The One Where the Elevator Drops Down

Okay, I've just had the most horrifying experience in an elevator. 

As usual, I took the elevator from the basement area to the penthouse suite where my office is and that's a good 25-26 floors up. Couple of people got in and they got off at the 21st floor and the elevator started up again but almost immediately, changed its mind and started to go down, really fast. 

I could hear the fire alarm and a message came up on the LED display inside stating,

"Emergency! Please evacuate!"

and for one incredulous moment, I was like,

"How the hell am I supposed to evacuate when I'm plummeting to my death??!"

Oh God, I kept looking at the numbers getting lesser and lesser as the elevator kept going down and the whole time I was praying (yes, I prayed!) that it would stop at the Ground floor or something and not crash to the bottom of wherever.

Thank GOD, it didn't. As soon as the elevator approached Ground, it started to slow down as if that was where it had been wanting to go all the while. I got out with my heart still pounding and was going to speak to the guard at reception when I realize the fire alarm had stopped and everyone else seemed to be getting into the elevators as normal.

So rather reluctantly, I got into another elevator and good thing coz there were a whole bunch of people heading to the penthouse as well. We got up safely like nothing out of the ordinary had happened. 

Not that I'm not glad to be safe but, to be honest, I was rather hoping for someone else to share my drama scary moment. No one had experience anything weird with the elevator though I might just decide to take the stairs later - 26 floors down - in heels!

Curiouser and curiouser...

Last weekend, one of caramel honey's clients called him out for steamboat dinner. I have to point out that caramel honey is not remotely close to this client so imagine our surprise when he was called for a steamboat dinner (and dragged me along). Apparently, the dinner included a guest from the client's company whom caramel honey had never met. As it turned out, the guest was a Director in the company (the client is the CEO).

Now this is where it gets weird. The dinner was just the CEO, the Director (who's a former Star journalist), his girlfriend, caramel honey and me. You would think that a dinner organized by someone would include some other business contacts/family members/acquaintances but surprisingly, this was not the case. 

Initially, the atmosphere was a little bit awkward for caramel honey and me but after slurping bowls full of tom yam soup and munching on prawns, tofu and fishballs, we got comfortable. Truthfully, the dinner was pleasant and it was nice to meet these people who are obviously much, much older than us and have seen/done plenty in life. 

This is where it gets weirder. The whole night, conversation revolved around all of us except the CEO. He just kept quiet throughout his meal. In fact, I barely remember him speaking and the strange part was, I could see him staring at caramel honey from the corner of my eye. When he did speak, it was mostly to caramel honey and sounded very observation-minded.

Anyhow, as the dinner came to an end, it seemed like there were no plans to adjourn elsewhere so the CEO abruptly got up and thank us all for coming. That was it.

As caramel honey and I walked back to the car, we pondered on the reasons behind the dinner and these are some of the theories we came up with:

1. The CEO wants to hire caramel honey
2. The CEO does not have a heir to inherit his fortune/company and wants to put caramel honey as his successor
3. The CEO wants to set caramel honey up with daughter/girl of his choice

Yes, we may be over-analyzing things but you do have to admit that for a person whom we barely know, to invite us out to a fairly casual dinner, is pretty strange.