𝐶𝐿𝑂𝐴𝐾 𝐴𝑁𝐷 𝐷𝐴𝐺𝐺𝐸𝑅 | 𝐃𝐈𝐄𝐆𝐎 𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐆𝐑𝐄𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐒 [DISCONTINUED]

𝟏𝟖 | 𝐀 𝐖𝐄𝐋𝐂𝐎𝐌𝐄𝐃 𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐑𝐔𝐏𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍

"𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑙 𝑙𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟 𝑖𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑚𝑎𝑛 𝑤ℎ𝑜 𝑐𝑎𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑟𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑏𝑦 𝑘𝑖𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑒ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑑 𝑜𝑟 𝑠𝑚𝑖𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑜 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑒𝑦𝑒𝑠 𝑜𝑟 𝑗𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑜 𝑠𝑝𝑎𝑐𝑒."
—𝑀𝑎𝑟𝑖𝑙𝑦𝑛 𝑀𝑜𝑛𝑟𝑜𝑒

𝒩.

"𝐎𝐇, 𝐂𝐎𝐌𝐄 𝐎𝐍, Nutella!" Klaus pleaded, clasping his hands together. "Just twenty dollars."

Natalia sighed as she sat down on the couch, and she tilted her head back on it. She closed her eyes, shaking her head as she mumbled, "No, Klaus."

"But you're rich!" he rebutted as he sat down next to her.  "Twenty dollars is nothing to you."

"I'm not rich," she scoffed, swatting his arm. "And it's not the amount that I care about, it's what you'll do with it. So, the answer is no, Klaus."

"Oh, please," he begged. "It's just for . . . books?"

A scoff escaped her lips as she turned her head to look at him. "You can't focus on a book for more than five minutes."

"It's for" —he squinted his eyes— "water?"

"Water doesn't cost twenty dollars," she pointed out with an amused smile. She then gestured towards the kitchen. "Also, you can get water here."

Klaus's eyes lit up as he offered, "I want to buy a ring for my girlfriend that definitely exists."

"Nice try," she laughed lightly. She then scrunched her nose as she queried, "Also, what ring costs twenty dollars?"

"I could just buy ten ring pops; one for each finger," he answered with a shrug. "Those are technically rings."

She pursed her lips together before shrugging. "I guess."

Their attention was turned away from the conversation as a buzzing noise sounded; someone was at the door.

Klaus's eyebrows furrowed as he looked back at Natalia and questioned, "Who's that?"

"I'm not sure," she answered slowly as she got to her feet. She racked her brain, wondering whether she was supposed to be expecting company, but she could find no recollection of inviting anyone. "You're usually the only one who shows up unexpectedly."

She gave a small shrug and walked to her door. She pressed the talk button and greeted, "Hello?"

"Hey, gorgeous."

A smile grew on her face, and she pressed the button to let him in.

There was a knock on the door a minute later, and when she opened it, she felt her stomach fill with butterflies as she saw that Diego was standing in front of her, a bouquet of purple carnations in hand.

A smile appeared on his face as their eyes met, and he greeted, "Hey."

"Hi," she returned, the corners of her lips tugging up even more.

"These are for you." He held the bouquet out towards her, and a look of slight relief came onto his face as she smiled and took it.

"Carnations," she noted as her hands gripped the plastic that wrapped the flowers. She didn't even have to lean in to smell the sweet scent that radiated off the purple petals, and she relished in it. "You remembered?"

"Of course," he replied with a small grin. The grin broadened as he gave a dramatic shrug and teased, "Still don't know what was so wrong with daisies, but . . ."