To Color Your Life

"Would you get off me already?!" the man barked in Emily's ear.

She was so confused that she did not immediately realize what had happened. The eye was still burning, so she had to strain the second eye which was the only one working properly at the moment.

"Sorry," she tried to get up, but stumbled over something and fell back onto the stranger.

Lord, why are you doing this to me?! If I didn't die of stress in the presence of three bosses, you decided to finish me off with public shame?!

I Will Never Eat Hot Dogs Again! From now on, only healthy food!

Emily knew in her mind that the hot dog had absolutely nothing to do with it, but her brain needed to focus on something absurd so as not to focus on the absurdity of the situation in which she found herself.

The man exhaled, grabbed the girl by the shoulders, and pushed her to the side. Then he got up with a displeased sigh. He grabbed Hayes by the arm and put her to her feet. Bent over for something.

Oh, now Emily was ashamed completely.

Unsurprisingly, this stranger couldn't keep his feet when they bumped into each other. One of the man's legs was in a cast from the foot to the middle of the ankle. He lifted his crutch (on which Emily stumbled a second time) from the floor and stared at the board that was counting the floors with irritation.

"Oh, you had to get out!" Emily remembered belatedly and pressed the cancel button to change direction. There was much less distance to the top floor than to the bottom floor.

"No!" the man cried out, but it was too late. The elevator jerked and stopped.

Emily pressed the up button, but the panel didn't respond.

"Oh, why doesn't it work?" the girl was confused.

"Because this elevator is already a damn lot of years old, and it doesn't work like that, Miss! If you don't know the basic rules, you shouldn't have gotten into it at all!"

"Why are you yelling at me? I didn't bump into you on purpose! And I've already apologized. Where were you looking yourself?" Emily was indignant. Not only did her eyes burn terribly, but also this grumpy one decided to teach her a life lesson.

She felt like the last fool at this moment even without his acrid remarks.

"Only the management of the company knows about this elevator, and each of them is aware that it goes either up or down," the man began to explain in an instructive tone, "Between the upper and lower floors, without stopping. The stop button knocks this program out, which is why we will have to hang around here for fifteen minutes now. Plus, it takes ten minutes to go downstairs, take a break, and then the same amount back upstairs. In total, half an hour of time is wasted!"

"Sorry," Emily said guiltily.

It is only in love stories that similar situations cause goosebumps. Getting stuck with a stranger in an elevator. What a romance! An ideal scene for the first meeting of future lovers.

In real life, it felt like complete... cra... Well, it was unpleasant, in a word.

How did she know that this ancient elevator worked like that? She only took a ride in it once.

"Tell that to half an hour of my time, which I will waste, instead of discussing important issues." The girl's apology looked absolutely not important to this stranger.

What a disgusting person! She, by the way, is also stuck here and also not of her own free will!

Emily suddenly felt so offended that she was about to burst into tears. No, Hayes, don't even think about it. This arrogant brute isn't worth your tears.

"What's wrong with you?" He finally noticed that the girl was covering one eye with her palm, "Did you hurt something?" A slight concern crept into the man's voice.

Oh, did you really decide to be attentive to another person, who deprived you of a precious half-hour of important work? What a generosity!

"No. I got an eyelash in my eye. I just need to pull it out," she answered dryly and sniffed. Heck. Stupid physiology!

"Well, pull it out then," answered the rude man, but more calmly.

"You're blocking the mirror," Emily muttered. She had lost the desire to observe courtesy with this important peacock.

The man rolled his eyes and sighed as if she had been his wife for twenty years, nagging at him for garbage that was not taken out in time.

"You should have said so," he also muttered in response and moved to the side.

The elevator was, actually, quite narrow for two. And with the size of this stranger, it was so tiny at all.

Is he on steroids or something? Or does he not get out of the gym? If you try to grab this man, the arms will not be long enough.

Emily pushed her way between him and the mirror and focused on her problem.

She pulled out the lens quickly, but she had to tinker with the stuck eyelash.

"Are you done yet?" the man asked impatiently, noticing that the girl were still glued to the mirror.

Yeah, right. If someone was not so huge and did not block the light, then she would have done everything a long time ago.

"The lighting is bad." Emily closed her eyes and opened them again, but that didn't help. The eyelash was stuck like a soldier in a military trench, and was not going to give up.

"Can I help you?" he asked after another couple of minutes.

Hayes would like to give up such a generous courtesy, but that would be foolish. With only one normally working eye and a wacky light, her attempts were unsuccessful.

"I would be grateful for your help." Better this way than enduring this discomfort for another fifteen minutes.

"Then don't move.." The man put his crutch aside, shifted his weight to his healthy leg, and touched Emily's face.