The Elevator

Copyright (c) 2018 James Miehoff, All Rights Reserved.

This work may not be published whether for fee or free without this copyright.

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This is one of a series of stories set in what I call Universe-J. Universe-J is very much like this universe with a few exceptions.

First the people tend to be a little more sexual and less hung up on sex that they are in our universe. This does not mean that monogamy is the exception. James and Heather were monogamous for a significant amount of time before they "accidentally" swapped partners.

Second the repercussions of unprotected sex are less severe than our universe. Not to say that STDs and unexpected pregnancies don't occur, just that they occur less frequently and in the case of STDs, a good shot of antibiotic will put you right again. HIV has yet to be introduced so STDs aren't a death sentence there.

Lastly, pedophilia and incest (which I will not be writing about) are virtually unknown. Children are to be protected and loved not abused. When they reach the age of consent, they can join in the adult games if they so desire, but there is no pressure on them to do so.

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It was one of those business meetings that were becoming all too common. Go out to a prospective client's location, trot out the dancing programmer to dazzle with brilliance and baffle with bullshit. I am starting to hate my life.

I got to the meeting room early the second (and hopefully last) day of this trip and caught Tanya, the Business Facilitator, setting out notepads and pens on the conference room table. She smiled briefly and I smiled back. I just wanted this day to end so we could go home on the early flight tomorrow morning.

Letting the coffee try to wash away the drinks and the shots from last night, I tried to make some small talk with Tanya.

"I don't remember seeing you at dinner last night," I said.

She gave me a flash of annoyance and then said calmly, "I wasn't invited."

"We need to fix that," I said.

"Need to fix what?" came a voice from behind me.

Tanya's eyes showed panic and as I turned I saw that it was Barry, the VP of Sales and Marketing.

'In for a penny in for a pound,' said one of the voices in my head.

"Ms. Tanya was just telling me that she wasn't invited to the dinner last night," I said.

Barry stopped for a second, turned to Tanya and asked, "Tanya, are you one of the team here?"

That fight or flight look appeared for a moment before she answered, "Yes sir. I am a part of the team, or I like to think I am."

Barry looked at her and said, "No. You ARE part of the team and as such you never need to be invited to a dinner when you are on the team that is going out for dinner. Please accept my apologies that this was not made clear to you before this. You are always welcome when the team goes out for an event."

"Thank you sir," replied a stunned Tanya.

As Barry turned to put some creamer in his coffee, Tanya shot me a smile that would melt a glacier and mouthed a silent "Thank you". I just gave her a nod and a subtle thumbs-up.

The rest of the day went off just the way I feared it would. After some opening remarks, the client asked if we could suspend the agenda and have some of his technical people join us for some Q&A time. That put me on the hot seat for the next 6 hours.

Apparently, it went well. After the final break, I relieved myself of the 20 gallons of water I had drunk trying to keep my mouth from drying up and sticking shut. As I was heading back to the room, the head of the client's IT department caught me and after a minute of chit chat, not so subtly offered me a job.

I might have thought about it, but my boss' boss was 5 feet away and no doubt heard the whole thing. How embarrassing.

I spent most of the dinner that night trying to avoid the client's IT people to keep from having a repeat performance. So that meant I sat next to Larry, one of our business people and a total asshole. He was also Tanya's boss I found out.

When we got to the hotel I frantically pushed the up button praying for a miracle elevator because Larry was headed straight for me. With that, 'Can I have a moment of your time?' look.

"Ding" went the elevator chime and I jumped through the doors as they were opening, almost knocking poor Tanya to the ground. I whirled around and pushed the door closed button and then breathed a sigh of relief when they closed quickly.

"Oh, Tanya, I'm sorry about that. Larry was coming and I didn't want to deal with him," I said lamely.

"I understand completely," she said. "He can be a total dickhead."

A second later she went on, "I mean, he comes off as being pissed off that there are women in the workplace. It's as though he still thinks that women are only good for fucking and making babies and making dinner. Not necessarily in that order."

In the silence that appeared after that pronouncement, the chime of the floors being passed sounded very loud. I glanced over and saw floor 14 was pressed and the counter showing floor 9 being passed.

"Oh shit!" Tanya suddenly exclaimed. "I shouldn't have said that, should I? Please don't get me fired."

I got as far as saying "Don't worry" when the lights flickered and went out. The car suddenly shuddered and dropped a few inches. Tanya screamed and then the there was a clunk and the elevator stopped.

"Oh my god, oh my god, ohmygod," was all I could hear from Tanya.

Putting on my best calming voice I called out to her, "Are you alright?"

"Ohmigod. No. I don't like the dark and I don't like confined spaces and I really don't like small dark spaces," was the reply I got as the words tumbled out of her.

"I feel like I am going to fall over. The room is spinning and I can't catch my breath," Tanya continued in a very panicky voice.

"Reach over with your left hand. You are by the left wall. Just touch the wall and slide your hand down until you find the handrail," I said trying to project a calm soothing voice. "The lights should be on any second."

"Ok. I have the handrail," she said. "But I still feel like I am going to faint."

"Don't faint yet," I said. "Use the handrail to lower yourself to the floor and I will come over there."

"Ok," she said in a tiny voice.

I reached out my hand to touch the back wall. Using that hand as a guide, I slid along the back wall until I hit the left wall.

"I'm at the back wall next to you," I said. "I'm going to find you by feel. Many apologies in advance, if I bump something inappropriate. I can't see what I'm doing either."

A second later I felt something bump my crotch.

"You are right here," she said. "That was my head."

"Ok. Good. I am going to sit down next to you," I said and did just that.

When I reached out to touch her I think I bumped one of her boobs because she shrieked and grabbed my arm. A second later I had a lap full of Tanya burying her head on my shoulder and wrapping her arms around me.

I sat enjoying that contact for a few minutes and then said, "I am going to try and get my phone out. It has a bit of a light when it is turned on. Maybe it's enough to find the call button."

I reached out and slid my hand down her back trying to find my pocket. I finally pulled the phone out and turned it on. Suddenly there was enough light to see by.

"Oh thank god," she said.

I looked at it. 13% battery left. Need to make this quick.

"Not good," I said. "The battery is almost dead. I need to move over to find the call button now."

"Ok," she said sounding stronger for the miniscule light.

I found the call button and pressed it. And nothing happened. The power is out. Of course nothing is going to happen.

And then we got a ringing sound. Success. Well, success if someone answers.

It rang for what seemed like forever; finally a young man's voice came on.

"Hello, hello," he said.

"Hello," we both said.

I continued, "We are stuck in one of your elevators. Can you get us out?"

"I'm sorry. Not right at the moment," he said. "We had to evacuate the hotel. The power is out for blocks around here. There is a fire in an underground substation about a block away. It knocked all the power out."

"Great. Just great," I said.

"Do you know what elevator you are in and what floor you might be near?" he asked.

I lifted the phone higher and asked, "Does LB3 mean anything to you?"

"Ok, good," he said. "That means lobby bank elevator number 3. Do you know what floor you might be near?"

"I think I saw the 12th floor on the display. We were headed for the 14th floor," Tanya offered.

"Ok, great," said the disembodied voice. "I will pass that along to the fire department. Once they have a couple spare firefighters, I am sure we can get you guys out without any problems. Just hang in there."

It sounded like the line went dead, so I crawled back over to Tanya and sat next to her with my back against the wall.

I turned the phone off to save the battery and we sat in the dark. Gradually Tanya moved closer to me until she was lying across my lap. I have no doubts that she could feel the hardon I had in my pants.

I couldn't tell time in the dark, so I don't know how long it was before I could feel Tanya shaking and I knew she was crying. I rubbed her back and she finally stopped and sat up.

"I'm sorry I'm being such a big baby," she said in a very shaky voice. "But I'm scared."

"I know," I said. "I'm not very happy either, even though I have a very beautiful young woman draped all over my lap."

"You think I'm beautiful?" Tanya asked. "But you can't see me in the dark."

"You are gorgeous. Remember, I have seen you in the light, so I know how beautiful you are. Plus your hand on my crotch has been making me think of all sorts of things that would cause HR to fire my ass in a heartbeat."

She moved her hand quite suddenly and by pure luck I caught it and brought it to my mouth to kiss her knuckles.

"That was not a complaint, by the way," I said. "Since we are stuck here and have nothing better to do, would you like to play a game of 20 questions?"

"20 questions?" she asked. "How do we play?"

"It's simple," I explained. "We take turns asking questions. You can answer the question or if it is too personal, you say 'Pass' and the other person needs to ask a new question."

"Ok," she said hesitantly.

"I'll go first," I said. "How did you come to work for the Very Large Corporation?"

"Hmmm," she said. "I started as an intern a couple of years ago when I was getting my bachelors of business degree. After I graduated I found out that a BA doesn't get you very far, but I couldn't afford to go back to get a masters yet and I called up Steven who had been my intern advisor and he was able to get me this job."

I told her it was her turn and she basically repeated my question back to me. I gave her the short condensed version of how I ended up where I am at now.

For my next question, I asked, "So what is a Business Meeting Facilitator, anyway?"

She giggled, which told me it was working to get her mind off the fact that we were stuck in the dark in an elevator.

"Well," she said. "Is this off the record? I mean this isn't going to get back to Larry, is it?"

"Cross my heart and hope to fry," I said, "This is just between us girls."

"Ok. The job description is that I have to set up the meeting rooms. Make sure there are donuts and pastries and coffee and food for breaks. I make the lunch and dinner reservations and make sure there are tablets of paper and pens and all the usual meeting crap. Then I am to sit behind our business team and look sexy but unapproachable to distract the other team, but still look like if the price is right and the deal goes through, I might be available."

"Wow," I said. "I never thought about it like that. Interesting. Ok. My turn in the hot seat."

The questions were pretty basic and they helped pass the time, until I finally went for broke. I hesitated for a second trying to phrase it just right, then gave up and blurted it out.

"What is your bra size?" I asked.

"What??!?!?" she exclaimed as she pulled away from me slightly.

"OK. I'll take that as a pass. Let me try again. Yesterday, your chest was slightly larger, but your nipples never popped out. Today you are smaller, but your nipples show quite nicely. So I am going to guess that you are an A cup and yesterday you were wearing a padded bra. Today you went with a much thinner and probably silkier bra and it allowed your nipples more freedom to express their opinions."

"Not that it matters," she began icily. "But yes, I am an A cup gal. A member of the Itty Bitty Titty Committee. A card carrying member of the Tiny Tits for Tots program."

As she took a breath to launch into another round of self-deprecation, I stopped her, "And I think that they are lovely. "

Her breath hissed out of her, "You do?"

"Yes. And I won't hold that question against you," I said.

"What ques ... oh," she faded.

I plowed on before she could object again, "Big ones get your attention. Both guys and gals will stare at a big pair of breasts. Probably for different reasons, but they will still stare. In my experience, small ones tend to be a lot more sensitive and expressive. I'll bet that you have orgasmed from having your breasts played with the right way.

"There are very few chesty gals that can say the same thing. From what I could see earlier, I would love to see them up close and personal someday. They look like they would enjoy being cuddled and caressed and teased and licked."

"You might be right," she stated after a bit of a pause. "But it is my question now. Is there a Mrs. James or a girlfriend or girlfriends?"

"Technically, that is 3 questions, but I will let it slide," was my first response.

Continuing I said, "And the answers are yes, yes and yes."

"Wait, what?!?" she asked. "What the hell do you mean by that?"

I laughed. "Yes, there is a Mrs. James. Her name is Heather. She is an amazing lady. And there is a girlfriend and there are girlfriends."

"Does she know about the girlfriends?" asked Tanya incredulously.

"Oh, yes," I said, "In fact she has brought several girlfriends home to share with me, just as I have brought boy toys home for her.

"We have what the media calls an open marriage. It is all based on trust and honesty. If I find a lady I want to have sex with, I tell Heather and if she sees a guy she wants to fuck she tells me. We very often then bring those people home and the three or four of us make love all night."

"Wow," Tanya said. "Ok, your next question."

"Turnabout," I said before asking, "Is there a Mr. Tanya or a significant other?"

Tanya hesitated then stated, "Not now. I have had a few semi-serious boyfriends, but nothing permanent and nothing for about six months now. My question?"

"Shoot," I said.

"Why don't you wear a wedding ring? Is it because of the open marriage?" she asked.

I started to laugh. "No," I said, "The explanation has nothing to do with our marriage. If I can borrow your hand for a minute?"

I paused and found her fingers and ran them up and down on my ring finger.

"You feel all those bumps?" I asked.

She said, "Yes."

"I got those while helping a friend put up a garage. I was on a ladder and the ladder wasn't steady. I started to fall and I reached out stop the fall. I got my wedding ring caught on a nail. I was dangling there for a few seconds as my finger was being torn off. Fortunately, the head of the nail popped off and I fell to the ground. My finger was broken and they cut the ring off on the way to the hospital. I had three plates and a dozen screws hold it in place until it healed. I never had the ring repaired."

"Oh my god, that is awful," she said and then she kissed my finger.

I continued, "We had a guy a few years ago that worked with me. He had been a professional concert clarinetist. He got his wedding ring caught on a nail on a hay ride when he was jumping off. In his case, it did tear the finger off. They tried to reattach it, but it didn't take. That was the end of his music career. He is a project manager now. I guess 9 fingers can play with a project better than a clarinet."

"That is horrible," she said. "I guess you were lucky."

There was a long pause as we both sat stewing in our thoughts.

Just then the lights flickered. And flickered again. Then stayed on. We could feel the elevator shake and rise up a foot and then the doors opened.

We wasted no time in bolting for the hallway. We must have been closer to a floor than we thought. If we had only known and had any tools to pry the doors open we could have been free in minutes instead of the 2 and a half hours my watch was showing me.

I looked at the wall plate to see what floor we were on and started laughing with just a tinge of hysteria. I pointed to the wall plate so Tanya would know why I was laughing.

"Oh shit!" she exclaimed. "We almost made it before the power went out."

"Yep," I said, "If we had a tool to force the door open we could have avoided this whole episode."

"But in a way," Tanya said slowly. "I'm glad it happened. Now I know you a whole lot better and I hope you know me better. "

She stepped closer and gave me a hug and a kiss.

"Thank you for being there. I would have going crazy if you hadn't been there. I am not sure that I haven't. All I know is that I am taking the stairs tomorrow," she said firmly. "My room is this way, so I'll see you in the morning."

I looked and said, "Funny my room is that way too. I'll walk with you until we get to the first room."

She nodded, grabbed my hand and we walked down until we both said, "Here is my room."

Laughing we looked at each other. We had rooms on opposite sides of the hall. We had been neighbors for the last couple of days and didn't even know it.

I reached over and pulled her close and gave her a big long kiss that she returned and then we turned to our respective rooms and turned in for the night.

I threw all of my clothes on my suitcase and went in for a long shower. It felt so good to be clean as I walked naked around my room.

My next move was to raid the mini bar and arrange all the bottles of alcoholic beverages that I could stand to drink. I lined them up on the coffee table in order from most favorite to least favorite. I was decided which end to start on when there was a knock on my door.

I grabbed the robe out of the closet, threw it on and opened the door. The last thing I would have expected to see was Tanya in a nice silky robe standing there shaking and pale as a ghost.

"May, may I come in?" she asked hesitantly.

"Please," I said. "Forgive my bad manners for just staring, but you are the last thing I was expecting."

She started to pass me and then then grabbed me and held on like a drowning woman. All I could do is hug her back and try to breathe.

After a minute she let go and finished coming into my room. She reached back and pulled a suitcase I somehow missed seeing in with her.

"I'm so sorry to barge in like this," was all she got out before she broke down in tears and clung to me again. I held her again until it passed. This time I wasn't having the life squeezed out of me and I could enjoy it much more. That robe was so soft and silky. I mentally filed away a request to ask where she got it so I could surprise Heather with one.

I led her over to the little couch and sat her down. She looked at the bottles on the coffee table, then looked up at me questioning. I explained that I am not normally an alcoholic, but after the elevator, I was going to make an exception. I was going to try to drink myself to sleep. She nodded.

"I hadn't thought about that," she said wistfully.

"I thought I was ok. So I took a quick shower and got ready for bed and when I turned off the lights I froze in terror, I realized that I didn't want to be alone tonight" she said (it actually didn't come out that concisely. The story dribbled out in spurts between bouts of crying).