Collateral Damage

chapter 2

Noah called me just before I left the apartment for work. He had forgotten the file he needed for his presentation and the meeting was going to start in a little over a half-hour.

He wanted me to bring it to his office.

I said okay and hung up. My phone beeped indicating low battery. Damn, I forgot to plug it in last night. I plugged the charger and decided to carry on without my phone today.

I groaned. I was going to be late for work. Picking up the file from the coffee table I opened it to check it was the right one. It was.

How he could forget the one most important thing he needed for this meeting was beyond me. I locked the door and made my way out of the apartment complex.

Noah and I'd been together since we started dating in the first year of college. He was the only person, except for Elyse who I knew so well. Yet I had still to see where he worked.

I looked up at the tall building, one of the tallest skyscrapers in New York.

The company he worked for consisted of four floors. I took the elevator for the 52nd floor, the file clutched in my hand.

The elevator was fortunately empty. I'd never liked taking elevators. Being with strangers in closed spaces was not my thing. The reason I had a desk job and not something exciting was because I really didn't like talking to new people. I get all anxious if faced with the possibility of making a conversation with a person or making eye contact. That's probably why I only had two friends. One of them was my roommate in college and I was going to marry the other one.

Just before the doors to the elevator closed, a person entered. Damnit, I had celebrated too early. I kept from looking at his face. All I could see was what looked like a really expensive black suit. I averted my eyes as he stood a few feet beside me. For a moment we just stood there in silence, my fingers fidgeting with a ring on my right hand, rotating it around my middle finger. Then I stupidly realized that I had yet to press a button and hastily did that.

A few seconds of silence later, I decided to peek a look at him with the corner of my eye and immediately cursed my actions.

It was the stranger from last night. The walls of the elevator suddenly seemed to be closing in on me.

It would just be my luck, that I would run into the same stranger twice in a city this big.

The tension in the small space was palpable. My hand returned to the ring. I willed the elevator to move faster.

He didn't say anything at all. Didn't even move a muscle, just stared robotically ahead, unblinking. Was he even human? I hoped against everything that he wouldn't remember me, but with my luck that seemed impossible. Him actually being the serial killer on the news last night would be more like it.

As soon as the door opened I blazed past him. Never thought I'd say this, but the people milling about actually made me feel better. Normally, seeing this many people would make me sweat, but it was comforting to know that no one could commit murder with these many people around.

Still, I kept my eyes down. I got the distinct feeling of someone watching me. A lot of stares on me. I take my words back. It was not comforting to have these many stares on you. I wanted the ground to eat me up. I made a very bad decision of looking up and meet their stares bravely. I would not be dictated by their stares. I had done nothing wrong.

I knew from past experience it wouldn't work and only end up in me being even more nervous and making a fool of myself by stumbling or something. And no matter how many times I would talk myself into facing my fears, it always ended badly. And I kept on making the same mistakes every time, never learning. Because learning, in this case, would mean giving up. And I may be cowardly, but I wasn't a quitter.