“Going Down?”

“Oh, yes. Ground floor. Thank you,” I responded to the rather handsome gentlemen who’d held the elevator door open for me as I stepped on.

He looked quite dapper in his long, dark wool overcoat, charcoal grey suit and deep red tie. I figured he was one of the lawyers or accountants who worked on the top floors. It wasn’t often that I ventured this high up in my 32 story skyrise office building.

A black leather glove clad fingertip depressed the recessed ‘G’ button once again, which lighted a soft amber yellow, and then my elevator mate pressed the ‘door closed’ button to hurry us on our way.

“Whew. Quite a day,” he huffed in an obvious effort to make elevator small talk.

“It sure has been,” I replied, just trying to be courteous. I could smell his musky cologne wafting down from his neck toward me. He was a tall, broad-shouldered man. I figured him to stand around six-foot-four. In that heavy, dark wool coat he cut quite the imposing figure. I found my mind wandering toward what he might look like out of that suit and coat.

“I’m Jeffrey. Jeffery Pendleton,” he declared, turning to extend his hand toward me. “I don’t believe we’ve met.”

“Uh, no, sir. I don’t believe we have,” I replied, taking his hand in my own. His grip was strong, fierce and confident. It was easy to tell how this guy had achieved the high rank in the company that he must hold. His presence was overwhelming. I felt my knees weakening as I loomed in his shadow in the tiny cubular space. My breath left me. “I’m… I’m Roger Corbin,” I wheezed.

“Pleasure to meet you, Roger. What department are you with?”

“I’m in mergers and acquisitions. I actually just started here a few weeks ago.”

“Mergers and acquisitions, eh? What brings you up this way?” he jested, calling attention to the awkwardness of working for such a large company as we did.

“I had to deliver some files to accounting. Just making a quick trip. I don’t actually get up this way too often.” I was captured by this man. His slightly thinning rusty blonde hair. His square cheekbones and long drawn ice blue eye. His smile dimpled out just so at the edges of his dark, thin lips, creating little ravines that guided the eye right back up to those prominent cheek bones.

Then there was a mighty jerk, we both nearly lost our balance, and all the lights went out in the elevator. Shocked by the event, I reached out in the darkness, thinking to catch hold of one of the four walls. Rather, my hands clasped upon the thick, strong arm of Jeffrey who was also groping in the darkness.

The elevator had come to a dead stop, suddenly, and we both held an apprehensive silence for a moment before he finally spoke. “I think we lost power.”

“We’re not going to fall, are we?!” I gasped. I immediately felt like such a coward for asking it. But it was a shocking experience and the words just flew from my lips.

Jeffrey took my arm with one of his large, strong mitts and curled it back into my body, stepping toward me. “No, we’re not going to fall, Roger. The power will come back and we’ll be on our way.”

Then, the emergency