“ Tanya, where have you been? Mom and I have been waiting and waiting for you, and you’re still nowhere in sight,” she heard her husband say impatiently over the phone.
“I’m coming. They kept me late at work,” Tatyana replied, not mentioning that in truth she had simply been walking slowly, enjoying the last days of the year slipping away. Snow drifted down gently from the sky while the sun shone brightly. Sparrows chirped cheerfully, as if it were not winter at all but the first hint of spring.
“Did something happen?” she asked, just in case.
“Of course something happened. I prepared a New Year’s surprise for my wife, and she’s in no hurry to get home,” Pavel said with a laugh.
“A surprise? Pasha, did they really approve our mortgage?”
“Come home and you’ll see for yourself,” he answered mysteriously.
“Then I’ll admit it—I have a surprise for you too.”
“Now you’ve got me curious,” Pavel laughed.
“I’m learning from you,” Tanya said with a smile.
Tatyana quickened her pace, forgetting all about the snow and the birds.
She had not planned to tell him about her decision that day. She had wanted to wait until New Year’s Eve and reveal everything properly, right at midnight, under the chime of the clock.
But since things had gone this way, why wait?
She had finally decided to sell her studio apartment, something Pavel had been asking her to do for a long time so they could increase the down payment for a home. More than that, she had already found a buyer, and the deal was scheduled for right after the holidays.
“Well done, Tanya,” she praised herself.
She hummed a New Year’s tune under her breath and, spotting a frozen puddle, slid across it like a child.
Tanya and Pavel had only been married for a year. During all that time, they had been living with his mother. There was enough room in the apartment, but Tatyana still longed for a place of their own.
“Let’s sell your studio downtown,” Pavel had said more than once. “That’ll give us a solid down payment. Enough for a two-bedroom for sure, and if we look on the outskirts, we might even buy a place outright.”
“No, I can’t,” she always answered stubbornly.
She understood that living separately would be better, but she could not part with that apartment.
It was a gift from her grandfather—the closest person she had, the man who raised her after her parents died.
When Tanya was seven, her mother passed away. Her father took the loss hard. At first he held on, but one day he broke down… and never made it home. They found him frozen several days later.
Her grandfather took Tanya in.
The two of them lived alone: he managed the household, and Tanya studied. As she grew older, she helped around the house, but her grandfather did not want her staying in the village forever.
“There’s no reason for you to sit here with me. Go study, get a profession,” he told her.
And so she left for the capital.
She visited him often—during school breaks and sometimes even on weekends.
“You should be going dancing, building your life, and instead you keep coming back to me,” he would grumble.
“I’ll have time for that later, Grandpa. Not now.”
Then one day a neighbor called.
“Your grandpa is very ill…”
Tanya went to him at once and found him in the hospital.
He took her hand.
“I never managed to build anything in this life. I’ve got nothing to leave you. The house is nearly falling apart…”
“I don’t need anything. Just get better,” she cried.
“No. You’ll sell the house. And here,” he said, handing her a bank card, “there’s money on it. For your down payment. I want to know you’re settled.”
“Grandpa, let’s spend it on treatment instead…”
“My treatment is knowing you won’t be left without a roof over your head. That’s my last wish.”
Holding back tears, Tanya stepped out of the hospital room.
She managed to fulfill his wish in time—she took out a mortgage on a tiny studio apartment.
“Can you believe it, Grandpa? I got lucky,” she told him joyfully.
“That’s good,” he said with a smile.
Two days later, he was gone.
Tanya sold the house and paid off the mortgage.
Later she entered university, and that was where she met Pavel.
He became her first love.
Pavel’s mother accepted Tanya right away.
“Take care of her. She’s a good girl, hardworking,” she told her son.
The wedding was modest.
“It’s better to save the money for the future,” her mother-in-law declared.
Pavel refused to live in Tanya’s studio.
“Let’s sell it right away and buy something bigger.”
But Tanya refused.
“It’s all I have left of Grandpa.”
So they agreed to live with his mother and rent out the studio.
But Tanya never rented it out—that was her little secret.
Life with her husband turned out to be far from easy. All the responsibilities fell on her: cooking, cleaning, taking care of her mother-in-law.
Pavel was always at work.
“I have to earn money. You’re the one who didn’t want to sell the apartment.”
Tanya did everything she could and even took on extra work.
One day she fainted at work.
“You don’t take care of yourself at all,” her boss told her.
And that was the moment Tanya decided to sell the studio.
She walked up to the building and climbed the stairs.
Pavel opened the door.
“Close your eyes. I’ve got a surprise for you!”
He led her inside.
“All right, open them!”
Tanya opened her eyes… and froze.
Boxes everywhere. Construction debris. Wallpaper stripped from the walls. Dust covering everything.
“What happened here?” she asked in confusion.
“This is the surprise!” Pavel said proudly.
Then he explained:
“Mom and I decided we’re not buying an apartment after all. This one will eventually be ours. While she’s away at the spa, we’re renovating.”
“Where did the money come from?”
“Our savings. The ones we put aside for the down payment.”
“You spent all the money?” Tanya sat down on a box.
“We decided—”
“We?” she cut in sharply. “You and your mother? And it never occurred to you to ask me?”
“I wanted it to be a surprise…”
“And New Year’s is canceled too?” she asked quietly.
“Well, the renovation is more important.”
Without another word, Tanya walked into the room.
“What about your surprise?” Pavel shouted after her.
“You’ll see in a minute.”
A few minutes later, he saw her packing her things.
“Good for you, getting right to work!”
But Tanya did not even look at him.
“Where are you going?” he asked, suddenly alarmed.
“This is my surprise. Right after the holidays—divorce and division of property.”
She walked out and slammed the door behind her.
The moment she crossed the threshold of her studio apartment, Tanya let out a long, relieved breath.
Thank goodness she had never sold it.
She tidied up, bought a Christmas tree, and set everything in order.
“Divorce is no reason to skip New Year’s,” she told herself.
For the first time in a long while, she felt light.
Her mother-in-law tried to get her to open the door, but Tanya ignored her.
After the holidays, she filed for divorce.
The court dissolved the marriage, Pavel returned half the money to her, and Tanya began a new life.
And this new life suited her just fine.