "Anjali."
The second their hands touched, a spark of electricity flitted between their palms and she pulled her hand back in quick succession before rubbing it off on the side of her pencil skirt, "So, how long does it usually take for them to open the doors?"
Quentin shrugged at the question, "To be honest, this is my first time being on the other side, usually, I see the maintenance guys working on this and I take the stairs."
"Move into a vintage building, they said. It's cooler for pictures, they said," Anjali muttered to herself.
Quentin snickered, "Who's they?"
Anjali looked over and sighed, "My best friends. When I told them I was moving to New York, they said go for the aesthetic and it sounded good for the moment but now..." She sighed before continuing, "The elevators are the only problem, right? Because if not, I am moving tomorrow."
"Well, sometimes there's a ghost that floats down the halls and yells boo." Quentin watched for her reaction, letting a smile spread on his face once the woman snickered, revealing a set of pearly whites, "That would actually be somewhat funny. Especially around Halloween. Well, as long as it's Casper and not something from The Poltergeist."
The elevator trembled and the woman next to him squeezed her eyes tightly shut and then muttered in a different language under her breath, "How are you so calm right now?" She turned her head slightly to look at him and the missing spark in her brown eyes unnerved him slightly.
Quentin shrugged once more, "I don't know. I've always been good under pressure." Anjali was quiet at that and the elevator shook once more, more softly than before, and began gently to lower them.
"Finally," Quentin muttered to himself.
"Felt," Anjali interjected her eyes on the glow that passed through the buttons that designated the floor they were on. Once the two had finally reached the lobby, there was one final violent tremor and Anjali's hand shot out to grip his.
Another shock connected their palms and the doors to the elevator opened, revealing a team of maintenance men peering down at them. As quickly as Anjali had grabbed his hand, she released it to stand up and exit the elevator.
Quentin wasted little time hanging his gym bag over his shoulder and speedwalking to catch up, "Anjali, can you wait one second?"
Anjali turned her head halfway over her shoulder and then paused only a couple of feet away from the main revolving doors. Quentin stopped in front of her and flashed a smile, "You wanna go out sometime? Continue our conversation not in an elevator?"
"Um.." Anjali sighed, "I have a boyfriend," She flashed a necklace that Quentin hadn't noticed before, that bore the name 'Mateo'.
Quentin immediately stepped back, "Oh, shit. My bad, I just thought-."
"It's okay." Anjali flashed him an awkward smile, "See you around, I guess." Then the woman walked around him to finally exit the apartment building.
Quentin stared after her for a moment then shrugged readjusted his gym bag strap and made his way out of the building.
