Nothing happened. It didn’t budge.
Her breathing immediately sped up again. Was she trapped in the dark space? Jules could hear her heartbeat pounding in her ears, the thumps so close together that it created a steady thunder. Cold pressed against her like a living thing, filling her lungs with each rapid, futile inhale. There wasn’t enough air. Each breath felt tight and empty, and she panted faster, trying to suck in oxygen.
Stop it! she snapped at herself. There is air. Fighting back the panic wanting to take control, Jules forced her breathing to slow. Gradually, her heartbeat followed enough for her logical brain to begin working. Maybe the door automatically latched in a power outage. She twisted the emergency release knob one direction and then pushed against the door again. Nothing. She tried the other way. The door remained stubbornly closed. Jules pushed and pulled and finally yanked so hard that the handle came off in her hand. She stared at the green, glowing, useless object in her hand and then burst into tears.
“Help!” she screamed, the panic rushing in and taking over. There were no rational thoughts left in her brain—just the desperate need to get out of the cooler. “Get me out!”
She pounded on the door, but its thick construction muffled her hits so even she could barely hear them. She wasn’t going to get out. She’d be trapped in that shrinking space for hours, even days, until she died of hypothermia. No! She couldn’t do it, couldn’t be stuck in this tight, airless blackness for even one more second. Forget hypothermia; her heart was about to explode in terror. Bracing her hands on the door, she shoved with all her might. It didn’t budge, immobile and horribly still…until suddenly the door was gone and everything was blindingly light and she was falling.
Theo caught her. Jules wasn’t sure how she knew, but she did, the instant his arms wrapped around her and her face pressed into his uniform shirt. It was stiff with starch, and a button pressed hard against her cheekbone, but she’d never felt anything better. His hand cupped her head, pulling her tighter against his chest, and his other arm wrapped around her back. It took a few seconds for Jules to realize that Theo was shouting.
“You’re a fucking psycho!”
Her head jerked back at that. She might be a kidnapper and a criminal and a liar, but she thought it was extremely unfair of him to call her a psycho. When she managed to focus her tear-blurred eyes on Theo’s face, though, he wasn’t looking at her. Jules followed his glare to Vicki, who was just a few feet away, doubled over with laughter. Jules blinked a few times, trying to tear herself free of the panic that still wanted to cling so she could figure out what was going on.
“C’mon, Theo,” Vicki finally wheezed, wiping her eyes. “I was just joking around. God, that was hilarious. When I pulled the same trick on Megan, she just sat on a crate of potatoes and played on her phone until I got bored and walked away.”
Theo snarled, “You—”
“What’s going on?” Hugh burst into the kitchen with Megan at his heels.
“Theo’s being a fun-wrecker. Again.” With a final hiccup of laughter, Vicki turned to the sink and started washing her hands.
Megan looked at Jules, then the walk-in cooler door, then Vicki, and understanding washed over her face. She groaned loudly. “Vicki, Theo’s right. You are a psycho. Did you do the whole turn-the-lights-off-and-hold-the-door-shut thing on poor Jules? You know she’s scared of the walk-in!”
“That’s what made it so funny!” When everyone just glared at Vicki, she threw her hands in the air. “You guys are no fun.”
Megan turned to Jules. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah.” With everyone’s eyes on her, embarrassment was starting to set in. It didn’t help that Jules realized she was still leaning against Theo’s very muscular chest. His hand was smoothing circles on her lower back, and she would’ve been very happy to stay there for the remainder of the morning. At that moment, resting against him, Jules gave in. It wasn’t just attraction; she was way too far gone for that. This was a huge, unmistakable, unignorable crush. She liked Theo…a lot.
When Megan and Hugh began to look more curious than concerned, Jules forced herself to take a step back, out of Theo’s tempting hold. He resisted for a fraction of a second, but then let her go. “I’m fine.” Her quivering voice turned her words into a lie. “I just don’t like small spaces.”
“Are you going to quit?” Megan asked, shooting an angry look at Vicki, who didn’t seem to notice. She’d returned to her grill and had started whistling again.