Elijah sighed and shook his head. It felt weird and wrong to just go in. He knocked again. "I'm not going anywhere. Just talk to me. Or are you admitting you were in the wrong?" He said.

Silence.

Elijah sighed and knocked on another door while keeping it in view to ask another lady if they would help him get her out to talk.

A beautiful woman opened the door, wearing only a partially open robe as she smiled at the … constable? Or at least a man who got his rocks off in a constable’s uniform.

Her smile fell flat when it became clear he wasn’t her client, and she pulled her robe about herself.

“Sorry, sir – I’m waiting for my own client right now, else I’d help you.”

Elijah sighed and nodded. "Sorry for bothering you, thank you for your time." He knocked on Lory's door. "I'm going to ask all of the women on this floor to help me. They will be very annoyed you didn't just talk to me." He said, trying to reason with her. He'd make her time there miserable if he had to.

“Good luck,” she said, though there was a bit of upward inflection at the end.

She looked down the hallway … then lingered, watching the constable.

“She’s usually pretty good with her appointments,” the woman mused with a frown. “I thought I heard her playing just a moment ago.”

Elijah sighed and nodded. "I'm not an appointment. I want to talk to her for something she wrote in a paper, and she won't talk to me. I don't want to make this complicated or anything. Just to talk." He looked frustrated and ran his fingers through his hair. "I don't know why she won't talk. It would be over by now if she'd even just talk through the door." He glanced back at the woman. "I hope you have a nice day." He almost said profitable, but it might have been in bad taste. It certainly felt like a weird thing to say.

he walked to another door and knocked.

There was a slight widening of her eyes, but her courteous smile remained.

“Oh,” she simply said, then after a delay, “you too, sir.”

The door shut off to his side … but bare feet walked down the hall instead of shut behind said door.

She cast the occasional glance over her shoulder until she turned a corner.

Elijah sighed and frowned in frustration. Great. Now they were going to think he was up to something. He sighed and hurried downstairs in the other direction. He wasn't going to get the other person in trouble. She would leave work eventually. He would be back and wait. Was it creepy? Yeah, but she was being unreasonable.