Love, Lift Me Up
The elevator doors quivered open, revealing a scene from a bad game of Tetris. Bodies jammed shoulder-to-shoulder rewarded me with withering looks for holding the door.
I mumbled an apology under my breath, the heat rising in my chest like a summer scorcher. My smile, usually bright and easy, felt strained as I pushed myself in.
Then I froze.
Jeffrey was wedged in the corner. He returned the intensity of my wanton stare with a look of devilish interest. He was my new neighbor.
Not just any neighbor, mind you. This guy had a smile that could charm a cobra. He had dreadlocks that tumbled down his back like a midnight waterfall. Today, his eyes were the color of the deepest Caribbean reef. They widened in surprise as they met mine across the cramped space.
Did his eyes grow darker now? Oh Lord Bhagavāna!
Heat rushed to my cheeks, though it didn’t show on my rich, cocoa-hued skin. My brain protested, but I ripped my gaze from his face as I tried to think of a witty opening line.
My Ph.D.-educated mind is usually a master of witty banter. But at this moment, it had devolved into a broken record: Look at him. Look at him. LOOK. AT. HIM.
While my brain was busy with basic instincts, my head turned, and my mischievous eyeballs peeked. To my dismay, they became stuck on how his dreadlocks brushed his broad shoulders.
¡Ay, Dios Mio! My jumbled hippocampus retrieved the high-school Spanish from my memory.
A dimple—a tiny fingerprint of destiny carved in his cheek—appeared with his smile.
Stop staring, Marcia! Stop—no, don’t!
An irrational urge to reach out, stretch past the people, and poke his facial indentation bubbled up ridiculously in my heart.
Marcia, get it together! I silently scolded myself.
Floor after floor, the elevator jolted to a halt, its doors springing wide open. The human Tetris formation shuffled out a bit at a time. They muttered about inconsiderate elevator hogs. Also, they pushed me further back towards him as I made way for them to exit.
Then, we’re alone in the cavity.
Jeffrey and Marcia, sitting in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g.
“Shoot!” The audible sign of my frustration with my wayward thoughts escaped me.
The ancient elevator inched skyward with a groan, and each floor sounded and felt like a labored sigh.
I closed my eyes, and a shocking reel started.
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I was beneath him. I reached up, my hands cupping the sides of his head, grabbing his face, I pulled it down to meet my eager lips.
I strained my abdominal muscles to lift my upper body and jotted my chin up.
When we were a whisper apart, he pulled my lower lip into his mouth and bit me gently. I cried out with delight. I felt the shock of the claim echoing through me.
My hands moved up and into his locs and my fingers curled around greedy handfuls of his hair. I pulled him in with urgency and whispered breathlessly, “Come, lover.”
He did.
His heavy body pinned me to the mattress. The bed creaked, and his hands cupped my butt, arching me.
“Jeffrey,” came out as a groan that escaped my person.
I felt him.
My pupils dilated behind tightly closed eyelids and my whole body shuddered.
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Ding.
The doors of the elevators opened, and so did my eyes.
The daydream evaporated, but the feelings remained all over me.
Suddenly, I was acutely aware of how close we stood. There was no reason for it, the crowd had departed.
I shifted from one Birkenstock slipper to the other. My heart hammered against my ribs like a hummingbird trapped in a cage.
After I made no move to exit, he said, “This is us.”
I looked up to see the lift was indeed on our floor.
But then, instead of my legs moving, my mind caused words to tumble out in a breathless rush.
“Hi,” I yelled, my voice betraying a nervous hitch. “I’m Marcia, your…” My voice trailed off, searching for an excuse, any excuse, to get a conversation started.
Neither of us moved.
And the mechanical doors mercifully ground to close us in.
