That day, Nina was hurrying home as if she had wings. Her melodrama screenplay had won a competition, and now a major film company had signed a contract with her for a series — twelve episodes! If everything went well, they would continue working with her on a permanent basis. Now they would definitely have enough money for the apartment of their dreams.
She already had some savings. She would also receive the prize money from the competition, then the fee for the series, and finally, they would make their dream come true. Stepan would be so happy!
Nina had not wanted to tell him about her savings ahead of time. She had been investing money for a long time, even before marriage, and whenever she and her husband talked about owning their own home, his mood would darken. Nina always tried to encourage him.
“We’ll work hard. Everything will work out. We just have to believe!”
“How long are we supposed to work?” Stepan would snort. “Until we’re ancient? Maybe it’s better to take out a mortgage on something cheaper?”
“No, Stepushka, don’t be such a pessimist. We’ll definitely buy a beautiful apartment in the center, with floor-to-ceiling windows and a fireplace!”
He would wave his hand dismissively, but eventually he stopped arguing, as if he were simply allowing Nina to voice her fantasies and nothing more.
And now, after the cooperation agreement had been signed, Nina decided to tell Stepan everything. On the way home, she stopped by a store, bought ready-made food and a cake so she would not have to stand at the stove that evening. They could spend a quiet night together and celebrate her success.
But her husband was not home.
That was strange. He usually warned her if he was going to be late. Nina called him, but he only said, “I’ll call you back,” and immediately hung up. His voice sounded calm, so Nina thought nothing terrible had happened. She would rest for a while, calm her emotions, because her heart was pounding from the overwhelming joy. She lay down on the sofa and fell asleep.
Nina woke up to a loud sound — something had fallen in the hallway. She opened her eyes. The room was dark. At first, she could not even understand how much time had passed. She only saw the black night sky through the gap between the curtains.
“Stepa?” she called, quickly getting up.
She went out into the corridor and immediately stopped. Something about his posture seemed strange to her. Stepan was sitting on the small ottoman near the wardrobe. His bag was lying beside him — apparently, that was what he had dropped.
“Stepa, I have wonderful news for you!” she said cheerfully, hoping her mood would rub off on him.
“I have news for you too,” he replied. “You go first.”
Suddenly, Nina felt the joy inside her fade a little. Something was wrong. She crouched down in front of him and took his hand.
“No… better you go first. My news isn’t that important… it can wait.”
Stepan was silent for a while, staring at his shoes. Then he sighed.
“I’ve been thinking about this for a long time,” he began quietly. “I just didn’t know how to say it.”
Nina felt a coldness spreading inside her.
“Step… what happened?”
He finally raised his eyes, but he looked somewhere past her.
“I’m tired of living like this, do you understand? Always saving money, always waiting for some miracle. Working and still feeling like life is passing me by. I think… it’s time for us to decide everything.”
His words seemed to fall between them like heavy stones. He swallowed.
“Nina, you’re a good woman, truly, but… I’m leaving.”
She did not understand the meaning of what he had said right away.
“Leaving where?”
Stepan, gathering his courage, looked directly at her.
“To Valyushka.”
Nina blinked.
“To Valyushka?.. Wait… that Valyushka? The same Valyushka you always called ‘a little crocodile in a skirt’?”
Stepan suddenly stood up, shoved his hands into his pockets in irritation, and began pacing nervously down the corridor.
“I called her that. So what?! At least she’s rich. With her, I won’t be poor, do you understand? I won’t have to count every penny. She said we’ll buy me a car, the exact one I’ve had my eye on for ages. And we’ll go on vacations like normal people. Not once every three years to some country cottage.”
Nina listened and could not believe her ears. He was speaking faster and faster, becoming more animated. About the car, about trips, restaurants, a new apartment. About the life he was going to begin. Only there was no Nina in that life anymore.
She looked at her husband — the man she had dreamed of spending her whole life with — and suddenly felt something inside her slowly breaking.
“Step, wait…” Nina said quietly, raising her eyes to him. “Are you seriously saying this right now?”
She looked at him carefully, as if trying to find some hint of a joke on his face. Maybe this was some strange attempt at humor? Or maybe he had simply said something stupid in the heat of the moment? But Stepan looked completely certain.
“So…” Nina tilted her head slightly, choosing her words. “You’re really ready to live with that woman for the sake of financial comfort? The woman you yourself once said…” She involuntarily smiled. “Was ‘scarier than nuclear war’?”
Stepan jerked his shoulders in irritation.
“Oh, don’t exaggerate,” he waved her off. “She’s not as ugly as she seems.”
He thought for a second and then added with the air of a man who had discovered a great truth:
“And anyway, a woman’s beauty depends entirely on makeup.”
Nina sighed quietly.
“Well, yes…” she said with a bitter smile. “That must be true.”
And suddenly, she genuinely found it funny. Not bitterly funny, not painfully funny — truly funny. She remembered dozens of evenings spent with mutual friends. The moment Valentina appeared at the door — heavyset, loud, with a sharp voice — Stepan would immediately grimace. Then, on the way home, he would begin making sarcastic comments.
“Valka dressed up like a Christmas tree again…”
“With her personality, she should be driving a tank…”
“A little crocodile in a skirt…”
Sometimes Nina had even asked him to be kinder.
“Step, why are you like that? She’s a normal woman.”
And he would only snort.
And now… “Valyushka.”
Nina even stretched the word out in her mind and nodded.
Val-yu-u-ushka…
Well, well. Sometimes life took such turns that not even a screenwriter could invent them. And then it suddenly dawned on Nina: how good it was that she had not told him anything. Not about winning the competition, not about the contract, not about her savings. She even imagined what kind of plot this could make for her next series and barely held back a smile. She could not have invented such a storyline on purpose.
“Just don’t, Nina,” Stepan continued meanwhile, “don’t throw a hysterical fit like abandoned wives love to do.”
Nina slowly raised her eyes to him.
“Step…” she said calmly. “Maybe abandoned women do that.”
She turned her head and looked at him so intently that he even became embarrassed for a second.
“But you didn’t abandon me. You lost me.”
Stepan gave a quiet snort, as if he did not attach much importance to her words, and went to the wardrobe. He opened the door and began quickly pulling clothes off the shelves.
“Valyushka is waiting for me in the car,” he said without turning around. “So I’ll just take the essentials now, and I’ll come back for the rest later.”
He spoke so businesslike, as if he were talking about a two-day business trip.
“Yes, of course… whatever you say,” Nina replied.
And suddenly she realized that she truly felt amused. She herself did not understand how that was possible. Just a few hours earlier, she had been rushing home, dreaming of hugging her husband, telling him her news, seeing his joy. She had loved him. Truly loved him. She had made plans and imagined their future.
And now…
It was as though someone had removed some strange curse from her in a single motion.
Nina thought: if Stepan had left her for another woman — a beautiful, intelligent woman whom he loved — then perhaps that would have been real betrayal. It would have hurt. But here, everything looked different. He had not left. He had simply… sold himself.
And because of that, not only did her love dissolve inside her. Even her respect disappeared.
Meanwhile, Stepan was already pulling shirts from the wardrobe, folding them into a suitcase, hurriedly stuffing in socks and T-shirts.
“And, Nina…” he suddenly said, clearing his throat awkwardly.
He was clearly hesitating.
“What?” she asked calmly.
“Could you give me some money back?” he said, trying to sound casual. “I paid rent for the month, but I only lived here for a couple of days of that payment.”
Nina smiled.
“Ah, yes… of course.”
She took out her phone and opened her banking app.
“I’ll transfer it now,” she said. “To your account? Or Valyushka’s?”
Stepan sighed in irritation.
“Nina, try to understand… I just need money for the first little while. To buy Valyushka flowers, for example. It has to be done properly.” He looked at her with slight reproach. “You’re behaving like an offended child.”
Nina nodded seriously.
“Of course, darling. Forgive me.” And with light irony, she added, “Transfer completed. Happy shopping.”
She did not even bother telling him that although he had paid the rent, she had bought everything else — food, clothes, household items. Everything now lying in his suitcase — shirts, jeans, jacket — had been bought with her money.
After all, once, after they had registered their marriage, Stepan had come to her with only one bag. Back then, Nina had been sure they would achieve everything together.
And now she did not want to be petty. She did not want to lower herself to the level of a man who haggled over money before leaving for a rich woman. She only looked at him and thought:
“How did I not notice these qualities in him before?”
Perhaps people were right when they said love was blind.
When the door closed behind Stepan, the apartment became unusually quiet. It was the kind of silence that at first seemed merely peaceful, but then suddenly began to ring in your ears.
Nina stood in the hallway for several seconds, listening to the sound of his footsteps on the stairs. At first, they were clear. Then quieter. And finally, they disappeared completely.
She inhaled deeply and slowly exhaled.
“Well, that’s it…” she whispered to herself.
Then she decided to take a bath, to recover at least a little from such an evening. Nina went into the bathroom, turned the taps on harder so the tub would fill faster, and then, as if drawn by some strange curiosity, went over to the window.
From their apartment, the courtyard was clearly visible. Streetlights illuminated the parked cars with soft yellow light. A light wind stirred the tree branches, and shadows slowly crawled across the asphalt.
Stepan had just come out of the entrance. He set the suitcase on the ground, opened the trunk of the car, and began loading his things. Valentina stood nearby. A broad figure, a massive coat, a bright scarf wrapped around her neck several times. She was actively saying something, waving her hand, while Stepan nodded.
Nina involuntarily smiled.
“Well, well… you really are something, Stepan…” she murmured.
And suddenly, she began to think. When had he become like this? She tried to remember. When they had met, Stepan had been different. Cheerful, easygoing, always joking. He had an amazing sense of humor — he could make her laugh even on her worst day.
But then they got married, and little by little, their conversations began to change. Stepan increasingly talked about money, about how hard it was to live without their own place, about how awful it was to be poor.
“You understand, Nina,” he would sometimes say in the evening, scrolling through apartment listings, “life is passing us by, and we’re still renting. It’s humiliating.”
Although, to be honest, they had not lived in poverty. Yes, their apartment was rented, but they had no debts. They could calmly buy groceries, sometimes go to cafés, and once a year they went on vacation. These days, that was almost a luxury.
But it still irritated Stepan. More and more often he said, “I’m tired of saving. I want to live normally,” and, “Why do some people have everything while others have to save their whole lives?”
Back then, Nina had not attached much importance to those words. But now, standing by the window, she suddenly thought:
Maybe he had always been like that.
She simply had not wanted to see it.
Her thoughts were interrupted by a sharp ring at the door. Nina flinched.
“Good Lord… who now…”
She quickly went into the corridor, and at that moment she heard a strange sound. A quiet trickling. She turned sharply and ran to the bathroom. The water had already overflowed the edge of the tub, and there was a whole puddle on the floor.
“Oh!”
Nina immediately turned off the taps, pulled the plug from the bathtub, and the water began noisily draining away. Only after that did she wipe her hands on a towel and hurry to open the door.
A man was standing on the threshold.
Nina immediately began speaking, without even properly looking at him.
“Please forgive me, for God’s sake! I’ll clean everything up right now. If it leaked into your apartment, I’ll pay for everything, I swear…”
“Nina?”
She raised her eyes and, for a second, lost the ability to speak.
“Maxim?..” she said in confusion. “You… how? Here?”
Max was standing in front of her. The very same guy who had lived next door to her for many years in another city. He smiled, though his smile was slightly tense.
“I actually live one floor below,” he said. “And you almost flooded me. Good thing I noticed in time. Come on, let’s clean up the water at your place quickly.”
“Oh, yes… right now!”
Nina rushed into the bathroom, grabbed a large towel, and began wiping water from the floor. Maxim came in too and helped her. After a few minutes, the bathroom looked more or less decent again.
“What an evening…” Nina sighed.
“Tell me about it,” Max smiled.
Half an hour later, they were already sitting in the kitchen, drinking tea. It all seemed like some strange coincidence. The person who had lived next door to her for many years in another city had suddenly turned out to be her neighbor here as well.
“You see,” Maxim said, turning the mug in his hands, “the world isn’t so round after all.”
“That’s for sure,” Nina smiled.
He told her that several years earlier, he had come here on vacation, just to see the city, and… had fallen in love.
“It happens,” he said. “I walked along the embankment, sat in a café, and realized — I want to live here.”
At first, he moved temporarily. Then he stayed. Now he was renting an apartment.
“But actually, I’m planning to buy a place,” he added. “I’m already looking at options.”
Nina brightened.
“Really? Me too!”
And they began discussing apartments. At one point, Nina even brought her laptop and showed him several interiors she liked. Maxim looked carefully at the photos and suddenly said:
“Listen… you and I have almost the same taste.”
Nina laughed.
“Looks like it.”
After that evening, they began visiting each other often. Sometimes they simply drank tea, sometimes they discussed new apartment listings.
“Look at that kitchen!”
“And here the balcony is huge.”
“This layout is absolutely perfect.”
More and more often, it turned out that they liked the same things. And Nina suddenly caught herself thinking that for the first time in a long while, it was truly easy for her to talk to someone about the future.
Then they went walking together along the embankment, because the weather was unusually warm and calm for autumn. Somehow, those meetings became almost daily. They themselves did not notice how they began spending more and more time together.
With Maxim, everything was surprisingly simple. He did not complain about life, did not talk endlessly about money, did not compare himself to others. He had a calm, slightly ironic attitude toward life, and it gradually soothed Nina.
And suddenly, she noticed that she had stopped thinking about Stepan. At first, that even surprised her, because not long before, she had been sure she could not live without him, that their family was forever.
But now…
Only a few months had passed, and her memories of him seemed to have faded. They became like an old photograph you accidentally find in a drawer: something familiar, perhaps, but it no longer touches you at all.
Nina calmly filed for divorce, and a few weeks later, she received the document. She sat at the kitchen table at home, looking at it for a long time.
“Certificate of divorce…” she read quietly.
Then she smiled.
“Certificate of freedom,” she corrected herself.
Meanwhile, life went on. Nina continued working on the series, writing new scenes, communicating with producers. Maxim worked on his own projects. And in the evenings, more and more often, they discussed the same topic — housing. Both of them dreamed of having their own place.
One day, Nina found a listing that immediately caught her attention. The apartment was almost exactly what she had dreamed of: bright, with large windows, in a good district, with a spacious kitchen. She immediately sent the link to Maxim.
A minute later, he called.
“Nina…” he said in a strange voice. “When did you schedule the viewing?”
“Tomorrow morning.”
Maxim was silent for a second.
“Interesting…” he drawled. “Because I also arranged a viewing for that apartment.”
The next day, they met near that very building. Nina saw the apartment first, then Maxim. In the evening, they were once again sitting in the kitchen and sharing their impressions.
“I really liked the kitchen,” Nina said. “You could put a big table there.”
“And I liked the living room,” Maxim replied. “And the windows. Can you imagine what the light will be like there in the morning?”
“And the layout is convenient.”
“And the neighborhood is excellent.”
They both fell silent, because they understood one simple thing: they both liked the apartment, and neither of them wanted to give it up.
Finally, Maxim leaned back in his chair and said:
“Well… then the solution is obvious.”
Nina narrowed her eyes.
“What solution?”
He looked at her with a faint smile.
“We should buy it together.”
Nina was silent for a few seconds, then raised her eyebrows.
“And will we live together too?”
Maxim shrugged, as if it were the most obvious question in the world.
“Of course. We’ll make our relationship official… and live together.”
Nina thought about it. It was all too unexpected. Not long ago, she had been getting divorced. Not long ago, her life had been falling apart. And now… a new man, a shared apartment, marriage…
She did not want to throw herself headfirst into the unknown. Life had already shown her once that rushing could be expensive.
“I’ll think about it,” she said.
And they did not return to that conversation again that evening.
…And of course, they did get married — but only a year and a half later.
During that time, many things changed. Unfortunately, neither of them managed to buy that apartment. Other people purchased it rather quickly. But Nina and Maxim were not upset. During that time, they found an even better option: a small house on a quiet street, with a garden and a large kitchen-living room where the whole family could gather.
They bought the house after the wedding, and Nina often thought about how strangely life sometimes unfolded.
If Stepan had not left then…
If she had not forgotten to turn off the water…
If Maxim had not lived one floor below…
Perhaps their paths would never have crossed.
And now she was happy.
Maxim turned out to be the kind of person beside whom life became calm and reliable. He was a good husband, and when they had children, he became a wonderful father as well.
Nina heard almost nothing about Stepan. Sometimes mutual acquaintances mentioned him in passing, and once, at a dinner table, someone said with a slight smirk:
“Oh, they say Stepka ended up under someone’s thumb.”
It turned out that his new life was not so simple after all. Valentina really did live richly, but the money did not actually belong to her. All the finances were controlled by her father — a stern and very demanding man. And in order to get any benefit from that marriage, Stepan had to work for his father-in-law practically without days off.
Meanwhile, Valentina calmly stayed at home and did not worry about anything.
Why would she?
She knew one simple thing very well: Stepan was not going anywhere.
Because he feared his father-in-law far more than he had once feared living without money.