Kate Hoffmann - Brian

"What if I asked you to give up the story about Patterson?" she asked. "Would you do it?"

Brian opened his mouth to reply, then snapped it shut. He considered her question for a moment longer. "I thought we agreed we were going to keep our professional and our personal lives separate."

"That's what we said. But I can't put things in little compartments. This is my life and if you're a part of it, then you're part of all of it. And if you're not, then you're not."

"What are you asking, Lily? Whether I will make the choice? Or whether I want to make the choice."

She straightened, then shook her head. His answer was obvious. "I'm asking you to stop calling. To just… stay away. I had a wonderful time with you, but from the start, I wasn't looking for something… serious."

"Ah, hell," Brian said, turning away from her and raking his hand through his hair. "I do not want to have this talk right now. Neither of us should be making any decisions. It's too soon."

"I have to go," Lily said. "I still have a lot of work to do and you've probably got to get to the station tonight." Her hand trembled and she longed to reach out and touch him just one more time, so that she could remember what his skin felt like beneath her fingertips.

"I'm doing the report tonight," he murmured.

"What? But you told me-"

"I edited it this afternoon. We have film of Patterson and the planning commissioner coming out of a motel room. We're going to run it. That's what I came here to tell you. I'm telling you now. Tomorrow, it's going to be all over the news. I hope you're ready."

She straightened her spine and tipped her chin up. "I will be." With that, Lily turned on her heel and strode back to the elevator, then punched the button emphatically. That was it. The end of everything they'd shared. She'd almost been grateful that she hadn't been forced to choose. She bit back a sob, unwilling to give in to her emotion.

The elevator doors opened immediately and she stepped inside, praying that they'd close just as quickly. Brian watched her for a long moment, his gaze fixed on hers, and then at the last instant, he stepped inside as well, the doors closing behind him.

"What are you doing?" Lily asked.

"We're not finished yet."

He punched the button for the 20th floor and the elevator started up. But Lily reached around him and pushed the button for the lobby, intending to ride right back down again. "This doesn't have to be all messy and emotional," she said.

"Maybe it should be," he said. "Maybe you shouldn't be able to just end it without at least some sort of discussion."

A grinding sound filled the elevator and Lily looked up. "What was that?" The sound stopped suddenly and then, so did the elevator. It bounced a few times and Lily waited for the doors to open, but they didn't.

Brian pushed the button for the 20th floor again, but the elevator didn't move. "I think we might be stuck."

"No!" Lily cried, punching every floor between one and twenty. "We can't be."

"I think we are." He opened the door beneath the control panel and pulled out a phone. "Do you want to call or should I?" He pulled the phone away as she reached for it. "Or maybe we shouldn't call. This might be Fate lending a hand. And I'm never one to mess with Fate."

Lily sat in the corner of the elevator, her legs stretched out in front of her and crossed at the ankles. She glanced over at Brian who sat in the opposite corner, his gaze fixed on her legs. He looked up and realized that she'd caught him staring.

"You have nice legs," he said. "It's not against the law to look."

Lily tugged on her skirt, pulling it down to just above her knees. "When are we going to get out of here?" she muttered.

"We've only been stuck for fifteen minutes," Brian said. "It'll be soon." He glanced at his watch. "It better be soon. I have to get to the station."

"Maybe this is Fate stepping in-to keep you from broadcasting that report."

"Or maybe it's the lack of decent elevator repairmen in this city," he countered.

She shouldn't even be talking to him, Lily mused. After everything she'd said outside the elevator, it was almost hypocritical to act like nothing had happened once they were trapped inside. She'd called an end to their relationship once and for all, and now, she'd have to do it all again.

"I'm hungry," Lily said. "I didn't have dinner."

Brian reached into his pocket and produced a box of breath mints. "That's about it. You're going to have to make them last."

"How long do you think we'll be in here?"

"The security guy said it would be at least an hour before they got a repairman over here. So why don't we make the best of our time?" He grinned. "Wanna play five questions again?"

Lily rolled her eyes. "All right. But we each get two passes."

"You first," Brian said.

"Are you really going to air your story tonight or did you just tell me that to see how I'd react?"

"I'm really going to air it-if I get out of here in time. My turn. Are you really going to walk away from us or did you just tell me that to see how I'd react?"

Lily sighed. "I meant what I said." She thought about her next question. "Any regrets?"

He nodded slowly. "I have a few regrets."

"That's not a good enough answer. Tell me what they are."

Brian stared down at his shoes. "I regret that I never got a chance to make love to you the way I really wanted to," he murmured. "What about you? Do you have any regrets?"

Lily hesitated. They were telling the truth here. Why not be honest? "I was thinking that I'd never seen you… naked," Lily said. "We've shared such intimacies but we've never been completely intimate with each other."

"That can be remedied." Brian reached for the buttons of his shirt and Lily realized that maybe honesty hadn't been the best policy.

"Don't you dare."

"Why not? As long as we're stuck here, we might as well be comfortable. And I don't want to leave you with any regrets." He yanked off his shoes and socks, and Lily was certain that he was only teasing, certain that he'd stop there. But he returned to his shirt and unbuttoned it from top to bottom.

It gaped open, revealing a tantalizing view of muscle and skin, a broad chest with a light dusting of hair that ran from his collarbone to his belly. Lily felt her fingers twitch as she remembered touching him down there. Though the sight of him had started her heart racing, she tried to appear calm, as if men undressed in front of her on a regular basis.

Brian stood and began to unbuckle his belt. When he was finished, he pulled it from the loops and dangled it in front of her face.

"Hey, don't entertain me," she said. "Play to the camera."

"The camera?"

Lily pointed above her head to a clear glass window above the control panel. "Security camera," she said. "They can see everything you're doing."

Brian glanced up, then pulled his keychain from his pocket. He used a tiny pocket knife to unscrew the panel, then grabbed his sock and covered the camera lens. "Complete privacy," he said.

The phone rang and Lily giggled. "Complete?"

Brian grabbed the phone and answered it. "Yeah, she's here." He handed to the phone to Lily. "It's the guard."

"Miss Gallagher, are you all right? Something has happened to the security camera."

"I'm fine," Lily said. Her eyes went wide as she watched Brian shrug out of his shirt and drop it on the floor beside her. "Just get us out of here."

"It's going to be at least a few hours," the guard said. "Are you sure you're all right? If I have to, I can call in the fire department. They could force the door and-"

"No," Lily said, suddenly realizing that maybe she wanted to stay. "That won't be necessary." She handed Brian the phone and he hung it up. "Two hours now."