Going Up?

(A Short Story)
                                                                           I

         'Goodbye Sweetheart', Fred half-whispered over the phone, gently replaced the receiver, then stood from his chair and walked toward the glass panel.  Surely, George Clooney can't be more handsome than this general manager, he smiled to himself, not a bit caring whether or not this was pride or just innocent musing. .  All too suddenly, though, he rushed out of his office to the elevator across the corridor.... only for him to flash a look of irritation.  The elevator had gone up!  As if someone turned the moon up-side-down, he frantically dashed down the corridor toward the staircase.  He had to be on the second floor before the elevator reached it.  He barely caught his breath when next, he raced up the winding stairs to the second floor of the building.  God, make that elevator wait for me, he almost shouted in his mind.  Should anyone have wondered if this was the highly respected businessman he saw running this wild.......!!!  But up the stairs ...as he now desperately slid his way to the elevator,  heaven turned the lights red!  It was going up the third floor again!!!   Oh shucks, he had to give up.  Missed again!  and surely, she was up there already.  He couldn't stop himself from punching the air.  Just then, an attractive young lady casually walked from the other end of the corridor riffling through a set of papers in her hands.  She wasn't in green so she couldn't be Linda.  'But she's charming',  he silently commented.  It was a consolation, too, that someone else was going to be around while he waited for that heck of an elevator to come down again.   He was going to get even with it if it was the last thing he had to do on earth.

                                                                           II

        Linda looked at her blue outfit.  On the phone just moments ago, she gave in to the temptation to say  'I'm in a green dress today.  Why?'   And then she smiled,  probably at the answer from the other end of the line.  A couple of seconds after, she spoke again. 'Well, I'll have to deliver a bunch of contracts to be signed at Rm 314 right away so I'm going to have to hang up now, okay?'.  Once again, a smile beamed on her lips and she put down the receiver.  Simultaneously as the line was perhaps being severed, a long crashing noise filled the office.  But just as instantly as she was startled, she heaved a sigh of relief when she saw it was only a pile of books that caused it.  The  telephone wire got caught at the eastern book end sending all the things down the floor.  And Linda had to arrange them back on her desk  before she could leave the room, - papers in her hands.  Down the corridor, she saw the elevator had gone up already.  'Twas that phone wire',  she reproached  herself.  'Otherwise, I should be up there by now'!.  And she remembered how she jokingly lied to Fred about the color of her dress that she couldn't help feeling being punished for it and well.  But it was done.  Now she was aware of the man obviously waiting for the elevator too but she was more intent on the contracts she had just made.
                                                                         III

        Paramount Building was a 7-storey business-commercial edifice. Things within its walls spelled Punch-in at-nine, Break-at-twelve, Punch-out-at-five, day in and day out.  That is, of course, except when the sales charts sky-rocketed to the ceiling or when they zoomed down to the floor.  Nothing just seemed to happen.  Until one day when the calendar read October 20 and Fred's phone rang.  This was one of the days when he thought it rude to matter-of-formly answer 'Sorry-wrong-number!'  and so he politely entertained the voice from the end;  -tactfully told her that she was calling the wrong number.  He also found out  that she was Linda, secretary in Rm 207, and she in turned learned that he was Fred, general manager in Rm 107.  Consequently, this acquaintance eventually developed into mutual fondness for each other until a short call was added to their daily schedules.   Somehow it ended there.  They were only a floor apart but neither bothered to know how either of them looked like.  Neither of them was that curious nor interested for that matter.  But they did look forward to hearing each other's voices.  Just that.  And this came about several months ago.   Strange however that today Fred suddenly became interested in how Linda looked like.  Didn't she say she was in green?  Going up to the third floor right now?  And he had to admire the looks of him first and second to race with time like mad!
                                                                          IV

        So the elevator had gone up.  To Fred, chances were Linda had reached the third floor.  Little did he know of how things had actually gone.  Anyway he thought, when it brings her down again, she'll walk out and finally, I'll see her.  He waited.  He fidgeted.  And the cigarette between his fingers seemed to burn out a little faster than usual.  On the other hand, Linda was taking her time reviewing the papers she held.... and taking her punishment - her share of the waiting.  At last the elevator opened, once again demanding the attention of the two.  Fred especially.  Eagerly he tried to single out Linda from the handful of people that walked out but there was no lady in green.  She's still up there, he supposed, and he went in after the lady in blue. Turns out  they were the only ones going up.  As the elevator started to ascend, Linda suddenly discovered a typographical error in one of the contracts.  She frowned.  Instinctively and loudly she complained, 'This  should have been nine, not seven, stupid!'.  At about the same time, Fred noticed her frown and offered her, 'May I help you, Miss?'  And both of them stopped short!  They stared at each other.  To both minds, a very familiar voice was ringing.  But they weren't by the phone!  'It must be him,' she thought......"It is she!', he suspected.  Their eyes continued to linger but gradually on a level of tentative but positive conclusion.  Fred wanted her to talk just once more.  As naturally as he could, he reached for his back but actually pressed a button to make the elevator stop in between floors.  This, however, didn't escape Linda.  Of course she also wanted to hear his voice again  so she didn't mind it.  Her left hand held her pen but she slowly slid it into one of her pockets,  got hold of the papers from her right  and with this right hand, started going through her pockets for one.  'I've got to correct this first', she muttered, at which Fred gave her his pen.  'You can have this, Linda', he said smilingly.  She didn't try to suppress her smile anymore.  She took the pen, carefully managed to rectify the error then returned it with a  'Thanks, Fred!  Now you can press the button again.'  And she joined him in soft laughter.  The sudden upward motion of the elevator threw her off balance into his arms -arms that readily caught her.  The next instant, however, had to make her force herself out of his embrace but gently.  They had already reached the third floor and the elevator door was opening.