Picnic in a Lift

James leaned against the corner of the lift and pretended to scroll through his phone while he listened to Jessica’s conversation. He was surprised to learn that the dinner date was with her friend, a woman, and not a man called Danny. But then perhaps Dani was her girlfriend? He couldn’t tell much from the one-sided conversation, which seemed to mainly be about the drama of their confinement and the even bigger drama of rearranging the dinner date.

While Jess was distracted on the phone James took the opportunity to have a bit of a perv at her. Her jeans were so tight he thought he could see the outline of her pussy through the fabric, but he could have been imagining things seeing what he wanted to see. Her slim, shapely legs and that peachy butt were very much not in his imagination. Nor was the nice-sized bust that was pressing against her T-shirt and revealing an impressive cleavage. But as nice as her figure was, he was most taken with her kind eyes and infectious smile that lit up her face. And she even had deep red auburn hair, his favourite colour.

In the small enclosed space her perfume was almost intoxicating. The problem with being able to perv on Jessica at such close quarters was starting to show itself in James’ trousers. In an effort to hide his growing erection, he sat down on the lift floor and drew his knees up to his chest.

Jessica finished her phone call and looked at the time, it had only been twenty minutes and already she was going stir crazy.

“I think you’ve got the right idea, might as well get comfy,” she said and sat in the corner opposite James.

“By the way, I’m Jessica, you can call me Jess or Jessi if you like. Do your friends call you Jim, or Jimmy maybe?”

“Sometimes they call me Jim, which I don’t mind. My mother used to call me Jimmy, but she died when I was twelve.”

“Oh James, I’m sorry to hear that. It must have been hard at that age?”

“Yeah, it wasn’t easy. Dad got remarried pretty quick afterwards, which didn’t help.”

“Do you get on well with your step-mother?”

“No, nor my dad.”

Jessica seemed to be moving from one sore topic to another, in an effort to lighten the mood and stop putting her foot in her mouth she started rummaging through her shopping.

“Ah, here we are,” she said, pulling a screw-top bottle of white wine from the plastic bag.

“If we’re going to be stuck in here we may as well do it style. I’ve never drunk Chablis straight from the bottle in a lift before but there’s a first time for everything I suppose.”

She took a big gulp from the bottle and then handed it to James.

“No thank you, I’m fine.”

“Oh come on, you can’t let me drink by myself,” She said and thrust the bottle closer to him.

James took a small swig and handed the bottle back to Jessica.

“So erm, what do you do for a living?” he asked her.

“I’m very lucky to be financially independent, I’m a full-time lady who lunches. I do help out with a charity every now and then though.”

James wasn’t sure what a lady who lunches was and was about to ask when Jessica changed the subject.

“Okay,” she said, “let’s play who am I. Do you know how to play?”

“Is this the one where you think of a famous person and then have to guess who they are?”

“Uh-huh, that’s the one. It can be anyone though, alive or dead, fictional, whatever. Questions have to be yes or no answers only. I’ll go first, ask me a question.”

“Um, okay, are you alive or dead?”

“Alive. But next time, ask a yes or no answer, okay?”

“Ah heck, yeah sorry. Okay, um are you a woman?”

“No.”

An hour later they’d finished the wine, four bags of crisps, a packet of roasted chicken and were halfway through a bag of pistachios.

“Umm, okay, I think I’ve got you now. Do you normally wear black?” asked James.

“Yes,” said Jessica with a smile.

James grinned, “Is Luke Skywalker your son?”

“Yes.”

“You’re Darth Vader!”

“You got me again James. You’re good at this.”

“Darth Vader was a good one though, took me ages to get on the right track.”

“I used to love Vader when I was younger. I had a massive crush on him.”

“You crushed on Darth Vader? Okay, that’s weird.”

“Hey! No crush shaming. Besides, I was only twelve. So come on then, who’s your weirdest crush?”

“I um, er, I don’t have one.”

“Yes you do, come on, I told you mine.”

James blushed, “Jessica Rabbit.”

“Oooh, my namesake, and a redhead too. See, now that’s a good crush, Jessica Rabbit is hot. So is it cartoons or redheads you have a thing for?”

James giggled, “Very funny, redheads, obviously.”

“It might be best not to tell your girlfriend that you were stuck in a lift with a redhead called Jessica then, either she’ll think you’ve gone crazy or worse, get jealous.”

“Yeah, that’s not going to be a problem, I haven’t got a girlfriend.”

“Really? You surprise me. Just not met the right person, eh?”

“Something like that.”

“Same here, I’ve been single for three years now.”

James’ jaw dropped, “You’re kidding me?”

“No, I’m being very serious.”

“But…but…”

“Gone on, say it, I can assure you I’ve heard it before.”

“But you’re beautiful, and a lovely person too, so, I mean…”

“So how come I’ve not got a boyfriend? The last one I had broke my heart, ever since then when a man comes on to me all I see is the potential for more heartache. Oh, and thank you for the compliment by the way. Mind you, how would you know I’m a nice person?”

“Because you get a sense of a person when you’ve been stuck in a lift together and polish off a bottle of wine. And you said nice things to my manager about me. Things that weren’t true by the way. Why did you do that?”

Jessica thought for a second then said, “Do you really want to know? The answer is not very nice.”

“Yeah, I’d like to know.”

“When I went to get the pesto I overheard two girls talking about you, they were quite short, young, both with brown hair.”

“I know who you mean, that’s Kristy and Caitlin.”

“I’m afraid they weren’t very kind. I was about to tell them off but thought better of it. Then I saw a manager and decided that sending a bit of good karma your way would be a nice thing to do.”

“It was a very nice thing to do, thank you. Kristy and Caitlin are always having a go at me, they say that I look like Harry Potter on heroin.”

“Here’s the thing James, when girls are cruel like that it means they like you. Well, normally it does.”

“I’ve heard that before, I don’t think that’s what’s happening here though, I’m pretty sure I disgust them.”

“Then they’re blind fools. Under that mop of unkempt hair and drab uniform lies a very handsome man.”

“You don’t have to say stuff that’s not true to make me feel better.”

“I can assure you that I’m not in the habit of stroking people's egos, everything I said is true, you are a very handsome young man. A bit of a rough diamond maybe, but I think you’d polish up very well indeed.”

Jessica could see the doubt written on his face.

“Okay, I can see you don’t believe me, so I’ll prove it to you. What time do you finish work tomorrow?”

“Four o’clock, why?”

“You know that little Italian place, just off the high street?”

“Georgio’s? Yes, why?”

“Meet me there at seven thirty tomorrow night.”

“Okay, again, why?”

“Because we’re going on a date.”

“A date?”

“Uh-huh. A date. And don’t be late or you won’t get a goodnight kiss.”

“A good night…”

“HELLO? HELLO? ARE YOU STILL IN THERE?”

The harsh, loud voice on the intercom made them both jump.

“NO, WE’RE NOT IN HERE, WE’VE BEEN BEAMED UP TO THE STARSHIP ENTERPRISE,” said Jessica rolling her eyes.

“THE ENGINEER IS HERE, WE’LL HAVE YOU OUT IN A FEW MINUTES.”

“Pity, I was enjoying myself,” said Jessica and winked at James.