Thirteen Hours (2 page)

“Although I understand why he thought you needed it. You’re just a barrel of laughs.”

“Just great,” Dana whispered to herself. “What a perfect birthday present. A bitchy little stripper all my own for the night. I don’t know how I’ll ever repay Scott for this one.” Castration was a first thought, but she was open to more elaborate punishments.

“Wonderful,” her angry companion muttered. “Fucking great.”

“Exactly my thought,” Dana said.

They stared at one another for a moment in perfect agreement.

Dana assumed it would be one of very few such moments of accord.

H
OUR
O
NE
—7:00 P.M.

H
er name was Laurel.

“Yes, imagine that,” she said after revealing this fact.

“Strippers have names…kind of like real people.”

Dana produced a humorless smile, finally looking over to her companion. The young woman sat with her knees pulled up to her chest, arms wrapped around her legs. She regarded Dana with stormy blue eyes.

“Listen, if we’re going to be stuck in here together, do you think you could manage just a little bit of civility?”

“Let’s make a deal,
Laurel
.” Pretty name. It matched the pretty breasts. Frowning at her line of thought, Dana quickly continued, “You sit quietly on your side of this elevator and I’ll do the same on mine. If we can manage that, I think we’ll get along just fine.”

Laurel eyed her with obvious disdain. “Seriously, what’s your problem? I’m willing to start over if you are. Being trapped in here doesn’t have to be as completely miserable as you seem to be determined to make it.”

Tired of arguing—
with a goddamn stripper
—Dana didn’t respond to the quiet words. The last thing she wanted to do was make nice with a woman Scott had hired for the express purpose of making a statement about her life. From the moment the surprise birthday humiliation burst into her office and filled the sterile room with music and intoxicating perfume, Dana had felt vulnerable and exposed. Being trapped in a small space with her seemed a particularly cruel punishment.

She raised her eyes to the dim emergency lights that illuminated the elevator car. Dared she hope she’d saved her document recently enough that this power outage hadn’t wiped out hours of work? Leaning her head against the wall, she started piecing her proposal back together in her head. She was startled when Laurel spoke again.

“My cat Isis is going to kill me,” she informed Dana. “I promised we were going to have bathtime tonight. She likes sitting on the edge of the tub and putting her nose in the bubbles. It usually irritates me, especially when she sneezes, but right now I’d give anything for bathtime.”

Dana felt her lips twitching and tamped the reaction down fast.

The mention of “bathtime” elicited images that made her frown. She wasn’t going
there
. “Well, I’m sorry you’re stuck with me instead.”

Laurel’s mouth stretched into a slow smile. Her white teeth and full pink lips distracted Dana so completely she forgot to maintain her cool disinterest. Despite herself, she returned the warm look. Then, just as quickly, she forced her mind back to her proposal, the one she’d lost because Scott decided to send Laurel-the-perfectly-breasted careening into her evening. Her dark mood returned, and with it, her desire to draw blood. Her eyes dropped to Laurel’s hard nipples, outlined by the thin cotton of her T-shirt. The bra that was supposed to shield these distractions was still in Laurel’s hand.

“Would you mind putting your bra on?” Dana asked in a rough voice. Flustered, she added, “I feel like I’m being stared at with those things pointing at me.”

Laurel stretched out her legs and cocked her head. Suppressing what looked to be a smile of grand amusement, she said, “Whatever makes you happy, Dana.” With that, she shuffled away from the wall and pulled her T-shirt off.

For the second time that night, Dana found herself trying hard not to stare goggle-eyed at the woman’s bare breasts. Startled, she whipped her head around so that she wouldn’t cave in to temptation. “What the hell are you doing?”

“Putting my bra back on, as requested.” There was a smirk in her voice. “You’re scared of naked women, aren’t you?”

Dana glanced over to Laurel, trying hard not to flinch at the sight of her in the lacy black bra. Her breasts looked no less spectacular than they had while bare.

“I’m not ‘scared’ of naked women,” she retorted in a remarkably even voice. “I imagine I’d have a hard time looking in the mirror every morning if I were.”

Laurel moved her eyes over Dana in a leisurely appraisal. “For the record, I imagine very few people would have a hard time looking at you in the mirror every morning.”

Why the hell would she say that? After a moment of internal debate, Dana voiced her suspicion. “Did Scott hire you to have sex with me?”

Blinking hard, Laurel said, “No.” Quickly, and with visibly shaking hands, she pulled her shirt over her head and tugged it down over her torso. “I’m not a goddamn prostitute.”

Dana gave a casual shrug. “Sorry to offend. I guess I couldn’t tell for sure.”

Laurel moved back to her spot against the wall. “You’re right,” she said in a flat voice. “Why don’t we just sit quietly and wait to be rescued?”

Mission accomplished. Dana wondered why she felt so shitty about her personal attack. She stared distractedly at the numbered rows of buttons on the panel next to the elevator door. The woman was a stripper, for Christ’s sake. She got naked for money. Where did she get off acting offended about anyone’s assumption that she might do even more than that for a paycheck?

Dana was able to stay silent for roughly five minutes before the guilt overwhelmed her. “Look, I’m sorry. Okay, Laurel? I’m sorry.”

Laurel shrugged. “For what?”

“For assuming that you might have sex for money. That was wrong, and I’m sorry I offended you.” When there was no response, Dana released an explosive sigh. “You know, when you do stuff like put someone’s hand on your breast—”

“I was trying to get you to loosen up.” Laurel swung her cold gaze over to Dana. “You looked like you wanted to eat me alive but had no idea how to even start.”

“I did not,” Dana responded. “I was just wondering what the hell you were doing in my lap. I was too shocked to even react at first.”

“Well, I’m sorry if I offended you. In fact, I’m sorry I ever took this stupid job.” Laurel swiped the back of her hand over her cheek, sniffling.

Dana felt her stomach drop. “Are you crying?” She swallowed against the lump of pure dread that was lodged in her throat. “Please don’t tell me you’re about to start crying.”

“I’m not crying,” Laurel responded, a little too quickly. She brushed the back of her hand over her eyes again, straightening up where she sat slumped against the wall. “I’m just great. Trapped in an elevator on a Friday night with nothing to do but get called a whore by a woman who can’t stand me…nowhere near the cat, the book, and the bathtub I was dreaming about enjoying tonight. Why wouldn’t I be just fucking fantastic?”

This pronouncement left Dana feeling, all of a sudden, like the biggest asshole on the planet. Great, she thought, running her fingers through her hair. Just great. At a loss, she tried hard to pry her foot from her mouth.

“I’m sorry, Laurel. Really.” She tried to explain what had incited her cutting remark. “I just didn’t know why you said what you did… you know, about looking at me in the mirror.”

Laurel gazed at her for several seconds not saying a word. Finally, she murmured, “I said it because you’re a physically attractive woman.”

She paused. “Despite your wholly unattractive personality.”

Dana felt the quiet comment like a punch to the chest. “Oh.” She didn’t know what else to say. She looked down at her hands.
I love this girl. Forty-six minutes with her and I realize I’m the biggest jerk alive.

“You’re forgiven,” Laurel said.

Tears of frustration pricked at Dana’s eyes and she lowered her head to hide them from her companion. She wasn’t the kind of woman who buckled under pressure.

She thought they weren’t talking again until Laurel said, “You really thought your friend would pay someone to have sex with you?”

“I don’t know.”

“You don’t seem the type to appreciate a gesture like that.”

Dana looked up. “I’m not.”

“Then why would a friend do something like that for you?” Laurel appeared to have a genuine interest in the answer, and Dana could detect no malice in her eyes.

She was briefly tempted to explore that question, but it had already been a long day. “I don’t know,” she said. “A guy thing, maybe.”

Laurel nodded as if accepting this thin rationale. “Well, it’s your birthday.” With a smile, she asked, “Wasn’t it a good day? I mean, other than the…strip-o-gram.”

“No better than any other. I came, I worked, I got stuck in an elevator with a half-naked woman who makes me feel like an asshole.”

“If you feel like an asshole, I’m sorry.” Laurel seemed to be struck by a thought, her gaze sharpening. “Is this whole getting-stuck-in-anelevator thing going to fuck up some big plans later tonight?”

Dana thought again of her proposal and sighed. The “urgent” project was supposed to keep her from thinking too much about her solitary, boring birthday. A strategy Laurel and Scott had very ably ruined.

“No,” she murmured. “No big plans. I was thinking about maybe catching a movie tomorrow, but I’m going to have to re-create the proposal that got interrupted.”

“What do you mean, re-create it?”

Dana raised her arm and gave an irritated wave at the emergency lights. “Power outage. I’m sure I hadn’t saved the file in quite some time,
if
my computer even survives the whole thing.”

“Oh,” Laurel said. “Well, it’s not really my fault, you know. But… I hope you don’t have to redo everything.” She waited for Dana to respond, and when she didn’t, she asked, “What kind of proposal is it?”

Dana struggled to figure out how to make the task sound as important as she suggested. “It’s for a software development project,” she said. “We want to sell our client some additional functionality to a piece of custom software we wrote for them. I want to get it e-mailed by Monday morning.”

Laurel blinked. “You write software?”

“No.” Dana chuckled and shook her head. “I manage the programmers who write the software. They make the application work, and I make them work.”

“Do you like it?”

“Yes, a lot.”

“It sounds a little…boring. No offense, just not my thing.”

Dana felt immediately defensive. “It’s a good job. It challenges me.” Unable to resist, she added, “Don’t tell me you can say that about your career.”

Laurel maintained a polite smile. “It’s not my career, not that it’s any of your business. And I guess the best thing about my job is all the great people I meet.” She shot Dana a meaningful smirk. “Like you.”

“And the opportunity to make money without relying on any real skill,” Dana sniped back. God, why did she find it so easy to get into it with this woman? “Coasting through life, courtesy of your perfect breasts.”

Laurel tilted her head to the side. “You think they’re perfect?”

Dana blushed hard and sought to retract her careless revelation.

“To tell you the truth, I really didn’t pay much attention.”

Laurel laughed out loud. “Uh-huh. That’s why I still have scorch marks on my skin from where your eyes were burning into me.”

“You’re imagining things.” Dana scowled.

“If you say so.”

Refusing to admit to her intense fascination with the stripper’s chest, Dana decided to pull out the big guns. “I’m not a lesbian.”

Laurel’s smile gave way to a look of shock. “What?”

Shifting in discomfort at Laurel’s obvious surprise, Dana repeated, “I’m not a lesbian. Your breasts are irrelevant to me.”

“Huh.” Laurel frowned. “So why the hell did Scott hire me to dance for you?”

“Trust me,” Dana said, “I plan on asking him that very question first thing tomorrow morning. As soon as we get out of here.”

“So, do you have a boyfriend?” Laurel asked in a careful voice.

“No.” Dana didn’t elaborate. Eager to shift the attention away from herself, she asked, “Do you?”

Laurel broke into a wide grin, showing Dana her white teeth. “No. I
am
a lesbian.”

Dana’s throat went dry. “Oh.” How was she constantly left speechless by this woman?

“Does that bother you?” Laurel asked.

Something in her knowing smile rankled Dana. She thought hard before answering, torn between revealing her turbulent emotions and keeping the peace. “No more than anything else about you bothers me.”

Laurel snickered. “Don’t worry, I won’t hold your sexuality against you, either.”

“I appreciate that.” Dana managed a half-smile.

“See?” Laurel murmured. “I told you I wasn’t such a bad conversationalist.”

Dana tipped her head in acknowledgment. “Better than sitting in here in complete silence all night long, that’s for sure.”

“You never know. By tomorrow morning, we might actually be friends.”

Dana rolled her eyes. “Don’t get ahead of yourself. It’s going to be a long night. Anything could happen.”

At that, Laurel folded her arms over her stomach, hugging her body. Her expression seemed almost hopeful, and a little shy. “You’re right. Absolutely anything could happen.”

Dana could only wonder what the next twelve hours would bring.

Hopefully no more tears.

H
OUR
T
HREE
—9:00 P.M.

W
hat are you doing?”

“Dreaming of escape.” Dana studied the square metal hatch above their heads. “Think if I lifted you up there, you could pop that thing open?”

“No way,” Laurel answered without hesitation. “Not a chance. You’re not getting
this
Mrs. Rosen to climb up the Christmas tree.”

Dana recognized the reference immediately.
The Poseidon Adventure
…one of her all-time favorites. Her estimation of Laurel increased a notch, almost against her will. Dropping her gaze, she felt a nervous little flip-flopping in her belly. She gave Laurel a teasing smile.