Katya, there’s something…,” Alexey said, nervously shifting in his chair as he sat at the table. “You know I’m leaving for a business trip tomorrow, right?”
“I know,” Ekaterina tensed up. Alexey seemed unusually worried. She started to feel anxious as well. “What happened? Did they ask you to stay on the business trip longer?”
“No, no, it’s not about work at all. I wanted to ask you for a favor.”
“A favor?” Ekaterina was surprised. “Well, go ahead, ask.”
“My parents are going away for three days to another city. It’s their friends’ wedding anniversary, and they’re celebrating in style…”
“And?”
“And I need you to look after Arseniy. It’s a long trip. Mom doesn’t want to take him with her,” Alexey said, looking at his wife pleadingly. Normally, he would take care of his son when his parents went away, but this time he couldn’t.
“I don’t even know…” Ekaterina said, still confused. “We hardly know each other. Do you really think an eight-year-old boy would want to stay at home with a stranger?”
“Hmm, I don’t think he’ll mind,” Alexey answered uncertainly.
“What am I supposed to do with him? I don’t know how to deal with children, you know that,” Ekaterina said, clearly anxious.
“Don’t worry about it,” Alexey waved his hand. “Arseniy’s not a little kid anymore. He’s pretty independent. If you don’t know how to entertain him, just put on a movie or cartoons.”
Even though Alexey was confident that there would be no problems with his son, Ekaterina was still afraid of being alone with a child she barely knew.
Ekaterina and Alexey had married six months ago. This was his second marriage. His first time at the registry office had been when he was very young. His first wife, Maria, had also been young and naive at the time. She got pregnant, rushed into marriage, and after giving birth, realized she wasn’t ready to be a mother. Eventually, Maria abandoned her husband and newborn child, disappearing without a trace. Since then, Alexey hadn’t heard anything about her.
At first, it had been difficult for Alexey to cope with little Arseniy on his own. He was studying part-time and didn’t want to drop out of college.
When Alexey got his diploma, he immediately began looking for work. Until then, his parents had been helping him out—his father had a business, and his mother was a housewife. But now that he had a profession, he didn’t want to rely on his relatives anymore.
However, balancing a career and raising a child didn’t work out for Alexey. In the end, he left his son with his parents and started making money.
Lyudmila Markovna and Boris Evgenievich didn’t mind looking after their grandson. At that point, Arseniy was already two years old. His grandmother stayed home with him while his grandfather and father worked. This went on for several years.
“Son, it’s time for you to get married. You need to find a new mom for Senya,” Lyudmila Markovna constantly said the same thing.
“Yeah, sure, I’ll marry… someday,” Alexey would brush it off. After his first failed marriage, he wasn’t in a hurry to start a new relationship. But when Arseniy turned seven, Alexey met Ekaterina. He fell in love with her so quickly that he almost immediately proposed.
Ekaterina knew Alexey’s history. She was familiar with his son, but she didn’t feel particularly drawn to him. Her relationship with her mother-in-law wasn’t great, so Ekaterina did her best to avoid interaction with the family.
When Alexey asked his wife to look after Arseniy for three days, Ekaterina was very nervous but had to agree. His business trip was crucial for his career advancement, so she agreed to help.
“Arseniy is allergic to nuts. Keep that in mind!” Lyudmila Markovna said sternly when she brought her grandson to Ekaterina. “He’s generally not a problem. He spends the whole day on his phone and doesn’t bother anyone.”
“Okay. Everything will be fine, don’t worry,” Ekaterina replied, glancing at the boy, who didn’t take his eyes off his phone screen.
After saying goodbye to her mother-in-law, Ekaterina started to feel awkward being alone with a strange child in the house, but she soon relaxed. Arseniy didn’t pay her any attention. He sat in the living room, constantly playing his games.
At first, Ekaterina was glad that Arseniy was entertaining himself and didn’t cause her any trouble. But as the evening went on, she began to feel uneasy.
“Listen, how about we play something?” Ekaterina suddenly suggested. She thought it wasn’t right for a child to sit with his phone all day.
“Play what?” Arseniy asked, lifting his eyes from the screen for the first time. He looked at her with surprise, as though he had never been offered such a thing before.
“How about some board games? We have lots of them,” Ekaterina said, pulling out a few boxes from the cupboard.
“Okay,” Arseniy said with enthusiasm, putting his phone aside.
Ekaterina was also surprised at how quickly Arseniy agreed to play games with her. In the end, they had a great time.
“What shall we do tomorrow? Maybe we’ll go to the store in the morning? We can buy groceries and then bake a pizza together?”
“Oh, let’s do it! I love pizza! Grandma sometimes buys it for me, but she doesn’t bake it herself,” Arseniy said excitedly.
“We’ll bake it ourselves!”
The next day, Ekaterina woke up early, made pancakes, and woke Arseniy up. They had breakfast together and then went shopping, spending the whole day in the kitchen. Ekaterina no longer felt awkward around Arseniy. The boy himself had become more talkative and open.
These three days Ekaterina spent with Alexey’s son seemed pleasant to her. She had never imagined it would be so easy to get along with him.
At the right time, Arseniy’s grandparents came to pick him up.
“Okay, Katya, bye,” the boy said sadly, hugging his stepmother.
“Bye, Senya. Come visit me sometime, okay?”
“Definitely!”
After closing the door, Ekaterina sighed with relief. On the one hand, she was glad she had kept her promise and taken care of Alexey’s son. Now neither her in-laws nor her husband would think she was a bad stepmother. But on the other hand, she felt sad. After Arseniy left, the apartment felt empty, quiet, and uncomfortable…
Exactly 24 hours later, Alexey returned home.
“Well, how was it here? Tell me, what did you do with Senya? Did he wear you out too much?”
“Wear me out?” Ekaterina laughed. “I think it’s more like I wore him out. Oh, Alexey, you have such a wonderful son! He’s such an interesting and smart boy. You’re definitely lucky with him.”
These words deeply touched Alexey. He wanted to thank his wife, but just then, music started playing on his phone.
“Mom’s calling. She probably wants to thank you,” Alexey smiled gently and answered the call, turning the volume up. He didn’t expect that his mother wouldn’t be praising his wife.
“Alexey, you have no idea how much I regret leaving Senya with that Katya!” Lyudmila Markovna immediately started yelling.
“What happened, Mom?” Alexey looked at his stunned wife but didn’t turn off the speakerphone.
“Your wife has no idea how to deal with kids!” Lyudmila continued complaining. “Arseniy’s like a different kid! He’s not playing on his phone anymore, he’s following us around asking to play board games. Can you imagine? And now he says he wants to become a chef. He made such a mess in the kitchen trying to bake pizza!”
“Mom, but…” Alexey started to explain, but his mother didn’t let him speak.
“What ‘but’?! Why did you have to mess with the kid’s head? Tell me, why?! So we can suffer later with Grandpa? No, I won’t let her keep Senya ever again! How could you spoil him like this in three days?!”
“Alright, Mom. We’ll talk later,” Alexey replied roughly. “I just got back, and now I’m having lunch.”
“Go ahead, son. Just tell that Katya she’s a terrible mother!” Lyudmila Markovna hung up the phone.
Ekaterina, who had been standing nearby and listening to the argument, was shocked. She had thought that she and Arseniy had spent a fun time together, but it turned out he couldn’t be pulled away from his phone.
“Well…” Ekaterina sighed sadly, looking at her husband, waiting for his reaction.
“Don’t worry about it. Mom helped me a lot with Senya, and I’m very grateful to her… but unfortunately, everyone wants to live the way it’s most comfortable for them,” Alexey said, lowering his eyes in embarrassment.
Alexey felt awkward in front of his wife but didn’t want to speak ill of his mother. After all, his parents had looked after his son for many years. He was grateful for that, though he understood that the methods of dealing with children should have been different.
Noticing that Alexey seemed upset after the call from Lyudmila Markovna, Ekaterina approached him and made an unusual suggestion.
“How about we take Senya to live with us? He’s still your son. A boy should grow up with his dad. Plus, it’ll give your parents a break. He’s not a little baby anymore, I think we’ll manage.”
“Do you really want that?” Alexey asked in surprise. He had thought about this before but didn’t think either Senya or Ekaterina would want to live under one roof. But now his wife was insisting on it.
“I’m not against it at all,” Ekaterina smiled warmly. “Senya and I got along well. I think he’ll agree to this idea.”
Ekaterina was right. When Alexey offered his son to move in with them, Senya happily started packing his things. The boy, who had been deprived of a mother’s love since childhood, finally felt the warmth from his father and stepmother.
From that moment on, Arseniy, Alexey, and Ekaterina became a family. Ekaterina loved her husband’s son as her own. However, she never quite found common ground with her mother-in-law. After the move, Lyudmila Markovna became even angrier at her daughter-in-law. She thought there was no need to take the child from them because she and her husband had raised him just fine.
“Mom, you can invite Senya over whenever you want,” Alexey said. “But it’s better for him to live with us. You and Dad can finally live for yourselves.”
Lyudmila Markovna shrugged and listened to her son’s advice. Now, she had time to miss her grandson, and when he came to visit, she would offer to play or do something fun with him.