Bab 340: Curious Giselle
At the tiniest sight of spotting Lillian among the crowd, Jenna pointed out to Giselle, saying, "You see, Ms. Giselle! That woman- She behaves absurdly crazy when she gets nervous!"
Lillian's frame soon disappeared, and Jenna hinted that they should get back to work. Giselle wondered what Jenna meant earlier. She shot a glance at the street to find no trace of Lillian and only then followed to join with Jenna.
**
The two entered inside the building to find a huge crowd waiting outside the ground floor elevator service. Falling to a deep concern from ever getting back to work sooner, both tried to wait patiently. However, when the elevator approached, people started to rush madly inside as groups, leaving behind the ones who couldn't possibly make it. The elevator said goodbye to the losers who got left behind, resuming its journey upwards.
Giselle and Jenna, along with a few others, hissed from missing their flight. Having already wasted time in waiting, the two editors began to fear if their prolonged absence would catch attention by the superiors at work.
Giselle left Jenna's side to look around. She was trying to find the stairs and signaled at Jenna.
"No!" Jenna protested.
"No way, Ms. Giselle! I'm not doing that!" she sternly protested as soon as grasping Giselle's plan.
"There is another elevator that operates from the sixth floor, which no one uses it much. We could take that instead of waiting here," Giselle proposed her plan.
Jenna shook her head firmly to deny.
The other elevator on the sixth floor that Giselle mentioned is also known as the Ghost Elevator. It gained the name from its lack of usage since it remains isolated and away from the central spot. Plus, aging alongside the building, this lift still maintains its traditional design to date. Not many who works inside the building knows about it, and the only ones who knew lived by its gossips. Hence, abandoning to make use of perfectly operating service.
Jenna being the one who knew about this facility, got surprised to see someone like Giselle, who recently joined, suggest utilizing it.
"Ms. Giselle, don't tell me that you use that every day for work!" she said to consider the idea while throwing a painful glance to find more people joining the queue already on both sides. Seeing that it might take time, Jenna decides to go along with Giselle's suggestion as the two began ascending the stairway.
Upon reaching the first floor, Jenna requested a time out. The physical activity starts to strain her as she slanted against the wall to catch a break. A new terrible sprain appeared on her sides as she clenched the area with her hand tightly.
"Ms. Giselle, I don't think- I don't think I can do this," Jenna retired weakly.
Giselle paused to discover Jenna struggling from panting and encouraged her to continue.
"Come on! It will be good exercise to burn all those calories!"
"No- I think the calories are refusing to get burned!" Jenna cried from exhaustion.
"Come on, don't be lazy. You'll feel better later-" Giselle said to help Jenna by supporting her.
Giselle's assistance restored Jenna's confidence, and they continued to climb the stairs while stopping in between to take short breaks.
Finally, reaching the sixth floor, Jenna deeply exhaled, fat-sweats dripping all over her body, and she began to feel her adrenaline gushing along in her blood vessels. No longer did Jenna felt exhausted from pushing herself. She tried to take deep breathes to calm down her pounding heart.
Taking another detour to reach the abandoned elevator spot, the two ladies arrived in front of the famed Ghost Elevator. Pushing through the grill gates, Jenna stepped inside first to collapse and rest against the wall, feeling a sense of happiness.
"You did it!" Giselle cheered.
"Oh- p- please, don't praise- me! I'm never doing this again with a full stomach," Jenna whimpered from the fatigue.
Giselle chuckled to enter and press the button. Silence return as either of them had no strength to spare a chat. As predicted, no one used the elevator, thus giving them a peaceful ambiance inside the small space.
Jenna used the opportunity to fish out her phone hurriedly.
"I better send a text to Ms. Grey! One reminder isn't enough for her to remember."
Jenna typed the words quickly to Giselle's notice and clicked the send button. Only then did she exhaled another relieved sigh, putting the phone inside her bag to lean against the back.
"Is it necessary to remind Lillian to take care of herself? I mean, she is an adult already," Giselle inquired, finding Jenna's concern a little dramatic.
Jenna looked in awe at Giselle, finding her comment unsettled despite knowing the history she shares with her author.
Giselle felt her judging face to a flustered embarrassment.
Jenna sighed to reveal Lillian's strange persona whenever she gets nervous.
"Ms. Grey might look strong to others, but she is still a naughty child-like adult."
Jenna said to find the slightest relief in Giselle's flustered face. She recognized that it might be something that she already knew.
"You will be surprised to know what Ms. Grey does every time she releases a new book!" Jenna baited Giselle with something unknown about Lillian, and it worked. Having the advantage of spending time with Lillian for years gave her the upper hand right now, getting Giselle curious.
"There's this whole ritual Ms. Grey does every time," Jenna began.
She went on to reveal Lillian's weird acts like endless drinking, comical dancing, napping randomly, and so on- all before her new book gets released. Jenna cried her heart out to Giselle's attention, sharing how she tackled all those moments alone over the years. Hearing her stories made Giselle feel intimidated by Jenna's knowledge of Lillian Grey. She could clearly see that this young lady had spent more time with Lillian than anyone else, which made Giselle sulk in insecure. Alongside this, there was something that Giselle wished to ask Jenna during this whole storytime. She wanted to know about Lillian and how she lived in all those years!
If possible, Giselle yearned to know every little thing about Lillian that she missed.
As Jenna kept piling up stories after stories about Lillian, Giselle's shoulders sank to the depth of suffering. Also, the old elevator is not making it convenient as it took its own sweet time riding upstairs. Unable to listen to Jenna, Giselle interrupted.
Her rude meddling even startled Jenna, who paused abruptly.
"Is something wrong, Ms. Giselle?" she asked worriedly.
Giselle took the time to shook her head.
Jenna remained quiet, giving Giselle the timeout required. She thought maybe if she overdid the talking. It made Jenna afraid that she chose to stay hushed until Giselle asks herself.
Meanwhile, Giselle timidly spoke that even Jenna couldn't catch despite being confined within a small space. She pleaded Giselle to repeat and waited eagerly.
"Uh- Lilly- Uhm- how w- was she?" Giselle stuttered to ask.
Jenna wasn't able to catch the broken words, and it remained ambiguous to answer. She appealed for one last time.
"W- Was she doing fine?" Giselle added.
Finally, following her intention, Jenna nodded along to confirm. To her suspect, she worried if Giselle was curious.
"Ms. Giselle, are you interested to know about Ms. Lillian?" she asked.
PERTIMBANGAN PENCIPTA 
ljack_ace
ljack_ace This chapter was the most notorious one, kept me ruining the entire last week until I wrote something that finally pleased me!
Oh God!
The sheer suffering!!
I'm most grateful for you guys being patient.
Hope this week goes smooth!!!
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