Finally, she couldn't stand it anymore... she jumped from behind the shadows and pounced on Eduardo.
Clumsily, they tumbled to the floor, face down. 'Ooofh!' Eduardo said as the air in his lungs rushed out of him. Gaining his senses, he turned around, ready to defend himself.
'Helena!' Shocked out of his wits, he didn't know what to do except to gawk at her.
'SUR-PRIIISE!!!!' Still in a daze, Eduardo thought he heard two voices shouting. One was without a doubt Helena's, another was sonorous and strangely familiar....
Realizing that the thing was probably still reaching for him, he looked up. To see it pull its face out. Preparing to scream, his voice was caught in his throat when...
'Eh? Joseph? What the-?'
Joseph, all six feet of him, was shaking with laughter. Helena joined him, holding her stomach as if she had cramps. Eduardo glanced back and forth, totally confused, until he saw the mask that Joseph was holding. At last, realization dawned upon him. Then he too, burst out in laughter till tears rolled down his cheeks.
Gasping for breath, he said to Helena,'That was some Valentine's Day gift!!' Helena nodded with high frequency, exclaiming, 'Yeah! I know!!' her high pitched laughter echoed throughout the study. 'Happy Belated Valentine's Day, honey!'
When the three of them finally calmed down, Joseph said,'Boy, you should have seen the look on your face. I was surprised you didn't wet yourself! You surprised me when you said you had a new idea for your book!!'
Helena chipped in,' You know, I would have donned the mask myself, but given my small frame, I doubt you would have felt for it...'
'Hahaha.... good thinking! Man, you really got me there!' Eduardo said.
'Well,' Joseph straightened his hair and shirt, his piercing hazel eyes focused on Eduardo 'guess I better leave you two love birds alone now eh...' he winked.
Eduardo and Helena walked him to the door. Before leaving, Joseph left his words of wisdom for the day. ' Have a great time, kids!'
Chuckling to themselves, Eduardo and Helena turned to face each other and wrapped their arms around each other's waist. Helena leaned forward and tried to kiss Eduardo when he broke the silence by asking ,'Hey babe..... where the hell did you get that mask? It was so fucking real!'
Helena smiled while thinking: Sigh, he's never been a romantic....
This, some people would say...eccentric couple met four years ago. Helena was a florist, and business was slow when Eduardo strutted in her shop donning a dark red velvet cape. Of course, he caught Helena's attention right away. There stood in front of her, a thin lanky guy wearing a black T-shirt, over-sized jeans and a ... a cape? He wasn't terribly dashing, his face was a little pock marked and eyebrows a tad too bushy. But somehow, Helena couldn't take her eyes off him. It was his eyes.... she thought. Those long lashes and dreamy eyes...
Helena asked tentatively, 'Erm... how may I help you?' Truth was, he hadn't came in to buy flowers, but he just had writer's block. What the hell does that have to do with anything? You ask. Well, Eduardo liked to do weird things when the dreaded writer's block hit him. To get inspiration. To just be spontaneous and let his creative juices flow again. Once, he wore a garish green wig, put on his black Elvis Presley costume (he fave colour was black) and danced around town. In the streets, the supermarket, in the library.... everywhere people thought he was cuckoo. Nobody recognized him, cos frankly nobody knew how the great-author-of-gruesome-novels looked like. He used the pseudonym 'Mama's Boy', just for the heck of it.
So, most of the time his escapades worked out and he'll be bombarded by ideas at the end of the day. And for this purpose, his closet was filled with a plethora of funky costumes, wigs and accessories. His cleaning lady, Martha was amused, but knew him well enough not to say anything.
That day, again he got stuck with his plot and hadn't a clue how to go on, thus he rummaged through his closet and finally decided on his vampire costume. Though he did not want to scare people.... he thought. Because his skin was really fair and there were menacing dark circles under his eyes, he figured some kids might even mistake him as a real vampire. Ergo, he forgone the rest and just went for the cape. He was strutting down the pavement (like he owned the damn street) and went into Helena's shop on a whim.
And there he was standing in front of Helena, at loss for words. 'Er.... hi, I'm Ed... Eduardo' he stammered. 'And... I'm Helena...' Helena was contemplating if she should just get her pepper spray just in case. Eduardo thought of dancing again but he didn't want to embarrass himself. No, not in front of her.... Mutual attraction was in the air albeit both of them didn't know at that time. With her crazy scraggly hair and glitter green smoky eyes, it was as if she didn't care but still she looked good to Eduardo. He appraised her surreptitiously, taking notice of her grey corset top and pink shawl tied at her waist. The rest of her he couldn't see because she was standing behind the counter. Not the best combo in the world, but hey! I'm digging it! There's something unique about her...
Unexpectedly, Mr. Dreamy Eyes blurted, 'So, have a good day.' and turned around. Then, he figured it would be rude not to buy anything so he turned again and said, 'On second thought, I'd like to buy a dozen roses...'
From that day onwards, he came to her shop almost every day, buying a stalk if feeling frugal, or a bouquet when in the mood for generosity. In normal attire, of course. Soon enough, they became acquainted and Helena found herself expecting Eduardo's company impatiently every day. As a result, Eduardo's house was filled to the brim with roses, lilies, sunflowers etc which gave Martha a hard time. She was fully aware of what was going on, cos well, nothing escapes her, and felt happy for her employer but just wished he wouldn't forbid her to throw away those flowers. Not until they withered.
After 5 months, he finally asked her to be his girlfriend. It was evident that Eduardo wasn't the most romantic person in the world, seeing that he frequented mamak stalls with Helena. Still, she was in love with him, and they both loved the gross, ugly and eccentric. Thus it became some sort of tradition for Helena to figure out ways to scare the crap outta Eduardo every February the 15th, because she couldn't do it on Valentine's Day as it was the busiest and most profitable day ever. It was Helena's gift to Eduardo - good scares - and she had fun doing it. Though Eduardo refused to celebrate, he deemed it as over-commercialised and blood-sucking. He wasn't a romantic, after all.
Again, Martha was aware of this and just rolled her eyes and chuckled when Eduardo fell for Helena's tricks 'Aigh, what a silly couple...' Eduardo always forgets about February the 15th, he's such a workaholic. Martha mused.
Back to the present, Martha was watching from a corner at the couple hugging each other at the waist. 'Kiss her... kiss her...' she whispered vehemently. She shook her head in disappointment when Eduardo spoiled the moment. 'That boy really needs some help, maybe I should teach him how to please the lady, huh?'
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