Going Down: The Elevator Series (25 page)

Cole unswathed himself in an instant. He grabbed my hand and pulled me toward the living room. “We need to go now!”

I pulled back, causing him to stop, and yelled, “Where’s Leroy?”

I heard an annoyed meow from the front of the apartment. Leroy was already at the door, waiting for one of the idiot humans to open it. The smoke detectors blared throughout the apartment. I tucked my very exasperated cat under my arm like a football, and we ambled toward the stairs. The steaming Wookie pulled the fire alarm in the hallway.

I had been in a lot of uncomfortable situations in my life, but I’d never been in any quite like standing outside my apartment in little more than patriotic underwear next to a smoking Chewbacca as all the other residents watched the fire department douse our homes. There was no blending in with the crowd, and there was no pretending to not know the culprit. Even Leroy didn’t want to be seen with us.

The Chewbacca head was so badly burned that it looked like something from my childhood nightmares. It had found its final resting place in a nearby trashcan.

The nice EMTs in the ambulance checked out Cole and determined the costume had absorbed all the damage. His pride was the only thing injured. They still gave him a shock blanket to cover up in. I asked for one, too, but they lectured me on fire safety, and then told me they were out of blankets.

Cole sat on the curb with Leroy tucked into his blanket. I batted my eyes at him. “Can I have your blanket?”

“You lit me on fire.”

I huffed. “Wow, someone holds a grudge.”

He pulled the blanket tighter around him. “It was less than thirty minutes ago.”

I am never going to live this down.

He reached over, taking hold of my hand. “Seriously though, are you sure you’re not hurt?”

I squeezed his hand. “I’m perfectly fine. It’s you I’m worried about. I can’t believe how fast that thing went up.”

He ran his hands down a small, unblemished portion of the leg. “Is there… oil on here?”

I became very interested in the ground. “It makes the coat shinier.”

“I see,” he said flatly.

I scooted closer to him, taking his face in my hands. “I think this is partially my fault—”

“Partially?”

I put my finger over his lips. “Shh. I never want to see you hurt. I love you too much; I can’t lose you. I’m so glad you’re all right. I was so scared up there.”

He opened up his blanket to wrap his arms around me. “I’m so glad we’ll both all right. Let’s make a pact to never die.”

I smiled up at him. “Deal.”

He bent his head down for what started as a soft kiss, but heated up quickly. Maybe it was the near death experience. Maybe it was just Cole’s nearness. Maybe it was the smell of seared hair mixed with his cologne. I wasn’t going to analyze it. I wanted to climb inside him and stay there forever. His need for me felt just as great. I might have stripped him on the street if his zipper hadn’t melted.

Someone clearing their throat unnecessarily loud broke us apart. “I presume you two are the ones in 408?”

“I—um—yes,” I stuttered.

The very perturbed firefighter stood over us, hat in hand. “You got lucky. Yours was the only apartment damaged. It’s mostly smoke damage, but your bedroom is ruined.”

I exhaled in relief. Things could’ve been so much worse. “You guys got here so fast. Thank you so much.”

“We still had your address programmed in the GPS, ma’am. Too bad we don’t have a reward program for repeat customers.” He cleared his throat unnecessarily loud again. “We took the liberty of confiscating all the candles we found, and we left a coloring book with basic safety tips on your kitchen counter. Have a good night.”

He walked off without waiting for a response.

What little remained of the night was spent at Cole’s. Leroy was not happy to be uprooted. He was even less happy about being shoved in a duffel bag and told to keep quiet so we could take a cab to Cole’s apartment. We got kicked out of two cabs before having to walk the last six blocks. Cabbies would pick up the biggest freak shows and train wrecks you’ve ever seen, but a woman with a hissing, growling, caterwauling bag was a problem.

As much as we didn’t want to, Cole and I dragged ourselves into the office the next morning. We had both been less than productive during our separation, and we had an enormous amount of work to be done. A total of three showers between us, and we still reeked of soot and burned hair. No amount of fragrance and hair product could cover it.

Luckily, I had been such an office hermit lately that I could easily avoid everyone else without it looking unusual. That was the plan anyway. And the plan was doomed like all the rest.

I was sneaking to the kitchen for coffee since I’d only had two cups so far. I noticed Barry’s light was on, which was unusual for this time of the morning. He was usually one of the last ones in since he stayed up so late watching God knows what online every night. He was behind his desk, attentively watching something that would no doubt go in his HR file later today. It wasn’t until I walked back with my caffeine supplement that he seemed to notice me.

“Good morning, Wonder Woman.”

I stopped so abruptly that coffee slopped onto my shoes.

Damn it. Those were new.

I couldn’t recall ever having a joking conversation with Barry, so this had to be coincidence. He probably had a superhero fetish and called all females Wonder Woman. “What did you say?”

Barry didn’t look away from his computer screen. “I said good morning, Wonder Woman. Burn down any more buildings last night?”

A sound like a boiling teakettle bubbled up from my diaphragm. My first instinct was to run like I always did. My second instinct was to bludgeon him with my wet shoe and hope it caused short-term memory loss. I went with my third instinct, which was deny, deny, deny.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I could hear how much higher my voice was. It wasn’t believable. Eye contact was nonexistent. You would think my lying prowess would’ve become a little sharper with how often I had done it lately, but you would be very wrong.

“Maybe this will jog your memory.” I didn’t notice he had turned his computer screen around at first. I was so distracted by the fact he was eating Cheetos in such a grotesque fashion that he had an orange halo around his mouth and a crumb pile on his stomach large enough to house a family of gophers. When I did look over to his screen, I saw my smoking apartment building in the background, fire trucks, and two people sitting on the curb. It was a poor quality video, obviously shot by an onlooker’s camera phone. I knew who the two people were, but they could be anyone from that distance. The title of the video read, “Nympho Pyromaniacs In Costume Burn Down New York.”

Well, that’s just a misleading and negligent title. A girl can’t accidentally set fire to one apartment without judgment anymore.

Deny, deny, deny.

“That doesn’t look anything like me.” I hadn’t considered the possibility of cameras last night, although experience should’ve taught me otherwise. I already had a YouTube following.

I had to wait for Barry to finish shoving another fistful of chips into his mouth before he spoke again. “Just wait. It gets better. This is my favorite video right now.”

Cole and I were still making out onscreen. We stopped when the fireman came over to talk to us. You still couldn’t see our faces, so I didn’t see know how Barry even knew this was me. It wasn’t until Cole stood and dropped his blanket to the ground that the videographer zoomed in.

Oh.

There I stood in my panties, bustier, and latex boots. There was no denying that was me. Cole was plainly visible as well. His charred costume had large chunks of matted hair hanging off it, but his face was as clear as if he were standing in the room.

I thought about going back to my second option of bludgeoning Barry, but I was afraid the ensuing Cheetos dust cloud would engulf the building. It was time to explore a forth option: bribery.

“What do you want?” The horrifying array of possible answers from him terrified me. My back was against the wall, though.

Barry shoved another fistful of chips in his mouth, losing several to the floor. “I’ve already got everything I want. I just wanted to see your face. Wonder Woman and Chewbacca? I’ve seen some things on the Internet, but this is a first. Thank you.”

I was truly lost. “I don’t understand. Why aren’t you blackmailing me with this?”

“Oh, I don’t want to blackmail
you
. You can’t give me anything I want. Unless you want to put on that costume again.”

I could feel the vomit rising up the back of my throat.

He wiped his orange hand on his shirt and continued. “It’s Grantham I wanted to blackmail. Another member of this management involved in a sex scandal with an employee? He would do anything to avoid having that get out to the media. Anything—including giving me unlimited Internet access with no restrictions.”

“You wouldn’t.” My voice wasn’t even a whisper.

He sucked the caked-on cheese dust from his thumb. “I already did.”

That teakettle sound came out of my mouth again.

“I e-mailed him the video this morning, and we had a nice little chat. He’s a pretty reasonable guy. I kind of like him. Maybe you shouldn’t have been such a bitch to me all these years. Maybe I would’ve kept this to myself.”

Oh sweet mother of Good Luck Cat, this is bad. This is so bad.

I had to tell Cole. I ran back to my office, leaving my untouched coffee on someone’s desk along the way. Cole jumped up when he saw me running. I couldn’t form full sentences. I had to hope he knew me well enough to put the pieces together.

“Video. Grantham knows. Barry and Cheetos. Cheetos everywhere. You were a Wookie. He’s seen my underwear.”

Cole was silent for a beat. “Barry found video from last and told Grantham and also he was eating Cheetos?”

I love this man.

The phone inside my office rang. I felt like I was in one of those horror movies where no one wants to answer it.

The call is coming from inside the house!

I picked it up, certain I knew who it was. Also, I had caller ID. “Grantham Media, this is Cici.”

“Ms. Carrington, this is not a phone call I thought I would have with you,” Grantham started. “It has come to my attention that you are involved in an inappropriate relationship with your subordinate, Mr. Coltrane Danvers. I’m not sure if you’re aware that a video was taken of the two of you?”

I muttered something that wouldn’t pass as language in any dialect.

“As you received the numerous memos about such activity and attended the training classes provided, I’m sure you know this is a violation of company policy. I didn’t see the need to drive down to your office and waste either of our time. As a side note, Ms. Carrington, exactly what kind of deviancy are you into? Costumes and burning down buildings? We provide the advertising for a number of children’s products; we can’t have this kind of activity associated with our company. Please pack your personal things, Randy will be by with the termination paperwork for you and Mr. Danvers.”

He hung up without another word. I set the phone back on the receiver in a daze.

“Did that go how I think it went?” I didn’t even realize Cole was standing next to me.

“We got fired.” I was in shock. For a day that started out with relocating from a fire-damaged apartment, this was the most surprising turn.

Cole just nodded, saying nothing.

“We’re unemployed.” Saying it out loud didn’t help me wrap my brain around it any better.

Cole nodded again.

“We’re between jobs.”

Cole nodded. “I’ll get us some boxes.”

How was he so calm?

***

Randy arrived before we were done packing our things. Maggie was at another office for the day, so I assumed Grantham tasked his nephew with being the errand boy. Maggie probably didn’t even know yet since Barry made some kind of Faustian deal with Grantham under the table. The paperwork was standard—reminders of the non-compete agreement, non-disclosure agreement, and the like. Cole and I were headed down the hallway for the last time before most of the employees arrived for work.

Cole tapped the button for the elevator. “Going down, Ms. Carrington?” He used a silly British voice that made me laugh in spite of myself.

“In flames, apparently. Would you care to join me?”

“I’d follow you anywhere, my dear.”

We stepped onto the elevator as the doors opened. I had absolutely no clue what was ahead of us, but there was a slight calm under the panic that we at least didn’t have to hide anymore. Cole was still the picture of serenity.

“How are you so calm? We have no jobs. We’ve been banned from the building. We’re carrying our boxes out in shame.”

Cole laughed softly. “I’m not ashamed. There are worse things than getting fired for being with the woman I love. A job is a lot easier to replace than you are.”

I was about to rip off his clothes when the doors opened on the first floor. I supposed it would have to wait until we got home.

Home. Our home where we live together. That’s a new concept.

Cole put down his box to hail a cab. “Plus, I’ve got some things in the works for us. I’m not too worried.”

The cab clipped a pedestrian as he pulled in front of us.

Cole’s statement was news to me. “Oh really? What kind of things do you have in the works, Mr. Danvers?”

Cole smiled that smile that made my knees weak. “You’ll see.”

“How much longer do I have to cover my eyes?” I ran into what felt like a low table.

“Cici, I’ve told you five times that you don’t need to cover your eyes.”

“You said it was a surprise, Cole. Surprises mean you have to cover your eyes. I don’t make the rules.”

It had been four weeks since we were dismissed from Grantham Media. During that time, I’d been working on salvaging what I could from my apartment, while Cole worked on the details of his surprise plan. During our visit to his parents’, he started work on an exit strategy for us. It was clear we couldn’t both stay at Grantham. The non-compete agreements prohibited us from taking any of Grantham’s clients, so he networked his way into procuring three new clients for us. It just so happened that John’s company decided to start a marketing campaign at the exact second Cole mentioned it. And lucky for us, Felicity loved motherhood and didn’t care to return to the commercial workforce. She was starting a home-based jewelry company and would need a first-rate marketing team to get her name out there. Cole said he knew some people who could help her.