The Way Down

The Way Down

12th Floor
Right, here goes.
God, the mirror in this lift makes me look awful.
Hang on, straighten the tie, flatten the hair. Ok, reasonably presentable.

11th Floor
She’s never going to say yes. I mean obviously.
What the hell am I doing?
I’ll just walk past her.
Just walk past reception like I always do.

10th Floor
But she might ask why I'm carrying the flowers.
Everyone who saw me with a huge bunch of flowers in the office today will ask me tomorrow if I asked her.
They might even ask her if I asked her.
This is getting out of control already.

9th Floor
Oh, come on Richard, grow some balls and ask her.
It’s just a drink, or maybe dinner.
Maybe dinner is too much. Maybe see how it goes.
Maybe I can jokingly ask...
No, not jokingly. Bad, bad idea. Remember that last office party.

8th Floor
Damn it, why wasn't she on reception this morning?
I was all geared up and there was Bob instead.
I like Bob and everything, but he is not Jane, and I was not giving him flowers.
If she’d been there it would be all over and done with, and the whole office wouldn't have seen me with the flowers.
They would have either noticed a nice bouquet on Jane’s reception desk, or in her litter bin, and I could have avoided all the nudges, winks and giggles all day.

7th Floor
Why is this lift taking so long?
Look, I’ll just go up to her, hand her the flowers and ask her out. It’s easy.
She’ll just politely say no and that will be that.
Then I’ll have to just avoid her entirely for the rest of my life.

6th Floor
Maybe I should just save us both the trouble.
I’ll make up some excuse about the flowers.

5th Floor
I’ll not tell her that I think about her every day.
That I look forward to seeing her smile when I sign in each morning.
That I keep looking for excuses to pass reception and chat.
I’ll not mention how I love the way she’s so easy to talk to.

4th Floor
No, I've got to do it. This is ridiculous.
Even if we stay just friends I have to try.

3rd Floor
I'm going to do it.
I'm going to do it.
I'm going to do it.
I'm going to do it.
I'm going to do it.

2nd Floor
Oh God, here we go.
Bloody mirror. Bloody hair. Bloody tie.

1st Floor
Get a grip, next floor.
Come on.
You can do it.

Ground Floor
There she is. I'm going to do it.
If she looks up and smiles, I'm going to do it.
Please Jane, just one smile. I'm standing here with a stupid bunch of flowers, ready to make a complete twat of myself for you. Just one smile and I’ll do it.
Yes.
Here I go.