Page 13 of The Girlfriend Clause
“It’s fine,” I said quickly. A bold promise, considering I couldn’t see my own hand. “It’s probably just… resetting.”
“Lifts don’t usually do that, do they?” she said.
“No,” I said. “They don’t.”
I lifted a hand cautiously in front of me, trying to find the emergency panel, but brushed against nothing but cold air.
Then—
A grinding. Gears on metal.
“Shit,” she whispered.
The floor gave a twitch beneath us, as if something was unclipping itself above.
“Hey—it’s fine. It’s still… holding,” I said.
Christ, that sounded unconvincing even to me.
Another tremor ran through the metal beneath our feet.She stepped slightly toward the sound of my voice, enough that I felt the warmth of her shoulder along my arm.
“Sorry,” she murmured.
“It’s all right.” My voice came out lower than I’d intended—too serious, like it might not be all right at all. I found the intercom button by feel and pressed it. A soft tone sounded, and a faint emergency strip blinked to life along the skirting. Her face appeared in the dark—wide eyes looking at me.
The lift shuddered again, harder. Something clanged above us.Fuck.
“We should probably sit.” I pulled off my black hoodie and threw it down. “Is this okay?” I pointed at my top. “Better than sitting on the grime.”
“Yeah … okay. Thanks.”
The cables shrieked, then stopped again.
She hesitated, then folded down next to me onto the soft fabric.
The floor was cold and slightly gritty, and she rubbed her bare legs.
I wanted to put an arm around her, but we’d just met. Definitely inappropriate.
There was a tremendous shuddering, and the elevator lurched, dropping one, maybe two inches, enough to make us both catch our breath. A low, grinding vibration started—short, uneven pulses that traveled up through the floor and into my spine.
Not good.
I leaned toward her. “Andrea?”
“How do you know my—oh yeah.” She looked down. “My handbag therapist.”
“Listen,” I said quietly. “These things don’t just fall.They’ve got six different safety mechanisms that’d have to all fail at once.”
“Right,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper. “I knew that.”
“Of course,” I said. “So you’d have to work hard to make one of these things actually drop.”
Another metallic twitch shuddered through the cabin.
She flinched. “That sounds like it’s working hard.”
Fair point.
