Someone bumped the back of her four inch heel as they shifted to the rear of the elevator as she moved her foot and stepped forward slightly, waiting for her fourteen floor ride to be over so she could escape the mixed scents of people and their obnoxious slurping as they sucked down coffee and all their talking as if each person were the most important person there, when the same person who kicked her heel pinched her butt, and she brought the point of her heel back and up as she bent her knee and nailed her intended target, for she heard his gasp of pain as she reached the seventh floor where old Mr. Williams stepped in and joined the ride, but the poor man was so old he has lost some important functions in his aging, such as control of the muscles in his buttocks because all the people who regularly rode this elevator had to fear his flatulence and though they had become accustomed to holding their breaths, they all still wanted to pass out, so today she was just happy she was standing next to Ms. Potts, an old lady she was sure spilled a whole bottle of perfume on herself every morning in a failed attempt to disguise the horrible odor of moth balls which permeated her clothing, but at least she didn’t have to smell Mr. Williams’ gas which nauseated the rest of the elevator crew making them thankful to step off to their various floors to begin the work routine, yet here she reached floor nine and Bill got on, no doubt on his way to floor fifteen to harass the barista at the coffee shop, but she was glad it wasn’t her anymore because she’d gotten into enough trouble six months ago when they’d run into each other at that very same coffee shop and he’d uttered a few pretty words and in her vulnerability fell for him, but only because Michael has up and left her without warning, but now Bill was here and she was trying to avoid his open gaze, for he was always so blunt and open and didn’t care who saw what, so he tortured her with that stare floor after floor, reminding her of those few months that she slept with him because she was angry with Michael and thought that would be an effective way of getting back at him but it didn’t work because Michael ended up with a pretty little brunette and married her and got her pregnant, and Bill went after the trampy barista, and she just smiled in bitter relief when she reached the fourteenth floor and could escape the elevator.
SCF Venice — A Literary and Arts Magazine