Hidden Sanity

Chapter 6 - Full of Wonders

It was 11 o'clock in the evening. The employees in the office just started going home. Joe went to Alice's table and said "Hey. Shall we?"

Alice moves her head from side to side, stretching out her muscles. "Where are you taking me?"

"Coffee shop, where else?"

"Right. This will be your treat, right? Because if not, I would have to go and just spend my money on something else... 'Cause you know, I have coffee in my house too."

"I get your point but relax, this is my treat. Jesus! Why are you so defensive?" He laughs.

"That was a joke. You know, I find it hard to joke around with you. You are such a serious person!"

"Hell no, I'm not."

"Oh yeah?"

"Get to know me, come on." He grabbed her by her hand and brought her to the coffee shop.

Joe offered a seat to Alice. Joe was always nice, to Alice, at least. He said "Not really my thing, but guys in movies do this..."

Alice smiled. She sat down and said "Thank you. You've been fond of watching movies these days huh? Romantic ones, I guess."

"Come on, who doesn't like movies?" He sat after she did.

"Uh, I do?"

"Really? That's weird. Hahaha. Are you for real? What do you do? Play soccer? Like you're a guy or something?"

"Joe, let's get serious. Movies are all fictional. I prefer news."

"This lady right here doesn't have life. Have fun!"

"No time for fun."

"Yeah. You rarely laugh."

"After the projects, I'll laugh."

"I'm sure now. I made up my mind. I'll help you."

"Yeah, and because of that, I'm here with you. You've got what you came for, haven't you? Now what am I going to get in return?" She joked.

Joe was taken aback, he did not show it. "What is there that I can give you?" he asked.

"We'll talk about that later," said Alice. "The problem is—what exactly have we got?"

"What do you mean?" He gave her a confused look.

"A topic? Anything?"

"Ah. Hahaha. I thought it's something else." He thought he was talking about the 'thing' between them.

Alice brushed her hair, looked at the table and said, "Yes, what were you thinking?" She looked like she didn't give even a small damn to what's happening right now. Like she wanted it to be over, just go home and sleep.

"Nothing. Uhh... Just ask me anything. I suck at this. But oh wait, I got to order first."

He called in for a waiter and ordered two cappuccinos for both of them. While waiting for their orders, Alice leaned forward and stared broodingly at the edge of Joe's chair. "I'm being disorganized about the whole thing. I can't just follow my instincts. What happened to the case of Jack Kinley?"

"Now you're interested? God, finally!"

"Someone I know got involved so yes, I am now."

"And yeah about that, it's very breezy and offhand. Oh, that old story. That was years ago. It was to quell a rumor that some spiteful men get to spread around. They published articles about it. It says he killed 10 people, 11 as of now, I'm thinking he got more under his sleeves. He's very evil. People call him the daredevil, reckless demon and many more nicknames!"