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Roses

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Eva didn't expect to come back to her office to…this.

She was only gone for an hour, just went downstairs to the lobby for her lunch break; but then she came back to door unlocked and her office littered with bright red rose petals. Eva gawked at the scene, finding the scene before her made her heart flutter a bit, however she was a bit annoyed at the fact she would have to clean this up. Whoever did this was going to answer to her.

Grumbling as she closed the door, Eva carefully made her way towards her desk. She did not want to step on any of the petals, as they were still very beautiful, and Eva was considering maybe flower pressing some of them. She could always laminate them into bookmarks as well, which cheered Eva up a bit at the idea. Sweeping up the petals would be a hassle, but keeping maybe a dozen of them would be alright.

Finally reaching her desk, Eva blinked at what was left on top of it. A bouquet of roses – thirteen all together, was placed neatly on her desk. Eva could smell their fragrance as she admired the gorgeous flowers, her fingers brushing against it a bit. A box of chocolate was also placed beside the bouquet – from her favourite brand too, along with a small, simple care placed on top.

Taking a seat on her office chair, Eva took the card and gave it a read.

Roses are red
Violets are blue
I suck at cheesy poems
But these are for you

Now Eva couldn't help it but let out a laugh. As the author said it, this poem really sucked. But it was humorous, nonetheless. Folding the card neatly in her hands, Eva placed it on her desk with her stationaries.

The poem was not handwritten, but because of how horrible that poem was written, Eva figured out who did this to her office.

And she was going to pay him a visit.

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Neil had his ear pressed to his office door for over ten minutes now, getting impatient at the lack of sounds coming from the other side. He knew Eva came back from her lunch break and returned to her office, which meant she should have come marching to his office for the little 'prank' he did.

What? It was a good prank! Making her nice and tidy room messy would irritate Eva Rosalene to no end! And make it all look like from a secret admirer sending her roses and chocolates? A nice touch on his part. Even though he sucked at writing poems.

Still, not hearing her reaction to the stunt he pulled made him worried. Did she not care about what happened? He kind of wanted her to try and blame Neil, and he would innocently declare 'Not Guilty!' and maybe, just maybe, blame Eddie for it. He was always a sucker for a girlfriend.

Tapping his foot impatiently, Neil had it and decided to just casually go outside for a bathroom break. Once he opened the door though, there stood Eva, hands behind her back.

"Gyah!" he let out the most unmanliest squeak, stepping away in shock for a second before straightening himself up. "Gee, Eva. You trying to scare me or what?"

"No." She had a sly smile on her lips, and Neil couldn't help it but gulp. Whenever she smiled like that, that was not good news. "I just want to come over to talk to you for a moment."

"Um…sure? Come right in." Well, if he was going to die, he might as well die with dignity and without Roxanne seeing it. As he took a step to the side, Eva thanked him as she gracefully came in, letting Neil see what she was hiding behind her back.

Cold sweat started to drip down his forehead as he quietly closed the door when Eva casually sat in his chair, the roses, chocolates and card in her hands. "Look what I found today on my desk."

Neil stared at them for a second. "Wow. You have a secret admirer."

"Maybe. But he's not very good at hiding who he is," Eva played with the petals a bit as she spoke, glancing up at him as she continued, "Do you have any idea who he is, Neil?"

"No idea."

She clicked her tongue. "And you call us the 'Bestest Detective.'" Eva leaned back against her chair as she spoke. "Let's see…first of all, the card." She held up the thing for Neil to see. "There's a typed poem in here, possibly because the author didn't want me to know who wrote it because I could recognise his handwriting. But there's one thing he let slip…and admitted," she opened the card, "he sucked at poetry."

Ouch. Neil felt that one.

"Now of course, it could be anyone. It is a typed-up poem after all, but there's another thing this person left slip." Eva then picked up the box of chocolates. "It is romantic for that person to also leave me flowers and chocolates, but they actually gave me the brand of chocolate I really like." She raised and eyebrow at Neil. "Now this also means that this person also knows I like this brand of chocolate. Now who else, other than you and me, know this?"

"No idea." Behind his super-reflective glasses, Neil glanced away.

"Uh huh…so," she continued on, "since I rarely eat chocolates at work, let alone telling others what brand of chocolate I like," she leaned forward in her seat, eyes still on Neil, "wouldn't that mean only you would know be the only person to know."

"N-Now hold it right there, Eva!" Neil had to stop her right there, finding his face to be a bit flushed from all her talking. "The chocolate and the card thing? Everything you're saying is complete speculation! Your secret admirer might have seen you eating those chocolates once, so he tried to get them for you! And the card?" he blew a raspberry. "Poems are hard to write! Especially love poems! Do you know how cheesy those things are!?"

Eva stared at him quietly, showing no reaction to his defence. Neil was getting a bit worried, wondering if he said something wrong, until Eva smirked.

"You're right. The poem is cheesy. Horribly cheesy," she gave a hum. "Now this person admitted he was being a cheese. And I can think of those who wouldn't admit such thing. We have Logan, Eddie, Alistair, and," she paused for a second which made Neil hold his breathe, "maybe you. But I doubt Logan would unlock my door to leave all this in my office. And Eddie, he is sweet and all, but he wouldn't write such a poem. He would add more cheese, yet wouldn't admit they suck. And Alistair?" She gave a shudder. "Not interested in him, but I doubt he would leave the chocolates in my office. He would have eaten them instead. So that just leaves," her eyes locked right onto Neil's, despite not seeing them clearly behind those glasses, "you, Neil Watts. Especially when you're the one who try to deny the cheese."

Neil really wanted to protest. Defend himself. Maybe bring up someone else as a suspect. But really, there was no one. No way could he bring up Willis and Robert, because that made no sense and would show how desperate he was. Mouth opening and closing silently, he gave up.

"Alright. Fine. You got me," he leaned back against the wall in defeat. He didn't expect her to catch him like this, with proof and all, and looking so smug about it too. Neil felt humiliated, in more ways than one. "You mad?"

She shrugged. "A bit. Those rose petals you left on the floor will be torture to clean up," she leered at him. "And they're all littered on the floor when they're so pretty. You're helping me clean them up right now."

"Yes, ma'am," he pushed himself off the wall, but Eva stopped him.

"Wait. I am not done," she got off her seat, holding up the roses. "I have one more thing to check with you."

Neil gave her a look, wondering what she wanted now. Eva simply stepped forward, roses between them as she continued, "Now I don't know if this is intentional or not, but normally when someone gift others roses, the number of roses have meanings. One means 'Love At First Sight'; two means 'Deeply in Love'; three 'I Love You'; and so on.

"Now, what we have here are thirteen roses. And unfortunately, there are two meanings behind them. One meaning can be 'Friends Forever'; the other is 'From A Secret Admirer'. Now," Eva got closer to Neil, all seriousness burning in her eyes she wanted the truth from her partner. "Since these are from you, I want to know. When you gave me these thirteen roses, what did it all mean to you?"

Silence loomed over them and Neil just stared back at her. They stood there, without moving, as if they were forbidden to do so.

Letting out a sigh, Neil lowered his glasses a bit, giving Eva a look.

"Really, Dr Rosalene? After all those detective reasoning of yours, you can't figure it out?"