A manicured hand thrust itself in between the elevator's jaws and I jumped in.
"Hi." It was Thea looking nothing short of stunning in a very fitted short, suede skirt. I struggled to catch my breath from running down the block and the impact of Thea's presence.
'Hey," she grinned. "You in a hurry?"
I held tightly to the color copies in the oversized manila envelope. "Just on an errand for L'Atrice." I raised the envelope as if that would explain everything.
The elevator closed its doors, shutting Thea and me inside -- alone. I felt flushed. "You look warm," she said coyly, while she absently reached over to touch my forehead, and then combing my hair with her fingers.
"Thea," I whispered, trying to stay in control. I didn't need to get caught doing it in an elevator; but Thea wasn't making it easy.
"Hey," she whispered, stepping in to me. I clutched the envelope with one hand while the other tried to feel her luxurious skin through her silk shirt.
I pulled her to me and.....then my heart jumped into my throat and the elevator stopped. I was panicked! But Thea non-chalantly stepped behind me before the doors opened, continuing to finger my back.
"Fran, how are you?"said Lorelle Sweeny as the doors opened. 'NO! Go Away!' I thought to myself. 'Three's a crowd in here!' Lorelle's another dyke, who thinks if you're a lesbo it automatically makes you best friends.
Fran's fingers slid around my shoulder blades and I shivered. Anyone with a glimmer of perception would have noticed.
But before Lorelle stepped in the elevator, a voice called from the hallway, "Lorelle, phone, it's your mother." And she turned around.
The doors closed yet again and Thea's hands came around to hug me from behind. I turned, touched her lips with my forefinger, leaned in, and kissed her.
We kissed until the doors opened at our floor and the mail boy stood sorting the mail in his cart. He looked up. "Wow, you guys are all red. Did the AC break on the elevator?"
"Nothing cool in there, buddy." Thea rambled as she floated back to her office.
"Well if it's broken, I'm going home. I ain't going up and down delivering mail with no air conditioning."
"Don't worry. It's fine." I said to his disappointment. My body tingled and all I could think about was when I would see Thea again.
I got to my desk without notice from L'Atrice. She was talking to Clay.
"I think it's great!" Clay said. "I love it! The single-piece is a classic retro look. And the butterflies are great!"
It couldn't be, I thought. I went in and dropped the envelope on her desk. I saw it up on the easel, with Clay drooling over it like it was Cindy Crawford or something. My design -- my one-piece butterfly lingerie. She stole my design.
"What happened to these sketches?" L'Atrice barked, bringing me back to ugly reality. She pulled out the copies of the design sketches. They were crumpled.
"Hey," she chirped, "I am talking to you. What happened to the copies? They're creased."
We stared each other down until Clay said, "Beautiful. We should plan it for the fall collection, don't you think, L'Atrice?" It was then she turned away from me, triumph in her eyes.
"You can go back to your desk. And hold my calls." She said, dismissing me and pointing to the crumpled sketch copies. "We'll talk about these later."
In disbelief, I bolted out, trying to keep my head from exploding.
