Lena had barely entered the office when Anya at reception widened her eyes and said:
“Hi! They’ve already been looking for you… Go see the Bore.”
The Bore was Olga Petrovna, Lena’s boss. She really did have a habit of explaining everything in the most tedious way possible.
Lena nodded.
“Yeah, thanks.”
She quickly walked to her office. There, she hung her bag over the back of a chair, took off her down jacket, changed out of her boots, and then looked at herself in the mirror and smiled.
Lena was in a wonderful mood.
Yesterday, she had stayed at work until the very end, but she had still managed to finish all the layouts and send them into production. And that meant… that meant they wouldn’t miss the deadline. Everything would be ready on time.
“Who’s amazing?” Lena thought to herself. “I’m amazing!”
She picked up the folder containing the layouts and headed to Olga Petrovna’s office.
“Good morning! May I come in?” Lena asked cheerfully.
“Come in. Why are you late?”
“Olga Petrovna! I got everything done yesterday!”
“Excellent! That means we’ll finish everything on schedule,” Olga Petrovna said, clearly pleased. “But why are you late?”
“Well, you see, I went to bed late yesterday…” Lena couldn’t understand why she was suddenly being questioned about being late. Plenty of people here showed up late all the time.
“And what makes you think I’m interested in that?”
“What do you mean? I stayed here until eleven last night. I didn’t get home until midnight…”
“Lenochka…” Olga Petrovna said in an overly gentle voice. “That means this is the third time you’ve been late this week, and now it turns out you can’t cope with your workload either. Why are you looking at me like that? Yes, you can’t cope. What time does our workday end? Exactly—six o’clock. Not eleven at night.”
Lena stared at Olga Petrovna in astonishment.
What was she talking about?
Everyone stayed late whenever they couldn’t finish something in time. And now she was saying Lena shouldn’t have stayed late?
“All right, Lena. I’m not going to tolerate your lateness anymore. You’re fired. Go to HR. They’ll explain everything to you there.”
“So, Marina, I’ve been fired again,” Lena complained to her friend that evening.
“How long did you work there?”
“Six months… Ugh… I did everything for them…”
“Come on, don’t cry. You just need to look for jobs at bigger companies, but you keep applying to these tiny places. And this is the result. The way I see it, they hire someone when business is busy, and as soon as the season ends, they wave goodbye.”
“You think so?” Lena asked, stunned.
“Of course. Your busy season is over, isn’t it?”
“Well… yes. Marina, I can’t apply to big companies. Look at my employment history. Three to six months everywhere. No one will hire me!”
“Lenochka, where’s that creative boldness of yours? Make a portfolio and show it around. One company rejects you, another one does too… and the third will grab you with both hands! Anyway, go on vacation now, get some rest, and afterward you’ll start sending out your résumé under my careful supervision. Deal?”
Lena sighed.
“Where am I supposed to go now? It’s not even the season yet. And Misha won’t be able to get time off…”
“Go alone. High season, low season—what difference does it make? It’s even better. There won’t be crowds of tourists.” Marina left. Lena smiled and dialed Misha’s number.
“Hi! How are you? Me? Not great… I got fired. Want to go somewhere tomorrow evening? Oh… you’re busy… work… Okay, fine. Then I’ll see you Saturday.”
Lena sighed.
Of course. Everyone had work.
Suddenly, her phone rang.
“Yes, Mish? Oh… Mom, it’s you… All right, I’ll come by tomorrow around seven and help.”
Lena sighed again.
Great. Tomorrow she had to visit her mother. Misha was busy.
And why couldn’t the two of them finally start living together?
Where had he gotten the idea that a man absolutely had to buy an apartment before getting married?
They could have lived in her place. Or sold it and bought something bigger.
Lena went into the kitchen and poured herself some tea.
She felt bored, sad, and lonely.
Lena did absolutely nothing the next day.
Well, yes… sometimes people from her now-former workplace called to ask her questions, but Lena was being stubborn. At first, she said she couldn’t remember anything, and then she simply stopped answering the phone.
“What did they expect?” she thought. “They fired me overnight. That’s it. Now they can figure everything out themselves.”
At six in the evening, Lena finally dragged herself out of the apartment.
She was trying to decide whether to take the metro or the bus when, unexpectedly, the exact bus she needed pulled up to the stop she was passing.
And just like that, the metro-versus-bus dilemma was solved.
Lena slipped inside and spotted a seat by the window.
“Perfect!” she thought. “Exactly the kind of seat I like.”
She sat down, put in her earphones, and began listening to music.
More and more passengers got on.
At one of the stops, a young man and woman hurried onto the bus.
Lena might not have paid any attention to them, but the man’s figure and clothes caught her eye.
Then he turned toward her.
Lena realized it was Misha and covered her mouth with her hand.
Of course, she immediately wanted to call out to him, but he merely looked over the people around him, apparently choosing a convenient place where he and the girl could stand.
They moved a little farther into the bus and continued talking.
“Maybe she’s a colleague?” Lena thought.
But then she realized people didn’t look at their colleagues like that.
A little later, the two got off the bus and walked away with their arms around each other.
“Well… clearly she’s not a colleague,” Lena thought bitterly. “Those are the ‘things’ he’s been so busy with.”
The bus pulled away, carrying a devastated Lena farther and farther down the road.
“You’re still crying?” Marina burst into Lena’s apartment.
“Yes, I’m crying! So what? I’ll do whatever I want!”
“I never liked your Misha from the start. He’s unreliable. He was always messing with your head…”
“Marina, spare me the lecture. I already feel awful. No job, no career, no boyfriend… Everything is terrible.”
“No. It’s the opposite. Everything is great! You’re a free, beautiful young woman. Every road is open to you. Now go and book yourself a vacation at a resort. Or at least buy the tickets.”
Lena sighed.
“No!” Marina protested. “Do I seriously have to stand over you and make you do it?”
“You don’t have to stand over me. Just go already. I want to be alone.”
“So you can cry again?”
“I said go!”
Lena practically pushed Marina out the door and then burst into tears again.
She had thought Misha would support her and comfort her, but instead…
What a betrayal.
Later that night, Lena finally decided to look at places where she could go.
She browsed different countries, hotels, and prices, but still couldn’t decide where she wanted to travel.
Eventually, she simply went to bed.
The next morning, her mother’s phone call woke her.
“Lenochka! Do you remember my neighbor?”
“I remember…” a sleepy Lena mumbled. “What about her? Did something happen?”
Lena asked purely out of politeness.
In reality, she couldn’t care less what was going on with that neighbor.
“She’s fine. It’s just that she was supposed to go to a holiday retreat tomorrow, but she can’t because she has to visit her son. And she can’t reschedule it either. I told her you could go instead so the booking wouldn’t be wasted. I think some rest would do you good.”
“Everyone thinks they know better than I do what would be good for me,” Lena thought.
“Where is this retreat?” she asked with a yawn.
“In the forest, about fifty kilometers from us. They have a swimming pool—an indoor one, by the way—and massages and all kinds of treatments…”
“I bet everyone there is over fifty,” Lena said, yawning again.
“What difference does it make? You need to recover and get yourself together.”
“Why not?” Lena thought. “If I don’t like it, I can always come home.”
“All right, Mom. I agree. I’ll call you a little later and we’ll discuss everything.”
Then Lena went right back to sleep.
Lena had been at the retreat for five days.
Strangely enough, she liked it there.
There really was a swimming pool, and Lena went swimming every morning and evening. The massages were actually quite good. There was also a sauna.
Time passed slowly and peacefully.
Besides going to the pool, Lena spent a lot of time walking around the grounds and occasionally through the forest.
She was happy that the snow had already melted and that buds were beginning to swell on some of the trees.
Lena also enjoyed watching the other vacationers.
Just as she had expected, most of them were older people.
Some were active, others weren’t. Some were still busy having romantic adventures, while others had no interest in such things.
The little dramas unfolding around her were actually quite entertaining.
Lena even forgot about her unfair dismissal and about the fact that her boyfriend had started seeing another woman.
As usual, after swimming, Lena settled onto a lounge chair beside the pool and closed her eyes.
She heard someone sit down on the neighboring chair but didn’t open her eyes.
“Hi, beautiful,” a male voice suddenly said. “Have you been here long?”
The voice sounded young, which surprised Lena.
She immediately opened her eyes.
“My name’s Dima. What’s yours?”
“Lena. I’ve been here for five days.”
“With your mother?”
“No. Alone.”
The young man laughed.
“What are you doing here all by yourself?”
“Well, I’m resting…”
“I’m here with my mother. Keeping her company on her vacation.”
“So you’re a mama’s boy?” Lena blurted out.
“Partly, yes. She feels more comfortable when I’m around. So, want to go swimming with me?”
Lena shrugged, but she went with him.
“He reminds me of someone…” Lena thought.
But she couldn’t figure out who.
The two quickly became friends, and they spent all the remaining days together.
They even exchanged phone numbers when Lena left.
“Well, I can’t believe it! You actually went to a holiday retreat!” Marina exclaimed indignantly. “What did you even do there?”
“Nothing special. I rested, went swimming, had massages, took walks, took photographs, made sketches…”
“And where’s the romance?”
“What romance?”
“A vacation romance, of course!”
Lena laughed.
“You never said anything about a vacation romance. You only told me to clear my head. And if I’m being serious…” Lena sighed. “I’m not ready for any romance.”
“Fine. Then let’s work on your résumé.”
Time passed.
Lena found another job.
This time, however, she didn’t throw herself into it at one hundred percent.
She watched how everyone else worked and started working at the same pace they did.
Misha never gave her any explanation.
He simply sent her a text saying they needed to break up.
“How original,” Lena smirked.
She immediately deleted the message and tried to forget the entire two years they had spent together.
“At least it was only two years and not twenty-two. Although dating for twenty-two years would be ridiculous.”
It was March 8.
Lena was slowly walking home, feeling gloomy.
It seemed to her that everywhere she looked, happy women were walking around carrying flowers.
She had received a bouquet too, of course, but she had left it at work.
That wasn’t the point.
It seemed to her that all the women walking beside her weren’t lonely like she was.
Someone was waiting for each of them, and they were hurrying home to that person.
Her phone rang.
To Lena’s surprise, it was Dima.
“Well, look at that. Why has he suddenly decided to call me?” she thought.
“Yes?” she answered.
“Hi! Happy Women’s Day!”
“Hi! Thank you…”
“What are you doing?”
“Walking…”
“Walking past what?”
Lena looked around.
“A coffee shop.”
“Do you want coffee?”
“Well, let’s suppose I say yes…” Lena replied, breaking into a smile.
“Then go inside the coffee shop. I’m sitting at the table on the right, by the window, and I can see you. By the way, you look great!”
Lena looked at the coffee shop windows again.
And sure enough, she saw Dima through the glass, waving at her.
Then they drank coffee and talked and talked and talked…
And somehow, by the end of all that talking, they decided to move in together right away.
“Lena, why are you so nervous? You already know my mother. She only invited us over for dinner.”
“Only dinner? It’s her birthday!”
“So?”
“Your relatives will be there too. They’ll be judging me.”
“Lena, everything’s fine. You’re beautiful.”
“What if they ask me some kind of provocative question?” Lena rolled her eyes in horror.
“Like what? When we’re getting married?” Dima asked with a smile.
“For example… although I haven’t really thought about that…”
“What time of year would you like?”
“I don’t know…”
“Would winter work?”
“I suppose so.”
“Then let’s tell them December.”
“But December is only three months away! Wait… are you proposing to me?”
“Looks like I am,” Dima said with a grin. “Do you accept?”
“You know what? I do! Why not?”
Strangely enough, no one asked Lena or Dima anything at all.
Instead, Lena was handed a huge stack of family photographs.
She looked through them while Dima provided commentary.
“That’s me there. And that’s me over there. Here I’m doing this, there I’m doing that. Here I am with my aunt, and here I am with my uncle…”
“And this is me on vacation in Crimea.”
Lena picked up the photograph and froze.
She had exactly the same photograph at home.
In the picture, she was a little girl, and beside her stood a boy who was slightly older.
“Mom says that the moment I saw that girl, I fell in love with her,” Dima said with a chuckle. “Apparently I played with her all the time and even promised I’d marry her. I hope you’re not going to be jealous of her?”
Lena looked at Dima.
Then at the photograph in her hands.
Then back at Dima again.
And she had been wondering all this time who he reminded her of.
Of course.
That boy!
“No, I won’t be jealous of her. It’s just that I have exactly the same photograph at home. Because that girl… is me.”
Naturally, Dima couldn’t believe it for a long time.
But when Lena brought the photograph from her mother’s house, he had no choice but to believe it.
“Well, you see,” Dima said as they were leaving for their honeymoon, “look what a man you managed to get yourself: I gave my word, and I kept it.”