Sasha stood cold and alone inside the silent elevator. Her warm formal attire kept her body warm, but the elevators cool air chilled her eyebrows. The feeling of the cold on her eyebrows made Sasha think about her childhood, and how her childhood shaped her character.
When she was younger, Sasha's friends tried to pressure her into shaving her eyebrows; they said that she would never find a boyfriend if she didn't change her looks, starting with the eyebrows. Sasha never shaved her eyebrows for two reasons: one reason was because she didn't trust her friends when it came to fashion, and two being that she never gave a damn about what boys liked. Sasha believed that if a boy couldn't love her in her natural form, then she shouldn't be expected to do the same for the boy. She believed a relationship must be mutual, and it must be honest.
Sasha was about to go into thought about how those memories shaped the way she viewed Aiden, when suddenly the elevator door opened. The bright light of the room fell upon her shaded lenses, and her eyes, which had been slightly visible while she was inside the dimly lit elevator, were suddenly obscured by the reflection.
Sasha walked out of the elevator and into the lobby. Max was sitting in his little front desk booth, comfortably relaxing in his chair. His back was aching from the bad posture he had been using during the previous weeks of work. He turned his head slight to his right, and saw Sasha walking towards him. Her pacing was rather masculine and intimidating, in the eyes of Max, Sasha looked like a secret agent; slowly approaching him like a vulture walking towards a wounded prey.
Max wasn't a twitchy guy, but Sasha made him twitchy. He had been working with her for the past month, and he still hadn't gotten used to the way she moved. They were friends, they got along very well; but something about Sasha's movements, and her overall appearance, sent chills down Max's spine. Max wasn't attracted to Sasha, she was far too young for him, he was in his mid-thirties, she was turning 20 in a few weeks; the age gap was just too discomforting to him. This is not to say that he did not find her beautiful, that he didn't find her voice to be soothing or her personality perfect; he recognized her for her stunning nature, but he did not admire it; it simply reminded him of when he was younger. It's like what happens when a person turns 20 years old, and looks back in their old yearbook at their 10 year old crush from elementary school.
Sasha's view on Max was a bit odd. She felt as though he was younger than her, despite knowing that he was actually over ten years older than her. She saw him as a friend, she liked how he was always nervous, it made him easier to communicate to and it gave her a unique sense of power that she felt like she didn't have over other men. She wasn't sure whether it was her looks that intimidated him, or if he was simply a twitchy man at all times. Sasha didn't like Max in a romantic manner, but she found him to be a fun person to talk to, and definitely a person she could relate to. Sasha was a lonely young woman, and Max was just as, if not more lonely. She saw Max as the kind of man that used to sit to himself at lunch, a loner who is afraid to socialize, despite being fully capable. Sasha would also tend to vent all her problems to Max, Max's nervousness kept him listening, and made him an ideal person to consult for advice.
Sasha walked over to one of the white lounge chairs and sat down in front of a small class table, she sat with her legs crossed; showing Max that she was relaxed. Max noticed this gesture and responded to it with a great sigh, which emptied his lungs of fear, and filled them with curiosity; that curious air that filled his lungs soon left his lungs in the form of a question "What does Rudolph want you to do now?"
Sasha turned her head over and smiled in a slightly warm and flirtatious manner at Max and responded in a gentle voice "He wants me to wait here for Aiden, when he's done, I'll take him to the safe house."
Max looked down at the table, nervous from Sasha's gorgeous smile, and asked another question "Did he tell you where the safe house is?" Sasha looked at the ceiling in unsurety and then answered "Come to think of it... he didn't tell me, I guess he'll tell me after Aiden gets back."
Max was sweating inside of his thick formal business suit, Sasha's presence always made him nervous, and the bright lights from the ceiling made him feel extremely hot. He didn't want to take off his suit jacket though, he felt so professional in it, and he didn't want to make himself look less professional so he suffered through the warmth. With a drop of sweat dripping from the side of his head, he asked Sasha "Why wait when we can figure it out from here?" After asking the question he looked up at Sasha to give eye contact, he was shocked to see that in the few seconds that he had looked down, Sasha had taken off her jacket, and had the sleeves rolled up on her dress shirt. Sasha's tan made her arms stand out from her snow white dress shirt.
Sasha looked at Max straight with both eyes and said "Sure, might as well make use of our time, no point in just sitting around staring at each other." Max choked nervously on air when he heard Sasha say the words "staring at each other". Max quickly regained his nerves and said "Okay, hold on I'll call up one of the security guys, I called him earlier before you guys got in asking him for arrangements on the safe house, he should have everything figured out by now." Max picked up the telephone at his booth and spoke to the man on the other side, he rested the phone on his shoulder and started writing something down on a sticky note, after a while he said "Thank you" and hung up the phone. Max took the sticky note and said "Hey I got the directions for you; I've got bad handwriting though so you might want to write them down yourself."
Sasha felt her pockets all over with her hands, she looked up at Max and said "Sorry, I uh... I don't have pen or paper." Max opened up one of his drawers and said "No worries, I've got some, come over here." Sasha sat up and, without picking up her jacket, walked over behind the booth with Max. She took the pen and started to write down the instructions on the piece of paper. Suddenly, Max noticed a strange group of people walking towards the front entrance. A man and a woman.
The woman walked behind the man, barely visible behind the thick glass. Max did however get a good look at the man. The man was wearing a plaid shirt, with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, this was strange because it was very cold outside, Max thought it odd that the man would have his sleeves rolled up. The man had square, black glasses on, with see through lenses that exposed his green eyes. His hair was blonde and spiky in the front, and he was very thin for a man wearing plaid. He wore a black leather belt that wrapped tightly around his bright olive workman's pants, his shirt was perfectly tucked in, and everything about him looked as though it was prepared such a way that the man appeared as though he was ready for a photo shoot.
Upon entering seeing the man near the door, Max's curiosity changed to anger, as he noticed the man appeared to be reaching for something in his back pocket. Max turned to Sasha and said
"This guy's got a gun..."
