Page 36 of Cream and Punishment
My body shook in the donkey suit. My ankle throbbed in time with my pulse pumping through my skull. The beginnings of a headache clawed upward from the base of my neck. Honestly, the fact it had waited this long after the night I’d had was a miracle.
“Did that really just happen?” I asked, ignoring how obvious the answer was.
What was the protocol when your elevator that was already thirty years behind on maintenance broke down halfway between floors? If the complex’s maintenance team didn’t care enough to keep up with the elevator, I doubted they’d be in a hurry to help us out of it.
I hobbled to the buttons on the wall, which had gone ominously dark. “There’s usually a call button or something, right? For just such occasions?”
Max nodded, coming up beside me to study the panel, too. “Some call the elevator manufacturer, some call the building’s maintenance department. Others call the fire department non-emergency line, I believe.”
“Are we sure the elevator manufacturer is still in business?”
He pressed a button with a reddish tinge to it. “Guess we’ll find out.”
A tinny voice came through the tiny holes pockmarking the wall. “Yeah?”
“Uh, hi. Our elevator broke down and we’re stuck in it,” Max explained. “Can you send someone to get us out?”
“Where are you?” the voice asked, two snores shy of bored to death.
Max gave the complex’s name and address.
Static filled the elevator until the voice replied. “All right. We can get someone to you in about two hours.”
“Two hours?” I parroted, my voice pitching higher. It was already at least an hour past my bedtime, and I had a bakery to run tomorrow.
White chocolate and cranberries, how theHollandaise saucewas I supposed to run the bakery tomorrow with a bum ankle?
“It’s after-hours,” the voice explained.
“Yeah, that’s not gonna work for us.” Max’s voice this time. “I’m calling the fire department.”
I barely registered their words. The dingy elevator threatened to spin as my vision clouded with tears. What was I going to do? I couldn’t walk to the bakery in the morning with my ankle like this, and I certainly couldn’t move around the kitchen fast enough to get everything baked and ready in time to open. Even if I used a cane, I couldn’t walk and move hot cookie sheets where they needed to go. We’d have to stay closed tomorrow. I hadn’t even made it until Gale got back without failing. We’d lose businessandthe trust of our customers. It would be the Besserman debacle all over again.
He was right. I wasn’t fit to run a bakery. I couldn’t even handle going down some stairs without crashing and burning. Being in charge of employees and their livelihoods? I’d ruin everything and they’d all hate me and when my friends found out, they’d hate me too and I’d be left behind again and—
“Whoa,” Max said gently as he pulled the donkey head off. “Breathe, Dekker.”
Air brushed against my bare cheeks. Dark speckles dotted my vision, still blurry from the tears gathering along my lashes. My veins filled with static. Buzzing. I was in my body and out of it at the same time. Watching like a helpless bystander.
“Look at me,” he commanded, his voice soft yet firm. “What color are my eyes?”
I blinked away the tears until his dark eyes came into focus. “Brown.”
“Good. How many fingers am I holding up?”
It took another few blinks before his hand came into focus. “Three.”
“Good. Tell me something you can hear.”
I hesitated long enough for the sound of gasping breaths to register. Were thosemine?
I forced my lungs to expand further and hold the air before releasing it. I came back to my body, feeling my buzzing skin and shaking muscles once again. “The lights. My breathing. Your voice.”
“That’s right.” A smile pulled at the corner of his mouth. “And what animal are you wearing?”
“A demon.” I cracked a wobbly smile, my breathing finally slowing and evening out. The static in my veins died to a dull tingle.
Ha laughed, lighting up the dim elevator with the sound. “There you go. You’re back.”
