Hello! The Elevator is a long-form, weekly serial featuring women loving women storylines with some adventure and sci-fi. New chapters come out every Wednesday and Saturday.
Previously: Quinn and Haley get to know one another as they wait for the elevator to restart. Quinn works in HR, Haley is a musician. The elevator kicks back on, and then stops again.
Chapter 3
“Are you ok?” Quinn asked as she stood up, willing her legs to not buckle.
“You know, I’ve had worse on that Tower of Terror ride at Disney,” Haley gave a half chuckle. “But yes, physically, ok.”
“What do you think that was about?”
Haley replied, “I’m wondering if there was an earthquake. Like the first time was the actual quake and now we’re having aftershocks.”
Quinn nodded her head. She looked at the ceiling panel on the floor, shards of the mirrored glass littering the floor. As she was scraping the pieces closer to the wall with her boot, she splashed a small puddle.
“I don’t think your coffee survived the freefall,” Haley said.
Quinn sighed, “I had over half of it left. What a pisser.”
“And isn’t it ironic that’s the reason you set it down in the first place.”
Quinn could see Haley’s smile in the glow of her phone. She couldn’t help but smile in return.
Quinn stood in front of the operating panel and pushed every button. None of them lit up, no response. She pushed the help button again, for the third time that morning. She knew it was a useless exercise but it made her feel better.
Haley patted the floor next to her, “Come sit next to me. You lurking like that isn’t helping the situation. Save your energy.”
Sometimes expending energy was helpful for Quinn in stressful situations. It gave the adrenaline a destination. If given the choice of fight, flight, or freeze, she wouldn’t freeze. But she typically didn’t fight either. Too bad overthink wasn’t a fourth option in that series. She wiped her palms on her pant legs and sat down next to Haley, their backs against the elevator wall.
“How many aftershocks usually happen in an earthquake?” Quinn asked.
Haley shrugged her shoulders, “Just depends.”
“I don’t know how Californians deal with this. At least in Florida, we get almost a week’s notice of an impending hurricane. Plenty of time to prepare.”
“And plenty of time to stew over what’s coming. I remember hurricane prepping in North Carolina. You just wait and wait. And then a tilt or wobble takes the storm off the projected path anyway. Sometimes it’s better to just not know… just deal with it as it comes. You can’t prepare for everything life throws at you,” Haley reasoned.
“I just think it’s helpful if there’s a plan,” Quinn said. She always had a plan, at least in her professional life. Every step of her career charted with intention, thinking about the next position while in her current role. Like Seneca said, luck is when preparation meets opportunity.
“Well, what would you like the plan to be right now?” Haley said.
Quinn blew a stream of air out of her pursed lips and closed her eyes, “I don’t know. I’m gonna’ need a minute.”
Luck right now would be getting out of this elevator, but what’s the preparation for that? She didn’t want to admit that Haley may have a point.
Haley shifted her sitting position and Quinn felt Haley’s shoulder and upper arm press against hers. It was warm and grounding. Quinn’s chest relaxed as she exhaled.
“You ever been in a situation like this before?” Quinn asked.
“I was on an airplane once where they made us sit on the tarmac for three hours as they resolved a mechanical situation. Not entirely like this, but it was a lot of waiting and a lot of stale air. Lots of babies crying. Lots of smells.”
Quinn shot her a questioning look.
“Oh, no, don’t worry, it’s not a one-for-one comparison. This air isn’t quite stale. But I can still smell your perfume,” Haley grinned. “What about you?”
Quinn shook her head. “The closest thing is when I was playing hide and seek with my brother and some of his friends as a kid. He told me to hide under the couch, but then he never came back and got me, and I couldn’t get out from under it myself.”
Haley raised her eyebrows, “Yikes. Nice brother.”
“Eh, he’s a good guy… now,” Quinn replied.
“You see the result of those two stories though, right? I got off the airplane and you got out from under the couch. We’ll get out of this elevator too,” said Haley.
Quinn felt Haley lean into her with her shoulder. Her eyes had adjusted to the darkness, and she could make out the curls framing Haley’s face. “Thanks.”
Quinn tilted her head back against the wall. Her eyes scanned the ceiling, landing on the void where the tile had once been. A hole now leading to the elevator shaft. She jumped to her feet and aimed her phone flashlight at the hole. The beam disappeared into darkness.
“What if we get up there and peek out of the ceiling?” Quinn asked.
“What are we looking for?” Haley replied.
“I don’t know yet. But there might be something useful.”
Haley rose reluctantly. “Listen, I get that you need a plan. But I’m not sure looking out of the ceiling into the elevator shaft is going to accomplish anything.”
“Well, it’s not like we have anything else to do at the moment,” Quinn said, crossing her arms in front of her chest.
“Fine. How are we getting up there?” Haley asked.
Quinn looked at the hole, estimating it to be about two feet square. She should be able to fit. She felt the back wall and side wall of the elevator, finding a handrail a little lower than waist high.
“I’ll stand on the handrails and that should get me high enough to look through the ceiling,” Quinn said. “I just may need help balancing.”
Haley set her phone on the floor with the flashlight on to illuminate the elevator. She sighed, “Ok, whatever you want.”
Quinn pocketed her phone and backed herself into the corner, straddling the remains of her iced coffee and the fallen tile. She looked up and then at Haley.
“Yea, I don’t really know what I’m doing,” Quinn said.
Haley shook her head slightly. She moved to the corner Quinn was in and placed Quinn’s hands on her shoulders. She tapped Quinn’s right thigh.
“Hold on to my shoulders and put your right foot on the side handrail and push yourself up. Then get your left foot on the back handrail as soon as you can. Shift your weight back into the corner and I’ll make sure you don’t fall forward,” Haley said.
Quinn felt the soft roundness of Haley’s shoulders and her breath quickened. “That, uh, sounds like a good plan.”
She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and steadied herself. She opened her eyes to find Haley looking back at her. Haley nodded once and said, “You got this.”
Quinn put her right foot on the handrail – thank Goddess for yoga enhancing her flexibility – and pushed off the floor with her left foot. She tried not to grasp Haley’s shoulders too tightly and forced herself to lean back into the corner. Haley placed her hands on top of Quinn’s and pivoted hers underneath, interlacing fingers palm to palm and pushing Quinn backward, allowing her to stand up at a normal height instead of squatting on the handrails.
Once she was standing, Quinn was able to stick her head through the hole. The air was cooler and smelled like a car mechanic’s shop. It was too dark to see more than a foot in front of her.
“I need to use a flashlight,” Quinn said, still holding on to Haley’s hands for support.
Haley nodded, “I’ll just move my hands. I still got you.”
Slowly, Quinn took her left hand from Haley’s and grabbed on to the edge of the open ceiling. She used her right hand to operate the flashlight. Haley placed her hands on Quinn’s hips, her thumbs grazing the skin above the waistband of her pants and her fingers pressing into her curves.
A current surged from Quinn’s navel to her throat. It had been a while since a woman’s hands had been on her hips. She swallowed hard and forced herself to focus on locating anything above the elevator that might be useful.
She could see the cement walls of the elevator shaft and the intricate system of cables and pulleys attached to the top of the elevator. A large black eight was painted to the right of an opening in the shaft slightly below the elevator car.
She lowered herself, placing her hands back on Haley’s shoulders to hop down from the handrails. Haley didn’t step back immediately and for a moment they stood inches apart. Quinn looked in Haley’s eyes and the current reignited.
Quinn glanced away, “I didn’t see much up there. No stairs or emergency exits.”
“Thank you for trying,” Haley said. They separated and stood on opposite sides of the car.
“It looks like the car is stopped at floor eight, or at least half the car is,” Quinn said.
“What do you mean?” asked Haley.
“The car is slightly above the building opening to that floor, so if we could open the internal doors, we’d be able to access the eighth floor.”
“Huh, why haven’t we tried to just pry open the doors yet?” Haley said.
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