"I am so sorry, he was so convincing when he told me you were friends. Even went as far as to say he had a crush on you." The cleaning lady said rapidly as she covered her face slowly backed away from Joao.
"And you believed that?" Joao frisked over his hair as he sighed loudly. His face reddened a bit because he couldn't do anything to the poor soul. "What did he look like? Was he wearing anything that stood out like a school uniform or a suit?" He decided that he could at least find out if it was who was expecting. Also, there was a lot you can tell about someone from their attire of choice, their intentions, and things they could be hiding was only a pinch of what clothes could tell you.
"Oh… Well, he wasn't wearing any uniform," she slowly came up from behind her hands and looked down to meet Joao's gaze. "But he was in tracksuits, they were his jacket was unzipped and exposed a black vest. Oh, oh, he was also muscular and big like, way big, but somehow no wider than me. Hmm, he was weird especially when he talked, he acted we've known each other for a long time"
"So he was skinny and tall, you caught a glance of his veins and immediately assumed that he was muscular?" Joao asked, cutting into the cleaning lady's thinking.
"No, not thin but lean, I'm pretty sure there were abs under that vest."
"Okay, how about his skin tone, was it light or was he… Like that?" Joao said as he pointed at a picture of one of the ministers who lived in the city at the wall.
"Hmm, I don't know you should see him yourself," she said with a squeak in her voice as she ran by. "He was wearing a cap so I couldn't his face clearly, but he did have a cute smile, bye-bye Jay." She grabbed her trolley and pushed it forward.
Joao sighed, 'who could it be? She tried her best to explain but I still feel like I am staring at a dark picture with the only light in it highlighting my weaknesses.' He yanked out the first knife and made his way forward.
He was so close to the wall he almost looked pinned against it, he slowly proceeded until he was face to face with his door. He observed it as he leaned back against the neighbor's door. He wasn't afraid nor was he nervous, he was curious, even though the description was vague it didn't sound like Tumi.
To Joao, Tumi was now an aggressive child who couldn't take reality as it was. But he did commend his dedication and his desire to grow past his weakness, just that the way he went about it was creepy.
"Nelly you crazy woman," after being confident in the door being locked, he silently thanked the cleaning lady with a sigh of relief. He removed a tag attached to his belt loop along with some charms and a doll. It was a key used to unlock this electrical door. He also had other keys that were used to unlock the door when the power was out, which was extremely rare.
Clack!
The door popped open and swung in slowly open but before flew away he held on to the handle and brought his ear closer to it and tried to listen through the hole because the house was nearly soundproof.
He heard steps, he held his breath in but they stopped. They continued again and got louder towards the door. Joao jumped from the door but was still within range to kick it in. The door came to a complete stop and the person behind it peeked out with a smile jarring from the shade cast by his cap over his face.
"Yo, you seem very excited to see me." He giggled
Joao sighed and hid the knife behind him, "what are you doing in my house looking like that?"
"Like what?" Monke asked as he stepped outside
Joao came in closer to him and reached up to wipe some cream off of his lips. "Like this," he showed it Monke.
"Oh, merry Christmas," Monke said as he wiped off the rest of the cream and ate it.
"It's mid-February,"
"Happy valentines then?"
"That was a week ago."
"Well damn." Monke diverted his eyes and whistled a little.
"What are you hiding?"
"I found a paper bag filled with flowers and a cake in the front door when I came in, I picked them up and took the flowers out. When your cleaning lady saw me she let me in."
"Just like that?"
Monke nodded. Joao sighed and walked past Monke and into the house. "Who did the flowers come from? Was there a card inside of anything?"
"I don't know, you could check them out yourself, I placed them on top of your keyboard."
"It's a piano."
"What's the difference?"
"The other one cost me half a million to get."
"Which one?"
"Nevermind." The piano was in the middle of the living room, Joao took the flowers from on top of it and threw himself onto the couch which was facing the opposite way. "It been a whole week and I am still getting these," he ransacked the flowers and came out with a note. In it were a girl's name, her number, and a confession. "Did someone tell them that this was default format for love confessions?" He pouted as he tossed them aside.
"What did it say?" Monke asked as he stood over Joao.
"It said the cakes were poisoned."
"WHAT?" Moke threw down a cupcake he just got from the piano and proceed to spit on the floor.
"You magnificent fool, I just cleaned that this morning." Joao stood on top of the couch and grabbed Monke's cap pulling it backward along with his head.
"I am poisoned." Monke whimpered.
Joao stared at him for a few seconds and the sincerely worried look he had on his face made Joao burst out laughing.