Due to the placement of the holidays on Thursdays last year, there were no Thursday Threads to tug. Luckily, I had a Christmas story to share for the one and the next Thursday was New Year’s Day so…hey, Happy New Year. That said, it meant no fresh words for today. At least not from the flash fiction challenge. Instead, I went in search of inspiration and found a phrase that sparked a scene between Aisling and…someone.   The prompt is: *”Have we met before?”*

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Aisling stared at the elevator then glanced at the door marked “Stairs.” Not that she was claustrophobic. It wasn’t the size of the elevator that made her nervous. No, not at all. It was the chance of something going wonky. Well, not just wonky but flat-out wrong. Like the car getting stuck between floors. Or the cable unraveling and the lift falling down the shaft gathering speed before smashing into the concrete at the bottom of the sub-basement.

She turned her head to stare at the closed doors. Was it true or just an urban legend that if you were in a runaway elevator and you jumped up and down so that you were in the air when it hit bottom, you wouldn’t be hurt. Or hurt as bad. She resolved to look that up on the Internet. She was a research librarian after all. Besides, it was only three floors. That was what? Forty feet? Or so. No far at all. She’d survive. Maybe. Probably.

The doors opened and she stepped forward blindly, her thoughts distracting her. She bumped into something solid. That was warm. And…solid. Eyes wide, she stared at a soft gray linen shirt, open at the collar, with softly tan skin of a masculine chest showing. She raised her head, gulping as her gaze followed a strong jawline and stopped on silvery green eyes the color of an antique jade vase. And oh, the twinkle of amusement in them made her gasp.

Aisling became aware of two things—strong hands gripping her upper arms and an overwhelming sense of déjà vu. The words spilled out of her mouth before she could think about them. “Have we met before?”
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There it is, boys and girls. A little free writing to get me back into the swing of things. Today I shall write some more words–hopefully. I’m still reading through the story so far plus my notes and getting reorganized, but while doing that, I’m also working on expanding unfishined scenes–grouping them together, writing transitions, and creating chapters. I will conquer this beast! In the meantime, writers, if the prompt inspires you, steal away! Readers, if you bumped into a fictional character getting off an elevator and you asked them this question, who would it be?