Love Is Blind

Elevator

"Wh-What just happened??" Lacey gasped out, instinctively stepping closer to grab my bicep for protection.

"Looks like the elevator stopped.... Told you this old thing wouldn't make it much longer if they didn't get around to repairing it," I reminded her, sending myself into a flashback of the time when we had only known each other a few weeks and had the conversation about the rickety old elevator.

  
  I smiled and nodded, "Sounds good to me," Just then, the elevator jolted and we stopped, both of us knocking into each other as we tried not to fall over from the abrupt motion.

  "Damn elevator," I muttered, steadying her gently and then leading her out, our canes smacking against the floor in unison, "I swear, one day that things just going to break down and someone will get stuck in the old thing. You think they'd replace it considering  that they've repaired and replaced everything else in the building."

  Quietly laughing, Lacey seemed to agree, her hand swinging with my shirt a little, tugging it further from inside my snug slacks, "That would be quite a story, huh? Someone getting trapped inside the elevator."

  Laughing myself, I agreed, pushing the revolving door at the entrance and making sure she was in the cubicle with me before I stepped forward some. Pushing us out into the chill of the air, I smiled some.

  Although she didn't seem to want to, a small smile cracked across her stoic face at the shared memory. Hard to see in the murky darkness, but still slightly visible to my own naked eye if I squinted through the thick blackness just enough. Her smile caused a tiny one of my own to break the surface of my face.

  "Yeah.. Guess you were right," She admitted softly, voice much gentler than it had been in the previous ten minutes.

"Yeah... We both had an inkling that I would be, though. Didn't we?" I asked quietly, because I had known it would break down eventually and because I wanted the conversation to stay as civil as possible for the majority of whatever time we spent trapped in such a small space together.

"Yeah, I guess we did," She chuckled wistfully, as if wishing we hadn't been. Pausing for a moment, her voice suddenly returned to a slightly harsher tone than just a few moments before, "I just seriously wish that it hadn't happened to us. Of all the people that this elevator could have confined, it had to be us."

Still hoping to keep the mood light, I shrugged a bit, noticing how she had dropped her frightened grip on my arm and had stepped back a few steps, "Now, Lacey, I don't think the elevator actually chose to break down on us, not specifically at least. Although, if it did, we at least are better than some. Imagine if, say, Owen and Beatrice got locked in here!" I laughed, referring to a few co-workers that Lacey and I had once noticed fought a lot more than even an old married couple.

My random attempt at frivolous imagery, to go along with my statement, was stopped by Lacey's voicing of her feelings, "They may kill each other, but at least they'd do it properly...."

"Lacey..." I began, sighing and I could hear, as well as strain to see her slide down the wall and into a sitting position, "I didn't ever mean to hurt you."

Bitterly, Lacey laughed, shaking her head as it leaned back against the wall she crouched in front of, "Right. That's why you just flew out of my house. Because you didn't want to hurt me. Makes a hell-of-a-lot of sense, Sherlock," She ejaculated.

Shuddering a bit at the hard edge in her tone, I shook my head and sat in the corner opposite of her, "Lacey, come on, I already told you why I left. Why don't you believe me?"

Growing volatile again, she stood with a whipping motion, glaring blindly at the far wall where she obviously thought I stood, "You really don't know why I can't believe the story you've fabricated to make your lie sound better?!"