— You’ll have to pay for your own order.
Milena looked her mother-in-law calmly in the eye without lowering her gaze.
Her shift at the printing house had ended about an hour earlier. All the customers had left long ago, her coworkers had gone home, and Milena had decided to walk back to her neighborhood. She had deliberately skipped the bus because every penny mattered right now.
Her banking app showed a lonely balance of 842. There were still four long days until her advance payment arrived.
Two months earlier, Evgeny’s bonus had been cut. The company he worked for had lost a major client, so now he received only his base salary. That left Milena covering the mortgage on their two-bedroom apartment, the utility bills, and all their grocery expenses. They had just enough money to get by, with absolutely nothing left over.
 
On her way home, she stopped at the nearest supermarket. She bought a discounted package of inexpensive pasta and ten eggs. She decided against buying meat. There should still have been a large, deep pan of stewed beef and vegetables in the refrigerator—the meal she had prepared the night before.
Milena had worked on that beef until nearly midnight. She had planned for it to provide two proper dinners for her and Evgeny, as well as two lunches they could take to work in plastic containers.
When Milena reached her floor, she inserted her key into the lock, opened the door, and stepped inside.
The muffled sound of gunfire came from the bedroom.
Evgeny was playing video games again.
Milena took off her shoes, walked into the kitchen, placed the pasta on the table, and opened the refrigerator.
The pan was still sitting on the middle shelf.
But there wasn’t a single piece of meat left in it.
Dark gravy had dried along the sides of the pan. Beside it lay one small, cold slice of pizza inside a crumpled cardboard box.
Milena closed her eyes for several seconds.
 
She wasn’t even angry.
She simply didn’t have the energy for another argument.
The same thing had been happening for seven days in a row.
She went into the bedroom.
Evgeny was lying on top of the bedspread, wearing large gaming headphones and enthusiastically pressing buttons on his controller without taking his eyes off the television.
Milena walked over and waved her hand in front of the screen.
Her husband irritably pulled one side of the headphones away from his ear.
“Milena, I asked you not to bother me. I’m in the middle of a raid.”
“Where is the beef, Evgeny?”
Her voice was perfectly even.
“What beef?”
He tried to look genuinely confused.
 
“The beef I spent hours trimming last night so that we would have enough food until Thursday. The pan is empty.”
Evgeny glanced toward the window.
“Mom and Dad stopped by. They weren’t here for long. It was sometime after lunch.”
“And during that brief visit, the two of them managed to eat a kilo and a half of beef with vegetables?”
“They were coming back from the market and they were hungry.”
Evgeny tried to put the headphone back over his ear, but Milena caught hold of the cable.
“Why are you starting this again? They brought something with them too. They left us some pizza. It’s in the kitchen. Heat it up for yourself.”
“A slice of pizza no bigger than my palm,” Milena replied coldly. “For seven days in a row, your parents have stopped by ‘on their way home’ and eaten our entire dinner. Tomorrow, I’ll have to take boiled eggs to work. What are you planning to eat—pixels from your raid?”
Evgeny grimaced.
 
“I’ll talk to Mom.”
He muttered the words under his breath and turned his attention back to the screen.
“Now let me finish the game.”
There was no point in continuing the conversation.
Milena returned to the kitchen, turned on the water, and began scrubbing the dried grease from the pan.
She understood perfectly well why her in-laws had suddenly started visiting every day.
Eleonora and Valentin had begun major repairs on the roof of their country house. The expenses were piling up quickly. Eleonora had no intention of saving money on construction materials, so she had found another way to cut costs: eating dinner at her son’s apartment every evening.
For the sake of appearances, they brought the cheapest small pizza they could find.
In return, they ate everything Milena had bought with her very limited income.
The intercom rang at exactly seven that evening.
Milena dried her hands and pressed the button to unlock the building’s entrance.
A minute later, she heard voices on the landing.
 
Eleonora entered first.
She was wearing a new velour tracksuit decorated with rhinestones. Her face was covered in bright makeup, and her hair had been carefully styled. She held a small patent-leather handbag in one hand and a phone in the other, recording voice messages without pause.
Heavyset Valentin followed her, wearing his usual fishing vest.
“Hello, sweetheart!”
Eleonora tossed the greeting in Milena’s direction without even looking at her.
“Yes, girls, we’re already here. We’re expecting everyone by eight! I sent the address to the group chat. Kisses!”
She finished the recording, sent the message, and put her phone away.
Milena leaned against the doorframe.
“What girls, Eleonora Prokofyevna? And where exactly are you already ‘waiting’ for them?”
Her mother-in-law gave her a mildly condescending look, as if she were talking to a child who could not understand something obvious.
“Oh, Milena, please don’t start. Today marks forty years since I graduated from university. The girls are coming over. We’re just going to have a quiet, cozy gathering. Our house is covered in dust because of the renovation, while your living room is spacious and bright.”
 
Meanwhile, Valentin took off his shoes and confidently headed toward the kitchen as if he were entering his own home.
“Your mother had the right idea. Why waste money at a café? It’s much nicer and more comfortable at home. By the way, Milena, yesterday’s meat was rather bland. Don’t you use spices? Add more rosemary next time.”
Milena did not even turn toward her father-in-law.
She continued staring at Eleonora.
“You invited your friends to our apartment without asking me?”
“Oh, why all the formality?”
Eleonora carelessly waved her shiny handbag.
“We’re not living in the last century. And I’m not asking you to cook. Everything has already been arranged! A wonderful dinner will be delivered soon. All you have to do is extend the table in the living room and put on a tablecloth. Come on, sweetheart, get moving. We only have half an hour.”
At that moment, Evgeny emerged from the bedroom.
When he saw his parents, he smiled awkwardly and was already preparing to retreat to his room.
“Evgeny.”
Milena spoke quietly, but her tone made him stop and approach her.
“Your mother has decided to hold a banquet here for her friends.”
Evgeny shifted uneasily from one foot to the other.
“Mom, we didn’t agree to this. Milena has only just come home from work. She’s tired.”
 
Eleonora pursed her lips.
“She’ll survive! She can rest afterward. This happens to be my celebration. Don’t I deserve to have a proper gathering once every five years? You’re my own children, for goodness’ sake.”
The intercom buzzed again, loudly and insistently.
Eleonora immediately brightened.
“Oh, the delivery is here!”
She even clapped her hands.
“Milena, sweetheart, open the door, please. And make sure you bring everything inside carefully.”
Milena pressed the button.
She was in no hurry.
In fact, she had become genuinely curious to discover just how far her mother-in-law was prepared to go.
Several minutes later, someone knocked on the door.
Milena opened it.
 
A young courier wearing the uniform of a restaurant called The Estate stood in the vestibule. It was considered the most expensive restaurant in the neighborhood. Milena and Evgeny could not afford to eat there even on their anniversary.
Three enormous branded thermal bags stood on the floor beside the courier’s feet.
“Delivery from The Estate,” the young man announced cheerfully in a practiced tone. “Hot dishes, salads, appetizers, and two canapé platters. Everything is included in the order. Apartment forty-two?”
“Yes.”
Milena nodded.
“Payment is due upon delivery.”
The courier took out a card terminal.
“The total is twenty-four thousand eight hundred. Would you like to pay by card or QR code?”
The amount rang out with particular clarity.
Twenty-four thousand eight hundred.
That was almost half of Milena’s monthly income, earned through exhausting shifts at the printing house.
Eleonora immediately appeared from the living room and stopped behind her daughter-in-law.
“What’s taking you so long, sweetheart?”
Her voice had become exceptionally sweet.
“Go ahead and pay. Then carry everything into the kitchen so we can arrange it on plates before the hot food gets cold.”
Milena slowly turned toward her mother-in-law.
“Pay? Are you seriously asking me to hand over nearly twenty-five thousand for your banquet?”
“Well, who else do you think should pay?”
Eleonora’s eyes widened with genuine indignation.
 
“Your father and I are pensioners! We’re renovating our house! You two are young, and you both have jobs. Consider this your anniversary gift to me. Would you really begrudge your own mother a present? My friends will be here in twenty minutes!”
The courier shifted awkwardly from one foot to the other.
“Ma’am, are you going to pay? I have other deliveries in the car, and they’re getting cold.”
Milena looked at her mother-in-law again.
Eleonora stood before her with her chin held high, not even considering the possibility that she might be doing something wrong. For the entire previous week, she had been eating at her daughter-in-law’s expense to save her own money for building materials. Now she had also decided to celebrate with her former university friends—and make Milena pay for it.
Milena turned to the courier.
“Could you please tell me which phone number was used to place the order?”
The young man quickly checked the terminal.
“The number ends in nine-two-five. The customer’s name is listed as Eleonora.”
Milena gave a short nod.
“Excellent. Eleonora is standing right behind me. Give the terminal to her. This order has absolutely nothing to do with me.”
She stepped aside to clear the way.
 
For a moment, Eleonora was speechless. Then her face turned crimson.
“Do you even hear what you’re saying?”
Her shriek echoed through the entire stairwell.
“I already explained that this is your gift to me!”
Milena answered firmly, emphasizing every word.
“My gift to you was the kilo and a half of beef you ate today. That is all. There will be no other presents because I cannot afford them. You ordered this celebration, so you will pay for it yourself.”
Valentin emerged from the kitchen when he heard the commotion.
“What is going on here?”
He frowned.
Eleonora immediately turned to her husband.
“Your daughter-in-law has decided to humiliate me! She’s making a laughingstock of me in front of a stranger! I come here with nothing but love, and she counts every penny!”
Having finally realized that he was caught in the middle of a family dispute, the courier stopped smiling and addressed Eleonora in a much more serious voice.
“Ma’am, the order was placed in your name. If you refuse to pay now, I’ll have to return it. The restaurant will charge you a cancellation fee, and this number will be blocked from placing future orders. Are you paying or not?”
Eleonora looked helplessly at her son.
“Evgeny! Are you going to stand there silently while she speaks to your mother like that? Give him your card!”
Evgeny had practically pressed his back against the hallway wall.
“Mom, I don’t have that kind of money. We’re almost broke ourselves while we wait for payday. We’re literally eating pasta. Milena is telling the truth.”
Eleonora’s face grew even redder.
“You… You’re both completely ungrateful!”
 
She angrily opened her patent-leather handbag, pulled out her wallet, produced a gold-colored credit card, and sharply tapped it against the terminal.
The machine emitted a short beep.
A long receipt slowly emerged.
Eleonora stared at it as though she had just lost a considerable portion of the money she had saved for the new roof.
“Bring the bags inside.”
She gave the order to the courier in a voice trembling with anger.
But Milena immediately blocked his path.
“The bags will remain in the vestibule.”
“What?”
Eleonora stared at her daughter-in-law in disbelief.
“Then what are we supposed to do with them?”
“Whatever you like. You can carry them outside, put them on a bench, or take them to the park. But they are not coming into my apartment, and your friends will not be gathering here tonight. I’ve just returned from a long shift, and I have no intention of serving someone else’s celebration.”
Valentin stepped forward.
“Milena, you’re going too far. We happen to be your husband’s parents.”
 
“Then let your son entertain you.”
She turned to Evgeny.
“Are you planning to host their banquet in the stairwell?”
Evgeny hurriedly shook his head.
Eleonora snatched the receipt from the courier’s hand. Her eyes burned with fury.
“Valentin! Pick up the bags! We’re leaving. I will never set foot inside this apartment again! You’re both greedy, petty people!”
Grumbling in displeasure, Valentin lifted the heavy thermal bags.
Eleonora raised her chin again, adjusted her velour outfit, and marched toward the elevator.
Before leaving, she turned around.
“I’ll tell my friends that your pipes burst!”
She practically shouted the words.
“So that you don’t disgrace the family!”
Milena replied calmly:
“You’d better tell them your conscience finally burst. That would be closer to the truth.”
Then she closed the door.
 
The lock clicked with a short, dry sound.
Evgeny remained standing in the hallway, awkwardly twisting the cable of his gaming headphones between his fingers.
“You were rather harsh with them…”
He struggled to get the words out.
“They are elderly, after all.”
Milena looked at her husband.
“If you feel that sorry for them, you can catch up with your parents and help carry the bags to their country house.”
She had no intention of listening to any more excuses.
“I’m going to cook the pasta.”
Milena turned around and walked into the kitchen.
Evgeny did not run after his parents.
 
Six months passed.
After that evening, no one entered their apartment again without calling first and receiving permission. The food in the refrigerator remained in exactly the quantities Milena and Evgeny expected.
Her in-laws were deeply offended, and their resentment lasted a long time.
At first, Eleonora complained constantly to the extended family in their group chats, telling everyone what an ungrateful daughter-in-law she had been given. However, she did not receive the support she had expected.
She eventually had to celebrate her reunion with her university friends at the country house, surrounded by bags of cement and rolls of roofing felt.
After some time, Evgeny found a small weekend job and began bringing extra money into the household.
Neither spouse liked talking about that evening.
But Milena was entirely satisfied with their unspoken agreement.
She did not need apologies or lengthy admissions of guilt.
She wanted only one thing: for no one ever again to test her personal boundaries with someone else’s banquet and a bill they expected her to pay.