Rekindled flames

Elevator Incident & Orange Cat

"Wait, wait for me, please," a voice said, and their footsteps were rushing toward the elevator.

Tom put his arm before the entrance to keep the door open. He was polite. He patiently waited for the person to enter the elevator and he sighed at the sight of his coworker, Samuel. Long story short, Tom didn't really like Samuel. Samuel didn't really like Tom either, so.

Tom stepped back to make room for the other man. His back hit the wall. The lift wasn't that small, but Tom really despised his black haired coworker. Samuel leant against the opposite wall as the door closed.

Yeah, so now it was only the two of them in that tight space for no more than thirty seconds but the tension was already thick.

Tom hit the button to the ground floor and sighed again.

"Thanks," Samuel finally huffed. So, at least they were both pissed at the situation.

Tom didn't answer.

Instead, he chose to judge Samuel. He was a classic almost-six-feet-tall guy, with black curly hair down his shoulders and black eyes, paired with a tan skin. And some stubble - very light, though. If Tom was being honest and objective, Samuel was hot. And if he was really, really honest (drunk) he could admit that he probably could have had a crush on the man, if he wasn't who he was.

They had met almost a year ago, when Tom had started to work in the building, on Samuel's floor. The first encounter hadn't gone well and since then, it was like they had managed to never be left alone together. The few times it had actually happened weren't great memories.

And now, they were in the same elevator. Great. It wasn't like there were four elevators in the room, wasn't it? There were absolutely four elevators. So he was even more pissed, if possible. Why did Samuel have to choose the very same lift as him? Honestly.

Only thirty seconds, he had to remind himself.

But, obviously, the only day he was in an elevator with a man he didn't like was the day said elevator got stuck between the tenth and the ninth floor.

It happened quickly, with a thud. The elevator was going down and suddenly, it wasn't going at all. The two men stared at each other at the same time, the same litany of 'no, no, nos' in their heads. The light was still on, fortunately, and they waited a couple of seconds, hoping to feel the lift restart. It did not.

Tom sighed - it seemed to be his thing today - and Samuel felt obligated to push the ring button. They heard a short, sharp 'bip' and then a woman's voice saying "Hi".

"Hi, uhm... We're, uh... Stuck. In an elevator," the black-haired man answered.

He's dumb as fuck, Tom thought.

"... I figured," the woman said. "That's why people usually call us. I need an address to send one of our teams to you."

Samuel gave the building's address and the number of the lift - because, once again, there were four of them. And, once again, he had to step in Tom's. Well, not Tom's, because, really, the building wasn't his, but the elevator he was in. Just because he didn't want to wait. And here they were, for-

"I'm gonna be honest with you, you'll have to wait for a minimum of three hours. Like, three to five," the woman announced. "They're doing as fast as they can, but you know, there's no miracle."

"'F course. Thanks, though," Samuel mumbled .

At the very same time, Tom slipped a "Fuck me," under his breath. Because, yeah, it was five pm, which led to eight pm in the best case, or ten in the worse. And he knew his luck better than anyone. He was going to be home at midnight. He thought of his poor cat, Wendy, who was going to wait for her dinner. In a moment of clarity, he put out his phone to send a text to Jenny, his very friendly neighbour. She had the keys, she could give the hungry cat - because Wendy was always hungry and let's be honest, she was fat - her delicious meal. But, like in every film, there was no signal. He groaned.