She was too innocent but that wasn’t what Hero worried about. Sure it would be nice to invite her up for some coffee but he had an embarrassing secret in that apartment and he wasn’t just going to let her see it.

“I bet its all fancy and stuff just like your portfolio.” Cyndi looked up at the windows even though she didn’t know which one was his.

“Maybe another time, Cyndi. Don’t we have an appointment with-“

“Stop being such a worry wart. There is still plenty of time left and I’m bored.”

Hero raked his brain. How was he going to get out of this one? Then, an idea came to him.

“Okay okay… but you have to wait here for a bit. I need to wrap some stuff up because last night I had a few friends over.”

“I don’t mind. How about I help you clean up? I can do that.”

“Err…” Hero wasn’t out of ideas just yet.

“You’re a guest so I don’t want you doing something like that.”

“Aren’t I a friend as well? Eh, all right, I’ll wait here. Shesh.” Cyndi folded her arms and pretended to look insulted.

“It will only be a minute,” Hero promised. He sighed with relief.

Hero rushed up a few floors until he reached the door of his apartment. At the moment he walked through the door, a mammoth picture of Cyndi greeted him. Hero groaned. Why did he have to hang such a big picture of her? Now he had to figure out a way to hide it before the real Cyndi comes up and sees it. He went to his work room and grabbed a large black sheet. Hero threw the sheet over the gigantic frame and stood back to look at it. Sure it covered the picture but wouldn’t she be curious about what was underneath the black cloth? Knowing Cyndi, she would probably yank it off to see what was hidden. Hero groaned again. He scanned the room in search of some place he could hide Cyndi’s picture. Hero found nothing. What was he going to do now? The picture was so huge, it probably wouldn’t fit in the closet.

After a few minutes of walking back and forth occasionally scratching his chin, he finally got it.

Hero hid it and ran back down as fast as he could to Cyndi. She was so bored that she draped herself over the fence like a wet rug. When Hero approached her, Cyndi’s head shot up.

“That was the longest minute ever.”

Hero smiled sheepishly. He took her up to his apartment. When he opened the door, Cyndi gasped.

“OMG, were you robbed? Did they take an expensive painting?” She pointed to the empty wall in front of them.

Hero didn’t realize it was so obvious until he looked at it again. Though it was light, the lines of dust were still visible… not to mention the thick nail in the middle.

“Did you know about this when you went up?”

This time, Hero was quick in his response, “My friend liked the picture and I gave it to him last night. I’ll replace the empty space with something else later.”

“Oh. I see.” Cyndi slipped off her sandals and headed for his living room. Hero was right behind her. He hoped she wouldn’t notice ‘it’ but she did.

“There’s something under the rug, Hero.”

It made a crease in the rug at four corners and rectangular in shape.

“Oh, that. I wanted to elevate the sofa… see?” Hero rushed passed Cyndi and sat on the sofa.

“Better to view the TV.”

“Cool.” Cyndi replied.

She stepped onto the ‘elevated’ rug and sat down next to Hero. The picture frame beneath them made a cracking sound, in turn, making Hero cringe.

“It doesn’t sound very stable, does it?”

No it didn’t.

Sykotica Notes: If you've figured out who the wife is, do not pm her about requesting layouts. Going through the backdoor is just plain evil.