Alec glanced at his watch as he entered the tall building. One more delivery, then he was on his way to meet his date for the evening. He rushed inside and caught the elevator doors just as they were about to close.
“Damn, It was so close!” Max said.
“Nice try, you making a delivery here too?”
“Yeah, this is as exciting as my life gets.”
“I know what you mean—”
Suddenly the elevator came to a screeching halt. “That didn’t sound good…” Max stated.
Alec started pushing the floor numbers, but nothing happened. “Not today! Why today, why me? Can’t this happen tomorrow? My schedules totally free tomorrow!” He banged against the doors in frustration, “Well there goes my evening plans! Wait… maybe my cell phone will work,” he grabbed it out of his jacket and started dialling, but it was useless.
“This day just keeps getting better and better. Just sit down Alec, someone will get us out soon… I hope.”
Alec sat down defeated, at least Max couldn’t blame this on him. He had tried avoiding her for the past few days; she had been on even more of a rampage lately. It wasn’t his fault that her life sucked… Ok, it wasn’t *totally* his fault that her life sucked. His life was a whole lot easier when Max was happy, he didn’t mean to—
“Alec?”
“Yeah?”
“I’m sorry If I’ve been a bit temperamental this week, it’s just that I broke up with Logan, and I’m feeling really miserable…”
What was he supposed to say? Something comforting, to cheer her up, to make her feel better.
“Don’t worry Max, you’re always like that,” he smiled, then re-thought what he had said. “What I mean is that your… that’s just you and that’s fine… Ugh, never mind!”
Max laughed at his loss for words, “Remind me never to open up to you!”
“No! It’s great when you do, I just never know what to say to you, because you get mad at me, and I hate it when you’re mad at me”
“So what? You figured if you don’t speak to me, I can’t get mad at you?”
“Hey, it seemed like a good idea at the time! So why does your package have holes in it?” Alec asked, desperate to get off the current topic.
“I dunno,” Max replied, picking the small wooden box up and shaking it, “I think it might be an animal or something.”
“There’s only one way to find out,” Alec dared.
“Fine,” Max agreed, she moved closer to Alec and handed him the box. “Here, you do it, that way if Normal ever finds out, it’s on you.”
“Why Max, your so considerate,” Alec tentatively opened the box and peeked inside, suddenly a vicious brown snake shot out at Alec inches from his face. Max screamed and Alec flung the snake by its tail across to the other end of the elevator.
“Alec… is that an African Cobra? The lethal kind?” she asked angrily.
“Looks exactly like one… I didn’t know you made girly screams Max. Ow! Sorry, don’t panic, I have the situation under contr— Oh my God! He’s looking at me! He’s coming this way!”
Alec glanced around the enclosure and his eyes landed on the escape hatch above them. “Üp there!” he said, and lifted Max who knocked the tiny door open and squeezed through it. Next, she helped Alec though the door, and together they waited for help to arrive. 30 minutes and 4 arguments later, they heard the doors pull open.
“You can come down now!” A Man called.
“Where did that Cobra go?” Alec asked, as soon as they got out of the elevator.
“You mean the Gary the garden snake? His owner cam and fetched him, we found a name on the box.”
“Garden snake?” Max and Alec exclaimed.
“Well,” Max said when they left the building, “Who would have thought two genetically enhanced killing machines would be terrified of something named Gary the garden snake, you do realize I’m blaming this whole thing on you!”
Alec laughed, “I know”
