Vasilievna was outdone. Lucy looked at her watch: it took two hours to break. She did not want to relax; she gathered her thoughts, hoping that Torobov would not notice fatigue and make no comments.
“Sveta, do I really have a tired look?” she asked a friend in the cafe.
“Something is there,” the colleague said cautiously, hoping for a continuation.
“Yesterday I introduced my fiancé to my father, and we stayed a little longer.”
“I suppose you were going to get married, right? Who is he? Are you pregnant?”
“No, it seems. He is Alexey Izmailov – the master-serviceman of the tenth workshop.”
Lucy breathed heavily, Sveta realized that she was experiencing something, but did not continue to ask questions. After dinner, the girls strolled around the park near the factory. The sun was shining, it was warm and quiet. They did not want to go to the shop. But work is work. They returned home together.
“Lucy come to me on Sunday to visit, somehow we will go a big company to the nature. There will be co-workers of the husband and some of the relatives. Take your fiancé with you.”
“I’ll try to come. I want to sew a new dress or order from Armani or Valentino, to be fully armed.”
On the way they went to the supermarket and bought a lot of tasty things: canned food, cheese, smoked sausage, coffee, steamed veal, Hennessy brandy, sweets. Back they walked on foot. The leaves on the trees darkened and covered the asphalt with a light, yellow, lacy pattern. Flowerbeds and bushes in the parks lost their summer completeness and brightness, but were no less attractive to the inquisitive glance of the artist. The girls had a cheerful mood.
“How cool everything is, it turns out,” Lucya reasoned naively, “Alexey’s friendship, your invitation, an interesting company, songs of bards with a guitar.”
“Honey, you have not seen my husband and children yet.”
“You know, if I have children, when we get married with Alexey, they will become as glorious as yours,” Lucy praised.
In the evening, Alex did not call. It upset her, but she knew that he would call later after an urgent matter or a swim in the factory pool. She admired his athletic build, heard from him that he used anabolics based on deer antlers.
Really to go shopping her alone was boring, she wanted to consult with someone, choose an expensive cloth for a wedding dress and make a stylish model from a the purchased material.
Pattern of mode was taken from the fashion magazine, which she carried to the tailor, inveterate gossiper. Two days later the dress was ready, it was very elegant, with flowing folds.
It remained only to decide length of the dress: elongated or slightly behind the knee. “The elongated dresses are fashionable this season, but since my legs are even, I can sew a little shorter,” she reasoned, staring at herself in the mirror. So it was decided.
Personal life has always evoked the envy of girlfriends, but their connections somehow interested a little, except for some details of an intimate nature. What she would prefer was the partner’s reaction to treason.
Constant modifications in the schedule of classes and visits with a barely perceptible bridegroom or a teacher caused her irritation and response to plunge into relaxation or go to the end of the world such as Italy or Cyprus, where there would be no one except the sun, sea and fruit.
When she called Alexey, he did not answer. She decided that he fell ill, and she will have to go to Sveta without him. She examined and tried to put on the old decorations of her mother and admired the taste: a silver necklace with amethyst inserts, made of old coins, like a gypsy monisto, looked delicious.
She kept it in her safe in the form of an English-Russian dictionary in the closet, which only her father knew. There were also several hundred dollars in a pack, an expensive diamond ring, earrings and a pendant with sapphire insets.
Lucy phoned Alexey again two hours later, but it has happened that he was not there. “So he will not go to work. The holiday will be broken,” she thought.
That November day was difficult. They were offered tickets from the trade union committee to the hall of philharmonic society right on the territory of the concert parlor of the plant. Everyone happily agreed and in the break they ran to brush their hair to the nearest stylist.
Lucy also preliminarily visited the Beauty Salon combed her hair in a fashionable wave style. At the solemn meeting they announced a prize for helping sponsored farms in harvesting. The director of the enterprise congratulated all present with successes, wished all the very best in their work and in their personal life, diplomas and valuable gifts were presented to the leaders.
Following the solemn part was a concert that did not last long. During the concert, she accidentally noticed Alexey in the second row. Lucy wanted the concert to end as soon as possible. All attention was turned to Izmailov. Half an hour later, after applause, everyone rose from their seats and began to walk towards the exit. She waited while Alexey came closer, called him. He turned around, saw Lucya, her eyes shone, and he smiled. He looked more elegant than ever, and she thought: “It’s a pity that we had known each other so little. Why didn’t we meet before?”
“My employee Sveta Erengeld invited me to visit her. Will you go with me as a groom?
Instead of an answer, he involuntarily embraced her. She shrank and fell silent.
“If you do not mind, we meet at six at my house on Sunday and go to Sveta,” Lucy said, worried.
Alexey nodded in agreement. She felt so well and happy that she wanted to kiss him, and she could hardly restrain herself. They walked home together, admiring the illuminations in the factory territory.
“Shall I escort you?” he asked Lucy in the wardrobe room, giving her a cloak.
“You will,” she answered shortly. “You look beautiful. Has you a haircut?”
“Is it noticeable?” Alexey answered feeling pleasure.
In the evening it was cool, and Lucy was wrapped up in a warm scarf. Romanian gloves, she hid in a brown, lacquered handbag in accordance with the color of long boots. Alexey held his hands in the pockets of a bright, English cloak from models of Poul Richard. They walked in silence.
The fallen leaves rustled beneath their feet, and in some places the ice could be seen. They passed the house a couple of times, came back and again passed by. So they walked until it got dark. They did not want to talk, only exchanged a few significant phrases. Finally, they stopped near the entrance; she looked up at his eyes and said gently:
“You know, it seems that we became relatives.”
Alexey bent down and kissed her for the first time on the lips. In the street it was quiet, there were no passers-by, they did not want to part. She came to her senses and said sternly:
“I have to go. Waiting for you exactly at six.”
Her heels knocked on the asphalt. He stood a minute and hurried home. Walking in the night city was not very scary.
“It is a pity that we broke up. I guess she scared, I hope not to death, she ran away so quickly. She will be glad of my presence as it is today, when we will meet at the factory.”
He decided to walk to the house on foot. Occasionally enamored couples came across him, and he reflected: “Why did Lucya leave me? Maybe she remembered that she had to do something, maybe her father was sick. I did not even interested, did not ask her about father. Any girl would do just that, I’m just an ill-mannered an impertinent person, I do not know how to take care of girls.”
Alexey remembered childhood. He remembered how his mother had cooked pancakes on Sundays. He ate them with sour cream and jam at once. Jam had flowed on his hands, as he had put more sour cream