My Peculiar Man

Five

"So I'll tell Carla you were not mad. And that I did not have to apologise."

"Of course," I smiled, though I am not sure she'll believe you. "I wasn't angry at all."

He grinned at me. 

I was contemplating if I had ever seen such a beautiful grin when I realized something was wrong.

 There wasn't a single elevator in sight.

"Um...there isn't an elevator?"

I'm sure it is secretly hiding somewhere?

"No," Ethan shook his head. "We don't have elevators here. We climb the stairs. It is to keep people healthy. Besides, we have only five floors."

I looked disbelievingly at the large flight of stairs stretched in front of me.

You've got to be kidding me!

 How could the headquarters of such a big brand not have an elevator?

 And Five floors?! You mean I have to climb up FIVE FLIGHT OF STAIRS?

"Oh, that sounds.... just... p..perfect!" I stammered.

 I grit my teeth, internally wondering how in god's name I was going to make up to the fifth floor alive.

 Breath in. Breath out.

I had never taken more than one floor in my entire eighteen years and six months of life on this earth.

 And I never even worked out. I was probably gonna be dead meat by the time I arrived there.

But that didn't mean I was going to give up without trying. Whatever the reasons, I had made it inside the Dalitino headquarters and I wasn't going to just surrender.

"So you know," said Ethan, matching my pace as I start to climb those giant stairs as if I did it all the time. "I have been recording some songs. Carla has built an awesome studio for me. It's on the fifth floor. You wanna see it?"

"You're a singer?" And why haven't I  ever heard about that?

"Carla says I'm not a singer yet." 

"So you plan to be a singer."

"Yeah. I can sing pretty well."

"Oh," I said, not sure how to respond since I had never heard him sing, also wondering why he wasn't being modest. "I would love to hear you sing sometime."

"You want to? I'll sing for you when we reach my studio." He said excitedly.

"Er...actually, I am supposed to meet Sarah on the fifth floor?"

Speaking of floors, we were on the first floor now. My bag was starting to feel heavy.

"Oh. Okay."

"Maybe after that?" I said brightly, unable to bear the disappointed look on his face.

"Yeah. Okay. Come after that." He cheered up at once.

I stared at Ethan's face, unable to quite figure out exactly what was different about this man. He was different alright. I didn't know if it was even right to think of him as a man even though he undoubtedly looked like one.

 He seemed a little childish, wanting to show me his studio, like a kid wanting to show off his toys, and when I said I wanted to hear him sing, he was ready to sing for me right away.

Do people normally do that?

I couldn't dwell too much on that as I started to feel some strain on my feet. Ethan was scaling those stairs without any apparent effort as I struggled to keep up with him.