Are we going somewhere?” Ira asked in surprise when she walked into the room and saw Maxim packing his things.
She had just returned from work, and he hadn’t warned her about anything. “Maybe he wants to surprise me?”
“No, we’re not going anywhere,” Maxim replied without even turning his head. “I’m leaving you.”
“I don’t understand… What do you mean, leaving? If this is a joke, it’s not a very good one.”
“What jokes, Ira?” the guy mumbled to himself, pulling out his shirt from the closet, the one he was planning to wear for New Year’s Eve. “By the way, do you know where my passport is?”
“I know. It’s in the third drawer of the dresser. Maybe you could explain what’s going on? It’s not funny anymore.”
“Ira, why are you so difficult to understand?” Maxim smiled. “I told you, I’m leaving you… You see, our future life together doesn’t make any sense. You’re a good girl, and I had a good time with you, but…”
“What, Maxim?”
“Well, a few days ago, I met Larisa, we went to the same school…”
“And what?”
“What do you mean, ‘what’? We sat down in a cafe, talked, remembered our feelings, and decided that we should be together. I love her, you understand? I’ve loved her since tenth grade.”
“So you don’t love me?” The grocery bags fell from Ira’s hands.
“Love you? With you, I just felt good… But I love someone else. I love Larisa.” Maxim walked past her, put on his shoes, got dressed, and silently left, closing the door behind him.
Ira stood still for several minutes, staring in shock.
She couldn’t believe that everything happening to her right now wasn’t a dream but reality.
Then, finally, the realization hit… Realizing that she was discarded like an unnecessary toy…
And not just discarded, but three days before the New Year, when all her thoughts were about what to give her loved one, how to decorate the Christmas tree, and what original dishes to prepare for the New Year’s table… “How could he?!”
Leaning against the wall, Ira slowly squatted down, covered her face with her hands, and began to cry bitterly.
She never even thought that something like this could happen. There had been no signs. She loved Maxim, and he loved her too (at least, that’s what she thought). They were even planning to get married soon.
For a whole year, everything was good between them. Everything was fine until today.
But no… Ira had noticed odd behavior from Maxim a few days ago. She just didn’t think much of it. She attributed it to tiredness — after all, it was the end of the year, and Maxim held a high position in a big company.
He stayed up late working on the computer, responding monosyllabically to her questions…
It was clear that something was bothering him, but Ira decided not to pry into his soul. If he wanted to, he would tell her.
And he did…
He didn’t even bother to soften the news for his beloved girlfriend.
Ira had trouble getting to bed, curled up in a ball, and started crying again. Until the morning.
And the whole next day, she just lay there, staring at a photo in a frame where she and Maxim were captured against the backdrop of the sea.
That was their vacation together. It was then that she realized she truly loved Maxim.
They had also planned to go to Sochi in the New Year, but now… Now, they wouldn’t go.
Not to Sochi, not to meet his parents. She felt so empty inside, so bitter…
All day, Ira’s best friend kept calling, with whom she was supposed to meet today, but talking or seeing anyone was the last thing she wanted.
So, at first, Ira simply ignored the incoming calls and then turned off her phone.
She couldn’t talk right now. What could they possibly talk about when, at one “beautiful” moment, life had lost all meaning for her?
Before going to bed, she suddenly picked up her laptop, opened social media, and visited Maxim’s page.
She should have never looked…
There, she saw several dozen new photos of him hugging some girl — presumably that same school love, Larisa, may she be cursed!
“What does he see in her?” Ira thought, looking at the girl who had stolen her boyfriend’s heart. “There’s nothing remarkable about her.”
Ira really wanted to write a few choice words to her, but at the last moment, she decided against it — it wouldn’t change anything.
She closed the laptop, put it back on the table, curled up into a ball again, and started crying. She truly loved him, but he…
…he only pretended to love her.
And that made the pain even worse.
Ira woke up to someone knocking on the door. They knocked so fiercely that at first, she thought her neighbors were starting some renovation before the New Year.
“Could Maxim have come back?” she thought quickly, and, jumping out of bed, she rushed to open the door.
“Irishka! You’re alive!” Her friend Lena threw herself at her neck. “I already thought something happened. I wanted to call the police and the emergency services. You didn’t answer your phone all day, and then you turned it off. I thought you decided to isolate yourself with Maxim, right? You should have just texted me so I wouldn’t worry unnecessarily.”
“Not quite…” Ira answered, and tears started flowing down her cheeks.
“So… What happened then? Did you have a fight or something? Everything was fine with you, right?”
“It was… It was fine, but he left me.”
“Left? Who left, Maxim? That can’t be true,” Lena was shocked.
“I thought it couldn’t be true either. But apparently, it can.”
Ira told her best friend everything while Lena made coffee for the two of them.
“No, this is nonsense,” Lena fumed. “He seemed so responsible. So decent. But to leave a girl before New Year’s… And just pack his things and leave without a word.”
“Can you imagine?”
“I can’t wrap my head around it. Did you see her? Larisa… What is she like? A supermodel, or the daughter of an oil tycoon?”
Ira brought the laptop, opened it, and showed Lena the photos of Maxim with his new girlfriend.
There were even more now than last night.
“Well, well… Her lips are ‘enhanced,’ her curves clearly silicon, and her eyes… Cold as ice. What did he see in her?”
“School love…”
“Listen, Ira! I understand that giving advice in these situations is thankless. But maybe you shouldn’t suffer over Maxim?”
“How can you not understand? We were planning to get married in the new year.”
“Then maybe you should be happy you didn’t get married and don’t have kids together? Can you imagine what would’ve happened if he did this after ten years of marriage?”
“I loved him…”
“Well, then you’ll love someone else… Someone better. And besides, tomorrow is New Year’s, and you’re crying! Not right! Let’s go out shopping. How does that sound?”
“Honestly, not great. I don’t want to go anywhere, and I don’t want to celebrate New Year. At all.”
“I’ll make you want to!”
Despite Ira’s resistance, Lena managed to convince her to leave the house.
First, they sat at a cafe, then visited a beauty salon, and finally went shopping. Ira didn’t want to buy anything, but Lena handed her a set of Christmas ornaments.
“Here’s my gift for you! And promise me you’ll decorate the tree, it looks so sad just standing in the corner. It hurts to look at it.”
“I promise,” sighed Ira.
“That’s my girl! And tomorrow, I’ll come and check if you keep your promise.”
Ira returned home alone.
And she was even glad Lena didn’t come to see her off. Ira was grateful to her friend for trying so hard to lift her spirits, but she still wanted to be alone for now.
The wound in her heart was deep, and it wouldn’t heal in a day. Not at all.
“Happy New Year, beautiful!” a guy walking toward her shouted.
“Uh-huh…” Ira barely whispered in response and continued walking, not even looking his way.
She didn’t want to talk to anyone, especially strange men.
Passing a pet store, she saw the door swing wide open, and a young girl came out with a bag of cat food.
She poured the remaining food onto a piece of cardboard, looked around, and went back inside, and within a second, a ginger kitten appeared and began eagerly devouring the food.
After eating all the food, the kitten looked at the glass door and began to meow pitifully.
Ira stopped and silently watched the kitten for a while. “He was probably abandoned too before the New Year…” she thought, and tears rolled down her cheeks.
The kitten was clearly freezing because his small, thin body trembled like an old “grandma’s” fridge when the compressor kicks in.
Then the kitten saw Ira and, without hesitation, ran toward her, hoping she would help him warm up.
The girl took the ginger kitten in her arms, pressed him to her chest, and walked into the pet store.
“Why can’t you let this poor kitten warm up?” Ira asked the saleswoman.
“Why did you bring him here?” the saleswoman frowned. “The owner doesn’t allow street animals in the store. There are cameras everywhere.”
“As if it would hurt your owner,” Ira said discontentedly.
No, she wasn’t planning to argue with the saleswoman. She just felt sorry for the kitten. He was just as abandoned and unwanted as she was.
“Well, if you’re so smart, take the kitten yourself. It won’t hurt you!” the saleswoman retorted sarcastically.
“Fine, I will!” Ira snapped. “At least something good will happen to me this New Year.”
“Are you serious?”
“Dead serious.”
Ira walked out of the pet store with the kitten and a full bag of supplies for him.
She even caught herself thinking that she had never spent money with such pleasure. Hiding the kitten under her puffer jacket, Ira walked confidently, smiling, toward her home.
She had planned to “suffer” for at least a week, or maybe the whole New Year holiday. But the kitten, with his sudden appearance in her life, completely shattered those plans.
“What should I name you, my little ginger happiness?” Ira smiled, watching the kitten try to jump off the couch.
The kitten, having overcome his fear of heights, jumped to the floor and ran to explore his new territory.
“You’re such a cutie,” Ira laughed. “Cutie, little paws… Oh, exactly! I’ll call you Lappy.”
With the appearance of this ginger wonder, time seemed to fly by faster, and the apartment became livelier.
It wasn’t until bedtime that Ira remembered her promise to her friend. When she was already lying in bed and didn’t want to get up. But she had to, because she promised.
Together with Lappy, Ira took out the box of Christmas ornaments and started decorating the tree.
She was decorating while the kitten kept knocking the ornaments off the lower branches onto the floor.
And every time she succeeded, she would hide under the couch, looking so funny.
During the night, Ira woke up several times to the sound of something falling to the floor. She had to get up, go to the tree, and hang the ornaments Lena had given her back on.
“Okay, little ginger rascal! Will you calm down tonight or not?” Ira mockingly threatened with a finger.
“Meow…” Lappy meowed apologetically.
Then the kitten went to the bedroom, jumped onto the bed on the second try, and sprawled next to the pillow. She was tired…
Ira took the frame with the photo of herself and Maxim, ran her hand over the glass a few times, and put it back on the nightstand. Tears streamed down her cheeks again. She couldn’t forget him…
In the morning, Lena came over.
She inspected the Christmas tree decorated with ornaments and smiled broadly.
“Well done, Ira! No matter what happens in your personal life, the New Year can’t be canceled.” “By the way, I brought you tangerines and sparklers. To enhance the atmosphere of the upcoming celebration.”
“Thank you. I don’t know what I would do without you…”
“Of course, you’d be lying on your bed crying. That’s what you’d do without me. Listen, maybe you’ll celebrate New Year with us? I’m sure Vovka and I won’t let you get bored!”
“Thanks for the invitation, but New Year is a family holiday, and I don’t want to interfere with yours. First of all…”
“And second?”
“And second, I already have someone to celebrate New Year with,” Ira smiled.
“Wow! Did you find another guy in just one evening?” Lena was surprised.
“Nope! I found a kitten!” Ira went to the bedroom and came back with Lappy.
“Wow! How beautiful! Where did you find him?”
“On the street. I passed by the pet store, and she was sitting there, trembling from the cold, meowing pitifully. Well, I just couldn’t walk by.”
“I wouldn’t have been able to walk by either…” Lena said thoughtfully. “Listen, you’re a good girl. I approve. And this kitten will bring you back to life quickly. So I think it’s time for you to ‘get rid of’ Maxim. How long are you going to tolerate his presence?”
“Get rid of him?! What do you mean? He left…”
“He left, but his things are still here. That teddy bear he gave you for your birthday, the ashtray on the windowsill, the mug in the cupboard. The photo on the nightstand. You have so many of his things left that you could open a museum!”
“Lena, I can’t throw them away… This is all I have left of Maxim.”
“I don’t understand why you need to remember him at all. Or do you enjoy torturing yourself with these useless memories? He left you! Switched you for someone else, and you’re keeping his things.”
Ira was silent.
“Well, I can’t force you, but if I were in your place…”
“I understand, Lena… I just probably need more time. I’m not ready for this yet.”
“Well, you don’t have much time left,” Lena smiled, glancing at the clock. “You need to enter the New Year free and happy.”
After her friend left, Ira still couldn’t find peace. She knew that Lena was right. That she needed to let go of the past and move on. But…
She felt such a strange feeling. In the language of psychologists, it’s called dissonance.
One half of Ira wanted to forget the past and erase Maxim from her memory forever, but the other…
…for some reason, believed that Maxim could still come back. That they would be together again.
Ira stood at the window for a long time, not knowing what to do. Suddenly, she heard something fall in the living room.
“Lappy! What have you done…”
Entering the living room, she expected to see the Christmas ornaments that had been bothering the kitten since yesterday, but instead, she saw the photo frame.
That same photo, the one where she was pictured with Maxim. And the frame had fallen awkwardly — the plastic frame cracked in one spot, and the glass broke.
“Lappy, what have you done?” Ira lamented, glancing at the kitten peeking out from under the couch and playfully wagging its tail.
Then the kitten crawled out of its hiding spot, walked up to Ira, and started rubbing against her legs.
And Ira, at that moment, was picking up the shards from the floor, thinking about how to fix the photo frame Maxim once bought. The frame could be fixed with glue, but the glass… That would be trickier…
Lappy jumped onto Ira’s lap, and from her look, Ira understood she wanted to play.
“Sorry, my sweet. I don’t have time for that right now…” Ira whispered. Then suddenly…
“Maybe forget about it?” — the thought flashed in her mind. “Who am I fooling?”
If the relationship cracked, if love shattered into pieces, nothing will help…
“Meow!” Lappy seemed to have read her thoughts and agreed.
“Then it’s settled!”
Ira took a travel bag from the balcony, which Maxim had once bought too, and started packing her memories of the one she once loved: the photo frame with the picture, the teddy bear, the ashtray, the mug, magnets on the fridge that reminded her of their summer vacation in Sochi, and all the other “junk.”
Then Ira, with difficulty, dragged the full bag into the hallway, got dressed, and opened the front door.
“I’ll be right back, my sweet!” she shouted to Lappy and began dragging the bag toward the landing.
The weight of the past was heavy. But Ira still dragged her hated belongings to the dump. People looked at her in surprise, but she didn’t care anymore. The most important thing was to get rid of it!
And when she finally dropped the bag with the “memories of the past” near the trash can, she immediately felt a lightness. Not just in her body, but in her soul.
“I’m free now! Truly free,” Ira smiled at passing strangers.
Then she looked out the window and saw Lappy, who was carefully watching her.
“I’m going home! Coming, my dear,” Ira waved at her kitten and headed toward the entrance.
And in her mind, she thanked her beloved Lappy for helping her make the only right decision and for coming into her life, completely pushing the past out…