“Where do you think you’re going?! Stay home and make some fresh salads. I’m going to my mother’s. I’ll wish her a Happy New Year and come right back,” Oleg told his wife.
“Why are you going alone? The children are tired of sitting at home. We haven’t gone anywhere all holidays anyway. Come on, let’s all get ready and congratulate your mother together. Then we’ll stop by the Christmas tree,” Inna said.
Oleg dropped heavily onto the ottoman with a loud sigh.
“Do you want to start another scandal? I don’t understand. Let me go alone, then I’ll come back for you and we’ll go to your stupid Christmas tree!” Oleg said angrily.
But Inna seemed not to hear him.
The woman understood that because of disagreements with her mother-in-law, her once strong marriage to Oleg was coming apart at the seams. Nina Ivanovna had never liked her daughter-in-law.
She had wanted her precious Olezhek to marry wealthy and promising Ksenia, not Inna, “a typical dull housewife who would only give birth to children.”
“Hooray! We’re going to the Christmas tree!” the children rejoiced, while Oleg only sighed.
Oleg felt hot in his warm sheepskin coat, so he went out to the car and started warming it up so he wouldn’t have to wait for his wife in the apartment. Nina called her son while Oleg sat in the car, annoyed, waiting for his slow-moving wife.
“Olezhek, will you be here soon? Ksyusha and her mother are visiting me. Come over, we’ll sit together… She recently came back from a resort and was showing photos,” Nina said casually.
“Mom… Let’s do Ksyusha another time. Today it won’t work. Inna has attached herself to me, and the kids have been sitting at home for two days and already want entertainment. I’ll probably ‘walk’ them today and come to you tomorrow.”
“But Ksyusha is leaving, she has a yoga course on… what’s it called…” Nina forgot the name of the fashionable island resort.
“Ksyusha isn’t going anywhere, Mom. And tell her to stop messaging me. I’m married, after all! What if Inna sees?”
“Let her see what kind of girls are pining after you! You were Ksyusha’s first love. That’s not forgotten! She’s not just anyone, so let her write!” Nina whispered angrily into the phone.
Inna and the children came out of the entrance, and Oleg hurried to say goodbye to his mother.
“And what about Ksyusha?! She didn’t come to see me! She’s waiting for you!”
“Send her and her mother home. Tomorrow, tomorrow, I told you!” Oleg grumbled.
The younger son ran screaming toward the frozen slide, while the older one began making snowballs and throwing them at his brother. Inna got hit too. She laughed and had fun.
“Olezhek! Come to us! You’ve been sitting at home for almost three days! And look how much snow has fallen!” his wife called.
“Inna! They’ll get completely soaked in that snow, and I cleaned the car interior before the holidays! Are you going to give me money for the cleaning?!” Oleg shouted.
The man swallowed some cold air and coughed, and Inna looked at him differently.
He was no longer the man she had married. Oleg had grown heavier and more solid; thanks to his mother’s connections, he had become a boss. But Inna found joy in family, home life, and simple everyday little things. Playing with the children made her happy, but Oleg… something was going wrong.
“Let’s go to a café instead of the Christmas tree. You got a bonus before New Year’s, didn’t you?”
“What bonus? Those are child payments, plus a gift from my mother. I wanted to buy myself something new, and the children need a few things too. We’re all worn out, Olezhek!”
Oleg almost lost his temper. Again, some requests and reproaches! He tiredly rubbed his temples with his fingertips.
“Of course, I’m the only one working for all of you, and you only spend money! The children are growing like weeds. And why do you need new clothes? You don’t even work! Eh, Inka. You should go back to work. You’ve become stuck to your pots and pans,” Oleg sighed.
Inna did not listen to her husband. She did not want to argue in front of the children. But Oleg sat there thinking, “Like an idiot! No matter what you say, she just keeps silent! Mom is right: before I know it, I’ll settle down at home next to my wife, with a bowl of borscht and stretched-out sweatpants!”
There were many people near the city Christmas tree. Children were running around, playing in the snow, while Oleg demanded that his wife go to a café and drink coffee.
“Oleg, the children don’t need a café! We’re going to your mother’s after the tree anyway, so we’ll have dinner there,” Inna said gently.
“No, we’re not going to Mom’s. I’ll go by myself tomorrow,” her husband cut her off.
But Inna seemed to feel that something was wrong and insisted on going. Then the children joined in too. They wanted to go to their grandmother’s, expecting gifts, although Nina had not spoiled her grandchildren with attention the previous year.
“Olezhek, it’s a family holiday. Let’s forget all the offenses. Your mom and I need to live peacefully.”
Oleg reluctantly agreed to take his wife to his mother’s. But his mother-in-law was not expecting her son to arrive with company.
Inna entered her mother-in-law’s apartment and was even surprised. Usually strict and dissatisfied Nina was laughing with someone in the living room like a young girl.
Her father-in-law was already quite “cheerful.” He smiled broadly at the guests and adjusted his mustache.
“Your bride is in there, Olezhek. Ksyukha the ballerina, remember her?”
Pyotr Sergeyevich did not manage to pronounce the word “ballerina” correctly on the first try, while Inna stood there breathless.
Her husband’s “bride” and her mother were sitting in the living room, and it was with them that her mother-in-law was laughing so heartily.
The women all turned at once when Inna, the children, and Oleg entered the living room.
Behind them came the rosy-cheeked father-in-law. He ruffled the grandchildren’s fair heads and smiled at his wife.
“Well, unexpected guests have arrived! Nina, put more place settings on the table. There clearly aren’t enough!”
Nina Ivanovna threw an angry glance toward her daughter-in-law, and Inna felt as if she understood exactly what her mother-in-law was thinking at that moment.
“So that’s why Oleg didn’t want to bring us. A bride is already prepared here, apparently.”
Ksenia fluttered her extended eyelashes. She was a couple of years younger than Inna and Oleg, but her easy life, constant travels, and lack of family and household burdens made her look like a beautiful fairy untouched by domestic life and marriage.
“Hi, Oleg,” the girl said in a thin voice.
Inna remained standing where she was. No one invited them to the table.
“Ninochka, well… We’ve stayed too long. We’ll go, yes?” Ksenia’s mother asked.
“Arina, you are my guests! And I wasn’t expecting anyone else today,” Nina said, spreading her arms with a smirk.
“We’ll only stay five minutes. Don’t fuss, Mom,” Oleg hurried to calm his mother.
The man lightly pushed his sons forward and told the boys to bring chairs from the kitchen for everyone. Inna felt that she was unwanted here. But Ksenia was openly staring at Oleg without embarrassment.
Oleg even liked her attention. He straightened his posture, sat down on a free chair near Ksyusha’s mother, and began asking how they were doing.
The children brought chairs and sat down at the table. But Nina was in no hurry to serve anything to her beloved grandchildren.
The father-in-law did not care at all. He flopped down on the sofa, picked up the remote, and started clicking through channels, grumbling that TV was again showing repeats of programs he had already seen on the thirty-first.
Nina Ivanovna could not stand it and jumped up as soon as Inna approached the table. She asked Inna to help with the plates, but in reality, the mother-in-law had called her into the kitchen for a private conversation without witnesses.
“I was only expecting my son, and you brought your whole brood. I don’t have an extra bite for you,” the mother-in-law said, angry at the unexpected guests. Now it was perfectly clear why.
“We came to congratulate you and Pyotr Semyonovich and check on you, but we see that we’re not welcome.”
“No need to check on us. We’re not feeble old people! You’d better think about the fact that your maternity leave has dragged on. Your younger son starts school in September, and you’re still sitting at home! Look at Ksyusha. There’s an example for you!”
Inna flushed. She loved Oleg, and once it was her husband himself who had asked her to look after the children, maintain the household, and had been terribly jealous of her male colleagues. But since then, Inna had stopped being such a bright beauty, while Oleg had climbed the career ladder.
His wife and family had begun to burden him. And then light, airy Ksenia appeared, still as slim and graceful as she had been ten years ago…
“You’d better take better care of my son! You’re the one who needs to go on a diet, not Oleg. He’s pale, works a lot, and eats poorly because of you!” Nina scolded her.
The conflict intensified. Nina took a dish of freshly made salad from the refrigerator. Inna saw that the fridge was packed with food and prepared dishes, but her mother-in-law pushed a plate of salad toward her on the table and took the leftovers of a chicken out of the oven.
“Feed the children. They’re pale and skinny too. I repeat, you’re the one who needs a diet! Don’t torment my boys with your hunger strikes,” Nina Ivanovna fumed.
“I cook healthy food, and we can eat at home. We don’t need your mayonnaise salads and burnt chicken,” Inna snorted.
She turned around, leaving her mother-in-law with her mouth open, and went into the living room.
“Boys, get ready. We’re leaving,” Inna said as gently as possible.
“Let’s sit for another half hour,” Oleg said.
“You sit. We’re going. We have things to do,” Inna said coldly through clenched teeth.
Her husband did not understand anything, but deep down, he was even glad. He stayed, while Inna went home with her sons by taxi.
They drove past the beautiful Christmas tree and the ice town built right in the city center.
“Mom, I really don’t want to go home!” the younger son whimpered.
“Please stop,” Inna asked.
She took the children and went to the café where Oleg had invited her several hours earlier.
“We’re having a real holiday today! It’s too bad Dad isn’t with us!” Inna’s older son said.
“He has to be with Grandma. Dad is busy, sweetheart. And we’ll celebrate for now,” Inna answered.
In reality, she was thinking tensely that it really was time for her to go back to work. She also understood that Oleg had his eye on Ksyusha. Maybe something had already happened between them?
Inna chased those thoughts away.
Oleg came home an hour later and was very surprised not to find his wife and children there. He began calling and looking for Inna, deciding that she had taken the children somewhere.
“But their things are still here! That means she’ll come back!” the man reasoned.
He liked Ksyusha, but only until she opened her mouth and began asking him where he vacationed, where he dined, and where he dressed.
Next to fashionable, advanced Ksenia, Oleg suddenly seemed simple and uninspired even to himself.
The final chord of their relationship was the young woman’s phrase that “a man must support and provide for her.”
“Why don’t you answer my messages?” Ksyusha asked insistently.
“I’m a married man. I don’t have time,” Oleg replied.
“I’m the one who has no time! I fly all over the world. I have many admirers better than you. But I still find a minute to ask how you are.”
Oleg tensed. All that glitter around Ksyusha irritated him.
“I wanted to talk about those admirers. You have photos with gifts and flowers. Who gives you all that?”
“Friends. What’s wrong with that? Would you buy me a diamond ring just like that, for New Year’s?” Ksyusha asked, pressing him.
“No, that’s too expensive a gift, and the occasion is too insignificant, especially if you’re not my wife but just a friend,” Oleg smirked.
And then Mother Nina stepped in. She defended her son as best she could, saying that Oleg was practical but not stingy. Although Oleg was indeed stingy, there was no point hiding it!
Nina realized that such a daughter-in-law was not a prize at all, but an arrogant, spoiled witch who would twist her son around her finger. She definitely did not need a daughter-in-law like that!
Incidentally, Oleg also had an unpleasant impression after personally talking with Ksyusha ten years after their breakup.
He was even glad that he had such a modest and decent wife. But Ksyusha, showered with compliments and bouquets from unknown admirers, was not for him. Only where was Inna?
Finally, his wife picked up the phone.
“In, where are you? Are you… offended?”
“Oleg, this can’t go on anymore! I’m old, fat, bad, a useless housewife… Your mother blamed me for everything. And it’s unclear why you still live with me!” Inna told her husband.
“I love you. I don’t want you to leave,” her husband stunned her by saying.
Inna fell silent. Then, overcoming her stupor, she said that she and the children were sitting in a café near the city Christmas tree.
“I’ll come right now and pick you up! Inna, forgive me. I won’t do that again,” Oleg said and left the apartment.
Inna waited for her husband in the café, looking at the huge decorated Christmas tree shimmering with lights of every color. The woman thought that it really was time for her to return to work, and then she needed to buy a membership at a fitness club. Then no Ksyusha with her splits and extended eyelashes would get in her way.
At any rate, if her husband started looking again at one of his former brides, she would not have to worry that she had been left with nothing.
After the holidays, Inna did everything she had thought about while looking through the café window at the lights of the city Christmas tree.
And what about her mother-in-law?
Nina Ivanovna quarreled with her friend Arina and kicked her out of the house. The neighbor had come to borrow salt when Nina was not home and began openly making eyes at her husband, Pyotr Semyonovich.
Nina returned from the store and saw the pair in the kitchen at the table. It seemed that nothing improper had happened, but Nina Ivanovna knew Arina too well…
“Snake! Get out of here, and don’t even dream about my husband! And tell your Ksenia to forget about Oleg! Just look at her, coming here as a guest!”
After that incident, the relationship between Nina and her daughter-in-law Inna did not improve, but Nina Ivanovna no longer even wanted to think about marrying her son to Ksenia.
That is the New Year’s story. Thank you all for your comments, likes, and subscription to the channel. Your comments inspire the author to write.
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