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Everyone in Alina’s apartment complex knew him. Or at least, everyone knew about the good-looking man in black that lived on the fifth floor. A lot of the women (and some of the men) wanted to get to know him better. Barring that, they at least wanted to learn as much as they could about him.
All they could gather were the following:
He lived alone, had an elderly mother in a nursing home whom he occasionally visits on the weekends and seemed to really prefer the color black. He also had a pet of some sort. Though no one was sure if it was a dog, a cat or some sort of exotic animal.
Those were mere tidbits of information. Too little and too trivial. Not enough to get a better picture of the man himself.
Aleksander Morozova was friendly enough. He would open and hold the door for the residents of the apartment building. He would even wave a friendly hello or give an equally cordial goodbye. But he had yet to invite anyone into his home. And as far as those who wanted to be in the know were concerned, no one else has gone in or out of his home since he first moved in.
Unlike the others, Alina wished she didn’t know as much as she did about Aleksander Morozova. In fact, she made a point to avoid him as much as she could. Every time she sensed him near, it had become second nature for her to either run or hide.
On one particular occasion, Alina had to mentally kick herself for how rude she appeared that one time she was on the elevator. He had tried to rush over and asked her to hold the door. But Alina was running on instinct and adrenaline by then. She pressed the close button several times. And to her relief, that barred his potential entrance.
That hadn’t stopped him from being courteous to her afterwards, on those rare instances when she failed to sense him near. He must have thought she pressed the wrong button by accident. People did that. Not Alina though. She totally did it on purpose.
Alina did not want to be alone with him in an elevator. Thankfully, she had gotten her wish only to regret it immediately afterwards. It wasn’t only because of the total disregard of manners that her foster mother Ana Kuya had drilled into her. She was also worried about how suspicious it made her look.
What made things worse was that Aleksander had done nothing to deserve her treatment of him. In fact, if there was a victim in this situation, it was actually him. But Alina just happened to be the one caught in the crossfire.
Well, that wasn’t exactly true. She bore some of the responsibility.
But what was she to do when the offense against Aleksander Morozova kept getting repeated despite her best efforts in making sure it didn’t happen again? Once upon a time, she loved coming home to her apartment and to her baby Rico. Now, opening her front door filled her with dread because it reminded her how much of a failure she was.
Because no matter how carefully or how quickly she maneuvered her way in, her cat would find a way to speed out of the door. In that sense, Rico was an expert escape artist. She knew how much he wanted to explore the outside of her apartment after being cooped up inside for hours. Rico could tell when Alina would be back and was probably on standby at the door waiting for it to open.
Her heart broke at keeping him prisoner inside their shared home. But unless Rico could somehow understand her and actually follow her one rule, there was no way she could let him out.
Of course, Rico found a way to escape every time. And all that was left was to open her window for him to come back home. She dreaded those times most of all. Not because she was worried for Rico’s safety. Not exactly. Rico could take care of himself. So Alina was fairly confident that he would come back every time. It might take two or three days at most. But Rico always came back.
Rico’s well-being wasn’t what concerned her. Well, it wasn’t the main thing that concerned her.
These days, it was really what he brought back with him that made her heart drop. Because as much as she wanted to marvel at Rico’s intelligence and ingenuity, she also could not help but hang her head in shame.
Her fur baby was, and continued to be, an underwear thief. And for some inexplicable reason, Rico stole exclusively from Aleksander Morozova. She knew all the boxers and briefs made from fabrics that ranged from cotton to silk belonged to only one man. Because even though the man lived alone in his apartment, he labeled his underwear with the distinctive “A. Morozova” in a clear, neat hand.
The first few times Rico had come back with Aleksander’s purloined piece of clothing, Alina reasoned that it shouldn’t be a big deal. Surely, the man that lived on the fifth floor would make sure all possible exits and entrances to his home were secured to keep intruders like Rico out in the future. But then, it kept happening.
Before long, Alina had a pile of Aleksander Morozova’s underwear in her home even though the man himself had never once visited. As a way to assuage her guilt, Alina made sure his things were cleaned and remained in good condition. The only problem was that she never did get around to giving his underwear back to him.
What was she supposed to tell him? That her cat had some sort of fixation for his boxers and briefs? That as an apology (and also partly out of paranoia at being caught with his underwear should she bring them with her on her weekly trip to the laundromat), she bought the best lavender-scented detergent and washed them by hand? That she dried and then ironed them herself?
She could imagine how he would look at her. There was no way she could look him in the eyes after that disturbing confession. And the very thought that he might think of her as a creepy stalker was unbearable.
Alina considered mailing his underwear back to him. Go to a post office and let some postal worker do the job for her. She won’t give a return address. And she could retain her anonymity. And if the package somehow got lost in the mail, then it was no longer her problem.
But the line was long in the post office, forcing her to wait and reflect upon her shame. Alina had gone to the nearest one she could find hoping to get things over and done with as soon as possible. But Alina was never so lucky. At the very moment she looked out the window in hopes of a distraction, Aleksander Morozova, the very man she wanted out of her head, just happened to pass by that very building. To make things worse, he happened to look her way. When their eyes met, she hoped that he didn’t recognize her.
Again, luck was not on Alina’s side. He waved a hand in greeting. Alina looked behind her just to be sure he wasn’t waving to anyone else.
Nope. The one time a good-looking guy noticed her happened to be the only time she really wanted to fade into the background. She waved back out of politeness though she wondered if her smile looked as crooked as it felt. As soon as he was out of sight, Alina abandoned her plan entirely and went straight home. The collection of underwear Rico had accumulated remained in her home.
Surely, Aleksander Morozova would be calling the police by now.
Alina knew she should just go up to him and explain. But the more time had passed, the harder that one decisive action became. Alina expected the police to come knocking at her door and arrest her one of these days. Surely, she’d be the one accused of stealing Aleksander Morozova’s underwear.
How could anyone believe that it was her cat doing the actual stealing of a hot guy’s underwear? People would much sooner believe she actually trained her cat to be a literal cat burglar rather than believe Rico did this of his own volition. In any case, Rico was her responsibility. This happened because she failed in her duties.
And yet, for some reason, the police never came. There weren't even hints that Aleksander filed a police report or informed anyone of the strange occurrence going on in his home. But then again, it wasn’t as if she was inside his social circle (if he had one in the first place). There was no way to know for sure.
Alina thought that things couldn’t get any worse.
But as if the universe decided to take that as a challenge, she was proven wrong.
Rico always came back. The longest he had remained out was three days. But with no sign of him by the fourth day, Alina knew that she had to find him.
She looked for him around the apartment complex and at the nearby park. She asked her neighbors and their children. Even checked the animal shelters nearby. None of her attempts to find him brought any news, good or bad.
Her overly anxious mind wasted no time in conjuring up the worst scenarios for her baby. What if he was hit on the road? What if a bigger animal got to him? What if he got stuck somewhere and no one heard his pitiful cries?
Alina had looked everywhere.
Well, almost everywhere.
She didn’t want to do this. But Alina had to know if Rico was alright. There was a good chance he was in Aleksander Morozova’s apartment. That was where Rico got all the man’s underwear, after all.
Could Aleksander have kept Rico? But why would he? That didn’t make any sense at all.
Instead of using the elevator as she always did, Alina took the stairs up to the fifth floor. In the span of time it took to reach his apartment, Alina had a speech rehearsed for when the dark-eyed man opened his door. Something that was short and simple and totally not suspicious at all.
But upon seeing his face and feeling the full force of his smile as he recognized her even after the way she treated him, everything became too much.
Alina started to cry. She wasn’t able to stop herself.
While perplexed at the situation he found himself in, Aleksander ushered her in. And that made Alina’s tears flow even harder. He was being so nice to her and she didn’t deserve it. She wanted to tell him so but her sobs kept breaking up her words.
He had her sit down on a plush sofa, handed her a box of tissues and fetched her a glass of water to drink. And when she had calmed down enough, Aleksander had patiently listened to her explanations of her lost cat and her unsuccessful attempts at finding him.
“I’m sorry to hear that. As a cat owner myself, I’d like to help in any way I can. Do you have a picture of Rico?”
With shaking hands, Alina handed him her phone.
Almost instantly, she noticed his brow furrow.
“What is it?” She asked in alarm.
“Ms Starkov, Rico looks like he could be Rodion’s twin.”
Rodion was the name of his cat.
As if on cue, Alina heard a familiar meow down the hallway. It prompted both of them to look at the cat’s direction. It took Alina a few minutes to understand that Rico was in Aleksander’s house, acting like he owned the place.
And then, the greater implication started setting in as she saw a cat bed and litter box in Aleksander’s home.
Rico was not only a serial underwear thief. He was a serial two-timer as well.
She and Aleksander unknowingly shared a fur baby.