Won't Roux Be My Neighbor

Live Fast, Die Mung

Louise waited for the elevator patiently. Sure, she could take the stairs-she wasn't scared of the ghost everyone else in her apartment complex was convinced haunted the area-but she decided to treat herself with minimal effort and a morning donut on her Do Nothing Day. Or, wait, donut-ing day. Heh.

Between helping her dad at the restaurant and her freelance work, Louise hardly took any vacation, and certainly never on a weekday when everything was still open. Every once in a while though, Louise allowed herself a day for her philosophy of accomplishing the most while doing the least.

As a ding announced the elevator's arrival, Louise moseyed in, not even bothering to hit the door close button.

A mistake, she realized, when a well-dressed but disheveled-haired blond barreled into the shaft with her.

"Did I leave it in here?!" Logan yelled at the space, his head swiveling as he searched the small area.

"Leave what?!" Louise yelled back. Do Nothing Days were not supposed to include any form of stress, and her menace was ruining that.

She hit the floor for the lobby with a little more gusto and then the door close button, glaring at it for not pressing itself earlier.

"My laptop! I can't find it and I'm going to be late for work and-" Logan stopped suddenly, slapping a hand to his forehead and moaned. "It's at work! I left my laptop at work."

"That's a good thing, right?" Louise eyed the descending numbers. "That means you didn't lose it in the elevator."

"But that also means I've wasted the past twenty minutes looking for the stupid thing, and now it's," he checked his watch, "SHIT!"

"Language," she chided with a slight smile.

Usually, Louise wouldn't have borne witness to her neighbor's panic, with his corporate job and her restaurant schedule never lining up. Inwardly, she delighted in seeing him stress even a little, because his usual air of nonchalance annoyed her to no end after a rough day.

"Do you have everything you need to leave now, or are you taking a pointless elevator trip down?" Louise asked, rubbing salt in his wound.

Wild eyes shot to the doors as though just putting together that they were moving. Logan's hands hit at his pockets, front and back and front again, then his shoulders relaxed.

"I have everything," he sighed. "Not that it does me any good. There's going to be traffic, and I have to find a parking space at the office, which ha! At this hour? I'm not going to make it by nine. And it's on the day I have to give a damn presentation..."

Louise rolled her eyes. "Calm down. It's one presentation. How bad could that actually hurt you."

"Of course you don't get it," Logan scoffed as the elevator dinged and let them into the hall for the lobby. "My annual review is coming up, and I was in the running for a promotion. This was supposed to be MY moment."

They made their way through the lobby, offering half-hearted waves to Annie, the manager and self-ordained social event coordinator, at the front desk.

"Oh, hey you two!" Annie called out after them. "Remember, there's a mixer coming up and-"

"No," they responded in unison, continuing the journey out of the complex.

Dragging his feet and accepting fate, Logan turned right for the parking garage. Louise prepared to break off in the opposite direction, mouth falling open to tell him to build a bridge or something of the sort as a parting message, but then it hit her.

"A promotion? That comes with a raise?"

"A fat one, yeah."

"And that means more money?"