“Natasha, I’m going outside to trim the bushes and trees. I won’t take my phone—it gets in the way in my pocket.
“I’ll be sawing, so I might not even hear it ring, and the tire shop is supposed to call me. I booked an appointment for tomorrow evening to have the car’s tires changed. Anyway, I’ll leave the phone on the table. Answer it for me and find out what time they give me, all right?”
Arkady Ivanovich put on his work jacket and knitted hat. They had come to their country house to close it up for the season and collect a few things. He placed his phone on the kitchen table and went outside.
Natalia Lvovna watched her husband leave and suddenly thought that he had aged somehow. A bald patch had already begun to appear.
Arkasha had always been popular with women, even though he was not particularly tall or broad-shouldered. Nevertheless, women liked him, and Natalia Lvovna had married him for love.
But in her youth, Natalia Lvovna had another admirer—Dmitry Albov. He was incredibly handsome, and successful in business too.
In the 1990s, he had started some kind of company and bought a villa on the coast of Spain. Her friends used to tell her:
“Natasha, you were such a fool to reject Albov. You could be living in a villa now.”
Back then, she had laughed, but for some reason the memory suddenly returned to her.
The ringing phone interrupted her thoughts. Someone was calling her husband’s mobile from an unfamiliar number. It was probably the tire shop.
The moment Natalia Lvovna pressed the green answer button, she heard a shrill female voice.
“Why didn’t you come yesterday, and why didn’t you send me any money? Did you go to the country house again with that hag of yours? Is your son supposed to go to school wearing torn trousers?”
Natalia Lvovna was speechless. So she was the hag?
And what son was this woman talking about? Could Arkady really have another woman? How awful! Natalia had been absolutely certain that he had loved only her all his life.
Her hands began trembling with disappointment.
So that was how it was!
“If you want to see your son, send the money today!” the woman screeched even louder. “And don’t stand there in silence like an animal, or things will get worse!”
With a shaking finger, Natalia Lvovna pressed the red button, and the shrieking stopped.
She looked out of the window. Arkady was energetically trimming the bushes. He had even taken off his jacket and hat because the work had made him hot.
Natalia Lvovna unexpectedly found herself admiring her husband.
What bald patch? Young men were balder than old men nowadays. Besides, people said that baldness was a sign of masculine strength!
Through his open T-shirt, she could see Arkady’s muscles tightening as he worked. Of course women would be attracted to a man like that!
Natalia Lvovna wanted to howl quietly.
Could it really be true?
Who was that woman with the horrible voice?
It was impossible that HER Arkady could be so two-faced!
Natalia Lvovna selected the call in her husband’s phone history and deleted it.
No call, no problem. That was all.
She did not have the strength to think about it now. It had all happened far too unexpectedly.
By lunchtime, an exhausted Arkady Ivanovich stumbled into the house and froze in astonishment. The table had been set as though they were expecting important guests.
Alongside his favorite borscht, there were homemade pancakes stuffed with meat. His wife had opened jars of her pickled cucumbers and sun-dried tomatoes, which were considered untouchable winter reserves and were never opened before the winter holidays.
A juicy ham and fragrant cured sausage invited him to the table, while a chilled, misted bottle delighted the weary worker’s soul.
“Wash your hands and sit down,” Natalia Lvovna said.
She poured bright burgundy borscht into their bowls, added sour cream and fresh herbs from her own garden, and poured a little drink into a shot glass for him and another for herself—to recover from the hard work.
After the third shot, the borscht, and a pork chop, just as they were preparing to drink tea, their domestic idyll was interrupted by the sharp ringing of her husband’s phone.
Arkady answered it, accidentally turning on the speakerphone.
Natalia Lvovna heard the familiar shrill voice.
“Viktor! You still haven’t transferred any money to us! You’re nothing but a brute! You’re sitting at the country house enjoying yourself while we’re living here like orphans without you!”
“Viktor?” Arkady Ivanovich looked at Natalia Lvovna in confusion.
He moved the phone away from his ear and glanced at the screen.
“I’m sorry, there’s no Viktor here. You must have the wrong number. What number were you trying to call?”
The voice said something, and Arkady immediately replied:
“Exactly. But my number ends in fourteen. Don’t worry about it. All the best to you!”
Natalia Lvovna looked at her husband, and tears of genuine happiness rose to her eyes. She could barely hold them back.
Arkady, moved by gratitude for the magnificent lunch, hurried into their bedroom and immediately returned carrying a velvet jewelry box.
“Arkady, are you joking?” Natalia Lvovna could hardly believe her eyes.
Inside the box lay a ring and a pair of ruby earrings—exactly the kind she had always dreamed of.
“What joke, Natasha? Forgive me, I couldn’t resist giving them to you early. Our ruby wedding anniversary is coming soon!”
Natalia Lvovna looked at her husband’s dear, familiar face.
Thank God that ridiculous call had been a mistake.
And it had been foolish of her to remember Albov. How could he ever be compared to Arkady?
Arkady was the man of her life. They had two children and three grandchildren. And he was still a very handsome man!
Natalia Lvovna tried on the earrings and the ring.
Arkady and Natasha would soon celebrate their ruby wedding anniversary.
All this time, Arkady gazed lovingly at his wife and then sang:
“Oh, what a woman…!”
At that moment, his phone rang sharply again.
“We’re expecting you at the tire shop tomorrow at three o’clock!”
Arkady Ivanovich and Natalia Lvovna looked at each other and burst out laughing with happiness.
They still had plenty of time to spend alone together at the country house.
What a blessing it was that so many years ago, they had found each other!