The Gravity of Love by Anne Thomas

of the
cold, she tried to shut the doors but found it impossible. They were jammed
open.
    Zipping her windbreaker a little higher and
tucking her chin and mouth inside to make it warmer, she checked her watch. In
ten minutes she was supposed to be meeting Marty, Joe and Harrison at a
restaurant for a late lunch or early dinner. It wasn't good now they'd all be
gone by now. Unless...
    Harrison was known to be late to most
everything but work. Would he still come? But even if he did, how would he know
that she was here? Over half the time he took the stairs too. Five or six times
to be stuck up here over the years was enough to gamble with the elevator only
when he had time to spare.
    She hadn't seen his truck outside the
apartment, and he had to come home to feed his dog Jake and take him out for a
run over a block or too.
    Either way, he'd find her. He always did
when she managed to get herself in difficult positions, despite the fact that
she hated it had to be him. After one of these 'wonderful rescues of the damsel
in distress' he'd gloat and act like her own personal super hero that she just
had to have because she was quite helpless quite often.
    After a half hour of being stranded up
there, she was starting to think that she'd willing let him gloat around if he
wanted to if only he'd come...
    _______________________________________________________________________
    Molly looked at her watch. Forty five
minutes late to the restaurant and she still wasn't sure of Harrison's
whereabouts, only that he wasn't here. She had already debated taking her
clothes and making a rope of it to try to get to another level but not only
was the material of her clothes too slippery to have knots that would keep, but
she only wore a pair of jeans and a tank top with a windbreaker over top not
much to go on.
    While waiting, she even had a debate with
herself over the pros and cons of having hair like Repunzel. It must suck to
comb out all the time, but it sure would come in handy at strange times like
this. After all, if she was Repunzel, she wouldn't be sitting in the corner of
a broken elevator, shaking from the cold and listening to the high squeak
noises of either mouse or bat, perhaps both. She sat as still as possible after
a while, paranoia setting in as her mind played tricks on her making her
think that the elevator was slowly sinking and would soon crash to the ground.
    But she was calm, and that was the
important thing. She refused to let her situation get the best of her and leave
her with the worst this time. This time would be different. She'd survive this
in one piece if only someone would come and lend her a hand...
    _______________________________________________________________________
    Harrison came strolling in the apartment
building, the blue fur of an Australian dog leading the way.
    Jake hated the stairs. He'd go up them if
his fur was soaked and wanted to me home as quickly as possible which
required breaking away from his master and running up the stairs. But on a
sunny day such as this, he wanted to go the lazy way, despite the fact that
Harrison was so late to dinner. He was sure Molly would give him quite the
mouthful when he arrived at the restaurant an hour late.
    "Jake, that elevator takes five
minutes just to go down, let alone go up. You hate when it creaks, remember?
And what if it happens to get stuck? I'll be able to get out, but the hell with
you. And then Molly would freak out more on me because I'd have to save your
sorry behind, which should only take an hour..."
    Harrison looked down at the dog that was
staring back at him with mismatched eyes that looked at him as if saying,
'aren't you wasting more time arguing with your dog instead of just doing what
little that I ask?'
    Which ended up sealing the deal.
"Fine, fine." He groaned, pressing the down button at the elevator
doors. It didn't work. He stood there for a few minutes, yet still nothing
happened.
    "Must be broken." He said.
    His cell phone