“How could you know I’d drink my body weight in fizzy drinks and get trapped in a confined space?”

“Oh, come on,” she said, like it was obvious. “In a rom-com, the couple always get trapped in a confined space. If they go into a supply closet, the door will lock from the outside. If they get on an elevator, the elevator will get stuck. And if they go on a Ferris wheel, it will break down. I can’t blame you, you don’t really know enough about these films.”

“Well then yeah, you should have warned me. I’d have made an emergency backpack with snacks or something. A map, a first aid kit, and one of those enormous satellite phones for when our phones inevitably lose signal.”

There was a surprising amount of overlap between cute rom-com disaster scenes and your average horror movie disaster. Of course in rom-coms there is only sexual tension; in horror there’s a knife-wielding serial killer, so the tone is subtly different, you know?

“Ah, I get it now,” Ruby said sagely. “You’re the uptight one and I’m the carefree spirit who has to teach you how to loosen up, chill out, break the rules.”

“Excuse me? I’m the one who scaled a wall and bought you a star. I’m obviously the carefree one,” I said, although the bit about breaking the rules was a little close for comfort. I didn’t have rules because I was uptight. I had them because I was afraid of what I might do without them. That’s not being a control freak.

It’s not.

“As the truly carefree one, I’m going to let you have that,” Ruby said, with a wink that woke the wobble from its nap at a most inconvenient moment. I didn’t know anyone could wink and not come off cheesy, but she managed it. I wondered if I could do it. I’d have to practice in the mirror later.

“I’m just going to say it,” Ruby said, while I was contemplating that the very act of practicing winking did indeed make me the uptight one. “We agreed we were going to do one trial date and I think this is a resounding success.”

I made a point of peering out of the cart to the earth, far far away, and back at Ruby.

“What, you mean because we got stuck up here that’s not a success? I told you, if you watched more rom-coms you would have seen it coming.”

“I’m kidding,” I said. “I actually am having a good time. You know, aside from the desperate need to pee while trapped in the air.” Weirdly it was true. Somehow, I would have rather been stuck in a bathroom emergency with her than basically anywhere else without her.