Chapter Text
Max was late to a meeting as he squeezed into the lift, shifting his weight foot to foot and bouncing slightly in an attempt to make it go faster. As always, he ignored all the other people surrounding him.
It was his second month at the company and he was yet to make a friend. Although, in his defense, everyone else was like a million years older than him and uptight. So instead of being that outgoing co-worker, Max had resigned himself to being the quiet enigma who sat at his desk and got the work done. Now, he wasn’t a total recluse, he’d been known to join in on the Friday pub nights, always impressing his colleagues with his pub quiz skills, but overall, he kept to himself and didn’t mix business with pleasure.
Max also prided himself on his punctuality, never being late to anything - until today.
It had been a normal morning. He woke up on time, ate breakfast, got ready, and started cycling to work. It was perfectly normal and he was on time until a car crashed in front of him and he had to take a detour that added time onto the journey. Luckily for Max, most people got off when the doors opened on floor three and he thought he’d be left alone. Until a hand thrust itself between the closing doors, followed by a person he’d never seen before.
“Sorry mate, room for one more?” The man asked, a beaming smile plastered onto his bearded face, voice laced with a friendly Australian accent.
Max just nodded as he pressed the floor number again, desperately wanting no more delays on his journey. As the lift started to ascend once more, Max could feel eyes on him, boring a hole into the back of his head. He tried to ignore it, instead rustling through the papers stacked in his arms to try and do some last minute (unneeded) preparation for the meeting.
Suddenly, the lift seemed to drop. To Max, it felt as though the floor had jumped away from his feet for a millisecond. And then it stilled. Not going up, not going down - suspended in one place. Max turned back to the control panel, pressing the buttons violently in an attempt to make the lift move, but nothing worked.
“Think the lift’s stopped.” The voice from the corner piped up.
“Well, of course it has. Brilliant. Fucking brilliant.” Max grumbled as a response, checking to see if he had signal so he could at least contact his boss. Of course, he didn’t and he couldn’t.
Max groaned and slid down the wall, sitting down in defeat. He was missing his progress review and would obviously be fired over it. All because of a car crash and a broken lift. As time went on, silence grew, filling the four walls and encompassing the pair of them.
“Cheer up mate. At least you’re not alone. I’m Daniel.” The overly perky voice piped up after a while.
Max looked up, glaring at the man - at Daniel. For the first time, he finally looked at him, taking in the man that stood above him. He looked friendly, but scruffy. His tie was merely thrown around his neck and his hair was a mess of curls. It was as if he’d rolled out of bed half asleep and came in, not bothering to look professional. Yet there was something about him that drew Max to him. He wasn’t old, wasn’t uptight, and wasn’t looking at Max as if he was a child.
“I’m Max.” Max mumbled in response as he put his papers down.
As time went on, the conversation grew and Max started to loosen up - a natural result of Daniel being chatty and open. Max learnt of Daniel’s upbringing and move to Europe whereas Daniel learnt that Max liked to be on time. The silence was filled with Daniel’s laugh as he tried to break the tension and calm Max down and it had started to work.
By the time the lift was fixed and they were heading up again, Max didn’t feel as anxious over the meeting. And when they parted ways once on the top floor, Max decided maybe he did have a friend at work now.