Excerpt of Curvy, Crazy, and Confused by Ava Catori

Samantha pulled the door shut behind her while trying to
juggle her bag and coffee mug. It was
her favorite, the one with a grumpy bulldog on it
complaining about mornings. Thankfully it was
spill proof, saving her from the splash of hot coffee as she
spun toward the elevator.

Turning just in time to see the doors open, she called out
to her neighbor, “Ooh, hold the door.”

Christopher Remy’s eyes grew wide. There was no polite way
to hide it as he reached for
the ‘close doors’ button. If he was quick enough, they’d
close before she got there. He willed
them to move faster, unable to handle her kind of nonsense
this early in the morning. She was
like the thorn on a rose stem. After pricking your finger,
it would jar you just enough to be
annoyed, but not really do any serious damage.

“Wait!” She yelled, now seconds from making it. “Hey! I saw
that.” She slammed her hand
with the mug in front of the door before it could close
completely. The doors started to reopen.

“What’s your problem?” She glared at her neighbor.

Christopher rolled his eyes and looked away. Damn this slow
elevator.

“Seriously, that was rude! You saw me coming.” Her voice
whined with the abrasiveness of a
ragged nail file. She wasn’t interested in polite
conversation, only in letting him know what a
jerk he was.

Christopher said nothing. He wasn’t her biggest fan. This
was the same girl that parked her
stupid dog grooming van in the spot he’d parked in for two
years straight. It was the perfect
balance of sun and shade, tucked in the corner of the lot so
other people didn’t park too close.

Ever since she came around a few months ago, nothing was the
same. She took his spot, she
was loud, and more than anything, she always had an opinion,
and rarely an important or well
thought out one. She seemed to blurt out whatever was on her
mind, forcing those around her to
listen to her nonsense.

“That tie doesn’t go with your outfit,” she snorted.
A**hole. He saw me coming. What’s his
problem anyway?

Christopher still said nothing. As the elevator descended,
he counted the seconds. The building
was only four stories high, but the antiquated elevator
seemed to run at a snail’s pace, sluggish
and painfully slow.

Click, click, clack... The elevator jerked to a stop.

“What the…?” Great. I don’t have time for this. The last
person Sam wanted to be stuck in the
elevator with was some uptight, boring guy who wanted
absolutely nothing to do with her. It’s
not like she had time to spare, anyway. She had an
appointment to get to, and running late on the
first appointment would set her back the entire day. Every
single client would be inconvenienced
because of a time delay. Sam hated things that were out of
her control.

Christopher fanatically pushed all the buttons. “Nothing,”
he groaned. Picking up the emergency
phone, he rang maintenance. Nobody answered. “Are you
kidding me?” His voice noticeably
raised an octave.

“Does this happen often?” Sam’s annoyance was obvious. Her
statement was punctuated with a
deep exaggerated sigh, the kind a teenager with a chip on
her shoulder might use.

“No.” His fingers pried at his collar. What happened to all
the oxygen? He couldn’t breathe.

Okay, so maybe there wasn’t less oxygen yet, but there would
be. She would be sucking up all
of the air. Beads of sweat formed on his palms almost
immediately, just another reminder of his
inner panic. Keep calm!

“Are you okay?” Sam looked over. He was getting twitchy.

“Yes.” Refusing to look at the oxygen sucker, he controlled
his breathing with small, shallow
bits of air. Maybe if he used less oxygen with each breath,
it would last longer.