The Right Choice

Chapter 15

“Baby?”

“Baby!” The man groaned while still clutching his abdomen with one hand and searching the floor with the other one. “Where’d you go?”

The elevator continued to descend and the low hum of the machinery could be heard in the background. Jessie was still in confusion and continued to stare at the man on the floor. She had almost composed herself but he was still in the same position.

Though the man looked to be dressed well, he was in a complete state of mess. She could see the small lines of wrinkles on his suit. His shirt was half un-tucked and was in a similar state like his suit. What looked like it was a crisp white shirt, had red stains all over one side. ‘Looks too light to be blood. Maybe, wine. Please be wine.’

He was in pain and groaning while making slow movements from side to side. Jessie wasn’t sure of what to do. She couldn’t have hurt him that much and was not the only one at fault. She hadn't noticed him and neither did he. It was a simple accident.

‘Come on! Get up. Please.’

The man suddenly went motionless. That was not a good sign. He appeared to be severely drunk and had probably passed out. What was she supposed to do? She couldn’t leave him on the floor. Jessie waited for a second and made a quick decision. If he wasn’t getting up then she was going to make him get up.

Jessie walked closer and kneeled next to him. She spotted her clutch lying near him. She hadn’t even realized that she had dropped it. She picked it up and turned to him.

‘Whew!’

That’s when the smell hit her. He was reeking of alcohol and the spilled beverage on his shirt was adding to the scent.

“What the hell did you do? Empty the entire bar?” Jessie muttered as she tried to figure out the best approach to the situation. ‘Bringing him back to consciousness would be a good plan.’

He was facing the other side. Jessie leaned closer and pulled his face towards her, hoping that it would stir him into alertness. However, all that happened was instead of his face being flopped to the opposite side it was flopping towards her.

As Jessie assessed his face for injuries and bruises, she couldn’t help keeping her eyes off him. It wasn’t just the fact that he had an attractive face. Well, as attractive as a guy could look while he was dressed shabbily, was super drunk and passed out on the floor of an elevator. He looked familiar; as though she had seen him somewhere before.

That was hardly important as Jessie realized that she had to do something. They were almost at the lobby level and the man appeared to be still passed out. She tried to pick him up, at least get him to sit up. He was heavy and seemed to have become wet in the rain as well. Getting him to move turned out to be a task in itself. Plus the clutch in her hand was hardly helping. She let him fall backwards slightly to check. She spotted just what she was looking for.

His jacket had a large pocket on the outside which was just enough for her clutch to fit in.

‘Perfect.’

“Okay. So, I’m gonna try to get you on your feet,” Jessie said and kept her clutch in his pocket. “And you are going to hold on to my clutch while I do that. I hope you’re cool with that. Like you have a choice by the way.” 

With her heels clacking on the floor and her balance going off every other second, Jessie finally managed to get him to sort of stand up. The man stirred slightly as she got him to lean on the railing to the back. Jessie grumbled under her breath. She had no clue what she was supposed to do next.