Aria immediately whipped her body toward the mirrored wall, violently burying her face into her elbow as if fighting off a lethal strain of tuberculosis.
"Oh, excuse me," Aria coughed, pitching her voice up into a strange, raspy, vaguely Midwestern accent. She kept the side of her face firmly hidden behind the cascading mess of her rose-gold hair.
"No worries! Cold season is the worst," Jade smiled brightly, completely oblivious to the sheer, suffocating tension radiating from the man in the mustard sweater next to her.
Jade looked down at the control panel. Her brows furrowed in confusion.
"Wow," Jade murmured, leaning closer to inspect the polished steel buttons. "This elevator is so much fancier than the other ones. Are they upgrading the lifts? There are so many extra buttons here."
Aria cleared her throat, keeping her face aggressively angled away. "Yeah. Renovations. Crazy stuff."
