[ WHO ] Glory and Ossie. [ WHAT ] A is for Awkward. [ WHEN ] Tuesday afternoon, July 12th. [ WHERE ] An elevator. [ STATUS ] In progress. [ RATING ] Probably low.
It was just another day at the office for Oscar, who'd taken a break from autopsying an elderly woman to pick up his supply order from one of the upper levels of the building. Eventually, his handful of highlighter markers and Kleenex would have found their way to the morgue anyway, but it was one of those afternoons where any excuse to go for a walk was a good one. He'd done the age-old 'drink excessive amounts of coffee' trick, he'd began to mentally re-read Moby Dick before growing bored of that, too, and had tried to work as slowly as possible to help the day go by, but all of it was little help. He needed a change of scenery, and office supplies were as good of an excuse as any to kill some time.
Oscar stepped into the department's ancient elevator and pushed the button, thinking bland thoughts about how he'd once read about a 60-ton sperm whale exploding in the streets of Tainan, showering the nearby shops and cars with blood and guts. Why didn't anything that interesting ever happen here? He was looking down at the markers to make sure they were the brand he liked when the elevator stopped at the next floor. It wasn't until the person had gotten on and the elevator was moving again that Oscar actually looked up to see who it was, but when he did, he felt his stomach sink.
Standing in the vicinity was one Gloriana Powers, which wouldn't have been a big deal if Oscar hadn't been successfully avoiding her for months. Not that he had anything against her personally, of course; it was just rather difficult to look someone in the eye after you'd nearly cut open their naked body, only to have them wake up and keep right on living. To say that that incident had messed with Oscar's mind would have been a horrible understatement. He had no idea what to say or do if he saw her and unfortunately, Hallmark hadn't invented any 'sorry for almost autopsying you' cards yet.
Still, he supposed he couldn't have avoided her forever, as much as he wanted to. At least this encounter would probably be brief, though he was beginning to wish he hadn't been so quick to find something less boring to engage in. He stared anxiously at his shoes for a few moments in silence before deciding that saying something, anything, would probably be better than nothing at all.
"So, uh. Hello. How have you been?" Oscar asked her, staring intently at the glow of the elevator buttons.