The customer is always right, right as hell

When the elevator attendant smiled and asked if she was going to the ground floor she rolled her eyes and told him, “no, why don’t you bring me to the ninth circle of hell?”

Then she went back to her phone.

Every time she hit refresh there was another like on the selfie she’d just posted. But they weren’t coming in fast enough to get her fix.

After a time, her impatience burst and she glared at the doors.

They still weren’t open. She shifted her indignant stare on the operator and said, “it’s been 15 minutes, why is this taking so long?”

He shrugged, still smiling, and said, “we’ll be there in time.”

She sighed to show her disdain and said, “this is taking far too long and I don’t like your attitude mister. I’m going to have a few words with your manager when we get there!”

His smile broadened, and he actually laughed!

She felt her face flush with anger. In fact, the heat from her face seemed to exaggerate the heat in the elevator. It was uncomfortably warm.

She sucked her teeth and unbuttoned her jacket and said, “isn’t there anything you can do about the temperature?”

He turned towards her, his smile broader and toothier than she’d realized, and said “no.”

No? No?!

Did he even realize who he was speaking too?

She sneered at his uniform and, curled her lip to say, “I’m a customer of this stupid fucking hotel, and you need to show me some respect!”

His laugh was like a boom, so loud it seemed to crowd her ears and make her swoon in that little metal box as they rode slowly down….

She tried to hold her ground, after all he was an employee which meant he was there to serve her, but she found it hard to meet his eyes. They seemed so deep and empty.

She was getting light headed. That was all.

The heat…

She broke eye contact to take her jacket off and draped it over her arm, and said, “oh well maybe you don’t have anyway to adjust the temperature, I guess that makes sense. After all you’re just a lift boy.”

She stole another glance at him to see if her words had cut the way she had hoped, but his sharp smile and empty eyes overwhelmed her senses.

Why was he smiling like that. What a freak. He shouldn’t be allowed to work in public.

She wiped the sweat from her brow, and fanned her blouse.

She would make sure he learned a lesson. She’d have him fired. She started to fantasize about what she’d say to get him in trouble— maybe even fired.

But it was so hard to concentrate in this heat.

She unbuttoned her blouse a bit, turning away from his prying eyes.

He was probably a pervert or something— ah!

That’s what she could say to the manager! That he was creepy, that he made her feel uncomfortable— that he was staring at her breasts!

She chuckled at her own brilliance and looked at her phone again. She hit refresh on her selfie, but it wouldn’t load.

No service?

The heat

Unbearable

Stinging sweat, her eyes burned and then watered. Tears on her cheeks.

She could feel her clothes sticking to her back, the sweat dripping uncomfortably down the crack of her ass.

Unbearable. So hot she could hardly think— and then as she opened her mouth to complain, the heat vanished.

Cold struck her body, painful chills rocked down her spine from the neck all the way to her swampy tail bone.

The wet clothing that cling to her skin was a sudden misery and she gasped through her clenched teeth.

Trembling from the pain of this cold, the vapor of her breath poured from her flared nostrils.

She wanted to scream to make somebody pay, but her mind, body, and soul were all shocked into stupidity and stunned silence.

… but the attendant was still smiling, and his eyes were so keen and his teeth so hard when he said: “here we are ma’am, circle number nine. The manager will see you now.”