You bastard! – So, while I was babysitting, you were having an affair?
-Stop shouting! I wasn’t having an affair. I made a mistake. And that meeting was the only one. But if nothing changes, maybe I will. What am I supposed to do? I feel you’re not interested in me anymore. Have I disgusted you? You don’t love me anymore? I’ll let you go. Go find your happiness…
-I don’t want to see you. While I was giving birth and taking care of the baby, you were out!
– Listen to me. I love you and our child. I don’t want to lose our family. But I can’t live the way we’ve been living for the last two years anymore!
-It’s better if you leave.
-Good. I’ll go. I really tried. For three years I tried to understand you. I felt sorry for you. But I’m human, too. And I have the right to love and happiness. Goodbye.
-Fuck off!
The knock at the front door. And silence…
The ringing of a mobile phone broke the silence. The phone. A call from my husband. Did you forget something? I won’t answer it, I don’t want to hear him…
The phone rang a few more times. The woman listened and suddenly remembered – it was their song. It was to this song that they danced their first dance… And then it seemed that they really would be together forever – forever just the two of them.
The town where my grandmother lived. Small, provincial, all green. The woman came there every summer.
There was an old park in the town overgrown with burdocks.
The swing was a favorite entertainment.
Once a girl came to the swing with her friends. She wore new sandals and rubbed her feet. So she fell far behind. When she reached the attraction, only one swing-boat remained motionless. An unfamiliar guy was standing on one edge.
She took off her shoes and stepped on the swing. The boards, which had already cooled from the daytime sun, pleasantly cooled her feet.
-Well, shall we go?
And he began to swing the swing.
-And I just arrived today. My uncle and aunt live here.
The girl didn’t know what was wrong with her. A completely unknown boy, whose face she could hardly see, told her such kind words that her heart beat faster.
Then he found a plantain, rinsed it in the fountain and gave it to her. She somehow put it on the chafed places, and they went home. Well, as she walked slowly, they fell behind and walked far behind the company. Which did not bother them at all.
The woman took a sip of water from her cup. How long it had been! Her grandmother had been gone for many years. They demolished the old boats. The park is all concrete and modern rides. And their love, which began there, continued in the regional center, where the boy came to enter the institute.
– I’m here, come out!
She looked out the window. He stood in the summer rain and waved to her. A package in his other hand. I wonder what’s in it?
-Oh, cherries!
-Yes, your favorite.
-Look how fresh they are! -Eat!
-How am I going to eat outside? Spit the pits out, or what?
-We’ll hide behind those bushes, and until you eat, we won’t leave…
They sat on the bench, ate cherries and kissed. She could taste his cherry lips even now.
The woman even groaned with bitterness. How did it happen that she forgot?
Instead, she remembered how offended she was with her husband when he couldn’t go to her friend’s wedding.
-Yeah, everyone will be with couples, and I’m alone!
She pouted then. She slammed the door. Instead of two days, she stayed with her friend for almost a week. She did not pick up the phone when her husband called. And he defended himself perfectly and received an offer from a prestigious company. That is, he did everything to ensure a secure future for his family.
-I made you some cottage cheese. With strawberries, like you like.
-Cottage cheese again? I don’t want it. I won’t!
-You have to eat a lot, so the baby will be strong. And you need to keep your teeth as nice as they are. Come on, a spoon for mom, a spoon for dad, a spoon for me.
Remembering this episode, the woman smiled. She did not like cheese, and her husband had read somewhere that pregnant women should eat it as much as possible. So he gave her all kinds of cheese products.
The pregnancy was difficult. And the last 2 months she spent on conservation. Her husband would come in the evening when the appointment was over. They almost did not talk. They did not need to.
How could she forget about all this?
The long-awaited daughter was born weak. She was always capricious. Doctors said there was nothing wrong.
But the woman turned out to be a “crazy” mother. She rushed to the baby at the slightest squeak. She simply did not have enough time and energy for her husband. He is an adult, he can take care of himself.
-Let’s make a holiday for ourselves today? We’ll take my son to my mother.
The woman literally broke into a cold sweat: what an idea! That’s when she just turned away from her husband.
After that conversation, the man withdrew. He came home in the evening, ate dinner, listened to stories about what his daughter ate and how she went to the toilet. Played with the baby.
How could she neglect her husband like that? And she missed him too.
So the fact that he succumbed to the flirtations of a colleague is a big part of her fault.
-Hello? -The phone rang.
-I wanted to say. Excuse me, huh? Come home soon, I love you so much. I’m waiting for you.
-I didn’t go. I’m sitting on our bench where we ate cherries.
She pressed the “disconnect” button. Her husband will be here soon. They will sit down and talk.
