Marco strutted down the dimly lit hallway, his head held up high as he made his way towards room 203. Upon reaching the door, Marco knocked twice and leaned against the frame, his arms slack beside his torso. As he heard the door open, he straightened his posture and smiled. He pulled out the bouquet of red roses, holding them towards the person in the doorway.

“Why thank you, Marco,” Natalia exclaimed as she brought the bouquet to her nose, the fragrant scent wrapping around the young couple.
“Anything for you, my queen,” Marco replied as he stepped into the room. Natalia walked to the kitchen to get water for the roses as Marco shut the door. The sound of something crashing from Natalia’s bedroom caught his attention.
“Hey, is there something in your bedroom? I thought I heard a crash in there,” Marco asked, stepping towards the room.
“Oh, it’s probably just Sergei, that little rascal. You don’t have to go in, he probably just knocked down a couple of books or something, nothing major” Natalia replied, grabbing an empty vase off of the window sill.
“I still don’t know why you would get a cat. They’re so messy and they smell terrible,” Marco added as he walked past the litter box in the kitchen.
“Well, I could say the same about you,” Natalia retorted back in a joking tone. She turned around and filled the vase with water as Marco looked around the small apartment, smiling at all the pictures he saw surrounding the TV. There was last Christmas, her 28th Birthday last June, and the day he proposed. While he reminisced about the past six years with his fiancée, Natalia had come up behind him, snaking her arms around his waist.
“Do you remember your twenty-first birthday?” Natalia questioned, resting her head on his shoulder. She pointed to one particular picture with Marco, herself, and four other friends. They were in a bar and everyone had a champagne in their hands, except for Natalia who had been nineteen at the time. The picture had taken place before Marco and Natalia were even a couple, they were just two friends in college.
“How could I forget?” Marco remarked. He turned and looked into Natalia’s bright blue eyes, tucking a strand of her dark hair safely behind her ear.
“You were quite drunk, if I remember correctly,” Natalia began, slightly grinning.
“Well, I was a bit cowardly to ask you out on a date sober. Thank god you said yes, otherwise-”
“Otherwise you would have gone home and cried your drunk self to sleep. Now I couldn’t have you do that now could I?” Natalia cut him off, causing Marco to chuckle. She pushed herself up onto her tiptoes and planted a kiss on his lips, which he returned. Just then, Marco’s phone started to ring, causing him to groan. He pulled it out from his suit pocket and sighed.
“Sorry, I need to take this, it’s work,” Marco apologized after looking down at the number.
“No problem, I need to change into my dress anyways. I can’t exaround actly go to dinner in a bathrobe,” Natalia joked, dancing off to her room. As she closed the door, Marco could hear the sound of a radio being turned on. He stepped outside into the hallway to answer the phone. His office needed him at the moment so he could not go to dinner with Natalia.
“Hey Natalia!” Marco called, stepping back into the apartment again. He shoved his phone in his pocket and called her name again.
“Natalia, I can’t make it to dinner, there’s an emergency in the office and they need me to go in,” he called. Suddenly, a flash of black flew in through the window, causing Marco to jump slightly. He then sighed as he realized it was only Sergei climbing back into the apartment.
“What were you doing out there?” Marco asked while he picked the cat up off the window sill, placing him on the sofa. He shut the window and locked it.
“Natalia, can you even hear me?” Marco called out again. He rolled his eyes and yelled out Natalia’s name again, figuring that the radio was drowning out his voice. Instead of calling her name again, he approached her bedroom door. Marco opened the door and froze, shocked at what he saw. Natalia’s head snapped towards the door, and so did the head of the man she was trying to hide in the closet.