It was getting colder.
Rukiya tucked her free hand deeper into her coat while she dialed Ty for the umpteenth time. She put on a pair of thermal tights underneath her pants, two pairs of socks and her wool lined boots and yet it wasn't enough. Granted, her feet and hands were always cold, regardless of how many layers she threw on.
And it would only get colder. The more modern buildings in Hapton had heating systems that shut off after hours. It was the first thing she adjusted when she got her new apartment. The heat would go off after she left for work and came back an hour before she got home.
Or that was how it worked before Ty moved in and insisted the apartment be kept below seventy degrees.
Rukiya hung up after the tenth ring and dialed Wendy instead. When the boyfriend failed, she ran to the wife.
"Hey babe. Any luck?" Wendy asked.
"We got through to emergency services. They said they can't get anyone to help us until morning because of the storm. So, we're stuck here all night." Rukiya pressed her cold nose against her knee.
"Are you kidding me? This is such bullshit. How could they just leave you there all night? As soon as I hang up, I'm calling my dad. I'm sure he knows a good lawyer around here. You're gonna own that building when this is over."
Rukiya smiled. "I appreciate you."
"Have you told Ty?"
"I've been calling him for hours and can't get through. I even tried the landline."
Silence came through the line for a moment. "Oh, word? I'm heading down there right now."
"Wendyâ"
"Nope, you're not stopping me." Keys jingled in the background. "I'll talk to you later."
The line went dead, and Ty would be too when Wendy got a hold of him. Rukiya hugged herself and leaned back against the wall. Chills ran up and down her back and she wiggled her toes to make sure they still functioned. A full night in this elevator was going to be awful. When she got too cold, she could sleep, and couldn't think about anything except how cold she was.
"You alright?" Kadin asked. His iPad was on his lap, and he was donning a weird-looking glove.
She nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine." The lie stung her tongue. She was far from fine. Her boyfriend was ignoring her, she was freezing and the makings of a headache were building up at the base of her skull.
"Well, I'm going to keep my phone on airplane mode in case there's an emergency. So you can use yours if you want. I'll just pass the time with some drawing." He pulled a stylus from his bag and tucked it between his lips while he positioned the tablet on his legs.
"Okay. Sounds good." Rukiya pulled her hands into her coat and tucked them under her arms. Another shiver washed over her body, making her teeth chatter. She'd contemplated grabbing a heavier coat that morning, but none of them matched her outfit. This was karma for bowing to the whims of the fashion gods.
The buzzing of phone filled the elevator, and she checked the caller ID. Ty, miraculously, had remembered he had a girlfriend. "Hey," she answered. "Why weren't you picking up your phone?" She could already see him making a stupid face.
"It died on the way home. What's up, you got out? Need a ride?"
Rukiya took a breath to quell her irritation. "You say that like you're not driving my car, which has a charger in it that works just fine. And no, I didn't get out. Emergency services won't be able to get anyone out to us until morning. So we're stuck here all night."
"Wait, wait, wait. Us? We? Who is in there with you?" The sharp edge in his tone only brought her anger back. He didn't sound concerned at all. More like her being stuck in the elevator was an inconvenience to him.
"His name is Kadin, and he's been super helpful." She kept her tone bored, even, because she knew how much he hated that. "Did you even go inside to get help when I asked you? You just left?"
"What the fuck did you want me to do, Kiya? Come up there and sit in the elevator with you? I was tired from working all day, and I had to wait forever while you kekeke'd with your bougie friends. I swear it's like you don't even care about me anymore. All you care about is work." His words cut into her, and for once, anger wasn't her immediate response.
Tears stung the back of her eyes and made her throat raw. She swallowed. "That's funny. I was going to say the same about you."
"Whatever. I'm tired. Call me in the morning when you get out." And he hung up.
Rukiya let her phone fall into her lap and blinked away her tears. She didn't understand it. How could someone go from being the sweetest person she'd ever met, to talking to her like she killed their first born. For the life of her, she couldn't think of anything she'd done that would make him resent her so.
When he complained about her working so much, she started taking Saturdays off and working from home on Mondays. When he complained about the apartment being too hot, she bought an electric blanket so they could both sleep comfortably. But waiting in the car for a little while was too much.
And she was the one who didn't care.
It seemed the more she bent over backwards, the more they bumped heads. With every fight, their relationship drifted closer and closer to dire straits, the place where love went to die. Even if she broke up with Ty, she wanted it to be on decent terms. She'd never wanted to be one of those people with nightmare stories about nightmare exes.
Rukiya sniffled and Kadin's hand appeared in front of her face, a tissue pitched between his fingers. "Thanks. This is so embarrassing." She mopped up the tears clinging to her lashes and blew her nose.
"You have nothing to be embarrassed about. I'm not here to judge you." He set his attention on his tablet, flicking the stylus over the screen in short strokes. "And we can pretend it didn't happen."
She breathed a mirthless laugh. Not so easy when it felt like there was a knife in her chest. She opened her mouth to speak, but before she could get a word out, the lights went black. Only the glow from Kadin's iPad illuminated the elevator.
Without their constant hum, the sound from outside filtered inâthe howling wind, the sounds of debris hitting the building. Rukiya shrank into her coat. This was going to be a long night.