"You have been acting differently since Lucy got here, you know." said Florence, absent-mindedly flicking through the pages of the Mathematics of Love, as the sky started to darken outside the tainted window of the forensics lab.
"I...I have?" asked Alfendi, his eyes widening slowly.
"Oh it is so obvious." said Sniffer, scribbling graphs and equations down on a notepad, his tongue sticking out from the corner of his mouth.
"What?!" spat Potty Prof, pressing his palm against his forehead, "That can't be-"
"Oh relax, would you Prof?" said Florence, "It's nothing to be ashamed of-ACHOO!"
"Florence…." mumbled Alfendi, "I thought that if I solved the case of that burglary, you would never call me Prof again."
"What's so bad about me calling you Prof?" grinned Florence
"Everything." thought Potty, "Only Lucy calls me that."
"Oh hey, Al." said Sniffer, "Be a lad and grab me my calculator from the side, would ya?"
"What the hell is this?" mumbled Potty, picking up a rusty looking box from the side table. It looked like it was the first calculator ever designed, or rather a very old portable mobile telephone.
"A calculator…." said Sniffer, furrowing his eyebrows, "Wow, you really have lost your mind since Lucy got here, haven't you?"
Potty grumbled, threw Sniffer the calculator and stood to the side, as Sniffer continued to work on the maths problems that he had devised.
"You do realise that Lucy is going to be back in 2 hours, maximum?" said Alfendi, growing increasingly anxious.
"You can't hurry love." said Sniffer, chewing the end of his pencil in deep thought, "Or at least, that's what my professor said back at university."
"Okay, how about you try something simpler, Sniffer?" said Florence, wheeling across the room to grab a pen and some paper, "You don't want her to sit an entire maths exam just to find out that Al is in love with her!"
"He's worth that much trouble." said Sniffer, looking up at Alfendi, trying to hide the grin that was spreading rapidly across his face.
Potty Prof started to resurface, his hair growing disheveled and turning a deep crimson.
"Although!" cut in Florence, "I'm sure she'd be delighted to solve an entire maths test for you!"
That seemed to do the trick, as Placid's hair mellowed back to its normal purple colour.
"I'm sorry, you two." mumbled Alfendi, burying his face in his hands, "I just….I…."
"We know." said Florence, giving Alfendi one of her rarest sympathetic looks, "We want this to go well for you too-ACHOOO!"
"Florence!" grumbled Sniffer, edging away from her in disgust, "You just sneezed all over my darn equations!"
"Look." said Alfendi, pacing up and down in the room, "We don't have much time, just make this simple!"
"Alright, Al, keep your hair on!" said Sniffer, placing his hands up in the air in a surrendering motion before scribbling a few things down on his notepad.
The room was silent for a few moments and all that could be heard was the scratching of Sniffer's pencil against the paper as he concentrated hard.
"Got it!" he said, triumphantly.
"Well?" asked Florence, "What is it?"
"I think you should make an amalgamation of all the cases you've solved with her to date." said Sniffer, raising an eyebrow at Alfendi.
Florence gasped.
"That's a brilliant idea!" she said, "You could make a sandwich that spells the word 'LOVE' or something-ACHOO!"
"And then you could have a poem hidden somewhere, just like the note that Blaise left for Strapping!" said Sniffer, "Except this would be loving instead of an ominous death threat!"
"You guys are geniuses!" said Alfendi, clapping his hands together and thinking hard, "So then I could also do something that hinted to every other case that we've solved together!"
"That would be perfect." said Sniffer, "And I know that she loves her romance and mystery novels so this would be the best surprise for her!"
"So if you guys keep her down here, solving the case," said Alfendi, pacing around the room thinking everything through, "And I'll be upstairs, decorating the room with candles and roses so I can wait for her once she's done solving the case."
"How do you know that she'll solve it?" asked Sniffer, voicing his one concern.
"She will." said Alfendi, smiling, "She's the smartest girl I know."
"So how would the maths fit into all of this?" asked Florence, stifling another sneeze.
"I would probably ask her to solve this equation." said Alfendi, quickly grabbing a piece of paper and writing an equation which he proceeded to solve so that they could see what the outcome was.
"That…is…..genius." said Sniffer, grinning as he looked at the result, "Looks like you didn't need our help after all, Al!"
"Well." said Alfendi, rubbing the back of his neck, "I need you here to guide her slowly through the case like I would."
"Right." said Florence, "Now go and change."
"What?" asked Alfendi, "Why?"
"You're standing there in the same clothes as this morning, Al." said Sniffer, "Those sweat patches aren't going to hide themselves, you know."
"What sweat patches?" growled Potty Prof, "I'll have you know-"
"Get changed, Al!" said Florence, forcefully, "Put on the most dapper suit you own-ACHOO!"
"Alright." mumbled Potty, forcefully, "I'm going. But set everything up the way I'm telling you to."
The three sat there, planning everything carefully until there was precisely thirty minutes left until Lucy was scheduled to return.
"Okay, I'm going to change and then I'm getting the largest delivery of roses and candles that Scotland Yard has ever seen!" said Alfendi, nodding to Florence and Sniffer rushing out of the door.
"If this is how he declares his love," grinned Sniffer, "Imagine what it would be like if he decided to propose to her!"
"One step at a time, Sniffer." said Florence, smiling one of her rare smiles, "One step at a time."
