He Lives One Floor Above
“Ellechka, on Saturday I’m expecting you and Alexey at my anniversary celebration at the restaurant near the theater. You know where it is,” their neighbor Marina announced importantly over the phone while Elvira was at work.
“Thank you, Marinochka, we’ll definitely be there,” Elvira replied happily, then ended the call.
There were three days left until Saturday, and she would need to stop by the shopping center and buy something new for the celebration. She had not updated her wardrobe in a long time. Besides, she had recently noticed a suit there and liked it very much, but she had not known where she could wear it. It was too fancy for work, but perfect for an anniversary party.
She decided she would go to the shopping center tomorrow after work, but today she needed to make dinner. First, though, she had to stop by the supermarket and buy some groceries.
“My Lyoshka is always busy. He always comes home late from work. I’ll have to carry the grocery bag myself again,” she thought, mentally planning her evening.
As she approached the building, she saw her husband’s car.
“That’s strange. Why is he home so early? He’s usually never here before eight…”
She took the elevator up to her floor, unlocked the door, and immediately noticed her husband’s shoes. That seemed unlike him. He was very neat and always put his shoes in their place.
She went into the kitchen, left the grocery bag there, and entered the room. Her husband was asleep on the sofa, turned away from her.
“Well, that’s really strange. This isn’t like him at all,” she thought.
Deciding not to wake him, she changed clothes and went to the kitchen. When dinner was ready, Elvira entered the room and gently nudged Alexey on the shoulder.
“Hey, sleepyhead, enough sleeping. What are you going to do at night? It’s time for dinner… Come on, Lyosha, stop fooling around.”
She touched his shoulder again, but he did not respond.
Elvira turned her husband onto his back and froze in terror. His hand was cold and hanging off the sofa.
She stood motionless for a moment, then rushed out of the apartment like a bullet and rang her neighbor’s doorbell. Marina opened the door with a smile.
“Hi, Ellechka,” she said, then stopped short when she saw her neighbor’s strange, lost face.
“What? Elvira, what happened?” Marina grew worried. “You look terrible…”
“There… Lyosha… there…” Elvira waved her hand helplessly and slid down the wall to the floor. Marina rushed to help her up.
Marina called an ambulance. Elvira sat in a daze.
“Where is Kira?” the neighbor asked.
“She has preparatory courses on Wednesdays. She’ll be back by nine,” Elvira answered automatically.
The emergency doctor said it was already too late. Alexey had died suddenly, most likely from a heart attack.
“How can this be? He never complained about his heart. To die at forty… God, my husband didn’t drink or smoke, he exercised. How could this happen?” She looked at the doctor in confusion, but he only spread his hands.
“Unfortunately, it happens…”
At the funeral, Elvira had no tears. She stood like stone. On one side, her older brother supported her by the arm; on the other side was her daughter Kira, who cried endlessly, tears streaming down her cheeks.
Elvira remembered the wake and the following couple of days only vaguely. All the days afterward were the hardest. She was terrified of being alone at home. She waited impatiently for her daughter whenever Kira went to her preparatory courses and then went out with her boyfriend, who walked her home. Elvira was afraid even to sit on the sofa where her husband had died.
“Ellechka, let us take your sofa to our country house, and we’ll give you ours. You know it’s new. My husband and I will buy ourselves a bigger one. You can see our build,” Marina said, trying to distract her neighbor from bitter thoughts.
“Thank you, Marinochka. What would I do without you?” Elvira agreed gladly, relieved that they would take that sofa away.
In the evenings, Elvira thought a lot. She had plenty to think about. Kira needed an education. She was planning to enter an institute, and money would be needed. After burying her husband, Kira became the meaning of Elvira’s life, and she swore to herself that she would do everything so her daughter would not feel hardship in life.
“For my Kirochka, I will work without holidays or weekends. And what holidays can there be when my beloved husband is no longer beside me?”
She thought that with time, the pain of losing her husband should ease, but it did not. On the contrary, the feeling of loneliness pressed down on her. She could not bring herself to believe that she would never see her husband again. Sometimes, though, he appeared in her dreams. After that, she always went to the cemetery, sat by his grave, and talked to him. Somehow, afterward, her heart felt a little lighter.
More than six months passed. Kira entered the institute. One day, as Elvira passed by the mirror, she looked at herself carefully and was horrified.
“My God, it’s time to return to normal life. It’s time to take off this black suit and generally put myself in order. My hair has grown out. I should go to the hairdresser.”
When she returned, her daughter gasped.
“Mom, you immediately look ten years younger! I haven’t seen you like this in so long. I’m really happy,” Kira said with a smile.
Elvira smiled too, because every woman enjoys a compliment, and she needed praise.
At work, her colleagues greeted her with an approving buzz.
“You look wonderful. We knew you’d manage!”
She Ran Into Him Again on the Bus
A year passed. Spring arrived.
One day, Elvira was returning from work. On the way, she stopped at the supermarket. When she entered her building and approached the elevator, she tried to press the call button with her finger, but she couldn’t because her hands were full. Just then, someone pressed the button. She stepped into the elevator, and a man followed her in.
“Good evening. I’m going to the ninth floor. And you?” he asked with a smile.
“The eighth,” Elvira answered.
He pressed the button, and the elevator began to rise.
“So we’re neighbors. I recently bought an apartment here and moved in. By the way, my name is Maxim. And yours, if I may ask? Just as a neighbor.”
“Elvira,” she answered seriously.
The elevator stopped. She got out, and he followed.
“Let me hold your grocery bags while you find your keys in your purse,” he said, smiling openly and charmingly. “Don’t be afraid. I really am your neighbor,” he added when he noticed her hesitation.
“Thank you.”
She found her apartment keys, opened the lock, and said, “Goodbye.”
Then she stepped inside and closed the door.
The second time Elvira ran into Maxim was on the bus. Maxim smiled at her and nodded. She nodded back. At that moment, the bus jolted, and she did not manage to grab the handrail in time. She fell forward, pressing her face against his chest.
When she raised her head, she was horrified to see the imprint of her lipstick on his shirt.
“Oh, forgive me. I ruined your shirt.”
But Maxim was not upset. He only smiled.
“It’s nothing terrible. It looks intriguing. Now women will pay attention to me. That’s what happens when you ride public transport. I haven’t done it in a while. I took my car in for repairs. Maybe it’s for the best…”
He got off two stops early, smiling at Elvira and waving his hand.
That evening, her daughter was gone for a long time. Elvira worried and called her, but the phone was unavailable. Finally, Kira came home cheerful and happy.
“Daughter, why weren’t you answering your phone?”
“Oh, Mom, my phone died,” she said, taking it out of her bag. “How could I forget the charger? Why were you worried? Nothing will happen to me. I’m not alone. Mark walks me home.”
“Mom, I understand that you’re lonely. Maybe we should get a dog? You could walk it,” Kira laughed.
“No, I don’t want a dog. It won’t let us sleep in the mornings, especially on weekends.”
Elvira was returning from work through the alley. Today she was not in a hurry. Kira had gone to a friend’s birthday party and would come home late. Mark would walk her back, so Elvira was not particularly worried.
She was lost in thought, looking down at her feet, when a man stopped in front of her. She raised her head and said:
“Maxim!”
He smiled.
“Yes. Who were you expecting to see?”
“No one, actually. I’m just walking home from work.”
“Then let’s walk together.”
Suddenly, Elvira said to him seriously:
“Listen, perhaps you’re used to flirting with women, but there’s no point in doing that with me. I have an adult daughter. I’m a widow…”
“So what? That doesn’t mean you have to live like a nun. And as for flirting, you’re wrong. I’m not a ladies’ man at all.”
They Bent Down at the Same Time
At that moment, her phone rang. While taking it out of her purse, she suddenly dropped it, but Maxim reacted quickly and managed to catch it. It was Kira calling. They both bent down at the same time and bumped foreheads.
Then they laughed for a long time. While talking to her daughter, Elvira could barely keep herself from bursting out laughing.
“Does it hurt?” Maxim asked, rubbing his forehead and smiling.
“Not too much.”
Then Maxim took her hand and pressed it to his lips. Elvira even felt a little dizzy. She looked at him and said quietly:
“I can’t allow myself this, you understand.”
She did not even notice that she had suddenly switched to using the informal “you.”
“I understand. But I’ll wait until you’re ready,” he answered.
Two days passed, and Elvira could not find peace. She kept thinking about Maxim, although she tried to drive those thoughts away. Then she began reproaching herself before the memory of her husband.
“Why do I need this? Maybe it’s wrong. My husband died… and I’m thinking about another man.”
But then, after work, Maxim met her again, this time with a bouquet of roses, and invited her to a café. She could not refuse.
From then on, they began seeing each other. She was drawn to Maxim just as strongly as he was drawn to her.
“I never thought I could fall in love again,” she thought, with a kind of wonder. “I feel so good with Max. With him, I feel like a woman. I feel protected and cared for.”
Still, she felt embarrassed to look Kira in the eye. But Kira suspected something.
“Mom, what’s going on with you? Have you fallen in love?”
“What are you saying, daughter?” Elvira threw up her hands. Then suddenly she said, “Kirochka, you’ll probably hate me.”
“For what, Mom?”
“For what I’ve done. I betrayed your father, and I’m ashamed…”
“Mom, did you fall in love or something?” Kira stared at her mother searchingly. “Well, finally! Thank God. Mom, you’re wonderful. This is very good. I’m happy for you. It finally happened,” her daughter laughed, shaking her mother playfully. “Mom, don’t worry.”
Looking at her father’s photo, Kira said, “Dad won’t be offended. You have to be happy.”
“You think so?”
“I’m sure, Mom! So when are you going to introduce me to your chosen one?”
“In about five minutes,” Elvira answered, then dialed a phone number.
“That fast? Is he behind the door?”
“No. Maxim lives one floor above,” she sighed and smiled.
“Well, you two are quite the conspirators, Mom. How did all of this happen right under my nose? How did I miss it?”