•6•

The moment she and he walked into the elevator, she realised how far up she was; she was on the seventh floor. She inwardly grumbled; the elevator ride was going to be longer than she expected.

He pushed the button for the ground floor while she just stared ahead, deciding to act like he wasn't in her presence. Almost a minute into the ride, the elevator came to an abrupt stop that snapped each of them from their thoughts and pushed them to the ground from the force and lack of knowledge of the abrupt stop.

Suddenly, everything went dark within the elevator. "

"What the heck was that?", Mei asked with the most panic filled calm voice she had ever heard come out of her, as she got up off the floor.

"I think the power went out, or something.", he thought out loud, answering her question concurrently.

He reached forward for the emergency phone, punched a few buttons, sighed then slammed the phone back to the wall. "Of course, the phone won't work!", he grumbled.

"Wait so we're stuck here?!", she was already letting her state of panic show too much.

"Seems so.", he answered calmly.

What he didn't know about her was that she was terrified of small spaces; she absolutely could not stand being in a small space for even the shortest of times. Bruno who had noticed her state, reached forward and grabbed her shoulders. She was already nearing hysterical then. Hyperventilating and everything.

"Calm down, Mei. The power will come back on.", he reassured her.

"How do you know that for sure?! We could be stuck here for days, maybe weeks!", yeah, she was definitely hysterical.

Her purse had dropped from her hands by now but she didn't give a damn. She just wanted to be out of there as soon as was physically possible. "Come on, take deep breaths. Do it with me." he breathed in and out several times and after she seemed to have calmed down, he gently used his hands to aid her to take a seat on the floors of the elevator.

When they had finally settled on the floor and she had gotten herself together, she noticed one other thing; the compartment was almost pitch black. She could barely see a thing. She immediately started frantically searching around for her purse, she needed to get her phone's flashlight on before she lost it.

Bruno once again, noticing her state of distress, immediately took out his phone and turned on the flashlight.

"Thank you.", she appreciated as she heaved a breath of relief. But then the light shifted and everything was dark again. She looked over at where she thought he was with fear in her eyes, noticing that he now had his phone to his ear.

"Calm down, I'm calling someone.", he simply said. For a second, she thought that his voice had provided her comfort and relief, but she had mentally waved it away, blaming the hysteria making her imagine things.

After barely a minute, he was done speaking on the phone with someone she heard him address as Frank.

Setting his phone down on the floor, screen facing the floor, he informed her, "They say they're working on it and that someone is on the way."

"Okay." she answered. Inside, she still felt weird being confined. She was now staring at the four walls of the elevator; she had begun to feel the walls were closing in on her and her breathing was slowly becoming laboured and loud. She felt like the air in the room was getting exhausted, and she couldn't breathe. She grabbed her neck, hoping to somehow ease herself.

"Calm down. The walls aren't closing in on you.", he told her with a sympathetic smile on his face.

"Breathe. Slowly.", he finished.

Her hands loosened around her neck and she started to do just what he said she should.

Minutes –which felt like hours –later, Bruno broke the silence that had ensued after her episode.

"So, what's your favorite color?"

Mei knew he was trying to take her mind off their present situation and so, she gladly obliged him. "Blue."

"Huh, mine too. We could be soulmates you know.", he said, his playful edge seemed to be back in full swing.

"That is definitely not possible. Plus how does having the same favourite colour allude to that?", she deadpanned, unamused. "And I don't believe in soulmates.", she whispered that part.

"Why don't you?", he asked curiously.

"The concept doesn't make any sense. It's not real.", she answered simply, looking down at her fingers.

"That is a weak ass reason. And, just because you haven't experienced something doesn't mean it's not real, Mei.", he chuckled.

"You're not always right, you know.", she lamely responded.

"Neither are you."

"How old are you?", he asked again after almost a minute of silence.

She looked up at him and narrowed her eyes before she answered, "Old enough.", curtly.

"Why are you so protective of your age?", he chuckled asking.

"I'm not afraid to admit my age. I just feel that, that shouldn't be a thing that I have to answer when I talk to someone new. I mean, every time I meet new people from my publishing company, the first few questions they ask, always include what my age is. I mean, I get it's a normal thing to be curious about, but I assure you, I'm not too young or too old to write what I write.", she ranted.

"But I'm not asking about your age because of your books, I'm asking cause I wanna know you. If you don't feel comfortable answering a question, or talking about something, ask the person why they asked it. Maybe if you were given a reason, you'd understand.", he laughed.

"26.", she finally answered him.

In that moment, while he smiled at her, she had the urge to ask him a few of the questions she had had in her head. She was curious; very curious. "Can I like, ask you stuff? I'm curious and I can't hold myself back anymore.", she asked tentatively.

"Fore away.", he answered with a smile on his face.

"Why are you so playful?"

"Why are you so mad?", he responded with a question.

"Touché.", she commented. "But to be fair, I'm not always so mad. I have my calm days."

"Yeah, like right now you're pretty calm.", he pointed out.

"We're stuck in a very small elevator, I'd be an idiot expending my energy on being mad."

"The elevator is not that small. It's perfectly fine. It could fit ten people.", he pointed out once again.

"Yeah, I guess it could. But those ten people would be really uncomfortable.", she almost chuckled.

By now, she was getting hot and so, she took off her coat and laid it in the floor.

"Hot eh?", he asked, stupidly in her opinion.

"No, I just wanted to lay my 60-dollar coat on the dirty elevator floor because I enjoy ruining things.", she was being sarcastic.

He laughed, actually, full-on laughed, and she had found the sound very– calming. She could find no other word to describe the feeling the sound gave her. She really didn't know whether it was she or the hysteria that was talking anymore, but she wanted to hear that pleasant sound over and over again. She shook her head, trying her best to 'snap out of it' and spoke.

"You haven't answered my question, Romano.", she bluntly pointed out.

"Okay, okay true. But first I gotta say, that I've never really cared about how my last name sounded til I heard it come from your lips."

And it was like with that statement, he set fire to her body. All that heat she felt, rose from her chest to her face, making her look like a human beet root. She snapped out of it.

"Stop evading, and answer the damn question.", she demanded.

He calmed himself from his laughing fit before he responded, "Not until you tell me why you're so damn moody all the time."

"That is not fair. I asked a question first.", she whined.

"Boo hoo. Now answer me.", he only half demanded, smiling.

She sighed,

"There's nothing in my life right now to be happy about."

"Why do you think so?"

"Because there isn't anything to be happy about. I still don't know why I'm on this stupid planet. I still don't know why my mom didn't just pop a pill and flush me away. I believe that for one to live, one has to have a purpose, you know, or at least a reason."

"And what do you think is the difference between those two?"

"Purpose is like something you feel you have to do for you to go on living. The impact you feel you need to leave. A reason isn't a purpose, but a purpose is a reason. A reason is like, maybe a person, your curiosity or whatever thing. I don't have any of those."

"You know you're a writer, right? As in, you're aware you've written like a dozen books and sold hundreds of them.", he asked incredulously.

She merely nodded then continued, "But I still feel empty for some reason so I doubt it counts. I've always felt like this, but then when I was eighteen, I started to use writing as my means of escape; an escape from constant thinking because I can't help but think every chance I get. It truly ruins me. I was just so lucky, that I got discovered by someone. That was never really my purpose."

He sighed,

"While you think of what the dark side of the moon looks like, I'm appreciating the light side. That's why I'm always happy. Everyone has problems, Mei, some more than others but many of those people that have problems look at the positives. I do that. I mean, I have nowhere near a perfect life, but I focus on the positives."

"That's another problem; in my head, I have no positives to focus on! All I have are my negatives. I can't think of anything positive, Bruno. Everything stinks in my pathetic life. I feel I'm useless here on this planet. I have no one to even think about other than my miserable self. I'm tired. Extremely.", she had angry tears in her eyes as she finished.

She couldn't hold them back, but she was sure trying.

Amidst everything, she had to admit, letting even a little out made her feel slightly better. Sure, she admitted almost all her troubles out loud, but for some inexplicable reason, she was okay.

"When was the last time you actually cried? I mean, one that relieves you; not one fuelled by alcohol.", Bruno asked out of the blue.

She thought for a short while before she finally answered in a small voice, "I can't remember."

"Okay." he answered simply. "You're alive, you're beautiful, you're a very successful writer. You're not hindered by any deformity, you're a spit fire–"

She cut him off, "What are you doing?"

"Listing all the things you should be happy about. I'll let you find the rest out on your own.", he answered her, then continued determinedly.

"Before anything, Mei, you need to learn how to love yourself. It's very obvious you hate yourself."

"Every form of love is temporary.", she silently stated.

"Not self-love, at least. That. That, is only temporary if you let it. That is the only form of love we can control. I think. Learn to love yourself, value yourself and don't let that worth diminish for whatever reason. No one else controls the amount of love you have for yourself but you, Mei Asher. Almost every one's problems arise from lack of love for their own damn self! Everyone is too busy looking for who else to love before themselves."

She was seriously thinking about what he said. He was right in certain areas, she had to admit.

"I don't hate myself.", her reply was lame even to her.

"Well that is what you make people believe.", his playful tone which was gone before had returned. "Learn to love yourself first, Mei. So that's your assignment for me."

"Assignment?", she asked bewildered.

"Congratulations, Mei Asher, you just had a session with a hot doctor without screaming at him for no apparent reason.", he said in what she identified as a gameshow host's voice.

He got off the floor and pushed a button she hadn't realised was there on the button pad, the lights came on, and the elevator was in full swing again.

"What was that?!", she was beyond bewildered in that moment and anger was slowly taking its place.

"I knew you'd play hard to get so I rigged this elevator and basically forced you to talk to me.", he answered her playfully.