Disclaimers in part 1
They quietly got in the elevator and hit the
button for their floor, 11. The elevator was between the fifth and sixth floors
when it stopped suddenly. "Oh God, now what?" said Mac. AJ reached
for the emergency phone; luckily someone was there. They told AJ they would
send someone right away to get them out - hopefully in about an hour or two.
Mac saw AJ hang up the phone with a disgusted look on his face.
"Have a seat, Mac. Make yourself
comfortable, it might be a while."
"Why does this have to happen to me? I
knew I shouldn’t have come here."
"I’m sorry I dragged you here Mac. It’s
my fault."
"Did you stop the elevator?" she
asked realizing she was being foolish. "It’s not your fault, AJ. Why don’t
we have a seat?" They sat down next to each other, just barely touching.
They were quiet for a while, then Sarah asked, "Why do you go by AJ?"
"My name is Albert Jethro in case you
forgot."
"Al isn’t bad."
"My father thought the same thing. I was
named after him and my mother’s father. My father went by Al so I was stuck
with Jethro."
"I bet that made school tough."
"My last name is bad enough, but
Jethro." He shook his head. "I got lucky in second grade. My teacher,
Mrs. Kline took pity on me and started to call me ‘AJ.’ I liked it. I’ve been
AJ ever since. So how did you become Mac?"
"Growing up, I used to hang around a
bunch of guys. They called most of them by their first names but
‘Sarah’ just didn’t fit so Eddie started to
call me ‘Mac.’"
"Who was Eddie?"
"My favorite drinking buddy." She
got quiet and then she softly said, "I can’t believe it’s been 15 years
since he died. It still feels like yesterday."
"What happened, Sarah?"
"We were out drinking, like usual, but I
needed to go home. I was going to walk but he offered to drive. He said he
didn’t have as much as I had." She stopped speaking. AJ wrapped his arm
around her and pulled her closer. Comforted by his touch, she continued,
"He wasn’t wearing his seat belt, I was. I don’t know why. I hardly ever
used it. He swerved off the road and hit a tree. He was flung through the
window. I got out of the car, uninjured and tried to help him, but I was still
way to drunk to think clearly. The last thing I remember is the look in his
eyes when he told me he was scared of dying." AJ squeezed her shoulders.
"It was my fault." Her eyes started to tear up.
"No, it wasn’t, Sarah. Eddie got behind
the wheel himself and didn’t use his seatbelt. There was nothing you could have
done." He pulled her head to his chest and stroked her hair as she cried.
When she finally stopped crying, she looked up at AJ somewhat embarrassed.
"Sorry," she mumbled.
"It’s okay, Sarah. You needed to talk
about it." She looked into his eyes and saw the concern there. She also
saw desire. She looked away for a moment and thought about their near kisses
lately. She wanted to kiss him but she was afraid of her emotions. She knew she
was confused about her feelings for him. She had always been attracted to him
but working with him she knew she could never say anything. She rested her head
on his chest again and before she knew it, she was asleep.
AJ just held her and thought about his
feelings for her. He had been attracted to her since the day they met, but he
knew he could never do anything about it. He hadn’t told anyone but she was one
of the reasons he retired. He didn’t know how to tell her his feelings though.
He knew that she had to realize that he had feelings of some sort for her,
especially after all of the near kisses recently. He really wanted to talk to
her about what was going on between them, but he didn’t know how to go about
it. She didn’t seem to have a problem with him trying to get closer to her. She
never complained about the near kisses and she had met him halfway. She seemed
to be a bit embarrassed after each kiss but not upset. If she were the least
bit upset he wouldn’t have tried a second time. He adjusted his hold on her so
that he could watch her while she slept.
Suddenly the phone rang and she woke up as he
answered the phone. She pulled away as far as she could since he still had his
arm around her. He hung up the phone, "They should be here soon, Sarah.
Have a good nap?"
"I didn’t mean to fall asleep."
"That’s okay. You’ve been up for 24
hours or so. It’s almost 4am."
"So have you," she said with a
smile.
"I’m a SeAL. I’m used to it."
"Thank you for listening to me,
AJ."
"Of course. Any time you need to talk
I’ll be glad to listen. I hope you know that." She nodded then looked up
at him and thought about the near kisses again. They kept getting interrupted,
so what better time than now, she thought boldly. She leaned in to him when the
doors suddenly opened. Totally embarrassed she jumped away. They finally got
out of the elevator. The maintenance man suggested that they use the other
elevator. They both declined. They took the stairs the rest of the way
upstairs. Neither said anything until they got into the room.
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