I breathed a sigh of relief as I stepped into the elevator just after 5 p.m. on the day before Thanksgiving. My meeting with the creative director of Ogilvy & Mather Advertising had gone better than expected, and I felt elated at the prospect of working with the prestigious agency. We'd taken longer than anticipated to discuss the particulars of their Disney Studios campaign, but at the end of the day he'd awarded me exclusive rights to design all their new movie posters.
The view from their penthouse suite atop the Willis Tower was breathtaking. Chicago had been enjoying an unusually mild November, and I could see all the way across Lake Michigan on the clear autumn day. They'd feted me with a late luncheon in the Skydeck Restaurant on the 103rd floor and although I felt fully sated, I was looking forward to the annual feast with my family over the long weekend.
Ogilvy's offices had cleared out early in advance of the weekend crush, and I nodded toward the two lone elevator occupants as the door slid closed behind us. They were both dressed in expensive suits and looked to be about my age. The man standing to my right had thick ruffled hair, dark eyes, and broad shoulders that curved nicely in his tight wool suit.
But it was the woman standing on the other side of the elevator that caught my attention. Standing almost six feet tall in her Louboutin pumps, her perfectly manicured brows arched over aquamarine-colored eyes and red pouty lips. Like the handsome hunk on the opposite side of the elevator, her busty figure left little to the imagination in her form-fitting skirt and blazer. My pussy twitched as I glanced downward, eyeing her long and shapely legs. Given how far they were standing apart and how hard they were working to avoid eye contact, I quickly surmised that they didn't know each other.
Funny how perfect strangers always find the quickest way to separate themselves in close quarters, I thought.
I glanced at the elevator console to confirm the ground floor button was selected, then I stepped to the back of the lift to get a closer look at the two passengers. They looked even sexier from behind, as I shamelessly ran my eyes over their figures. The man had a nice round bump lifting the back of his blazer, and I could make out the muscular curve of his thighs filling in his tight-fitting pants.
I bet that guy doesn't have much trouble getting his share of the action, I thought, suddenly feeling warm under my form-fitting suit.
But the woman's suit was even tighter, displaying every curve and valley of her sexy figure. As I stared at the globes of her firm ass clearly delineated in her snug skirt, my panties began to moisten thinking about how much I'd like to lick my way up her long legs all the way from her pretty feet to her steamy pussy.
Normally I tried to respect everyone's desire for privacy while traveling on elevators, but whether it was the after-effects of my three-martini lunch or my giddiness from landing the prestigious account, for some reason I felt the need to break the awkward silence in the lift.
I hope you guys have as good a reason as I did to work this late on Thanksgiving weekend," I said.
"Par for the course," the man said, turning his head halfway around and smiling half-heartedly in my direction. "Goes with the territory, unfortunately."
"Mmm," the lady grunted, staring impassively toward the front of the elevator. "No rest for the wicked in the urban jungle."
I peered back and forth between the two strangers, sensing some tension between them. Were they ex-lovers or disgruntled co-workers? Maybe they'd just been working late on a problem account and were exhausted after another long day at the office.
"Do you both work at Ogil–" I said, hoping to make some new introductions at the firm.
But as the pressure increased in my ears from the rapid descent of the elevator, suddenly the lights went out and the lift screeched to an abrupt halt.
"What the–" the woman said, breathing heavily.
"Oh my God!" I said, clutching my briefcase next to me as I quivered in the darkness. "What's going on?"
"It's probably just a power failure," the man said. "Everybody's been gearing up for the holidays and the little heat wave has been drawing a lot of power from the grid lately. I'm sure ComEd will have us back on track in no time."
"Are we safe, stuck so far off the ground?" I said nervously. "This is my worst nightmare – being stuck in an elevator suspended hundreds of feet in the air."
"Not to worry," the man reassured. "Modern elevators are equipped with multiple fail-safe mechanisms. An emergency brake automatically engages in the event of a power failure, so there's no way it can drop any further."
"What about the cables?" I asked, still petrified at the thought of losing control over the elevator. "Is there a chance they might fatigue or snap if this goes on for a while?"
"No way," he said. "There's more than one cable holding us up and each one is rated for much higher loads than our current weight. As strange as it may sound, this might be one of the safest places to be in the middle of a blackout. I hate to think how crazy it might be on the streets right now with all the traffic lights out."
"That's a small consolation," I said, beginning to breathe a little more normally. "I'd rather take my chances out there in broad daylight instead of being cooped up in this claustrophobic death trap."
In the pitch blackness, I could hear the sound of the woman’s hands sliding frantically over the blacked-out console.
"What do we do now?" she said. "Can we communicate with somebody while we're locked up in here? I can't find the emergency call button in the dark–"
Suddenly, the screen of the man's cell phone illuminated and I saw his fingers tapping the surface. A flashlight lit up on the back side, and he pointed it toward the elevator control panel.
"This should help a bit," he said.
We could see a red button near the bottom of the console, and the woman slammed her palm against it repeatedly.
"Can anyone hear me?" she screamed. "We're stuck in an elevator near the top floor of the Willis Tower. Somebody help us, please!"
"The coms are probably down too," the man said calmly. "None of the electronic systems will be working as long as the power is down. I think we just need to wait it out until power is restored or the building's maintenance crew comes to retrieve us."
"Our phones," the woman said, turning her head in the direction of the man's glowing screen. "There are other ways we can call for help."
The two of us pulled our phones out of our purses and tapped 911. A message filled the screen indicating that the mobile network was temporarily unavailable.
"What the fuck?" the woman said. "The phones aren't working either?"
As the man lifted his phone to examine his screen, the backlight illuminated his handsome face.
"There's no bars. The power failure has probably disabled the cell towers too."
"Doesn't the phone company have back-up generators or something?" the woman said.
"Yes, but it will likely take some time for their systems to come online. But even if they do, every person in Chicago will likely be calling their family or emergency services to make sure everything is okay. I don't expect we'll be able to make any calls for at least a couple of hours."
"A couple of hours?!" the woman exclaimed. "How are we going to survive in this cramped elevator that long? What about air? Won't we run out of oxygen before then?"
"We're going to be fine, Elle," the man said. "There's plenty of ventilation ducts in the compartment, and with fifty floors above and below us, there's enough oxygen in the elevator shaft to support us for quite a long time."
So they do know each other, I smiled.
"You seem to know a lot about elevators for a guy wearing such an expensive suit," I said.
"Working on the hundred and fifth floor of the tallest building in the Midwest will do that to a guy. I'm a little claustrophobic too, so I did a little bit of research before I took this job. We'd starve to death long before any malfunction of the elevator would kill us."
"So we just stand here twiddling our thumbs while we wait for someone to come save us?" I said.
"It looks that way. But I'm guessing the emergency response people have their hands full dealing with a city full of panicked citizens. Plus, there's lots of other elevators in this building, so it's likely to be at least a few hours before anyone comes to our rescue. You might want to sit down and relax to make the wait a little more comfortable."
The man squatted toward the floor then leaned back against the wall and straightened his legs out in front of him. Recognizing that we might be in this for a long haul, I followed his cue and sat down kitty-corner to him against the back wall. Peering up at the woman, I saw that she was still tapping the surface of her phone, trying to make an outside connection.
"Why don't you make yourself more comfortable, Elle?" I said, trying to ease her distress. "My name's Jade. I didn't catch your name–"
"West," the man said. "The least we can do is try to get to know one another better while we're stuck in here. Make the best of an uncomfortable situation."
"It's either that or play Candy Crush on our phones until the power comes back on," I joked.
Elle exhaled a sigh of resignation as I watched her phone slide down the wall to my right while she plopped down on the floor.
"Why not?" she said. "I can't think of a better inmate to spend my time with while I'm locked up in here.".
"You two know one another then," I said. "Do you work together, or do you have some kind of other relationship?"
"Hardly," Elle huffed. "Not in a million years."
"We work together at Ogilvy," West said. "We handle two of the firm's largest accounts. I guess there's been a bit of a competition of sorts to see who would make partner first–"
"Not likely, with that lame-ass automotive account you've been handed. Can't you see that's a dying business with more and more people switching to foreign cars these days?"
"Maybe, but at least it's reliable. Not like that new tech account of yours–"
Suddenly, our conversation was interrupted with the sound of banging coming from inside the elevator shaft.
"What's that noise?" Elle said.
We paused to listen as the clanging sound grew louder and more frenetic.
"Could it be the maintenance technicians trying to open the doors above us?" I said.
"Unlikely," West said. "I can't imagine they'd be able to respond this fast. Most of them are probably stuck in traffic on their way home already."
"What is it then?" Elle asked. "Are the cables about to snap?"
The clanging noises suddenly changed to a rhythmic pattern of short and long taps.
"It sounds like an SOS signal. Probably from another group of people trapped in an elevator above or below us."
"That's not a bad idea," Elle said, pounding her fist against the wall beside her. "At least we know we've got some company."
"Not that it's likely to do us much good," West said. "There's not much either of us can do from our current locations."
Elle tilted her phone up, scanning the ceiling with her flashlight.
"If you're so clever Mr. Smartypants, maybe you can figure out how to get the lid off this thing and find a nearby exit?"
West chuckled softly in the darkness.
"There's a reason these things aren't designed to be evacuated from the inside," he said. "It takes a special key to open the lid from the outside. It wouldn't be safe for us to exit that way even if we could. Who knows when the elevator might start up again and pin us against the walls?"
"With all the time you spend in the gym," Elle huffed, "I would have thought you could jimmy up the cables to the nearest door."
"Yeah," West said. "I'm sure it's that simple. I'll get right on it."
It was obvious there was a lot more going on between these two than a competitive rivalry. Their little digs sounded more like a high school crush than a workplace disagreement.
"Is it getting hot in here, or is it just me?" I said, trying to break the tension.
I'd begun to perspire under my suit, and I was pretty sure it wasn't because I was afraid of plummeting to my death anymore.
"I feel it too," West said. "The air conditioning systems would have gone offline along with the power. And the radiant heat from outside the building is slowly creeping into the elevator shaft."
"Oh great," Elle said. "So now we're going to boil to death while we wait for help?"
"It shouldn't get much hotter than the temperature outside. I expect it will begin to cool as the sun goes down. You can always loosen your clothes to get more comfortable."
"That's the best pick-up line I've heard in a while," I chuckled.
"You have no idea," Elle sneered. "He's full of them."
"I guess it wouldn't hurt to take off my jacket and loosen my shirt," I said. "It's not like we can see anything in the pitch dark anyway, right?"
"I wouldn't put it past him to flash his phone you least expect it," Elle said. "We still have a few fleeting sources of power while we're waiting."
"Not for long," West said, peering at the glowing surface of his phone. "I'm already in the yellow zone for power. How about you guys?"
"I'm showing ten percent," I said.
"I'm down to two percent," Elle cursed. "I knew I should have replaced my battery during the last upgrade cycle. I can barely get through a full day at the best of times."
"We're consuming a lot of extra juice with our screens and flashlights on full strength," West said. "It's probably best to turn them off or at least switch to sleep mode to save them for when we really need them."
"Awesome," Elle said. "What do we do in the meantime?"
"Why don't we do what people used to do before the advent of modern technology and talk to one another," I said. "It sounds like you guys could use some more open lines of communication anyhow."
"What did you want to talk about?" she said sarcastically. "Our favorite hobbies and the unusual weather we’ve had lately?"
"Well it's probably best to steer clear of work," I suggested. "Tell us something personal about yourself, something nobody else would know. I mean, I'll probably never see you guys again once we get out of this predicament. Who else is gonna know?"
The compartment suddenly fell quiet as each of us pondered what to say.
"You know, it's strange," West said, breaking the silence. "I've always wondered what it would be like be in a situation like this. It's kind of exciting in a way, being left to our own devices without any outside stimulation."
"Kind of like being trapped on a deserted island," Elle chuckled.
"In a way, I guess. Makes you wonder what you'd do to pass the time, so far removed from modern conveniences."
"What do you think you'd do to amuse yourself on this deserted island, West?" I said, eager to steer the conversation in a different direction.
"Depends on who I was stranded with."
"What if it were just you?"
"I guess I'd have to scrape by on my memories. Or spend my time fantasizing about how to get off the island."
"And if you couldn't?" Elle said. "What would you fantasize about then?
"The usual macho stuff, I suppose. "That I was stranded in paradise with a supermodel–"
"Or two?" I joked.
"The more the merrier," West said.
"You men are always fantasizing about doing it with multiple women at the same time," Elle said.
"What about you then, Elle?" I asked, deflecting the attention away from West temporarily. "What would be your ultimate fantasy if you were stranded on a deserted island?"
"I’d probably go stir crazy all by myself after a while. I suppose I wouldn't be much different from West, dreaming about being stuck there with David Beckham or Brad Pitt..."
"Only men?" I said, fishing for more details.
"I dunno. I've never tried it with women before. But I suppose if we were stuck on a deserted island long enough, one thing might lead to another..."
"What about you, Jade?" West said, sensing a theme developing.
"I lean more toward women, myself. Although if I didn't have any other choice, I might be tempted to dabble a bit–"
"It is getting hot in here," West said as the sound of rustling clothes filled the compartment.
"Hotter than your deserted island fantasy?" I asked.
"It's getting there. All this talk about mixing it up with different partners is making me hot under the collar."
"Don't let us stop you from acting out your fantasy, West," Elle said. "It's just us girls in here. We won't tell if you don't."
"What exactly did you have in mind?" West asked.
"Something tells me you're getting uncomfortable in those heavy clothes for more than one reason," she said. "If you need to free the beast, don't let us stop you from getting your freak on."
"Um..." West paused, unsure if we were thinking the same thing.
"I think maybe West needs a little extra encouragement, Elle," I said. "Why don't you scooch up a little closer to me so he can exercise his fantasy more vividly?"
"This little adventure is getting more interesting by the moment," Elle purred, shimmying her hips across the floor to sit next to me. "I suppose there's more than one way to relieve the boredom when you're stuck in an elevator."
