Page 2 of Self Expression

The elevator took forever, and when it finally opened, I was shocked to see a guy staring at me with startled eyes.

“Oh, hi.” He was crouched in the corner, balancing an armload of files on one knee with a laptop bag slumped at his feet. When he stood up, the files tumbled to the floor. “Shit.” His frame was narrow, and he looked one all-nighter away from disappearing completely.

“Hey, there.” I cocked my head, trying to remember his name. I’d seen the guy at the coffee machine a few times, but we didn’t work in the same department, so I didn’t run across him often. But the few times I’d seen him stuck with me. With a face like that, it was hard to forget. “You doing okay?”

“Yeah, just surprised to see you. I didn’t think anyone else was still around.” He gathered up his files and slipped them into his bag. “I’m Lincoln.”

“Enzo.” I stepped around him and leaned against the wall, giving him as much space as possible so he didn’t feel threatened. Lincoln didn’t seem afraid, but he was distressed enough that I considered stepping out and waiting for the next car, but the doors closed before my brain caught up with my good intentions. “I guess we’re probably the last two chumps working late before a long weekend.” I adjusted my jacket against myself without putting any pressure on my chest that might stimulate another letdown.

“Probably.” He yawned as he collected all his paperwork and shoved it into his bag. “I’m just so glad the servers will be down, and I have an excuse to not work over the next few days.”

“Sounds nice.” I chuckled. “I’m just moving my work to my house so I can get a few hours of sleep before this all starts again.

“Wait, did you hit the button?” He turned to the panel then looked at me. “Cause I don’t think we’re moving.”

“Maybe not.” I reached past him and hit the button for the underground garage. “If you weren’t here, I’d probably be standing in place for a while before I realized we weren’t moving.” I rubbed the back of my neck, trying to focus. “I need some sleep.”

“Me too.” He backed into the corner and made himself as small as possible. “And a cozy blanket and some warm milk and my remote.” He sighed. “Not necessarily in that order.”

The milk reference made me smile as I glanced up at the floor numbers while they ticked down. “Sounds like a perfect evening.” I fixed my gaze above the door and kept my breathing even. I didn’t dare look anywhere else.

And then, right as the elevator was about to hit the lobby, it stopped, and the lights flickered before going into a low-voltage mode. The red emergency light near the ceiling came on, and Lincoln gasped. “What happened?”

“Fuck.” I hit the Lobby button a few times, as if that might spark it back to life. “We’re stuck.” The emergency lights kicked on, casting us in a dim glow. “I really don’t have time for this.” I leaned against the wall and closed my eyes, praying for the ground to open and swallow me before I had to do something humiliating.

My chest throbbed as I considered my options. There was a phone number for emergencies, so I pulled out my phone.

A strange wheezing sound pulled my attention up from my phone, and I realized Lincoln was crouched on the floor with his head leaning against his knees.

“Shit.” I crouched down beside him. “Are you okay?”

He took a shuddering breath and rubbed his eyes on his knees before looking up at me. “Sorry, I’ve had a really long day, and I’m hungry and tired, and I fucking hate elevators to begin with, so this is basically my worst nightmare coming true.” He inhaled again and blew it out slowly. “No offence or anything. I’m grateful not to be alone here.”

“Please don’t cry.” I didn’t know how to handle emotions. Certainly not in extreme situations. “I’ll call maintenance. I’m sure we’ll be outta here in a few minutes.”

He gave me a single jerky nod and swallowed hard. “Yeah, okay. I’m fine. I just… I’ll be okay.”

3

LINCOLN

I dug through my bag, hoping to find a rogue granola bar or hard candy, but there was nothing.

The emergency Snickers I usually kept for moments like this had been sacrificed yesterday during an exceptionally long and boring meeting, so I had absolutely nothing to snack on, and my stomach felt like it was gonna start eating itself.

Enzo was talking quietly on his phone, and I tried not to eavesdrop, but I could tell by the way he pulled at his hair and pressed his forehead against the wall that the conversation wasn’t going well.

“Everything okay? Are they coming?” The second he hung up, I was tossing questions at him as I opened up my big water bottle, hoping there was at least a little bit left, even though I was fairly sure I had emptied it a couple hours ago. As expected, it was bone dry. Great. I could feel the tears beginning to well up again, but I held them back. “How long till it’s fixed?”

Enzo heaved out a heavy breath and turned to me. “There’s a city-wide outage, and the generator isn’t kicking in the way it’s supposed to. They’ve got a maintenance team on the way, but the dispatcher told me to prepare for four to twelve hours of waiting.” He closed his eyes as if it was as painful for him to say as it was for me to hear. “I guess we’re in it for the long haul.”

“The long haul? I can’t stay here for one hour, much less twelve. Can’t we call the fire department or something? There must be some way out of here.” I looked up at the ceiling, wondering if all those action movies I’d watched were realistic enough that maybe we could pop out the ceiling tiles and climb up some sort of wall ladder.

Enzo followed my gaze and shook his head. “We’re not climbing outta here, if that’s what you’re thinking. I mean, if the building’s on fire, I guess we can try, but we’ll be okay for a few hours.” He leaned on the wall opposite me and slid down to the floor so we were at eye level and yawned after a few minutes of just staring at me. “Maybe if we try to take a nap, time will go faster.”

I nodded, definitely ready for a nap. “I guess I can try to sleep.” There was no way I was actually gonna fall asleep, but at least lying down would be more comfortable. I pushed my computer bag to the corner and lay on my back, using it as a pillow, even though it was not even remotely comfortable. I didn’t know what to do with my hands because I usually wrapped them around one of my stuffies, so I crossed them over my chest like I imagined a mummy would have been positioned and stared up at the ceiling. “Do you seriously think it’s gonna be more than a few hours?”

Enzo didn’t lie down, but he stretched out his legs and reclined against the wall. “I fucking hope not. I’m about to burst over here.”

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