Footsteps echoed down the near empty dark hallway. Aside from a few paint cans and ladders the 50th floor looked like no one had been there in years. They were refurbishing the apartment building. Most of the upper floor tenants had surrendered their apartments for the lower finished ones.

     Katherine was determined to keep her apartment with the view of the city skyline over the park. The top floor was abandoned but for her. It would be a month or more before they started working here. She knew the time would come when this would be the most envied floor of the high-rise.

     She pressed the button and waited for the elevator. The residents of the top 4 floors were the only ones who used this elevator, so it didn't get much use. For some reason, it always seemed to be on the bottom floors whenever she wanted to go somewhere.

     After several minutes it finally made it's way to her level. The doors opened to a blackened elevator. Once again the lights weren't working. This was one thing that did bother her. She slid her foot forward just to make sure that a bottom really existed in the darkened cube before getting in. She pressed the button for the ground floor, as she did hundreds of times before. The doors slid closed encasing her in pitch darkness.

     "Always a fun ride to the bottom, huh?" came a deep, masculine voice from the darkened corner. Katherine nearly jumped out of her skin. No one had ever been in the elevator with her. She swooned from the shock of the voice. Grabbing for the handrail she steadied herself.

     "Yeah," she stammered noticeably, still taken aback from the surprise of another rider. "Never a dull moment" she said while trying to act at ease, but there was no hiding the fact.

     "Sorry, didn't mean to scare you." He chuckled with amusement. "I didn't think about you not being unable to see me in the darkness."

     Her heart was pounding so loudly she was sure he could hear it too. She pulled herself together enough to speak back to him. "My eyes will adjust in a couple seconds. I will admit you did startle me a bit," she confessed.

     THUNK! The elevator stopped abruptly. The doors didn't open. Now she was nervous. Just what I needed, to be stuck in a pitch-black elevator with a man I can't see and don't know. She breathed in deep... Just relax Katherine, just relax she told herself.

     "I'm sure it will start back up in a moment or two. It does this from time to time." He tried to reassure her.

     Katherine reached up for the emergency phone and it was quickly picked up on the other end. "We are stuck in D elevator it has shut down and there are no lights in here. How long before we get some help? …..mhmm …okay.

     "What'd they say?" He inquired after she hung up.

     "They had to shut off the electricity in this section to make a major electrical connection of some type should only be a minute or two." She secretly crossed her fingers.

     "Hope you weren't in a hurry" he said very calmly. "You smoke?"

     "No. I can't remember the last time I smoked. A lighter would have been nice about now though".

     "Yeah, for a brief moment or two." she smiled thinking about how hot one would become if they tried to use it for light for very long. "So I gather you are living on one the upper floors? " she tried to make some casual small talk to lessen her discomfort with the situation.

     "Used to years ago. But it’s been a long time. I'm just visiting a friend who wasn't even home. How 'bout you, got one of those penthouses up top?"

     "Yeah for a while yet. Probably for a couple years until the building is finished and then who knows what they will try and charge me. Hopefully I will be able to stay. My name is Katherine by the way"

     "Doogan" he answered back. Hearing his name seemed to make her feel a bit better. She was starting to relax. She really was wishing for a lighter about now.

     "Nice to meet you Doogan" she said with an unseen smile. She almost raised her hand for a handshake and realized it would be a bit fruitless in this dark. She felt him lightly touch her shoulder for just a quick moment.

     "Nice meeting you too. Makes this ride a little less long and a lot more tolerable.

     "I hear that," she agreed. "So what do you do when you are not riding in blackened elevators with strange women" she teased.

     "Believe it or not I design these things" He chuckled. She found herself laughing at the irony of being stuck in and elevator with a man who made them"

     "So if this thing doesn't get working soon you can climb out and get it going again, right?"

     "Designing and fixing is two different jobs completely. He joked back at her.

     "So Katherine, what are you going to do when you get off this ride"? Doogan inquired.

     "I am going to go and get me a nice hot meal, a good stiff drink and relax." She stated.

     "Now that sounds like a good idea," he replied, just as the elevator reached its destination of the ground floor.

     The doors opened and Katherine squinted her eyes blinded from the sudden bright intrusion. "Would you care to join....." She turned around to face her new found friend. "...me?" Her mouth dropped.