Ineffable ꕥ Joost Klein ꕥ

10.

Were five knocks too much? Does the rhythm of her fist against the wooden door voice her anxious panic?

Elke's thoughts ran wild as she waited outside Joost's apartment. Her thumbnail was between her teeth as the hallway's isolated silence beat her ears. She listened for footsteps and tried to recall if she had seen Joost's car in the underground carpark earlier.

From memory, Elke didn't see the Impreza in it's usual spot. He liked to park it near the lift when he could, just like she did with her Swift. But there wasn't always the spots avaliable, so maybe he had parked it somewhere else tonight. Or he was out and Elke would have to trudge back to 408 in defeat.

The latter was proven wrong when the dark green disappeared and a sleepy-eyed Joost stood in the doorway.

'Hey...' Elke started, craning her neck upwards to meet his subdued blues. 'I'm sorry, did I wake you up?'

'No, you're alright,' he shook his head with a lazy smile. He had been finishing a job during the day after the previous night's events went pear-shaped. Joost had only just gotten home after a solid 30 hours of no sleep.

'My ugh... my ceiling fan just fell in my bedroom,' Elke said with her thumb jabbed over her shoulder.

'Shit. Are you okay?'

'Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. I wasn't in there when it happened. But I can't lift it from the edge of my bed and it's... still kind of attached to the ceiling.'

Joost was closing his door and prospering through his drowsiness before she knew it. Elke's steps were quick to make it down the hallway's length to her apartment. Her door sat ajar and she lead Joost in, the worry of leaving live wires hanging from her ceiling clouding her usual nerves and awkwardness.

The first thing Joost noticed about Elke's apartment was how clean and well lit it was. Lamps and wall lights made the small space cozy and organised. He noticed that the TV was playing a show to an empty sofa where a blanket sat in a pile. He imagined Elke jumping at the loud crash in her bedroom and leaving her living space in a hurry. Joost liked that he was her first choice for help, even though it was probably the fact that he was the only man she knew on the same floor.

'Ah. That's not good,' Joost said as he took in the sight. Elke's ceiling fan sat askew off the edge of her bed. It's wires ran from the hole in the ceiling to the fan's backing, ruining the tidiness of Elke's bedroom.

'Can you go down to the electrical box and shut off the power?'

'Sure,' Elke tried to sound confident. 'Um... where would I find that, exactly?'

Elke was given the important task of letting everyone on the 4th floor know that Joost was turning off the power for half an hour. While the man went down to the building's electrical box, came back up, disconnected the wires from her ceiling fan, Elke walked back into her apartment to see the crisis had been averted.

Her ceiling fan was lifted from her bed and was in Joost's arms. She guided him from the bedroom with her phone torch as the only source of light. He carried the bulky appliance with little effort and Elke stepped out of his way. As Joost passed her, her eyes fell to where the sleeves of his football jersey squeezed at his biceps. The muscle that was usually hidden bulged from the band and Joost's patchwork tattoos accompanied his bent arm.

Unaware of Elke's stare, Joost bent over to lower the ceiling fan onto her living room floor. His back curled and his t-shirt lifted, exposing the waistband of his black Polo Ralph Lauren underwear. When he straightened up, his steps to turn ripped Elke from her trance.

Her cheeks were warm and she tried to hide their redness. She lifted a hand to her face, scratched at her eyebrow and busied her feet by turning back to her bedroom. Joost's sneakers scuffed against the floorboards, his own phone torch now in hand and Elke stared at the dangling wires. The heat of Joost's presence joined her side, his pause prolonging his effect on her cheeks.