7

                                    

                                          
Once he had woken up at 6 am sharp, he was ready for the day to come. 
                          
He got undressed and had a hot shower to calm his nerves, got out and combed and gelled his hair back neatly and even polished his shoes. 
                          
He made his way downstairs listening to the light clicking of his shoes on the marble staircase, it was still quiet throughout the house, Adrien had only just woken up a few minutes ago at 6:30 am. 
                          
He was expecting the florist to come in around 15 minutes at 7 o'clock. 
                          
He made his way to his atelier where he walked up to his podium and began sketching to make the time pass faster. 
                          
Only when he had finished the base of the drawing he had realized what he had done. 
                          
He had drawn Nathalie in an ankle length column dress. It was a deep royal blue that extenuated her curves in all the right places. 
                          
Just before he could go any further the sound of the doorbell ringing, disturbed his thoughts. 
                          
"Good morning sir, delivery for Mr Agreste" the florist said as she handed the bouquet to Gabriel. 
                          
"Thank you ma'am, enjoy your day" he said as he handed her 10 euros and shut  the doors. 
                          
He stood in his cold empty foyer for what seemed like ages just staring into the red bouquet admiring their beauty. 

                          
This was happening. This was actually becoming a reality. He was going to confess to his assistant who he had been pining over for quite some time now, and he was ready. 
                          
He left the bouquet on her desk as he ran up the stairs. 
                          
He walked into the storage room upstairs where he kept all of his extra fabric, needles and any other compulsory equipment that any fashion designer was bound to need and always had lying around, as he searched for a string of beautiful ribbon to wrap around the stems of the roses. 
                          
After searching through piles upon piles of shelves and boxes he had found the perfect color of ribbon for the bunch of flowers. 
                          
It was a beautiful creme colored piece of silky ribbon that would fit perfectly around the base of the bouquet. 
                          
He quickly cut off the size he needed and hurried off back downstairs, he knew Nathalie would be arriving any time soon and he knew she was never late, if anything she would be right on time or she would even drive in a few minutes early. 
                          
He arrived at her desk and picked up the bouquet and wrapped the ribbon around them and securing it with a neat bow that he had tried time and time again to perfect. 
                          
He went into his studio and put them out of sight until she came to work so he could hand them to her and confess. 
                          
Everything needed to be perfect. 
                          
He checked the time and realized it was 7:34. 
                          
"That's unusual, she's always here on time, maybe she's just running a bit late or stuck in traffic"
                          
- 7:41, first call to Nathalie. You have reached the voicemail of Nathalie Sancoeur, please leave a message. "Come on Nat, pick up"
                          
- 7:58, "she would have said something if she was running late!"Gabriel said as he started to panic a bit. 
                          
- 8:13,  forth missed call. "What if something's happened, what if her phone has been stolen, what if she's crashed?"
                          
- 8:31,eighth missed call. "Calm down, if she had crashed I would have been called already. 
                          
- 8:39, "I'll just text her"
-  Are you alright?
-  Are you coming to work today?
- Have you fallen ill?
- Do you need someone to pick you up?
- Is there a problem?