Collide: Part 3 - The Strangers
- ThisIsRyssa
- May 6, 2020
- 2 min read
DING!
The elevator doors open.
Two strangers enter.
The man pushes for the 20th floor.
The woman for the 18th.
The doors close.
The pull against gravity obvious.
Jase and Aizlyn stand in silence.
He stares blankly at his coffee cup.
Why does she look so sad?
He carefully turns his glance to her.
Aizlyn still looking down,
Hugs her portfolio tightly to her chest again.
She bites her bottom lip absentmindedly.
He’s staring at me again.
“Are you ok?”
Jase couldn’t help himself.
What is this sudden concern for a stranger?
A woman he has never met or seen before today.
“It’s nothing. I’m always like this.”
Aizlyn’s anxiety rearing its ugly head again.
“You have no reason to care anyway.”
No reason to care?
Jase is taken aback.
He had come across many people in his life.
But he had never met anyone like her.
It must be nice to not pretend for anyone.
“But thank you for asking, though,”
Aizlyn had to be polite.
Not everyone took the time to acknowledge her.
She had become accustomed to being forgotten.
“What’s on the 18th floor?”
She looks up for the first time since they met.
Their stares lock.
Jase is genuinely curious.
“Oh, um, it’s a publishing house.”
Does he really not know?
She wears a look of confusion.
Why does this feel like the longest elevator ride in the world?
“A publishing house?
There’s a publishing house in this building?”
Jase looks at the floor.
How long has that been there?
His brow furrows,
Trying his best to recall.
“Did you really not know?
Or is this an act?”
He looks so mortified.
She bites her bottom lip again,
Looking down.
Jase looks at her,
The reminisce of a smile
Working at the corner of his mouth.
“I genuinely did not know.
But I do now, so thank you.”
“I know that there’s a marketing firm on 20.
I’m guessing you’re an agent?”
Why am I so chatty all of a sudden?
Can’t this stupid machine move faster?!
“Yes. It’s actually marketing and advertising.
I’m in advertising.”
She’s trying.
He could tell it was difficult for her.
DING!
‘Level 18’ rings the disembodied voice.
She just about jumps out of the elevator.
Not wanting to look back.
She walks away.
“Hey wait!”
Jase throws his hand between the closing doors.
He yells out for her.
She stops in her tracks,
Shuts her eyes tight then turns.
“What’s your name?!”
My name?
“It’s Aizlyn.”
He removes his hand,
Finally cracks a warm smile,
“I’m Jase.”
The doors close.
She takes a deep breath.
She tries to move.
She needs to move.
She can hear the busy floor of her office.
I hope that’s the only person who will notice me today.
Aizlyn sits at her desk,
Places her portfolio down,
Looks around the room,
Her gaze stops at the elevator.
Within eyeshot.
Jase.
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