Olya finally sent her whole family off skiing and returned to the kitchen. So… what did she want to do? Wash the dishes, start the laundry, prepare lunch, and begin cleaning her son’s room… what else?
At that moment, there was a knock at the door, and Olya hurried to it — maybe they forgot something? Olya opened the door without even looking through the peephole and found a young woman standing on the doorstep.
“Hello, you’re probably Natasha’s friend. She’s not here right now… Could you come back later?”
“Natasha’s friend? No! Are you Olga?”
Olga nodded.
“Well then, I’m here to see you!”
Taken from Yandex.Images
And the girl entered the apartment as if it were her own home, took off her coat, and simply asked:
“Will you give me slippers? Where’s your kitchen? Where can I wash my hands?”
Olga could only vaguely wave her hand and say:
“Over there…”
Finally, the girl sat down at the table and asked again:
“Won’t you offer me some tea?”
Mechanically, Olga made some tea and pushed the cup toward the stranger.
The stranger sipped the tea in small gulps, studied Olga, and remained silent. Olga was also silent, but the intense look made her uncomfortable. Finally, she couldn’t hold back:
“Who are you anyway and what do you want?”
“Me?” the stranger was surprised. “I’m Yulia, your husband’s mistress.”
“Well, hello to you too!” thought Olga.
“What mistress? What husband?” Olga said confusedly. “I don’t understand anything…”
“What’s not clear? Maksim Aleksandrovich Kochetkov — your husband?”
“Yes, mine…”
“Well, then it’s me and him… we’re seeing each other.”
“You’re barely older than my daughter!” Olga was indignant and even spoke informally.
“Well, I’m 21, and I can choose any partner I want!”
Olga slowly started to boil inside:
“I don’t believe you! Maksim isn’t like that!”
Yulia shrugged and took photos out of her bag:
“Like that… not like that… they’re all like that. Here, look if you don’t believe me…”
Olga glanced at the photos and immediately recognized Maksim. All her fire just vanished. She simply sank onto a stool and asked:
“So what do you want? Why did you come to me? Are you saying he’s leaving me for you? Are you pregnant?”
Yulia smiled:
“Oh, no. I’m not pregnant, and I don’t need your Maksim! And he won’t leave you himself. You’re a ‘convenient’ wife for him.”
“Then why did you come?”
“I felt sorry for you! You work two jobs, save money for his car insurance, new tires, vacations, pay for your son’s university, then come home and clean, cook, and he?” — Yulia chuckled — “He comes home, lies on the couch with the remote and stares at the TV… Yeah! I know that too. And in the morning, you make him breakfast, pack his lunch, and coddle him…”
Yulia raised her hand and admired the ring on her finger.
“See… the ring with diamonds and earrings — a set. Do you like it?”
Olga looked at Yulia, confused.
“Not clear, huh? He gave it to me. A very expensive set!!! But beautiful!!! I just had to hint a little and…”
“How did he give it? With what money?”
“I don’t care. And he buys me whatever clothes I want. And you keep working and working… working and working… and don’t even bother him with housework or earning money… and you’ve let yourself go. Everything is for him, he’s the boss, but look at him… he spends all his free time with me.”
Olga saw the satisfied smile on Yulia’s face and wanted to wipe it away:
“You… I…”
“Don’t worry, lady,” Yulia giggled. “I’ll let your Maksim go, I will. I’ll stay with him until he buys me a car and then I’ll dump him.”
“What kind of….”
“Okay, okay… I’m leaving, I’m leaving,” Yulia stood up, quickly reached the front door. “Think about what I said,” she threw at Olga and left.
Olga remained sitting in the kitchen.
……………..
“Olya, we’re home!” her husband and kids returned from the walk. “We’re starving! Could eat an elephant.”
Olya started setting the table. She hadn’t cooked the soup or done anything she planned.
“Is the soup yesterday’s?” her son asked unhappily. “I won’t eat that.”
And then Olga exploded:
“What is this! I try, try! I cook! I clean! I wash the apartment! I cook fresh every day. And I also work! And what do I get in return? You,” she looked threateningly at her husband. “You sit there with your small salary, same as 20 years ago!”
“Well, Olechka… you know… high salary — high responsibility.”
“Then have that responsibility! But I’m not going to work more. I want to live, not just survive! And you? Two big grown men! Why don’t you try to work anywhere? And why should I be the one cleaning for all of you?”
Olga tore off her apron, put on her boots and coat, grabbed her bag:
“I want to go out too!”
And with those words, she left the apartment in complete silence.
……………
Olga stepped out of the building. The cold air immediately hit her face and tousled her hair. She shivered and put on her hood, hands in pockets — she had left her gloves and hat at home.
Then she looked one way, then the other, and slowly walked along the boulevard. She walked and walked and couldn’t sort out her feelings. On one hand, she should be hurt by her husband’s betrayal, but she wasn’t. She agreed that she was to blame for literally dissolving into him, doing everything to make him comfortable and completely forgetting about herself. But she is a woman!
She was hurt that he let her carry all this burden on her fragile shoulders and he was fine with it. It hurt that he bought all that the girl wanted but nothing for his wife.
“I’m just so tired. So tired,” thought Olga. She sat on a bench, covered her face with her hands, and cried.
……………..
An hour or two passed, or maybe just five minutes. It didn’t matter. Olga simply realized she was very hungry.
“No, I won’t go home. I’ll eat at a restaurant. So what if it costs money? So what? Can’t I afford that?”
After lunch, Olga strolled a bit more through the snowy streets, stopped a couple of times at shop windows, seeing happy people rushing here and there: they were buying things, had desires of their own. And what does she, Olga, want? Olga thought and suddenly realized that this flirty Yulia was right — her first thoughts were about her husband’s and children’s “wants.” And Olga herself didn’t even know what she wanted…
“Alright. I’ll start listening to myself and doing what I want. I’ll try writing down my desires,” Olga thought and resolutely headed home.
…………………
At home, everything was unusually quiet. The kids and husband had cleaned up, washed the dishes, done laundry in the machine, and even hung it up. Now they were trying together to make dinner. And it was actually quite funny.
“Olya! You’re finally back! Want me to make you some tea?”
“Make it.”
Olga sat in the kitchen and watched her husband. “How could he? Found himself a young girl and is fooling around with her. How am I supposed to live now?”
Olga didn’t help either her husband or the kids with dinner preparation but just went and lay down to sleep.
……………….
Morning greeted Olga with bright sun. Looking at the clock, she realized she was hopelessly late for work. By at least three hours. She stretched toward her phone and saw she had simply forgotten to set the alarm the day before.
Olga walked through the empty house and saw that both the kids and husband had managed to get ready without her and even prepared breakfast for her — a couple of sandwiches and a sweet note.
Wow!
Olga really didn’t want to go to work. She called her boss, and surprisingly he allowed her to stay home and do her part of the report remotely.
How amazing!
But Olga of course didn’t do any work — there would be time later. She took a piece of paper and began writing a list of what she wanted. At first, it was hard — all thoughts were about her family, but then she began writing not her own wishes but what a woman “should” want — like a ring, for example, though in reality Olga understood she didn’t need it. Then the desires flowed like a river, and Olga realized — yes, this is exactly what she wants.
Time passed.
“Natasha, hi! We finally connected…”
“Yulia!”
“How are you? How’s Nikita? How are your parents?”
“Yul, everything’s great! You played your part so well back then! My mother really believed there was something between you and father,” Natasha smiled.
“Phew… I was afraid she wouldn’t believe it… After all, I’m young and your parents are 40. Big age difference… generational problems… all that. And the photos — I thought the editing would be obvious…”
“No, no… she believed it. And immediately started bossing Nikita around at work. And stopped controlling me. Now I’m preparing to enter the university I want, not the one she chose. So… it all worked!” Natasha smiled again happily. “And you know what’s the most interesting?”
“What?”
“Mother finally took care of herself, lost weight, looks better. She only does the work she likes at her job, got promoted, and even got a raise. And father finally started earning more. He got a bit cocky — like ‘I’m a big boss now’… Recently, our neighbor, a wealthy man, hit on mother, and she flirted a bit. Father made a scene. They argued and then made up, and now it’s all love. Nikita and I even think maybe they’ll have a little brother or sister for us in their old age…”
The girls laughed.
“And so, they bought a new car. Now they have a shared hobby — they go to different cities on weekends, talk about what’s interesting there, and post it on YouTube. So, thanks to you, Yul, you could say you resurrected our family from the ashes!”