“We’ll see. I haven’t decided yet.”
“Mai...” I sighed as we continued to walk through the main lobby of our apartment complex. When we arrived at the elevators, they were all tagged with ‘out-of-order’ signs. “What the...”
I looked around for a maintenance staff to ask what it was about, but there was no one in sight. I turned my attention over to the front desk to see if anyone was there, and was lucky to find Lu, the property manager.
“Hey Lu!” I called as I jogged over to him. “What’s with the elevators?”
“Ah, yeah. We have some electrical malfunction with those circuits, so they’re getting looked at. In the meanwhile, just to be on the safe side, no one is allowed to use the elevators,” he replied matter-of-factly.
“What? Then how am I supposed to get back to my apartment?”
“Use that,” he pointed to a door leading to the stairway.
“You have got to be kidding me,” I mumbled in disbelief.
“Afraid not, little lady. Not much I can do for you now, but they should be up and operational tomorrow afternoon. Until then, you’ll have no choice but to take the stairs.”
“Alright. Thank you, Lu,” Mai said from behind me.
“No problem,” he smiled as he turned his attention away from us.
Mai practically dragged my unwilling body towards the stairs, which we began to climb slowly. “There’s not much we can do. No point in grumbling about it,” she reasoned with me.
“I know,” I replied, though not feeling any better about the situation.
“Besides, this is nothing for you, isn’t it? With your training schedule, this is like a walk in the park.”
“Well, yeah... but--”
“In fact, I bet you can carry me and run up these stairs without breaking a sweat.”
“I can’t guarantee that,” I deadpanned.
“Let’s try it,” she suggested excitedly.
“Let’s not.”
“You know, back at the haunted house, you really scared me. I think my legs have lost its--”
“Okay, okay! I get it,” I huffed, but somehow couldn’t bring myself to be mad at my scheming girlfriend. “Hop on.”
She did a mini fist pump before climbing onto my back. When I have ensured that she was secured, I began the trek up the stairs, one step at a time, slowly.
“Faster,” she demanded.
“The faster I go, the more likely I am to trip and fall and have you tumble down with me,” I warned.
“Then just go a little bit faster, but still safe.”
I sighed at her request. She was almost acting like a child. “Yes, princess.”
I picked up my pace a tiny bit so that it was a half-jog as I continued up the stairs. The higher I climbed, the slower my pace became. We lived on the eighth floor, so while it wasn’t impossible for me to reach while carrying Mai, it was still exhausting. And contrary to her belief, when I reached our floor, I was sweating.
“We’re here...” I announced as I let her down.
She smiled at me before opening the door to our apartment and pulled me in with her. As soon as she did, she leaned in close to me and whispered ever so lightly, “You’re sweating all over. I think we need a bath.”
“We? You mean me.”
“We.”
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