When the Lights Go Out (2 page)

Chapter Four

Taylor was in the process of tucking in when the bathroom door burst open. His instincts triggered, he immediately turned to see what was going on. The only problem was his instincts didn’t tell him to put away his weapon first.

The woman in front of him dropped her gaze to his cock still in his hand. The feminine gasp was not the sound he’d been expecting. Her eyes widened and she bit her lower lip.

Too stunned for his brain to process what was going on, his functioning neurons couldn’t help giving her a once over. Her soft t-shirt hugged curves that were in all the right places. She didn’t wear a stitch of makeup, but her lips were beautifully pink. It wasn’t until he felt a throb on his palm that Taylor remembered where they were. And what she was eyeing.

Shit
. He turned back to the urinal and tried to force a much less bendable dick back in his pants. “Mind giving me a minute, lady?” His hands slipped in his hurry to pull up the zipper and he failed to make the full hip shift to get his cock back in. The teeth barely nicked the skin he was forcing behind the metal, but it was enough to drop him.

“Ahhheyahss.” Taylor’s knees gave out. The tears that sprung to his eyes didn’t have a chance to fall, before he whacked his head on the freshly used and not-yet flushed urinal. At least he didn’t have to hide an erection any more. He would have been embarrassed, but his brain was about to leak out his ears. Going from worry, to surprise, to arousal, to pain in quick succession would have left anyone out of sorts.

“Oh my gosh!” She came running toward him. “Are you okay?”

“Peachy,” Taylor wheezed.

The woman hovered over him. Her eyes were zeroed in on his crotch. She needed to stop that or his erection would become an issue again, and those metal teeth still had some hair in their grasp.

She licked her lips and finally looked at his eyes. Her cheeks flushed as she reminded him, “Your pants are still unzipped.”

“If it bothers you that much, zip them.” Taylor put his hands to his head to check for a goose egg, or splatters of blood. He hoped those were the only splatters he would find.

“Okay.”

The room was spinning a bit, and Taylor couldn’t get out a single word to ask her what she meant before a hand was on his hip. The zipper lowered, the fabric lifted, and this crazy chick actually managed to lift his pants at the perfect angle before he could register what was happening.

Taylor’s whole body jerked up to stop the woman. He was still too close to the urinal and whacked his head again. Now he’d have a matched set of contusions on his skull.

She stood back up and held her hands out like she just lit a fuse. “Wow. You need to just not move for a minute, dude.”

When he focused again Taylor looked up to see the chick dancing around like the floor was electrified. “What are you doing?”

“I really have to pee,” she gestured to the urinals. “And this is obviously not the women’s room, but I don’t want to leave you on the floor and have you pass out. I would feel awful if you died alone from a brain hemorrhage because I left you. Your signs are on the wrong rooms by the way. Can you see okay? How many fingers am I holding up?”

She held up two or three fingers, but she was jumping around like a damned rabbit and Taylor honestly couldn’t tell which. He took a guess to make her go away. “Three.”

“Damn. Okay, get up. You’re walking out with me, so you don’t die alone, and I can give you to someone who knows more than me about medical stuff.”

Taylor was pretty sure he knew more about first aid than all his staff put together. Really, unless he wanted advice on what to mix Jim Beam with, he would never ask them for advice on any level.

“I’m fine. Just go.”

He waved her away, but she grabbed onto his hand and yanked him up instead. He must have hit his head pretty good, because the room started to spin. He reached for the wall. Unfortunately for his breathy, dancing, Good Samaritan, she was right in his path. His hands landed on either side of her head and his body pressed against hers.

“Eeep.”

She made the cutest damn noises. Taylor’s head cleared and the world stopped tilting. After shaking off the cobwebs, he looked down at his unintentional wall padding.

“I am so sor−” Taylor would have finished his apology, but his already injured manhood took another hit from the woman’s knee.

“I was only trying to be nice. Men always take that as an advance. Keep your big penis to yourself there, buddy. I was just helping you be decent. It doesn’t give you the right to try and screw me against a wall.”

She continued some speech about the cultural failings of his sex, but Taylor couldn’t suck in enough air to begin to retort.

She stood over him still dancing, but at least she seemed a bit concerned at the possible damage she’d inflicted.

“Oh, crap. I didn’t pop anything, did I? Do I need to call 911? I’ve heard they can burst if you hit them hard enough.”

Taylor could only manage a horrified look at the thought of his balls bursting. He poked at them once they descended again. Nope. They hadn’t popped.

“I’m okay.” He gulped more air. “Please don’t help me anymore. I don’t think I’ll make it if you do.”

“Well, that’s rude. You’re the one who assaulted me.”

“Lady, I got dizzy from the apparent concussion I have and fell. Which wouldn’t have happened if you hadn’t stuck your hands down my pants.”

She sounded aggravated. “I did not stick my hands in your pants. I just pulled up your zipper. You leaned on me and pushed your…your…pelvis on me.”

Taylor’s dick proved it wasn’t broken when it agreed. Yes, it had pressed against the crazy lady, and it had enjoyed it. His dick must have had a concussion too.

“Just go. I didn’t mean to touch you with any part of my body. I’ll survive. Go to the restroom marked for men. My employees changed the signs for April Fools’ Day.”

The woman rolled her eyes and kept dancing. “I should’ve known better than to move on April Fools’ Day. This fucking day is cursed.” She continued mumbling as she trotted toward the door.

That’s when the power went out.

Chapter Five

April wasn’t afraid of the dark. Her parents had tried to save energy all the time when she was growing up, and their home was dark more often than it was light. The dark she could handle. What she wasn’t overly fond of was the door she tried to pull open holding itself closed.

“Why won’t the door open?” April screeched.

“It’s probably just some other prank. Pull harder, but step back. I won’t be responsible if you get a bucket full of bouncy balls on your head.”

The man must really have had a concussion to think bouncy balls were out to get him. Unfortunately, even with all her strength and a foot against the frame, the door wasn’t budging.

There were no windows in the bathroom, and without much time to adjust to the dim red emergency light, April jumped out of her skin when a hand grabbed hers over the doorknob.

“Sorry. I can’t see worth a damn right now. I’m not trying to touch you.” The man said. “Please don’t hit me again.”

April ran her hands along the door and followed the line of the wall until she was a few feet away from him. She still had to go to the bathroom, but her body was pumping a fair amount of adrenaline realizing she might be trapped. Door first. Bathroom later.

As her eyes started to adjust, she could just make out the outline of his body as he grunted and made the kinds of noises men tend to make when they get frustrated. Those noises meant she was trapped.

“It must be the freaking electronic locks.” The man turned to her. His red button-down shirt glowed wine-colored in the emergency light. “We have these high-tech auto locks we control from the office computer. The company insisted on giving us the exterior models for the bathrooms too, so we could unlock them if a kid trapped himself inside.”

“All very fascinating. But how do we get them open?” April’s eyes crossed as her bladder reminded her why she was in the bathroom.

“We don’t. In a power failure, these doors stay locked until the power is restored.”

“Turn on the faucet.” April demanded.

Even in the dim light, his confusion was obvious.

“I have to pee. I don’t want you to hear. Turn on the faucet.” April made her way to the bathroom and, out of habit, looked under the stall. A pair of shoes attached to some jeans were under there.

April jumped up.

“There’s someone in there.” She pointed and whispered.

“Why are you whispering?” The guy whispered back.

April thought about it and realized whispering was dumb, especially now that the situation had reached a critical and painful point. She slammed her fist against the metal stall door.

“Open up. You’ve had plenty of time to finish what you’re doing, and I need to piss like a racehorse.”

There was not even a rustle from inside the stall. April turned to the man stuck in the bathroom with her. “Do you think he’s dead?”

“Why do you keep whispering?”

“I don’t want to yell if I’m stuck in here with a dead guy.”

“Why don’t you look under the door and see then?”

“I really don’t want to see a dead guy with his pants down.”

“Like I do?”

“You’re a guy. And you work here. This is all you.” April lost the whispering. “Now go drag the dead guy out so I can pee.”

It was a lot easier to see now that her eyes had adjusted, and April took a moment to admire the man as he bent down to get the dead body off the toilet.

“Fucking employees.” The man kept cursing as he crawled under the door.

April didn’t think it was very nice to speak ill of the dead, but at this point she didn’t care. She really didn’t want to pee in the sink.

Something flew from the stall and hit her in the face. April screamed.

Chapter Six

Taylor shouldn’t have taken so much enjoyment from terrifying a customer, but his smile was huge as he unlocked the door and saw her holding the teddy bear he had tossed her way. It was a nice catch considering the screaming.

“Why the fuck was there a teddy bear on the toilet wearing pants?” she asked.

Taylor threw the pants and shoes in the corner of the bathroom. “Stupid April Fools’ pranks. Sorry. Didn’t you need to pee like a racehorse?”

His words had her charging the stall and pushing him out of the way. “Turn on the water!” she yelled as the metal door slammed behind her.

Realizing he could use a good splash of water to clear his head after this whole crazy ordeal, he didn’t bother to argue. It took some seriously cold water and a few slaps to the face before his thoughts started to organize.

“Better?” He asked as she came up beside him to wash up.

“Those double shots of espresso are no joke.”

He laughed. Then, hearing the commotion on the other side of the door, he realized he was the only manager on duty and the monkeys were flying loose on the sales floor. He also realized as he patted his pocket that both his cell phone and the store phone were in the office. A few minutes, and hand wash later, the lights were still out.

“Please tell me you have a cell phone with you.” He begged the crazy lady.

She reached in her pocket and pulled out her smartphone. It illuminated the room as she slid her finger across the screen to wake it up. He felt almost as much relief as she did when the dead body turned out to be a stuffed animal.

“May I borrow it? I have to call the store and make sure they’re shutting down the servers correctly.”

“And ya know…maybe have them open the door,” she prodded.

“That’s not going to work. The hinges are on the inside, and no tools will fit under the door.”

“You said they could unlock it with your phone.”

He wished. “Only an option when there’s power. By the red glow, I am assuming that’s not available yet.”

Taylor was going to get these locks changed the second he got out of here.

He dialed the store number and heard the phones at the registers ringing in the distance. They were the only ones that were corded and could receive calls without power. It took his employees a full three minutes to figure that out. He probably should have called their cell phones.

“Um…hello?” After the fearful greeting there was some muffled arguing. Then he heard, “I don’t know what to tell you, lady. There is no power, and I can’t go running through the dark yelling for your daughter. And I can’t sell you anything so you might as well wait outside.”

Good to know his employees were maintaining such professionalism in his absence. “Adam.”

“Mr. James? Where the hell are you? I am not paid enough to deal with natural disasters.”

“Adam, this is not a natural disaster. The power is out.”

The person who had to run the store and troubleshoot for him snorted. “That’s a pretty damn big disaster when your cell is at…38%.”

Of course. “I need you to go to the offices and shut down the servers for me. We only have thirty minutes of backup left before the system craps out. There is a laminated power outage instruction sheet hanging on the cork board to the left of the main computer.”

“Hey Becca. Go back to the office and grab the laminated sheet next to terminal one and follow the directions.”

“Way to pawn off the responsibility there, Adam”

“Hey…you’re obviously trapped somewhere, because otherwise you wouldn’t want me or anyone else touching your office. Since you’re out of the building, as the most tenured employee, I’m in charge. So I’m doing what people in charge do. I’m delegating.” More muffled sounds. “They’re just freaking bouncy balls. Get over it.”

If his head wasn’t already most likely cracked in a few different places, Taylor would have been banging it against the wall. “Please tell me there are no customers left in the store.”

“Just this one wacko who won’t leave.”

More yelling in the background.

“Adam. This is a stressful situation. Please take a deep breath and be polite to the woman.”

“Mr. James, she is talking about her daughter’s essence being here. She said her daughter’s chakras are out of alignment and she needs her crystal.”

Taylor leaned his head against the evil electronically locked jail door. “Her daughter’s chakras told her she was here?”

“Oh, shit.”

That wasn’t from the cell phone. Taylor turned and looked to the woman he was sharing the confined space with.

“I cannot believe my mom is here. Tell your employees to bring her back here before she uses her emergency stash of Dandelion Root tea. She says it improves her mental clarity, but it also makes her breath toxic for days.”

Taylor banged his head on the door then. The headache was worth it. The ringing in his ears was a bonus.

He felt the phone taken from his hand.

“Hello?” The crazy lady with him in the bathroom started talking. He banged his head more while she talked.

Then the door was banging back at him.

“Sweetheart? Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, Mom. We are just stuck in here until the power comes back on.”

“We?”

“Yes, there is a man in here with me.”

“Do you need any condoms? Sex could be a pleasurable way to pass the time.”

Was this part of another prank? Because if it wasn’t, this really was the weirdest April Fools’ Day ever.