TANGLE OF LEGS, part 12

When the elevator doors opened, Lorene took a breath. In front of her, a few steps away, were the doors to the offices on the 32nd floor. The place was completely silent, as she expected, and would remain so until the group of deliveries returned—except for any noise she and her rival made beyond those doors. Lorene was aware of the possibility that any argument between them could escalate into shouting, given the tension accumulated over the weeks, but the reality was that it was now that she was beginning to wonder if there would be more than just words in those offices. With her heart pounding hard, the redhead questioned herself in all seriousness whether her problems with Evelyn were important enough for her to cross a line she had never crossed in her life before: getting into a fight.

“No, I’m not that kind of woman,” she whispered. And yet, she felt she was lying to herself. She had never hated anyone as much as she hated the other mysterious redhead, so felt unable to promise that there would not also be cries of pain.

Getting out of the elevator, Lorene looked at both sides of the hallway she was in: to the right, one staircase was ascending; to the left, another was descending. Licking her lips, she grabbed the doorknob of the office door when, suddenly, she heard a sound she knew very well: the distinctive echo of heels, clanging through the stairs to her left. For an instant, Lorene thought with some desperation that someone was returning early to that floor, but then she realized that footsteps sounded far away, coming from many levels below.

It must be someone who has not found a free elevator and is going up one or two floor, the redhead reasoned, but she immediately thought of another possibility. Wait, it’s not her, is it?

The pair of heels continued to sound in the distance with a regular rhythm reminiscent of a military march. Lorene couldn’t help but think of long, strong legs ascending step by step up to where she was, but she still didn’t want to believe. Tuning her ear, she calculated how many floors away the ascending woman was.

“About…fifteen? Sixteen, maybe?” the beauty of the 52nd floor intuited. No one would go up more than one or two floors without using the elevator, unless….“Shit, it has to be her…”

Suddenly, it all became so real that Lorene felt she could almost smell the other woman’s perfume. The footsteps sounded closer—one floor closer now—but she remained motionless there where she stood.

If she’s not using the elevator, it’s for a reason, she mused, feeling a little puzzled for a couple of seconds, until she suddenly understood what the other female was trying to do. After all, it was something she would also have done if she came from a lower floor. Oh, do you really think that toning up your legs before our meeting will help you? she growled in her mind as her green eyes remained fixed on the stairs. Well, two can play the same game, you bitch.

Finally, without wasting another second, Lorene got moving. With pride, she began to climb the stairs back to the 52nd floor. More than four hundred steps awaited her long, strong legs, but the redhead knew that the test would be nothing compared to the hard workouts she did every afternoon at the gym—on the leg press, the squat machine, or running on the treadmill. In return, when she took the elevator down to the 32nd floor again, her leg muscles would be so defined, her legs so heavenly impeccable and outstanding, that Lorene was sure there would be no question as to which pair of legs between hers and Evelyn’s ruled.

***

Evelyn had been confused for several floors. A small sign indicated that she was on the 29th level—where her former friend Clara Roma’s office was located, but that was a different story about love betrayals, toxic relationships and unresolved hatreds—and she could still hear the same heels going up and up and up, several floors above her. She couldn’t help thinking that woman could be Lorene, but it didn’t make any sense.

Why would she be going upstairs? she thought over and over again. If she had gotten there before me and chickened out, she would have gone back up in the elevator with her tail between her legs, not walking.

With her formidable legs sweating lightly in a splendorous show of taut muscle and silky skin, Evelyn continued to ascend at a brisk pace. The 30th and 31st floors were left behind but the sound of distant footsteps continued. Whoever she was, that woman was ascending at the same speed as her, step after step. If the rumors were true, there was only one other person with legs capable of such a feat in the entire skyscraper besides her.

By the time Evelyn reached the 32nd floor, she had left behind any doubt as to the identity behind the mystery. The pieces of the puzzle fit together in her head, and suddenly it all made sense: Lorene Mlakar was playing the same game she was playing.

Good, she thought arrogantly, stopping in front of the office door. So there will be no excuses. Hearing the other woman’s footsteps in the distance, she took a breath and opened the door. Here I wait for you, bitch.

As she expected, there was no one in the whole place. With her hands on her hips, she walked around the office, hearing the sound of her own heels resonating against the walls. Her beautiful legs throbbed slightly after climbing twenty floors on foot, but the reward was worth the effort: her pair looked so strong and toned that it was impossible for Lorene or any other woman to match them.

That bitch will immediately and definitely know which legs are the bosses here, Evelyn thought. Looking around, the redhead chose the spot where she would wait for her rival. The copier room.

Passing the doorless threshold, Evelyn entered a small room at the opposite end of the office, with a single window through which the midday sun observed as the only privileged spectator. There were only two photocopy machines, placed on opposite walls, but they were large enough to further reduce the narrow space. Evelyn wasn’t sure why that place felt appropriate for her meeting with the other leggy redhead, but she somehow knew that a cramped and somewhat claustrophobic place was the right choice. Licking her full lips, she understood that she was standing at the perfect battle arena, even though she didn’t yet know what would happen between her enemy and herself when they met.

“We are going to argue, and a lot, that’s for sure, because she will not accept this,” she whispered to herself as she looked at her own incredible legs. “But will she dare to attack me because of her jealousy?” For a moment, she felt that she wouldn’t care if something like that broke out. “No, I’m not like that, I’m better than that. I’m better than her.” She bit her lower lip. “But if she starts…”

All of a sudden, she heard heels approaching the office door. With no idea how long she had been immersed in her own thoughts, Evelyn straightened up in front of the window. When a few seconds later someone walked in, her heart almost leapt out of her chest. Instinctively and quickly, she touched up her hair, readjusted her blouse and, thrusting out her firm C-cup breasts, strategically positioned herself in front of the window, with the sun at her back. When Lorene first saw her, there in the small copier room, her mysterious antagonist would be literally dazzled by the sun, and with Evelyn’s curvaceous figure standing out in the beams of light like the goddess she was.

She doesn’t stand a chance, she thought confidently. Not against this body, not against these legs.

Evelyn Bauer was more than ready for Lorene Mlakar.

***

Lorene entered the office with the smugness that came from a simple glance at her long legs. A soft layer of sweat covered the smooth skin of her major virtues, giving them a seductive sheen over a powerful and defined musculature. But that cockiness had a moment of doubt when, turning her face slightly, she saw the spectacular silhouette of a woman waiting a few steps away, in front of a window and a shining sun. After hearing about her for so long, she finally found herself facing the notorious Evelyn Bauer. There was no word, neither from her nor from the other redhead. Lorene was simply drawn to Evelyn, her long legs carrying her toward the copier room as her gorgeous eyes tried to see beyond the glare of the sun.

Then, as if fate wanted a level playing field in what was to happen on the 32nd floor, a cloud briefly blocked out the sun. With the golden aura gone, Evelyn was left in full view, no secret to Lorene’s watchful eye. She found a redhead with her mouth open in surprise, blatantly looking her up and down, but her own reaction could only be to join her rival’s genuine shock at what her eyes were revealing.

“No way…” Lorene muttered at the same time as the woman she had been looking for for five weeks. “No fucking way…”

Lorene suddenly painfully understood how much honesty there had been behind every confusion, every comparison, every doubt that had been thrown around by her co-workers, for what she saw before her was not a perfect reflection of herself, but it was too close to it to dismiss the thought so easily. She knew beforehand that Evelyn was going to be a tall woman with long legs and beautiful boobs, with seductive green eyes and long reddish hair, but what she didn’t expect was to meet what might be a long-lost sister, raised by other parents in a distant city only to return to her today. Evelyn was everything she was, and that included a beautiful face with very similar features but, above all, a body that copied hers curve for curve practically to the millimeter from the neck down. Under her blouse and skirt, the woman in charge of the 12th floor appeared to match her height, weight and build, but what hurt her the most was the way her opponent was perfectly mimicking her flawless and unrivaled pair of legs. Feeling as if the world was suddenly spinning faster, Lorene anchored her feet to the ground to proudly stand tall. Then, her green eyes met Evelyn’s green eyes, and it was as if a trumpet sounded to begin hostilities.

***

Words: 1806.